Page 1659 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Worthily termed them merciless to us;
For ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues [100]
We were encountered by a mighty rock,
Which being violently borne upon,
Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;
So that in this unjust divorce of us
Fortune had left to both of us alike [105]
What to delight in, what to sorrow for.
Her part, poor soul, seeming as burdenèd
With lesser weight but not with lesser woe,
Was carried with more speed before the wind,
And in our sight they three were taken up [110]
By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought.
At length another ship had seized on us,
And, knowing whom it was their hap to save,
Gave healthful welcome to their shipwracked guests,
And would have reft the fishers of their prey [115]
Had not their bark been very slow of sail;
And therefore homeward did they bend their course.
Thus have you heard me severed from my bliss,
That by misfortunes was my life prolonged
To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. [120]

DUKE

And for the sake of them thou sorrow’st for,
Do me the favour to dilate at full
What have befall’n of them and thee till now.

EGEON

My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care,
At eighteen years became inquisitive [125]
After his brother, and importuned me
That his attendant, so his case was like,
Reft of his brother, but retained his name,
Might bear him company in the quest of him;
Whom whilst I laboured of a love to see, [130]
I hazarded the loss of whom I loved.
Five summers have I spent in farthest Greece,
Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia,
And coasting homeward came to Ephesus,
Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought [135]