Digital facsimile of the Bodleian First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, Arch. G c.7
Title: Search
Lys. Lys.
Lys. Or else it stood vpon the choise of merit.
Her. Her.
Her. O hell! to choose loue by anothers eie.
Lys. Or if there were a simpathie in choise,
Lys. Warre, death, or sicknesse, did lay siege to it;
Lys. Making it momentarie, as a sound:
Lys. Swift as a shadow, short as any dreame,
Lys. Briefe as the lightning in the collied night,
Lys. That (in a spleene) vnfolds both heauen and earth;
Lys. And ere a man hath power to say, behold,
Lys. The iawes of darknesse do deuoure it vp:
Lys. So quicke bright things come to confusion.
Her. If then true Louers haue beene euer crost,
Her. It stands as an edict in destinie:
Her. Then let vs teach our triall patience,
Her. Because it is a customarie crosse,
Her. As due to loue, as thoughts, and dreames, and sighes,