The Two Noble Kinsmen

1 Enter Palamon from the bush.
2 PALAMON.
3 About this hour my cousin gave his faith
4 To visit me again, and with him bring
5 Two swords and two good armours. If he fail,
6 He’s neither man nor soldier. When he left me,
7 I did not think a week could have restored
8 My lost strength to me, I was grown so low
9 And crestfall’n with my wants. I thank thee, Arcite,
10 Thou art yet a fair foe, and I feel myself,
11 With this refreshing, able once again
12 To outdure danger. To delay it longer
13 Would make the world think, when it comes to hearing,
14 That I lay fatting like a swine to fight
15 And not a soldier. Therefore, this blest morning
16 Shall be the last; and that sword he refuses,
17 If it but hold, I kill him with. ’Tis justice.
18 So, love and fortune for me!
19 Enter Arcite with armours and swords.
20 O, good morrow.
21 ARCITE.
22 Good morrow, noble kinsman.
23 PALAMON.
24 I have put you
25 To too much pains, sir.
26 ARCITE.
27 That too much, fair cousin,
28 Is but a debt to honour, and my duty.
29 PALAMON.
30 Would you were so in all, sir; I could wish ye
31 As kind a kinsman as you force me find
32 A beneficial foe, that my embraces
33 Might thank ye, not my blows.
34 ARCITE.
35 I shall think either,
36 Well done, a noble recompence.
37 PALAMON.
38 Then I shall quit you.
39 ARCITE.
40 Defy me in these fair terms, and you show
41 More than a mistress to me. No more anger,
42 As you love anything that’s honourable!
43 We were not bred to talk, man; when we are armed
44 And both upon our guards, then let our fury,
45 Like meeting of two tides, fly strongly from us;
46 And then to whom the birthright of this beauty
47 Truly pertains—without upbraidings, scorns,
48 Despisings of our persons, and such poutings,
49 Fitter for girls and schoolboys—will be seen,
50 And quickly, yours or mine. Will ’t please you arm, sir?
51 Or, if you feel yourself not fitting yet
52 And furnished with your old strength, I’ll stay, cousin,
53 And every day discourse you into health,
54 As I am spared. Your person I am friends with,
55 And I could wish I had not said I loved her,
56 Though I had died; but, loving such a lady,
57 And justifying my love, I must not fly from ’t.
58 PALAMON.
59 Arcite, thou art so brave an enemy,
60 That no man but thy cousin’s fit to kill thee.
61 I am well and lusty; choose your arms.
62 ARCITE.
63 Choose you, sir.
64 PALAMON.
65 Wilt thou exceed in all, or dost thou do it
66 To make me spare thee?
67 ARCITE.
68 If you think so, cousin,
69 You are deceived, for as I am a soldier,
70 I will not spare you.
71 PALAMON.
72 That’s well said.
73 ARCITE.
74 You’ll find it.
75 PALAMON.
76 Then, as I am an honest man and love
77 With all the justice of affection,
78 I’ll pay thee soundly.
79 [_He chooses armour._]
80 This I’ll take.
81 ARCITE.
82 That’s mine, then.
83 I’ll arm you first.
84 PALAMON.
85 Do.
86 [_Arcite begins arming him._]
87 Pray thee, tell me, cousin,
88 Where got’st thou this good armour?
89 ARCITE.
90 ’Tis the Duke’s,
91 And, to say true, I stole it. Do I pinch you?
92 PALAMON.
93 No.
94 ARCITE.
95 Is’t not too heavy?
96 PALAMON.
97 I have worn a lighter,
98 But I shall make it serve.
99 ARCITE.
100 I’ll buckle ’t close.
101 PALAMON.
102 By any means.
103 ARCITE.
104 You care not for a grand guard?
105 PALAMON.
106 No, no; we’ll use no horses: I perceive
107 You would fain be at that fight.
108 ARCITE.
109 I am indifferent.
110 PALAMON.
111 Faith, so am I. Good cousin, thrust the buckle
112 Through far enough.
113 ARCITE.
114 I warrant you.
115 PALAMON.
116 My casque now.
117 ARCITE.
118 Will you fight bare-armed?
119 PALAMON.
120 We shall be the nimbler.
121 ARCITE.
122 But use your gauntlets though. Those are o’ th’ least;
123 Prithee take mine, good cousin.
124 PALAMON.
125 Thank you, Arcite.
126 How do I look? Am I fall’n much away?
127 ARCITE.
128 Faith, very little; love has used you kindly.
129 PALAMON.
130 I’ll warrant thee, I’ll strike home.
131 ARCITE.
132 Do, and spare not.
133 I’ll give you cause, sweet cousin.
134 PALAMON.
135 Now to you, sir.
136 [_He begins to arm Arcite._]
137 Methinks this armour’s very like that, Arcite,
138 Thou wor’st that day the three kings fell, but lighter.
139 ARCITE.
140 That was a very good one; and that day,
141 I well remember, you outdid me, cousin;
142 I never saw such valour. When you charged
143 Upon the left wing of the enemy,
144 I spurred hard to come up, and under me
145 I had a right good horse.
146 PALAMON.
147 You had indeed;
148 A bright bay, I remember.
149 ARCITE.
150 Yes, but all
151 Was vainly laboured in me; you outwent me,
152 Nor could my wishes reach you. Yet a little
153 I did by imitation.
154 PALAMON.
155 More by virtue;
156 You are modest, cousin.
157 ARCITE.
158 When I saw you charge first,
159 Me thought I heard a dreadful clap of thunder
160 Break from the troop.
161 PALAMON.
162 But still before that flew
163 The lightning of your valour. Stay a little;
164 Is not this piece too strait?
165 ARCITE.
166 No, no, ’tis well.
167 PALAMON.
168 I would have nothing hurt thee but my sword.
169 A bruise would be dishonour.
170 ARCITE.
171 Now I am perfect.
172 PALAMON.
173 Stand off, then.
174 ARCITE.
175 Take my sword; I hold it better.
176 PALAMON.
177 I thank ye, no; keep it; your life lies on it.
178 Here’s one; if it but hold, I ask no more
179 For all my hopes. My cause and honour guard me!
180 ARCITE.
181 And me my love!
182 [_They bow several ways, then advance and stand._]
183 Is there aught else to say?
184 PALAMON.
185 This only, and no more. Thou art mine aunt’s son.
186 And that blood we desire to shed is mutual,
187 In me thine, and in thee mine. My sword
188 Is in my hand, and if thou killest me,
189 The gods and I forgive thee. If there be
190 A place prepared for those that sleep in honour,
191 I wish his weary soul that falls may win it.
192 Fight bravely, cousin; give me thy noble hand.
193 ARCITE.
194 Here, Palamon. This hand shall never more
195 Come near thee with such friendship.
196 PALAMON.
197 I commend thee.
198 ARCITE.
199 If I fall, curse me, and say I was a coward,
200 For none but such dare die in these just trials.
201 Once more farewell, my cousin.
202 PALAMON.
203 Farewell, Arcite.
204 [_They fight. Horns within. They stand_.]
205 ARCITE.
206 Lo, cousin, lo, our folly has undone us.
207 PALAMON.
208 Why?
209 ARCITE.
210 This is the Duke, a-hunting, as I told you.
211 If we be found, we are wretched. O, retire,
212 For honour’s sake and safety, presently
213 Into your bush again. Sir, we shall find
214 Too many hours to die in. Gentle cousin,
215 If you be seen, you perish instantly
216 For breaking prison and I, if you reveal me,
217 For my contempt. Then all the world will scorn us,
218 And say we had a noble difference,
219 But base disposers of it.
220 PALAMON.
221 No, no, cousin,
222 I will no more be hidden, nor put off
223 This great adventure to a second trial;
224 I know your cunning and I know your cause.
225 He that faints now, shame take him! Put thyself
226 Upon thy present guard—
227 ARCITE.
228 You are not mad?
229 PALAMON.
230 Or I will make th’advantage of this hour
231 Mine own, and what to come shall threaten me
232 I fear less than my fortune. Know, weak cousin,
233 I love Emilia, and in that I’ll bury
234 Thee, and all crosses else.
235 ARCITE.
236 Then, come what can come,
237 Thou shalt know, Palamon, I dare as well
238 Die, as discourse, or sleep. Only this fears me,
239 The law will have the honour of our ends.
240 Have at thy life!
241 PALAMON.
242 Look to thine own well, Arcite.
243 [_They fight. Horns within. They stand._]
244 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Emilia, Pirithous and train.
245 THESEUS.
246 What ignorant and mad malicious traitors
247 Are you, that ’gainst the tenor of my laws
248 Are making battle, thus like knights appointed,
249 Without my leave, and officers of arms?
250 By Castor, both shall die.
251 PALAMON.
252 Hold thy word, Theseus.
253 We are certainly both traitors, both despisers
254 Of thee and of thy goodness. I am Palamon,
255 That cannot love thee, he that broke thy prison.
256 Think well what that deserves. And this is Arcite.
257 A bolder traitor never trod thy ground,
258 A falser ne’er seemed friend. This is the man
259 Was begged and banished; this is he contemns thee
260 And what thou dar’st do; and in this disguise,
261 Against thine own edict, follows thy sister,
262 That fortunate bright star, the fair Emilia,
263 Whose servant—if there be a right in seeing
264 And first bequeathing of the soul to—justly
265 I am; and, which is more, dares think her his.
266 This treachery, like a most trusty lover,
267 I called him now to answer. If thou be’st
268 As thou art spoken, great and virtuous,
269 The true decider of all injuries,
270 Say “Fight again,” and thou shalt see me, Theseus,
271 Do such a justice thou thyself wilt envy.
272 Then take my life; I’ll woo thee to ’t.
273 PIRITHOUS.
274 O heaven,
275 What more than man is this!
276 THESEUS.
277 I have sworn.
278 ARCITE.
279 We seek not
280 Thy breath of mercy, Theseus. ’Tis to me
281 A thing as soon to die as thee to say it,
282 And no more moved. Where this man calls me traitor,
283 Let me say thus much: if in love be treason,
284 In service of so excellent a beauty,
285 As I love most, and in that faith will perish,
286 As I have brought my life here to confirm it,
287 As I have served her truest, worthiest,
288 As I dare kill this cousin that denies it,
289 So let me be most traitor, and you please me.
290 For scorning thy edict, Duke, ask that lady
291 Why she is fair, and why her eyes command me
292 Stay here to love her; and if she say “traitor,”
293 I am a villain fit to lie unburied.
294 PALAMON.
295 Thou shalt have pity of us both, O Theseus,
296 If unto neither thou show mercy. Stop,
297 As thou art just, thy noble ear against us;
298 As thou art valiant, for thy cousin’s soul,
299 Whose twelve strong labours crown his memory,
300 Let’s die together at one instant, Duke;
301 Only a little let him fall before me,
302 That I may tell my soul he shall not have her.
303 THESEUS.
304 I grant your wish, for, to say true, your cousin
305 Has ten times more offended, for I gave him
306 More mercy than you found, sir, your offences
307 Being no more than his. None here speak for ’em,
308 For, ere the sun set, both shall sleep for ever.
309 HIPPOLYTA.
310 Alas the pity! Now or never, sister,
311 Speak, not to be denied. That face of yours
312 Will bear the curses else of after ages
313 For these lost cousins.
314 EMILIA.
315 In my face, dear sister,
316 I find no anger to ’em, nor no ruin;
317 The misadventure of their own eyes kill ’em.
318 Yet that I will be woman and have pity,
319 My knees shall grow to’ th’ ground but I’ll get mercy.
320 [_She kneels._]
321 Help me, dear sister; in a deed so virtuous
322 The powers of all women will be with us.
323 Most royal brother—
324 HIPPOLYTA.
325 [_Kneels._] Sir, by our tie of marriage—
326 EMILIA.
327 By your own spotless honour—
328 HIPPOLYTA.
329 By that faith,
330 That fair hand, and that honest heart you gave me—
331 EMILIA.
332 By that you would have pity in another,
333 By your own virtues infinite—
334 HIPPOLYTA.
335 By valour,
336 By all the chaste nights I have ever pleased you—
337 THESEUS.
338 These are strange conjurings.
339 PIRITHOUS.
340 Nay, then, I’ll in too.
341 [_Kneels._]
342 By all our friendship, sir, by all our dangers,
343 By all you love most: wars and this sweet lady—
344 EMILIA.
345 By that you would have trembled to deny
346 A blushing maid—
347 HIPPOLYTA.
348 By your own eyes, by strength,
349 In which you swore I went beyond all women,
350 Almost all men, and yet I yielded, Theseus—
351 PIRITHOUS.
352 To crown all this, by your most noble soul,
353 Which cannot want due mercy, I beg first.
354 HIPPOLYTA.
355 Next, hear my prayers.
356 EMILIA.
357 Last, let me entreat, sir.
358 PIRITHOUS.
359 For mercy.
360 HIPPOLYTA.
361 Mercy.
362 EMILIA.
363 Mercy on these princes.
364 THESEUS.
365 Ye make my faith reel. Say I felt
366 Compassion to’em both, how would you place it?
367 [_Emilia, Hippolyta and Pirithous rise._]
368 EMILIA.
369 Upon their lives. But with their banishments.
370 THESEUS.
371 You are a right woman, sister: you have pity,
372 But want the understanding where to use it.
373 If you desire their lives, invent a way
374 Safer than banishment. Can these two live,
375 And have the agony of love about ’em,
376 And not kill one another? Every day
377 They’d fight about you, hourly bring your honour
378 In public question with their swords. Be wise, then,
379 And here forget ’em; it concerns your credit
380 And my oath equally. I have said they die.
381 Better they fall by th’ law than one another.
382 Bow not my honour.
383 EMILIA.
384 O, my noble brother,
385 That oath was rashly made, and in your anger;
386 Your reason will not hold it; if such vows
387 Stand for express will, all the world must perish.
388 Besides, I have another oath ’gainst yours,
389 Of more authority, I am sure more love,
390 Not made in passion neither, but good heed.
391 THESEUS.
392 What is it, sister?
393 PIRITHOUS.
394 Urge it home, brave lady.
395 EMILIA.
396 That you would ne’er deny me anything
397 Fit for my modest suit and your free granting.
398 I tie you to your word now; if ye fail in ’t,
399 Think how you maim your honour—
400 For now I am set a-begging, sir, I am deaf
401 To all but your compassion—how their lives
402 Might breed the ruin of my name. Opinion!
403 Shall anything that loves me perish for me?
404 That were a cruel wisdom. Do men prune
405 The straight young boughs that blush with thousand blossoms
406 Because they may be rotten? O, Duke Theseus,
407 The goodly mothers that have groaned for these,
408 And all the longing maids that ever loved,
409 If your vow stand, shall curse me and my beauty,
410 And in their funeral songs for these two cousins
411 Despise my cruelty, and cry woe worth me,
412 Till I am nothing but the scorn of women.
413 For heaven’s sake, save their lives, and banish ’em.
414 THESEUS.
415 On what conditions?
416 EMILIA.
417 Swear ’em never more
418 To make me their contention, or to know me,
419 To tread upon thy dukedom, and to be,
420 Wherever they shall travel, ever strangers
421 To one another.
422 PALAMON.
423 I’ll be cut a-pieces
424 Before I take this oath! Forget I love her?
425 O, all ye gods, despise me then! Thy banishment
426 I not mislike, so we may fairly carry
427 Our swords and cause along; else never trifle,
428 But take our lives, Duke. I must love, and will
429 And for that love must and dare kill this cousin
430 On any piece the earth has.
431 THESEUS.
432 Will you, Arcite,
433 Take these conditions?
434 PALAMON.
435 He’s a villain, then.
436 PIRITHOUS.
437 These are men!
438 ARCITE.
439 No, never, Duke. ’Tis worse to me than begging
440 To take my life so basely. Though I think
441 I never shall enjoy her, yet I’ll preserve
442 The honour of affection, and die for her,
443 Make death a devil.
444 THESEUS.
445 What may be done? For now I feel compassion.
446 PIRITHOUS.
447 Let it not fall again, sir.
448 THESEUS.
449 Say, Emilia,
450 If one of them were dead, as one must, are you
451 Content to take th’ other to your husband?
452 They cannot both enjoy you. They are princes
453 As goodly as your own eyes, and as noble
454 As ever fame yet spoke of. Look upon ’em,
455 And, if you can love, end this difference;
456 I give consent.—Are you content too, princes?
457 BOTH.
458 With all our souls.
459 THESEUS.
460 He that she refuses
461 Must die, then.
462 BOTH.
463 Any death thou canst invent, Duke.
464 PALAMON.
465 If I fall from that mouth, I fall with favour,
466 And lovers yet unborn shall bless my ashes.
467 ARCITE.
468 If she refuse me, yet my grave will wed me,
469 And soldiers sing my epitaph.
470 THESEUS.
471 Make choice, then.
472 EMILIA.
473 I cannot, sir, they are both too excellent;
474 For me, a hair shall never fall of these men.
475 HIPPOLYTA.
476 What will become of ’em?
477 THESEUS.
478 Thus I ordain it
479 And, by mine honour, once again, it stands,
480 Or both shall die. You shall both to your country,
481 And each within this month, accompanied
482 With three fair knights, appear again in this place,
483 In which I’ll plant a pyramid; and whether,
484 Before us that are here, can force his cousin
485 By fair and knightly strength to touch the pillar,
486 He shall enjoy her; th’ other lose his head,
487 And all his friends; nor shall he grudge to fall,
488 Nor think he dies with interest in this lady.
489 Will this content ye?
490 PALAMON.
491 Yes. Here, cousin Arcite,
492 I am friends again, till that hour.
493 [_He offers his hand._]
494 ARCITE.
495 I embrace ye.
496 THESEUS.
497 Are you content, sister?
498 EMILIA.
499 Yes, I must, sir,
500 Else both miscarry.
501 THESEUS.
502 Come, shake hands again, then;
503 And take heed, as you are gentlemen, this quarrel
504 Sleep till the hour prefixed, and hold your course.
505 PALAMON.
506 We dare not fail thee, Theseus.
507 [_They shake hands._]
508 THESEUS.
509 Come, I’ll give ye
510 Now usage like to princes, and to friends.
511 When ye return, who wins, I’ll settle here;
512 Who loses, yet I’ll weep upon his bier.
513 [_Exeunt._]