King. 'Tis he—it is the honest Gaffer Thumb. Oh! let me press thee in my eager arms, Thou best of ghosts! thou something more than ghost!
Ghost. Would I were something more, that we again Might feel each other in the warm embrace. But now I have th' advantage of my king, [1] For I feel thee, whilst thou dost not feel me.
[Footnote 1: The ghost of Lausaria, in Cyrus, is a plain copy of this, and is therefore worth reading:
Ah, Cyrus!
Thou may'st as well grasp water, or fleet air,
As think of touching my immortal shade.
—Cyrus the Great.
]
King. But say, [1] thou dearest air, oh! say what dread, Important business sends thee back to earth?
[Footnote 1:
Thou better part of heavenly air.
—Conquest of Granada,.
]
Ghost. Oh! then prepare to hear—which but to hear
Is full enough to send thy spirit hence.
Thy subjects up in arms, by Grizzle led,
Will, ere the rosy-finger'd morn shall ope
The shutters of the sky, before the gate
Of this thy royal palace, swarming spread.
[1] So have I seen the bees in clusters swarm,
So have I seen the stars in frosty nights,
So have I seen the sand in windy days,
So have I seen the ghosts on Pluto's shore,
So have I seen the flowers in spring arise,
So have I seen the leaves in autumn fall,
So have I seen the fruits in summer smile,
So have I seen the snow in winter frown.
[Footnote 1: "A string of similes," says one, "proper to be hung up in the cabinet of a prince.">[
King. D—n all thou hast seen!—dost thou, beneath the shape Of Gaffer Thumb, come hither to abuse me With similes, to keep me on the rack? Hence—or, by all the torments of thy hell, [1] I'll run thee through the body, though thou'st none.
[Footnote 1: This passage hath been understood several different ways by the commentators. For my part, I find it difficult to understand it at all. Mr Dryden says—