Page 2246 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4
P. 2246

’Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it:
               My love to love is love but to disgrace it,
               For I have heard, it is a life in death,
               That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.



               «Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish’d? [415]

               Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth?
               If springing things be any jot diminish’d,
               They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth;

               The colt that’s back’d and burden’d being young,
               Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong. [420]



               «You hurt my hand with wringing, let us part,
               And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat;
               Remove your siege from my unyielding heart,

               To love’s alarms it will not ope the gate.
               Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flatt’ry, [425]
               For where a heart is hard they make no batt’ry».



               «What, canst thou talk?» quoth she, «hast thou a tongue?
               O would thou hadst not, or I had no hearing!

               Thy mermaid’s voice hath done me double wrong;
               I had my load before, now press’d with bearing: [430]
               Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh-sounding,
               Ears’ deep sweet music, and heart’s deep sore wounding!



               «Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love

               That inward beauty and invisible;
               Or were I deaf, thy outward parts would move [435]
               Each part in me that were but sensible:
               Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,

               Yet should I be in love by touching thee.



               «Say that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
               And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch, [440]
               And nothing but the very smell were left me,
               Yet would my love to thee be still as much;
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