Page 564 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Thanks, Jupiter!

SICILIUS
The marble pavement closes, he is enter’d [120]
His radiant roof. Away! and to be blest
Let us with care perform his great behest.
[The Ghosts vanish.]

POSTHUMUS
[waking]
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me: and thou hast created
A mother, and two brothers: but, O scorn! [125]

Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
And so I am awake. Poor wretches, that depend
On greatness’ favour, dream as I have done,
Wake, and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:

Many dream not to find, neither deserve, [130]
And yet are steep’d in favours; so am I,
That have this golden change, and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one,

Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers. Let thy effects [135]
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.

[Reads]
When as a lion’s whelp shall, to himself unknown, without seeking find, and
be embrac’d by a piece of tender air: and when from a stately cedar shall be
lopp’d branches, which, [140] being dead many years, shall after revive, be

jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow, then shall Posthumus end his
miseries, Britain be fortunate, and flourish in peace and plenty. [145]

’Tis still a dream: or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue, and brain not: either both, or nothing,
Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such

As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which [150]
I’ll keep, if but for sympathy.