Excerpt from The Poems of Shakespeare: With Memoir Two ships from far making amain to us. Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this But ere they came, 0, let me say no more! Gather the sequel by that went before. Duke. Nay, forward, old man do not break off so: For we may pity, though not pardon thee. Fie. 0, had the gods done so, I had not now Worthily term'd them merciless to us F or, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues. We were encounter'd by a mighty rock; Which being violently borne upon, Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst; So that, in this unjust divorce of us, Fortune had left to both of us alike What to delight in, what to sorrow for. Her part, poor soul! Seeming as burdened With lesser wei ht, but not with lesser woe, Was carried wit more speed before the wind And in our sight they three were taken up By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought. At length, the other ship had seiz'd on us; And, knowing whom it was their hap to save, Gave healthful welcome to their shi wreck'd guests: And would have reft the fishers of t eir rey, Had not their bark been very slow of sail? And therefore homeward did they bend their course. Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss; That by misfortune was my life prolong'd, To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. Duke. And, for the sake of them thou sorrow'st for. Do me the favor to dilate at full What hath betall'n of them and thee till now. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.