Hel. Close prisoner!
Why, my heart thanks thee; I shall have more time
And liberty to virtue in one hour,
Than all those threescore years I was a courtier.
So by imprisonment I sustain great loss;
Heav'n opens to that man the world keeps close. [Exit with Guard.
Soph. But I'll not go to prison to try that,
Give me the open world: there's a good air!
Tyr. I would fain send death after him, but I dare not—
He knows I dare not; that would give just cause
Of her unkindness everlasting to me.
His life may thank his daughter. Sophonirus!
Here, take this jewel, bear it as a token
To our heart's saint, 'twill do thy words no harm;
Speech may do much, but wealth's a greater charm
Than any made of words; and to be sure,
If one or both should fail, I provide farther.
Call forth those resolute fellows, whom our clemency
Sav'd from a death of shame in time of war
For field offences: give them charge from us
They arm themselves with speed, beset the house
Of Govianus round; that if thou fail'st,
Or stay'st beyond the time thou leav'st with them,
They may with violence break in themselves,
And seize her for our use.
[Exeunt. Manet Sophonirus.
Soph. They're not so savage
To seize her for their own, I hope,
As there are many knaves will begin first,
And bring their lords the bottom; I have been serv'd so
A hundred times myself by a scurvy page
That I kept once; but my wife lov'd him,
And I could not help it. [Exit.
FOOTNOTES:
[459] The beginning of this act, down to the line Comes with my father, is inserted, like some other passages further on, on a separate slip in the MS., as if it were an afterthought.
[460] [The MS. reads that.]
[461] [Former edit., separation.]