The Two Noble Kinsmen

1 Flourish. Enter Theseus, Pirithous, Hippolyta and Attendants.
2 THESEUS.
3 Now let ’em enter and before the gods
4 Tender their holy prayers. Let the temples
5 Burn bright with sacred fires, and the altars
6 In hallowed clouds commend their swelling incense
7 To those above us. Let no due be wanting.
8 They have a noble work in hand, will honour
9 The very powers that love ’em.
10 PIRITHOUS.
11 Sir, they enter.
12 Enter Palamon and Arcite and their Knights.
13 THESEUS.
14 You valiant and strong-hearted enemies,
15 You royal german foes, that this day come
16 To blow that nearness out that flames between ye,
17 Lay by your anger for an hour and, dove-like,
18 Before the holy altars of your helpers,
19 The all-feared gods, bow down your stubborn bodies.
20 Your ire is more than mortal; so your help be;
21 And, as the gods regard ye, fight with justice.
22 I’ll leave you to your prayers, and betwixt ye
23 I part my wishes.
24 PIRITHOUS.
25 Honour crown the worthiest.
26 [_Exeunt Theseus and his Train._]
27 PALAMON.
28 The glass is running now that cannot finish
29 Till one of us expire. Think you but thus,
30 That were there aught in me which strove to show
31 Mine enemy in this business, were ’t one eye
32 Against another, arm oppressed by arm,
33 I would destroy th’ offender, coz, I would
34 Though parcel of myself. Then from this gather
35 How I should tender you.
36 ARCITE.
37 I am in labour
38 To push your name, your ancient love, our kindred
39 Out of my memory, and i’ th’ selfsame place
40 To seat something I would confound. So hoist we
41 The sails that must these vessels port even where
42 The heavenly limiter pleases.
43 PALAMON.
44 You speak well.
45 Before I turn, let me embrace thee, cousin.
46 This I shall never do again.
47 ARCITE.
48 One farewell.
49 PALAMON.
50 Why, let it be so. Farewell, coz.
51 ARCITE.
52 Farewell, sir.
53 [_Exeunt Palamon and his Knights._]
54 Knights, kinsmen, lovers, yea, my sacrifices,
55 True worshippers of Mars, whose spirit in you
56 Expels the seeds of fear and th’ apprehension
57 Which still is father of it, go with me
58 Before the god of our profession. There
59 Require of him the hearts of lions and
60 The breath of tigers, yea, the fierceness too,
61 Yea, the speed also—to go on, I mean;
62 Else wish we to be snails. You know my prize
63 Must be dragged out of blood; force and great feat
64 Must put my garland on, where she sticks,
65 The queen of flowers. Our intercession, then,
66 Must be to him that makes the camp a cistern
67 Brimmed with the blood of men. Give me your aid,
68 And bend your spirits towards him.
69 [_They advance to the altar of Mars, fall on their faces before it, and
70 then kneel._]
71 Thou mighty one, that with thy power hast turned
72 Green Neptune into purple; whose approach
73 Comets prewarn, whose havoc in vast field
74 Unearthed skulls proclaim; whose breath blows down
75 The teeming Ceres’ foison, who dost pluck
76 With hand armipotent from forth blue clouds
77 The masoned turrets, that both mak’st and break’st
78 The stony girths of cities; me thy pupil,
79 Youngest follower of thy drum, instruct this day
80 With military skill, that to thy laud
81 I may advance my streamer, and by thee
82 Be styled the lord o’ th’ day. Give me, great Mars,
83 Some token of thy pleasure.
84 [_Here they fall on their faces as formerly, and there is heard
85 clanging of armour, with a short thunder, as the burst of a battle,
86 whereupon they all rise and bow to the altar._]
87 O, great corrector of enormous times,
88 Shaker of o’er-rank states, thou grand decider
89 Of dusty and old titles, that heal’st with blood
90 The earth when it is sick, and cur’st the world
91 O’ th’ pleurisy of people; I do take
92 Thy signs auspiciously, and in thy name
93 To my design march boldly.—Let us go.
94 [_Exeunt._]
95 Enter Palamon and his Knights, with the former observance.
96 PALAMON.
97 Our stars must glister with new fire, or be
98 Today extinct. Our argument is love,
99 Which, if the goddess of it grant, she gives
100 Victory too. Then blend your spirits with mine,
101 You whose free nobleness do make my cause
102 Your personal hazard. To the goddess Venus
103 Commend we our proceeding, and implore
104 Her power unto our party.
105 [_Here they kneel as formerly._]
106 Hail, sovereign queen of secrets, who hast power
107 To call the fiercest tyrant from his rage
108 And weep unto a girl; that hast the might
109 Even with an eye-glance to choke Mars’s drum
110 And turn th’ alarm to whispers; that canst make
111 A cripple flourish with his crutch, and cure him
112 Before Apollo; that mayst force the king
113 To be his subject’s vassal, and induce
114 Stale gravity to dance. The polled bachelor,
115 Whose youth, like wanton boys through bonfires,
116 Have skipped thy flame, at seventy thou canst catch,
117 And make him, to the scorn of his hoarse throat,
118 Abuse young lays of love. What godlike power
119 Hast thou not power upon? To Phœbus thou
120 Add’st flames hotter than his; the heavenly fires
121 Did scorch his mortal son, thine him. The huntress,
122 All moist and cold, some say, began to throw
123 Her bow away and sigh. Take to thy grace
124 Me, thy vowed soldier, who do bear thy yoke
125 As ’twere a wreath of roses, yet is heavier
126 Than lead itself, stings more than nettles.
127 I have never been foul-mouthed against thy law,
128 Ne’er revealed secret, for I knew none—would not,
129 Had I kenned all that were. I never practised
130 Upon man’s wife, nor would the libels read
131 Of liberal wits. I never at great feasts
132 Sought to betray a beauty, but have blushed
133 At simpering sirs that did. I have been harsh
134 To large confessors, and have hotly asked them
135 If they had mothers—I had one, a woman,
136 And women ’twere they wronged. I knew a man
137 Of eighty winters, this I told them, who
138 A lass of fourteen brided; ’twas thy power
139 To put life into dust. The aged cramp
140 Had screwed his square foot round;
141 The gout had knit his fingers into knots,
142 Torturing convulsions from his globy eyes
143 Had almost drawn their spheres, that what was life
144 In him seemed torture. This anatomy
145 Had by his young fair fere a boy, and I
146 Believed it was his, for she swore it was,
147 And who would not believe her? Brief, I am
148 To those that prate and have done, no companion;
149 To those that boast and have not, a defier;
150 To those that would and cannot, a rejoicer.
151 Yea, him I do not love that tells close offices
152 The foulest way, nor names concealments in
153 The boldest language. Such a one I am,
154 And vow that lover never yet made sigh
155 Truer than I. O, then, most soft sweet goddess,
156 Give me the victory of this question, which
157 Is true love’s merit, and bless me with a sign
158 Of thy great pleasure.
159 [_Here music is heard; doves are seen to flutter. They fall again upon
160 their faces, then on their knees._]
161 O thou that from eleven to ninety reign’st
162 In mortal bosoms, whose chase is this world
163 And we in herds thy game, I give thee thanks
164 For this fair token, which being laid unto
165 Mine innocent true heart, arms in assurance
166 My body to this business.—Let us rise
167 And bow before the goddess.
168 [_They rise and bow._]
169 Time comes on.
170 [_Exeunt._]
171 Still music of recorders. Enter Emilia in white, her hair about her
172 shoulders, wearing a wheaten wreath. One in white holding up her train,
173 her hair stuck with flowers. One before her carrying a silver hind, in
174 which is conveyed incense and sweet odours, which being set upon the
175 altar of Diana, her maids standing aloof, she sets fire to it; then
176 they curtsy and kneel.
177 EMILIA.
178 O sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen,
179 Abandoner of revels, mute contemplative,
180 Sweet, solitary, white as chaste, and pure
181 As wind-fanned snow, who to thy female knights
182 Allow’st no more blood than will make a blush,
183 Which is their order’s robe, I here, thy priest,
184 Am humbled ’fore thine altar. O, vouchsafe
185 With that thy rare green eye, which never yet
186 Beheld thing maculate, look on thy virgin;
187 And, sacred silver mistress, lend thine ear,
188 Which ne’er heard scurrile term, into whose port
189 Ne’er entered wanton sound, to my petition,
190 Seasoned with holy fear. This is my last
191 Of vestal office. I am bride-habited
192 But maiden-hearted. A husband I have ’pointed,
193 But do not know him. Out of two I should
194 Choose one, and pray for his success, but I
195 Am guiltless of election. Of mine eyes,
196 Were I to lose one, they are equal precious;
197 I could doom neither; that which perished should
198 Go to ’t unsentenced. Therefore, most modest queen,
199 He of the two pretenders that best loves me
200 And has the truest title in ’t, let him
201 Take off my wheaten garland, or else grant
202 The file and quality I hold I may
203 Continue in thy band.
204 [_Here the hind vanishes under the altar, and in the place ascends a
205 rose tree, having one rose upon it._]
206 See what our general of ebbs and flows
207 Out from the bowels of her holy altar
208 With sacred act advances: but one rose!
209 If well inspired, this battle shall confound
210 Both these brave knights, and I, a virgin flower,
211 Must grow alone, unplucked.
212 [_Here is heard a sudden twang of instruments, and the rose falls from
213 the tree._]
214 The flower is fall’n, the tree descends. O mistress,
215 Thou here dischargest me. I shall be gathered;
216 I think so, but I know not thine own will.
217 Unclasp thy mystery!—I hope she’s pleased;
218 Her signs were gracious.
219 [_They curtsy and exeunt._]