Why was not I your brother? though that wish
Involved our parents' guilt, we had not parted;
We had been friends, and friendship is no incest.
_Seb._ Alas, I know not by what name to call thee!
Sister and wife are the two dearest names,
And I would call thee both, and both are sin.
Unhappy we! that still we must confound
The dearest names into a common curse.
_Alm._ To love, and be beloved, and yet be wretched!
_Seb._ To have but one poor night of all our lives;
It was indeed a glorious, guilty night;
So happy, that--forgive me, heaven!--I wish,
With all its guilt, it were to come again.
Why did we know so soon, or why at all,
That sin could be concealed in such a bliss?
_Alm._ Men have a larger privilege of words,
Else I should speak; but we must part, Sebastian,--
That's all the name that I have left to call thee;--
I must not call thee by the name I would;
But when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian,
I kiss the name I speak.
_Seb._ We must make haste, or we shall never part.
I would say something that's as dear as this;
Nay, would do more than say: One moment longer,
And I should break through laws divine and human,
And think them cobwebs spread for little man,
Which all the bulky herd of nature breaks.
The vigorous young world was ignorant
Of these restrictions; 'tis decrepit now;
Not more devout, but more decayed, and cold.
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