)
Then I must kiss you, Sylvan!
[_She kisses him_.
_Sylvan_.
Ah, my darling!
(_God! it went through my flesh as thrilling sound
Must shake a fiddle when the strings are snatcht!
Will she make the life in me all a slave
Of my kist body,--a trembling, eager slave?
It ran like a terror to my heart, the sense,
The shivering delight upon my skin,
Of her lips touching me_.) My beloved,--
It may be it were wise, that we took care
Our pleasant love come never in the risk
Of being too much known.
_Katrina_.
O what a risk
To think of here! Love is not common life,
But always fresh and sweet. Can this grow stale?
[_She kisses him again_.
_Sylvan_.
O never! I meant not so.--Yes, always sweet!
(_She must not kiss me! Ah, it leaves my heart
Aghast, and stopt with pain of the joy of her;
And her loved body is like an agony
Clinging upon me. O she must not kiss me!
I will not be a thing excruciated
To please her passion, an anguish of delight!_)
PART III
VIRGINITY AND PERFECTION
JUDITH
I
THE BESIEGED CITY OF BETHULIA
JUDITH (_at the window of an upper room of her house_).
This pitiable city!--But, O God,
Strengthen me that I bend not into scorn
Of all this desperate folk; for I am weak
With pitying their lamentable souls.
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