200:32,000[' ]| 200:32,001[L ]| But Claudia why this sitting up all night 200:32,002[L ]| In groves by purling streams? This argues heat, 200:32,003[L ]| Great heat and vapours which are main corrupters; 200:32,004[L ]| Mark when you will your ladies that have vapours: 200:32,005[L ]| They are not flinchers, that insulting spleen 200:32,006[L ]| Is the artillery of powerful lust 200:32,007[L ]| Discharged upon weak honour, which stands out 200:32,008[L ]| Two fits of headache at the most then yields. 200:32,009[K ]| Thou art the frailest creature, Marcellina 200:32,010[K ]| And thinkest all women's honour like thy own, 200:32,011[K ]| So thin a cobweb that each blast of passion 200:32,012[K ]| Can blow away; but for my own part, girl, 200:32,013[K ]| I think I may be well styled honour's martyr: 200:32,014[K ]| With firmest constancy I have endured 200:32,015[K ]| The raging heats of passionate desire; 200:32,016[K ]| While flaming love and boiling nature both 200:32,017[K ]| Were powered upon my soul with equal torture, 200:32,018[K ]| I armed with resolution stood it out 200:32,019[K ]| And kept my honour safe. 200:32,020[L ]| Thy glory's great; 200:32,021[L ]| But Claudia, thanks to heaven that I am made 200:32,022[L ]| The weakest of all women, framed so frail 200:32,023[L ]| That honour ne'er thought fit to choose me out 200:32,024[L ]| His champion against pleasure; my poor heart 200:32,025[L ]| For divers years still tossed from flame to flame 200:32,026[L ]| Is now burnt up to tinder, every spark 200:32,027[L ]| Dropped from kind eyes sets it on fire afresh, 200:32,028[L ]| Pressed by a gentle hand I melt away, 200:32,029[L ]| One sigh's a storm that blows me all along; 200:32,030[L ]| Pity a wretch who has no charm at all 200:32,031[L ]| Against the impetuous tide of flowing pleasure, 200:32,032[L ]| Who wants both force and courage to maintain 200:32,033[L ]| The glorious war made upon flesh and blood 200:32,034[L ]| But is a sacrifice to every wish 200:32,035[L ]| And has no power left to resist a joy. 200:32,036[K ]| Poor girl, how strange a riddle virtue is: 200:32,037[K ]| They never miss it who possess it not 200:32,038[K ]| And they who have it ever find a want; 200:32,039[K ]| With what tranquillity and peace thou livest 200:32,040[K ]| For stripped of shame thou hast no cause of fear, 200:32,041[K ]| Whilst I the slave of virtue am afraid 200:32,042[K ]| Of everything I see, and think the world 200:32,043[K ]| A dreadful wilderness of savage beasts, 200:32,044[K ]| Each man I meet I fancy will devour me 200:32,045[K ]| And swayed by rules not natural but affected 200:32,046[K ]| I hate mankind for fear of being loved. 200:32,047[L ]| 'Tis nothing less than witchcraft can constrain 200:32,048[L ]| Still to persist in errors we perceive; 200:32,049[L ]| Prithee reform, what nature prompts us to 200:32,050[L ]| And reason seconds why should we avoid? 200:32,051[L ]| This honour is the veriest Mountebank, 200:32,052[L ]| It fills our fancies with affected tricks 200:32,053[L ]| And makes us freakish; what a cheat must that be 200:32,054[L ]| Which robs our lives of all their softer hours, 200:32,055[L ]| Beauty our only treasure it lays waste, 200:32,056[L ]| Hurries us over our neglected youth 200:32,057[L ]| To the detested state of age and ugliness, 200:32,058[L ]| Tearing our dearest heart's desires from us, 200:32,059[L ]| Then in reward of what it took away 200:32,060[L ]| Our joys, our hopes, our wishes, and delights, 200:32,061[L ]| It bountifully pays us all in pride. 200:32,062[L ]| Poor shift still to be proud and never pleased 200:32,063[L ]| Yet this is all your honour can do for ye. 200:32,064[K ]| Concluded like thy self for sure thou art 200:32,065[K ]| The most corrupt corrupting thing alive; 200:32,066[K ]| Yet glory not too much in cheating wit, 200:32,067[K ]| 'Tis but false wisdom and its property 200:32,068[K ]| Has ever been to take the part of vice, 200:32,069[K ]| Which though the fancy with vain shows it pleases 200:32,070[K ]| Yet wants a power to justify the mind. 200:32,000[' ]| 200:32,071[K ]| But see my lady guides her steps this way: 200:32,072[K ]| Bless me! How pale and how confused she looks. 200:32,073[B ]| In what fantastic new world have I been, 200:32,074[B ]| What horrors past , what threatening visions seen? 200:32,075[B ]| Wrapped as I lay in my amazing trance 200:32,076[B ]| The host of heaven and hell did round me dance, 200:32,077[B ]| Debates arose betwixt the powers above 200:32,078[B ]| And those below methought they talked of love 200:32,079[B ]| And named me often but it could not be 200:32,080[B ]| Of any love that had to do with me 200:32,081[B ]| For all the while they talked and argued thus 200:32,082[B ]| I never heard one word of Maximus. 200:32,083[B ]| Discourteous nymphs who own these murmuring floods 200:32,084[B ]| And you unkind divinities of the woods, 200:32,085[B ]| When to your banks and bowers I came distressed, 200:32,086[B ]| Half dead through absence, seeking peace and rest, 200:32,087[B ]| Why would you not protect by these your streams 200:32,088[B ]| A sleeping wretch from such wild dismal dreams? 200:32,089[B ]| Misshapen monsters round in measures went, 200:32,090[B ]| Horrid in Form with gestures insolent, 200:32,091[B ]| Grinning through goatish beards with half-closed eyes 200:32,092[B ]| They looked me in the face. Frighted, to rise 200:32,093[B ]| In vain I did attempt me though no ground 200:32,094[B ]| Was to support my sinking footsteps found; 200:32,095[B ]| In clammy fogs like one half choked I lay, 200:32,096[B ]| Crying for help, my voice was snatched away, 200:32,097[B ]| And when I would have fled, 200:32,098[B ]| My limbs benumbed or dead, 200:32,099[B ]| Could not my will with terror winged obey. 200:32,100[B ]| Upon my absent lord for help I cried 200:32,101[B ]| But in that moment when I must have died 200:32,102[B ]| With anguish of my fears confusing pains 200:32,103[B ]| Relenting sleep loosed his tyrannic chains. 200:32,104[K ]| Madam, alas such accidents as these 200:32,105[K ]| Are not of value to disturb your peace; 200:32,106[K ]| The cold damp dews of night have mixed and wrought 200:32,107[K ]| With the dark melancholy of your thought 200:32,108[K ]| And through your fancy these illusions brought. 200:32,109[K ]| I still have marked, your fondness will afford 200:32,110[K ]| No hour of joy in the absence of my lord. 200:32,111[B ]| Absent all night, and never send me word? 200:32,000[' ]| 200:32,112[J ]| Madam while sleeping by those banks you lay 200:32,113[J ]| One from my lord commanded me away; 200:32,114[J ]| In all obedient haste I went to court 200:32,115[J ]| Where busy crowds confusedly did resort; 200:32,116[J ]| News from the camp it seems was then arrived 200:32,117[J ]| Of tumults raised and civil wars contrived; 200:32,118[J ]| The emperor frighted from his bed does call 200:32,119[J ]| Grave senators to council; in the hall 200:32,120[J ]| Throngs of ill-favoured faces filled with scars 200:32,121[J ]| Wait for employments, praying hard for wars; 200:32,122[J ]| At council door attend with fair pretence 200:32,123[J ]| In knavish decency and reverence 200:32,124[J ]| Bankers who with officious diligence 200:32,125[J ]| Lend money to supply the present need 200:32,126[J ]| At treble use that greater may succeed: 200:32,127[J ]| So public wants will private plenty breed, 200:32,128[J ]| Whispering in every corner you might see ~~ 200:32,129[B ]| But what's all this to Maximus and me? 200:32,130[B ]| Where is my lord, what message has he sent? 200:32,131[B ]| Is he in health? What fatal accident 200:32,132[B ]| Does all this while his wished return prevent? 200:32,133[J ]| Whene'er the gods that happy hour decree 200:32,134[J ]| May he appear safe and with victory: 200:32,135[J ]| Of many heroes who stood candidate 200:32,136[J ]| To be the arbiters 'twixt Rome and fate, 200:32,137[J ]| To quell rebellion and protect the throne 200:32,138[J ]| A choice was made of Maximus alone; 200:32,139[J ]| The people, soldiers, senate, emperor 200:32,140[J ]| For Maximus with one assent concur, 200:32,141[J ]| Their new-born hopes now hurry him away 200:32,142[J ]| Nor will their fears admit one moment's stay; 200:32,143[J ]| Trembling through terror lest he come too late 200:32,144[J ]| They huddle his dispatch while at the gate 200:32,145[J ]| The emperor's chariots to conduct him wait. 200:32,146[B ]| These fatal honours my dire dream foretold! 200:32,147[B ]| Why should the kind be ruined by the bold? 200:32,148[B ]| He ne'er reflects upon my destiny, 200:32,149[B ]| So careless of himself, undoing me. 200:32,150[B ]| Ah Claudia, in my visions so unskilled 200:32,151[B ]| He'll to the army go and there be killed, 200:32,152[B ]| Forgetful of my love, he'll not afford 200:32,153[B ]| The easy favour of a parting word; 200:32,154[B ]| Of all my wishes he's alone the scope 200:32,155[B ]| And he's the only end of all my hope, 200:32,156[B ]| My fill of joy, and what is yet above 200:32,157[B ]| Joys, hopes, and wishes, he is all my love. 200:32,158[B ]| Mysterious honour tell me what thou art 200:32,159[B ]| That takest up different forms in every heart 200:32,160[B ]| And dost to divers ends and interests move; 200:32,161[B ]| Conquest is his, my honour is my love: 200:32,162[B ]| Both these do paths so oppositely choose 200:32,163[B ]| That following one you must the other lose; 200:32,164[B ]| So two straight lines from the same point begun 200:32,165[B ]| Can never meet though without end they run. 200:32,166[B ]| Alas I rave ~~ 200:32,167[J ]| Look on thy glory, love, and smile to see 200:32,168[J ]| Two faithful hearts at strife for victory, 200:32,169[J ]| Who blazing in thy sacred fires contend 200:32,170[J ]| While both their equal flames to heaven ascend; 200:32,171[J ]| The god that dwells in eyes light on my tongue 200:32,172[J ]| Lest in my message I his passion wrong, 200:32,173[J ]| You'll better guess the anguish of his heart 200:32,174[J ]| From what you feel than what I can impart. 200:32,175[J ]| But madam know the moment I was come 200:32,176[J ]| His watchful eye perceived me in the room 200:32,177[J ]| When with a quick precipitated haste 200:32,178[J ]| From Caesar's bosom where he stood embraced, 200:32,179[J ]| Piercing the busy crowd to me he passed, 200:32,180[J ]| Tears in his eyes, his orders in his hand, 200:32,181[J ]| He scarce had breath to give this short command: 200:32,182@d | With thy best speed to my Lucina fly, 200:32,183@d | If I must part unseen by her I die; 200:32,184@d | Decrees inevitable from above 200:32,185@d | And fate which takes too little care of love 200:32,186@d | Force me away, tell her 'tis my request 200:32,187@d | By those kind fires she kindled in my breast 200:32,188@d | Our future hopes and all that we hold dear 200:32,189@d | She instantly should come and see me here 200:32,190@d | That parting griefs to her I may reveal 200:32,191@d | And on her lips propitious omens seal; 200:32,192@d | Affairs that press, in this short space of time 200:32,193@d | Afford no other place without a crime, 200:32,194@d | And that thou mayst not fail of wished-for ends 200:32,195@d | In a success whereon my life depends 200:32,196@d | Give her this ring ~~ 200:32,000[' ]| 200:32,197[B ]| How strange soever these commands appear 200:32,198[B ]| Love awes my reason and controls my fear; 200:32,199[B ]| But how couldst thou employ thy lavish tongue 200:32,200[B ]| So idly to be telling this so long 200:32,201[B ]| When every moment thou hast spent in vain 200:32,202[B ]| Was half the life that did to me remain? 200:32,203[B ]| Flatter me hope and on my wishes smile 200:32,204[B ]| And make me happy yet a little while; 200:32,205[B ]| If through my fears I can such sorrow show 200:32,206[B ]| As to convince I perish if he go 200:32,207[B ]| Pity perhaps his generous heart may move 200:32,208[B ]| To sacrifice his glory to his love. 200:32,209[B ]| I'll not despair, 200:32,210[B ]| Who knows how eloquent these eyes may prove 200:32,211[B ]| Begging in floods of tears and flames of love. 200:32,000[' ]| 200:32,212[J ]| Thanks to the devil, my friend, now all's our own, 200:32,213[J ]| How easily this mighty work was done! 200:32,214[J ]| Well, first or last all women must be won, 200:32,215[J ]| It is their fate and cannot be withstood, 200:32,216[J ]| The wise do still comply with flesh and blood; 200:32,217[J ]| For if through peevish honour nature fail, 200:32,218[J ]| They do but lose their thanks, art will prevail.