SHAKESPEARE. Not so. The god who made it hath forgot the key, Or lost or lent it.
MARY. Heartless god! Poor heart! Yet if this key--(is there indeed a key?)
SHAKESPEARE. No lock without a key, nor heart, nor heart.
MARY. --were found one day and strung with other keys Upon my ring?
MARY. Keys of hearts! What else? Tucked in the casket where my mortals lie-- Sick pearl, flawed emerald, brooch or coronet--
MARY. They say? What do they say? And what care I? They say Pembroke?
SHAKESPEARE. They lie! You shall not speak. They lie!
MARY. So little doubt--and you a man! It’s new. It’s sweet. It will not last. We spoke of keys-- This heart-key, had I found it, would you buy? Come, tempt me with immortal necklaces! Come, purchase me with ornaments divine!
MARY. Why, that’s a common cry, I hear it daily, like the London cries, “Old chairs to mend!” or “Sweet, sweet lavender!” Is this your string of pearls, sixteen a penny?
SHAKESPEARE. D’you laugh at me? I mean it.
MARY. So do they all. Buy! Buy my lavender! Lady, it’s cheap-- It’s sweet--new cut--I starve--for Christ’s sake, buy! They mean it, all the hoarse-throat, hungry men That sell me lavender, that sell me love.
SHAKESPEARE. I put my wares away. I do not sell.
MARY. O pedlar! I had half a mind to buy.
MARY. Open your pack again! What haste! What--not a trinket left me, not a pin For a poor lady? Does not the offer hold?
MARY. You know your business best; Yet--what care I?
SHAKESPEARE. Or I? Yet--never again To buy and sell with you!
MARY. Never again. Heigh-ho! I sighed, sir.
SHAKESPEARE. Yes, they buy and sell At court. But I know better--give and take!
MARY [_evading him_]. What will you give me if I let you take?
SHAKESPEARE. If you will come with me into my mind-- How shall I say it? Still you’ll laugh at me!
SHAKESPEARE. My mind’s not one room stored, but many, A house of windows that o’erlook far gardens, The hanging gardens of more Babylons Than there are bees in a linden tree in June. I’m the king-prisoner in his capital, Ruling strange peoples of a world unknown, Yet there come envoys from the untravelled lands That fill my corridors with miracles As it were tribute, secretly, by night; And I wake in the dawn like Solomon, To stare at peacocks, apes and ivory, And a closed door. And all these stores I give you for your own, You shall be mistress of my fairy-lands, I’ll ride you round the world on the back of a dream, I’ll give you all the stars that ever danced In the sea o’ nights, If you will come into my mind with me, If you will learn me--know me.