Plan. Come, I will go; thou shalt not ask in vain.
But let us kiss at parting; it may be
Our last, perhaps—
I cannot now move one foot, though all the furies
Should whip me forward with their snakes.
Woman, thou stol'st my heart—just now thou stol'st it.
A cannon bullet might have kiss'd my lips,
And left me as much life.
[The King, having listened, comes in softly.
Are we betray'd?
What art? speak, or resolve to die.
King. A well-wisher of the prince's.
Plan. The king? It cannot be!
[He starts.
King. Though thou hast thrown all nature off,
I cannot what's my duty. Ungracious boy!
Hadst been the offspring of a sinful bed,
Thou might'st have claim'd adult'ry as inheritance;
Lust would have been thy kinsman,
And what enormity thy looser life
Could have been guilty of had found excuse
In an unnatural conception.
Prythee, hereafter seek another father:
Ephorbas cannot call him son that makes
Lust his deity. Had I but known
(But we are hoodwink'd still to all mischances)
I should have had a son that would make it
His study to embrace corruption, and
Take delight in unlawful sheets. I would
Have hugg'd a monster in mine arms
Before thy mother. Good, O heavens!
What will this world come to at last?
When princes, that should be the patterns
Of all virtue, lead up the dance to vice!
What shall we call our own, when our own wives
Banish their faith, and prove false to us?
Have I with so much care promis'd myself
So pleasing a spring of comfort, and are all
Those blossoms nipp'd, and buds burnt up by th' fire
Of lust and sin?—
Have I thus long laboured against the billows,
That did oppose my growing hopes,
And must I perish in the haven's mouth?
No gulf but this to be devoured in?
Could not youth's inclination find out
Another rock to split itself upon?
Hadst thou hugg'd drunkenness, the wit
Or mirth of company might have excus'd it.
Prodigality had been a sin a prince
Might have been proud in compared to this.
Or had thy greener years incited thee
To treason and attempt a doubting father's crown,
T' had been a noble vice. Ambition
Runs through the veins of princes; it brings forth
Acts [as] great as themselves and it; spurs on
To honour, and resolves great things.
But this—this lechery is such a thing, sin is
Too brave a name for it. A prince (I might say son,[83]
But let that pass), and dare to show himself
To nought but darkness and black chambers,
Whose motions, like some planet, are all eccentric:
Not two hours together in his own sphere,
The court?—but I am tame to talk thus;
Begone, with as much speed as a coward would
Avoid his death; and never more presume
To look upon this woman, [upon] this whore:
Thou losest both thy eyes and me else.
[Plangus is going out, but comes again.
Plan. [O] sir, the reverence that I owe my father,
And the injury I have done this gentlewoman,
Had charm'd me up to silence; but I must
Speak something for her honour:
When I have done, command me to the altar.
Whilst (I confess) you tainted me with sin,
I did applaud you, and condemn myself—
It looked like a father's care—but when
You us'd that term of whore to her that stands there,
I would have given ten thousand kingdoms,
You had had no more relation to me
Than hath the northern to the southern pole. I should
Have flown to my revenge swifter than lightning.
But I forbear; and pray, imagine not
What I had done——
King. Upon my life, she's very handsome.