Damocles and Hiera

HIERA.
A kiss, indeed ! was ever boy so bold?

Who taught you such bad manners ? Run away,
Or presently I may be very angry :

Stay ; beg my pardon first. You look ashamed;

And shame becomes the guilty. Kiss, indeed !

Did ever maid or mortal hear the like!
How many summers have you seen above
Twelve at the most ? I a whole twelvemonth more.

Learn to revere your elders in your youth.

DAMOCLES.
Shake not my arm, it makes me feel so strange,
I do ask pardon, lovely Hiera.

HIERA.
Gods give me power to grant it ! I am weak
From such a sudden and severe a blow.

DAMOCLES.
I am not ; though I should be : 'twas so wrong

HIERA.
The Gods take pity on the penitent.

DAMOCLES.
Do maidens never ? can they do amiss
In doing what the Gods do ?

HIERA.
You perplex me ;
To question so the deeds of those above
Is impious.

DAMOCLES.
I would pray, but first to you,
For you are like them in all other things,
Why not in this?

HIERA.
You talk beyond your years :
Only rude men talk so.

DAMOCLES.
Of pardon.

What I implored ?

Give but one sign

HIERA.
And what sign ?

DAMOCLES.
Dare I repeat
HIERA.

What was it ? I forget.

DAMOCLES.
One kiss ; I ask but one.

HIERA.
You foolish boy!
Well : take it : I don't give it, mind you that.

He gave the one ; she added twenty more
For his obedience ; and he never sued
After that eventide.

A swain averr'd
That he descried in the deep wood a cheek
At first aslant, then lower, then eclipst.
Another said it was not in the wood,
But in the grotto near the water-fall,
And he alone had seen it.

The dispute
Ran high ; a third declared that both were wrong.