Trees, roots

Pericles, [1.2.24-33]. Pericles. “With hostile forces he’ll o’erspread the land,/ And with th’ ostent of war will look so huge,/ Our men be vanquish’d ere thy do resist,/ And subjects punish’d that ne’er thought offense;/ Which care of them, not pity of myself/ Who am no more but as the tops of trees/ Which fence the roots they grow by and defend them–/ Makes both my body pine and soul to languish,/ And punish that before that he wouldl punish.”