Page 2254 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

«What should I do, seeing thee so indeed,
That tremble at th’imagination?
The thought of it doth make my faint heart bleed,
And fear doth teach it divination: [670]

I prophesy thy death, my living sorrow,
If thou encounter with the boar tomorrow.

«But if thou needs wilt hunt, be rul’d by me:
Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,

Or at the fox which lives by subtlety, [675]
Or at the roe which no encounter dare;
Pursue these fearful creatures o’er the downs,
And on thy well-breath’d horse keep with thy hounds.

«And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,

Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, [680]
How he outruns the wind, and with what care
He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles;
The many musits through the which he goes
Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes.

«Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep, [685]
To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell;
And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,
To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;

And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer:
Danger deviseth shifts, wit waits on fear. [690]

«For there his smell with others being mingled,
The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt,
Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled

With much ado the cold fault cleanly out;
Then they do spend their mouths: echo replies, [695]
As if another chase were in the skies.

«By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill,
Stands on his hinder-legs with list’ning ear,