Page 461 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

As great as is thy master: greater, for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp. Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being

Is to exchange one misery with another, [55]
And every day that comes comes to decay
A day’s work in him. What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans?

Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,
So much as but to prop him?
[The Queen drops the box. Pisanio takes it up.]
Thou tak’st up [60]

Thou know’st not what: but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I made, which hath the king
Five times redeem’d from death. I do not know
What is more cordial. Nay, I prithee take it;

It is an earnest of a farther good [65]
That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her: do’t, as from thyself;
Think what a chance thou changest on; but think

Thou hast thy mistress still, to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee. I’ll move the king [70]
To any shape of thy preferment, such
As thou’lt desire: and then myself, I chiefly,

That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
Think on my words.
[Exit Pisanio.]

A sly and constant knave. [75]
Not to be shak’d: the agent for his master,
And the remembrancer of her to hold
The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that,

Which if he take, shall quite unpeople her
Of liegers for her sweet: and which she after, [80]
Except she bend her humour, shall be assur’d
To taste of too.

Re-enter Pisanio and Ladies.
So, so: well done, well done: