Page 2322 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Saying some shape in Sinon’s was abus’d:
So fair a form lodg’d not a mind so ill. [1530]
And still on him she gaz’d, and gazing still,
Such signs of truth in his plain face she spied,

That she concludes the picture was belied.

«It cannot be», quoth she, «that so much guile», −
She would have said, − «can lurk in such a look». [1535]
But Tarquin’s shape came in her mind the while,

And from her tongue «can lurk» from «cannot» took:
«It cannot be» she in that sense forsook,
And turn’d it thus: «It cannot be, I find,
But such a face should bear a wicked mind. [1540]

«For even as subtle Sinon here is painted,

So sober sad, so weary and so mild, −
As if with grief or travail he had fainted, −
To me came Tarquin armed to beguild
With outward honesty, but yet defil’d [1545]
With inward vice. As Priam him did cherish,

So did I Tarquin, − so my Troy did perish.

«Look, look how list’ning Priam wets his eyes,
To see those borrow’d tears that Sinon sheds!
Priam, why art thou old and yet not wise? [1550]

For every tear he falls a Trojan bleeds.
His eye drops fire, no water thence proceeds:
Those round clear pearls of his that move thy pity
Are balls of quenchless fire to burn thy city.

«Such devils steal effects from lightless hell, [1555]

For Sinon in his fire doth quake with cold;
And in that cold hot-burning fire doth dwell.
These contraries such unity do hold,
Only to flatter fools and make them bold;

So Priam’s trust false Sinon’s tears doth flatter, [1560]
That he finds means to burn his Troy with water».