Having in some friends

              And I can speak of the disturbances
              That nature works, and of her cures;
                which doth give me
              A more content in course of true delight
              Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,
              Or tie my treasure up in silken bags,
              To please the fool and death. 



In the departure of Jupiter
from a play which Auden ad-
mits, reveals glory's short
supply, he nevertheless dis-
covers verse in bridge pas-
sages which transcend their
context. What an exact de-
piction of this language,
and of the table where it 
lavishes its least hoarded
light:


The marble pavement closes;
  he is entered
His radiant roof. Away! and,
  to be blest,
Let us with care perform his
  great behest.

              

William Shakespeare

Pericles

  III, ii

Cymbeline

  V, iv

W.H. Auden

Lectures on Shakespeare

Princeton University Press, 2000©

op. cit.