And, worse than all the music and the scent,
With false, long-winded, fulsome compliment,
That 'Oh, you are my subjects!' and in word
Reiterating still obedience,
Thwart me in deed at every step I take:
When just about to wreak a just revenge
Upon that old arch-traitor of you all,
Filch from my vengeance him I hate; and him
I loved--the first and only face--till this--
I cared to look on in your ugly court--
And now when palpably I grasp at last
What hitherto but shadow'd in my dreams--
Affiances and interferences,
The first who dares to meddle with me more--
Princes and chamberlains and counsellors,
Touch her who dares!--

AST.
That dare I--

SEG. (seizing him by the throat).
You dare!

CHAMB.
My Lord!--

A LORD.
His strength's a lion's--

(Voices within. The King! The King!--)

(Enter King.)

A LORD.
And on a sudden how he stands at gaze
As might a wolf just fasten'd on his prey,
Glaring at a suddenly encounter'd lion.

KING.
And I that hither flew with open arms
To fold them round my son, must now return
To press them to an empty heart again!
(He sits on the throne.)

SEG.
That is the King?--My father?
(After a long pause.)
I have heard
That sometimes some blind instinct has been known
To draw to mutual recognition those
Of the same blood, beyond all memory
Divided, or ev'n never met before.
I know not how this is--perhaps in brutes
That live by kindlier instincts--but I know
That looking now upon that head whose crown
Pronounces him a sovereign king, I feel
No setting of the current in my blood
Tow'rd him as sire. How is't with you, old man,
Tow'rd him they call your son?--

KING.
Alas! Alas!

SEG.
Your sorrow, then?

KING.
Beholding what I do.

SEG.
Ay, but how know this sorrow that has grown
And moulded to this present shape of man,
As of your own creation?

KING.
Ev'n from birth.

SEG.
But from that hour to this, near, as I think,
Some twenty such renewals of the year
As trace themselves upon the barren rocks,
I never saw you, nor you me--unless,
Unless, indeed, through one of those dark masks
Through which a son might fail to reco