No more of this! You know your worth to me, And if I turned a greybeard on the spot With drouthy lips and wither in my veins I’d borrow not the newer glow from you. GYGES. Nay, e’en in this your prime the bid were fruitless, For if my blood with yours could be immingled, For all its heat ’twere left but what it is. KAN. At this late hour you’re shaken in the mind And know not what you say and what you do. GYGES. Forgive me, Sire! KAN. Good faith, I chide you not! Mere reel of head like that from winy fumes, A cooling breath of morn will blow it hence! (_As he goes_) Such is at least my hope, and such I’ll see. [_Exit._ GYGES. Why did I let the ring go back? I should have Evanished, nevermore be seen of men; Thus could I ever be about her, thus Could see her as the gods alone may see her; For this or that they hold as private hoard, One charm of beauty to herself unknown, One brightness in the deepest solitude, One last, one utter mystery of spell That lives for them and now would live for me. ’Tis true I would not cheat them of revenge Should I take stolen sippings from the chalice That for them only brims and sparkles o’er; The air with sudden bruit would soon be ringing And Helios, at the inciting beckon of flame From wrathful Aphrodite all afired, Would launch on me the most unerring arrow Of all the unerring store his quiver bears. Then would I reel from life, but that were naught, For with the rattle at throat I’d clasp the ring, Once more to turn it, abject at her feet; And all her soul, as mine sank to its ebbing, I’d suck into my parched self from her glances, Upyielding thus my latest gasp of breath. [THOAS _enters with_ LESBIA, _who is veiled_. THOAS. The King sends Gyges, as his honoured favourite, The beauteous slave that pleases him right well. GYGES. The King will have me for his mirth; such usage I’ve earned not at his hands, nor will endure. THOAS. ’Tis true the gift is rich and of the rarest, But doubt not of the King’s sincere intent. GYGES. Peace, densest loon among all densest loons, The King’s “sincere intent” is grossest mock. THOAS. Open your mouth, my girl, and say’t yourself If he can’t trust me when I open mine. GYGES (_to_ LESBIA). Girl, girl--no word! THOAS. You spurn the gift o’ the King? GYGES. Yes! THOAS. Gyges! Well, well, _you_ know what you do! GYGES. The King kills me, and now to pay the body For life, he thrusts a jewel in its hand! THOAS. I know not what you mean, and will announce What I have heard. (_To_ LESBIA.) So come you back with me. LESBIA (to GYGES).