Page 502 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Of courts, of princes; of the tricks in war. [15]
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow’d. To apprehend thus,
Draws us a profit from all things we see:

And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold [20]
Than is the full-wing’d eagle. O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check:

Richer than doing nothing for a robe,
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him that makes him fine, [25]
Yet keeps his book uncross’d: no life to ours.

GUIDERIUS
Out of your proof you speak: we poor unfledg’d,

Have never wing’d from view o’ th’ nest; nor know not
What air’s from home. Haply this life is best
(If quiet life be best) sweeter to you [30]

That have a sharper known, well corresponding
With your stiff age; but unto us it is
A cell of ignorance, travelling a-bed,
A prison, or a debtor that not dares
To stride a limit.

ARVIRAGUS
What should we speak of [35]
When we are old as you? When we shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December? How
In this our pinching cave shall we discourse

The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing:
We are beastly: subtle as the fox for prey, [40]
Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat:
Our valour is to chase what flies: our cage

We make a quire, as doth the prison’d bird,
And sing our bondage freely.

BELARIUS
How you speak!