MADAN.
He being away, far hence—and so none other—
Not he—should share the knowledge?
CAMBER.
Surely not
He. Knowest thou whither hence he went?
MADAN.
God wot,
No: haply toward some hidden paramour.
CAMBER.
And that should set not, for thy mother’s sake,
And thine, the heart in thee on fire?
MADAN.
An hour
Is less than even the time wherein we take
Breath to let loose the word that fain would break,
And cannot, even for passion,—if we set
An hour against the length of life: and yet
Less in account of life should be those hours—
Should be? should be not, live not, be not known,
Not thought of, not remembered even as ours,—
Whereon the flesh or fancy bears alone
Rule that the soul repudiates for its own,
Rejects and mocks and mourns for, and reclaims
Its nature, none the ignobler for the shames
That were but shadows on it—shed but shade
And perished. If thy brother and king, my sire—