Lal.  ’Tis sworn!

III.

An Apartment in a Palace.  POLITIAN and BALDAZZAR.

Baldazzar.  Arouse thee now, Politian! 
                  Thou must not—­nay indeed, indeed, thou shalt not
                  Give way unto these humors.  Be thyself! 
                  Shake off the idle fancies that beset thee
                  And live, for now thou diest!

Politian.  Not so, Baldazzar!
                  Surely I live.

Bal.  Politian, it doth grieve me
                  To see thee thus!

Pol.  Baldazzar, it doth grieve me
                  To give thee cause for grief, my honored friend. 
                  Command me, sir! what wouldst thou have me do? 
                  At thy behest I will shake off that nature
                  Which from my forefathers I did inherit,
                  Which with my mother’s milk I did imbibe,
                  And be no more Politian, but some other. 
                  Command me, sir!

Bal.  To the field then—­to the field—­
                  To the senate or the field.

Pol.  Alas! alas! 
                  There is an imp would follow me even there! 
                  There is an imp hath followed me even there! 
                  There is—­what voice was that?

Bal.  I heard it not. 
                  I heard not any voice except thine own,
                  And the echo of thine own.

Pol.  Then I but dreamed.

Bal.  Give not thy soul to dreams:  the camp—­the court
                  Befit thee—­Fame awaits thee—­Glory calls—­
                  And her the trumpet-tongued thou wilt not hear
                  In hearkening to imaginary sounds
                  And phantom voices.

Pol.  It is a phantom voice! 
                  Didst thou not hear it then?

Bal I heard it not.

Pol.  Thou heardst it not!—­Baldazzar, speak no more
                  To me, Politian, of thy camps and courts. 
                  Oh!  I am sick, sick, sick, even unto death,
                  Of the hollow and high-sounding vanities
                  Of the populous Earth!  Bear with me yet awhile
                  We have been boys together—­school-fellows—­
                  And now are friends—­yet shall not be so long—­
                  For in the Eternal City thou shalt do me
                  A kind and gentle office, and a Power—­
                  A Power august, benignant, and supreme—­
                  Shall then absolve thee of all further duties
                  Unto thy friend.