Chosen if thou be to bear and to be great

Haply beyond all women; and the word

Speaks thee divine, dear queen, that speaks thee dead,

Dead being alive, or quick and dead in one

Shall not men call thee living? yet I fear

To slay thee timeless with my proper tongue,

With lips, thou knowest, that love thee; and such work

Was never laid of Gods on men, such word

No mouth of man learnt ever, as from mine

260

Most loth to speak thine ear most loth shall take

And hold it hateful as the grave to hear.

PRAXITHEA.

That word there is not in all speech of man,

King, that being spoken of the Gods and thee

I have not heart to honour, or dare hold

More than I hold thee or the Gods in hate

[Pg 14]

Hearing; but if my heart abhor it heard

Being insubmissive, hold me not thy wife

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