Love. Sleep, entranced man, but be
Wakeful in thy fancy; see,
Love hath left his palace fair,
And beats his wings against the air,
To ease thy panting breast of ill:
Love's a physician, and his[25] will
Must be obey'd: therefore with haste
To Flanders fly; the echoing blast
Of fame shall usher thee along,
And leave thee pester'd in a throng
Of searching troubles, which shall be
But bugbears to thy constancy.
Enter from one side Death, and from the other side Aurelia; Death strikes three times at Antonio, and Aurelia diverts it. Exeunt severally.
What this same shadow seems to be,
In Flanders thou shalt real see;
The maid that seem'd to conquer death,
And give thee longer lease of breath,
Doats on thy air; report hath been
Lavish in praising thee unseen.
Make haste to Flanders; time will be
Accus'd of slothfulness, if she
Be longer tortur'd: do not stay,
My power shall guide thee on the way.
[Ascendat.[26]
Enter Giovanno and the Old Tailor.
Gio. He is asleep.
O. Tai. See how he struggles, as if some visions had
Assum'd a fuller shape of horror than
His troubled thoughts.[27]
Gio. His conscience gripes him to [a] purpose:
See, [see,] he wakes; let us observe.
Ant. Stay, gentle pow'r, leave hostage that thy promise
Thou wilt perform, and I will offer to
Thy deity
More than my lazy heart has offer'd yet.
But stay, Antonio, can thy easy faith
Give credit to a dream? an airy vision,
Fram'd by a strangeling[28] fancy, to delude weak sense
With a gay nothing? Recollect thyself;
Advise thee by thy fears; it may force hence
This midnight's shade of grief, and gild
It with a morn as full of joy as does
Bright Phœbus to our eastern world, when blushing
He arises from the lap of sea-green Thetis
To give a new day birth.