[_To himself._] His youth is flattered at Moses’ kind speech to him.
[_To the_ YOUNG HEBREW.]
I am broken and grey, have seen much in my time,
And all this gay grotesque of childish man
Long passed; half blind, half deaf, I only grumble
I am not blind or deaf enough for peace.
I have seen splendid young fools cheat themselves
Into a prophet’s frenzy; I have seen
So many crazed shadows puffed away,
And conscious cheats with such an ache for fame
They’d make a bonfire of themselves to be
Mouthed in the squares, broad in the public eye:
And whose backs break, whose lives are mauled, after
It all falls flat? His tender airs chill me—
As thoughts of sleep to a man tiptoed night-long
Roped round his neck, for sleep means death to him.
Oh, he is kind to us!
Your safe teeth chatter when they hear a step:
He left them yours because his cunning way
Would brag the wrong against his humane act
By Pharaoh; so gain more favour than he lost.