The Two Noble Kinsmen

1 Enter Pirithous, Hippolyta and Emilia.
2 PIRITHOUS.
3 No further.
4 HIPPOLYTA.
5 Sir, farewell. Repeat my wishes
6 To our great lord, of whose success I dare not
7 Make any timorous question; yet I wish him
8 Excess and overflow of power, an ’t might be,
9 To dure ill-dealing fortune. Speed to him!
10 Store never hurts good governors.
11 PIRITHOUS.
12 Though I know
13 His ocean needs not my poor drops, yet they
14 Must yield their tribute there. My precious maid,
15 Those best affections that the heavens infuse
16 In their best-tempered pieces keep enthroned
17 In your dear heart!
18 EMILIA.
19 Thanks, sir. Remember me
20 To our all-royal brother, for whose speed
21 The great Bellona I’ll solicit; and
22 Since in our terrene state petitions are not
23 Without gifts understood, I’ll offer to her
24 What I shall be advised she likes. Our hearts
25 Are in his army, in his tent.
26 HIPPOLYTA.
27 In ’s bosom.
28 We have been soldiers, and we cannot weep
29 When our friends don their helms, or put to sea,
30 Or tell of babes broached on the lance, or women
31 That have sod their infants in—and after eat them—
32 The brine they wept at killing ’em. Then if
33 You stay to see of us such spinsters, we
34 Should hold you here for ever.
35 PIRITHOUS.
36 Peace be to you
37 As I pursue this war, which shall be then
38 Beyond further requiring.
39 [_Exit Pirithous._]
40 EMILIA.
41 How his longing
42 Follows his friend! Since his depart, his sports,
43 Though craving seriousness and skill, passed slightly
44 His careless execution, where nor gain
45 Made him regard, or loss consider, but
46 Playing one business in his hand, another
47 Directing in his head, his mind nurse equal
48 To these so differing twins. Have you observed him
49 Since our great lord departed?
50 HIPPOLYTA.
51 With much labour,
52 And I did love him for ’t. They two have cabined
53 In many as dangerous as poor a corner,
54 Peril and want contending; they have skiffed
55 Torrents whose roaring tyranny and power
56 I’ th’ least of these was dreadful; and they have
57 Fought out together where Death’s self was lodged;
58 Yet fate hath brought them off. Their knot of love,
59 Tied, weaved, entangled, with so true, so long,
60 And with a finger of so deep a cunning,
61 May be outworn, never undone. I think
62 Theseus cannot be umpire to himself,
63 Cleaving his conscience into twain and doing
64 Each side like justice, which he loves best.
65 EMILIA.
66 Doubtless
67 There is a best, and reason has no manners
68 To say it is not you. I was acquainted
69 Once with a time when I enjoyed a playfellow;
70 You were at wars when she the grave enriched,
71 Who made too proud the bed, took leave o’ th’ moon
72 Which then looked pale at parting, when our count
73 Was each eleven.
74 HIPPOLYTA.
75 ’Twas Flavina.
76 EMILIA.
77 Yes.
78 You talk of Pirithous’ and Theseus’ love.
79 Theirs has more ground, is more maturely seasoned,
80 More buckled with strong judgement, and their needs
81 The one of th’ other may be said to water
82 Their intertangled roots of love; but I,
83 And she I sigh and spoke of, were things innocent,
84 Loved for we did, and like the elements
85 That know not what nor why, yet do effect
86 Rare issues by their operance, our souls
87 Did so to one another. What she liked
88 Was then of me approved, what not, condemned,
89 No more arraignment. The flower that I would pluck
90 And put between my breasts, O, then but beginning
91 To swell about the blossom—she would long
92 Till she had such another, and commit it
93 To the like innocent cradle, where, phœnix-like,
94 They died in perfume. On my head no toy
95 But was her pattern; her affections—pretty,
96 Though haply her careless wear—I followed
97 For my most serious decking; had mine ear
98 Stol’n some new air, or at adventure hummed one
99 From musical coinage, why, it was a note
100 Whereon her spirits would sojourn—rather, dwell on,
101 And sing it in her slumbers. This rehearsal,
102 Which fury-innocent wots well, comes in
103 Like old importment’s bastard—has this end,
104 That the true love ’tween maid and maid may be
105 More than in sex individual.
106 HIPPOLYTA.
107 You’re out of breath;
108 And this high-speeded pace is but to say
109 That you shall never, like the maid Flavina,
110 Love any that’s called man.
111 EMILIA.
112 I am sure I shall not.
113 HIPPOLYTA.
114 Now, alack, weak sister,
115 I must no more believe thee in this point—
116 Though in ’t I know thou dost believe thyself—
117 Than I will trust a sickly appetite,
118 That loathes even as it longs. But sure, my sister,
119 If I were ripe for your persuasion, you
120 Have said enough to shake me from the arm
121 Of the all-noble Theseus; for whose fortunes
122 I will now in and kneel, with great assurance
123 That we, more than his Pirithous, possess
124 The high throne in his heart.
125 EMILIA.
126 I am not
127 Against your faith, yet I continue mine.
128 [_Exeunt._]