Page 2307 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

But this no slaughterhouse no tool imparteth
To make more vent for passage of her breath, [1040]
Which thronging through her lips so vanisheth
As smoke from Aetna, that in air consumes,

Or that which from discharged cannon fumes.

«In vain», quoth she, «I live, and seek in vain
Some happy mean to end a hapless life. [1045]
I fear’d by Tarquin’s falchion to be slain,

Yet for the self-same purpose seek a knife;
But when I fear’d I was a loyal wife:
So am I now, − O no, that cannot be!
Of that true type hath Tarquin rifled me. [1050]

«O that is gone for which I sought to live,

And therefore now I need not fear to die!
To clear this spot by death, at least I give
A badge of fame to slander’s livery,
A dying life to living infamy: [1055]
Poor helpless help, the treasure stol’n away,

To burn the guiltless casket where it lay!

«Well well, dear Collatine, thou shalt not know
The stained taste of violated troth;
I will not wrong thy true affection so, [1060]

To flatter thee with an infringed oath.
This bastard graff shall never come to growth:
He shall not boast who did thy stock pollute,
That thou art doting father of his fruit.

«Nor shall he smile at thee in secret thought, [1065]

Nor laugh with his companions at thy state;
But thou shalt know thy int’rest was not bought
Basely with gold, but stol’n from forth thy gate.
For me, I am the mistress of my fate,

And with my trespass never will dispense, [1070]
Till life to death acquit my forc’d offence.