For scorning thy edict, Duke: ask that lady
Why she is fair, and why her eyes command me
Stay here to love her and, if she say ‘traitor’,
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I am a villain fit to lie unburied.
PALAMON Thou shalt have pity of us both, O Theseus,
If unto neither thou show mercy. Stop,
As thou art just, thy noble ear against us;
As thou art valiant – for thy cousin’s soul,
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Whose twelve strong labours crown his memory –
Let’s die together, at one instant, Duke.
Only a little let him fall before me,
That I may tell my soul, he shall not have her.
THESEUS
I grant your wish, for, to say true, your cousin
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Has ten times more offended, for I gave him
More mercy than you found, sir, your offences
Being no more than his. None here speak for ’em,
For, ere the sun set, both shall sleep for ever.
HIPPOLYTA Alas the pity! Now or never, sister,
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Speak not to be denied. That face of yours
Will bear the curses else of after ages
For these lost cousins.
EMILIA In my face, dear sister,
I find no anger to ’em, nor no ruin;
The misadventure of their own eyes kill ’em.
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Yet that I will be woman and have pity,
My knees shall grow to th’ ground but I’ll get mercy.
Help me, dear sister; in a deed so virtuous,
The powers of all women will be with us. [Kneels.]
Most royal brother –
HIPPOLYTA [Kneels.] Sir, by our tie of marriage –
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EMILIA By your own spotless honour –
HIPPOLYTA By that faith,
That fair hand and that honest heart you gave me –
EMILIA By that you would have pity in another,
By your own virtues infinite –
HIPPOLYTA By valour,
By all the chaste nights I have ever pleased you –
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THESEUS These are strange conjurings.
PIRITHOUS Nay, then, I’ll in too. [Kneels.]
By all our friendship, sir, by all our dangers,
By all you love most: wars, and this sweet lady –
EMILIA By that you would have trembled to deny
A blushing maid –
HIPPOLYTA By your own eyes, by strength,
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In which you swore I went beyond all women,
Almost all men, and yet I yielded, Theseus –
PIRITHOUS To crown all this, by your most noble soul,
Which cannot want due mercy, I beg first –
HIPPOLYTA Next hear my prayers –
EMILIA Last, let me entreat, sir –
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PIRITHOUS For mercy!
HIPPOLYTA Mercy!
EMILIA Mercy on these princes!
THESEUS Ye make my faith reel. Say I felt
Compassion to ’em both, how would you place it?
[Emilia, Hippolyta and Pirithous rise.]
EMILIA Upon their lives. But with their banishments.
THESEUS You are a right woman, sister: you have pity
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But want the understanding where to use it.
If you desire their lives, invent a way
Safer than banishment. Can these two live
And have the agony of love about ’em
And not kill one another? Every day
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They’d fight about you; hourly bring your honour
In public question with their swords. Be wise then
And here forget ’em; it concerns your credit
And my oath equally. I have said they die.
Better they fall by th’ law than one another.
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Bow not my honour.
EMILIA O, my noble brother,
That oath was rashly made and in your anger.
Your reason will not hold it; if such vows
Stand for express will, all the world must perish.
Besides, I have another oath ’gainst yours,
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Of more authority, I am sure more love,
Not made in passion neither but good heed.
THESEUS What is it, sister?
PIRITHOUS Urge it home, brave lady.
EMILIA That you would ne’er deny me anything
Fit for my modest suit and your free granting.
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I tie you to your word now; if ye fail in’t,
Think how you maim your honour. Tell me not
(For now I am set a-begging, sir, I am deaf
To all but your compassion) how their lives
Might breed the ruin of my name. Opinion!
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Shall anything that loves me perish for me?
That were a cruel wisdom. Do men prune
The straight young boughs that blush with thousand blossoms,
Because they may be rotten? O, Duke Theseus,
The goodly mothers that have groaned for these
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And all the longing maids that ever loved,
If your vow stand, shall curse me and my beauty
And in their funeral songs for these two cousins
Despise my cruelty and cry woe worth me,
Till I am nothing but the scorn of women.
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For heaven’s sake, save their lives and banish ’em.
THESEUS On what conditions?
EMILIA Swear ’em never more
To make me their contention, or to know me,
To tread upon thy dukedom, and to be,
Wherever they shall travel, ever strangers
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To one another.
PALAMON I’ll be cut a-pieces
Before I take this oath! Forget I love her?
O, all ye gods, despise me then! Thy banishment
I not mislike, so we may fairly carry
Our swords and cause along; else, never trifle,
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But take our lives, Duke; I must love and will
And, for that love, must and dare kill this cousin
On any piece the earth has.
THESEUS Will you, Arcite,
Take these conditions?
PALAMON He’s a villain then.
PIRITHOUS These are men!
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ARCITE
No, never, Duke. ’Tis worse to me than begging
To take my life so basely. Though I think
I never shall enjoy her, yet I’ll preserve
The honour of affection and die for her,
Make death a devil.
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THESEUS
What may be done? For now I feel compassion.
PIRITHOUS Let it not fall again, sir.
THESEUS Say, Emilia,
If one of them were dead, as one must, are you
Content to take the other as your husband?
They cannot both enjoy you. They are princes
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As goodly as your own eyes and as noble
As ever fame yet spoke of. Look upon ’em
And, if you can love, end this difference;
I give consent. Are you content too, princes?
PALAMON, ARCITE With all our hearts.
THESEUS He that she refuses
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Must die then.
PALAMON, ARCITE
Any death thou canst invent, Duke.
PALAMON If I fall from that mouth, I fall with favour
And lovers yet unborn shall bless my ashes.
ARCITE If she refuse me, yet my grave will wed me
And soldiers sing my epitaph.
THESEUS [to Emilia] Make choice, then.
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EMILIA I
cannot, sir; they are both too excellent;
For me, a hair shall never fall of these men.
HIPPOLYTA What will become of ’em?
THESEUS Thus I ordain it
And by mine honour, once again, it stands,
Or both shall die. You shall both to your country
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And each, within this month, accompanied
With three fair knights, appear again in this place,
In which I’ll plant a pyramid; and whether,
Before us that are here, can force his cousin,
By fair and knightly strength, to touch the pillar,
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He shall enjoy her; th’other lose his head,
And all his friends. Nor shall he grudge to fall,
Nor think he dies with interest in this lady.
Will this content ye?
PALAMON Yes. There, cousin Arcite,
[Offers his hand.]
I am friends again, till that hour.
ARCITE I embrace ye.
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THESEUS Are you content, sister?
EMILIA Yes, I must, sir,
Else both miscarry.
THESEUS Come, shake hands again, then,
And take heed, as you are gentlemen, this quarrel
Sleep till the hour prefixed, and hold your course.
[Palamon and Arcite shake hands.]
PALAMON We dare not fail thee, Theseus.
THESEUS Come, I’ll give ye
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Now usage like to princes and to friends.
When ye return, who wins, I’ll settle here;
Who loses, yet I’ll weep upon his bier. Exeunt.
4.1 Enter Jailer and First Friend.
JAILER Heard you no more? Was nothing said of me
Concerning the escape of Palamon?
Good sir, remember!
1FRIEND Nothing that I heard,
For I came home before the business
Was fully ended. Yet I might perceive,
5
Ere I departed, a great likelihood
Of both their pardons. For Hippolyta
And fair-eyed Emily, upon their knees,
Begged with such handsome pity that the Duke
Methought stood staggering whether he should follow
10
His rash oath or the sweet compassion
Of those two ladies; and, to second them,
That truly noble Prince Pirithous,
Half his own heart, set in too, that I hope
All shall be well. Neither heard I one question
15
Of your name or his ’scape.
Enter Second Friend.
JAILER Pray heaven it hold so.
2FRIEND Be of good comfort, man; I bring you news,
Good news!
JAILER They are welcome.
2FRIEND Palamon has cleared you,
And got your pardon, and discovered how
And by whose means he ’scaped – which was your Daughter’s,
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Whose pardon is procured too; and the prisoner,
Not to be held ungrateful to her goodness,
Has given a sum of money to her marriage:
A large one, I’ll assure you.
JAILER You’re a good man
And ever bring good news.
1FRIEND How was it ended?
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2FRIEND
Why, as it should be. They that never begged
But they prevailed had their suits fairly granted:
The prisoners have their lives.
1FRIEND I knew ’twould be so.
2FRIEND
But there be new conditions, which you’ll hear of
At better time.
JAILER I hope they are good.
2FRIEND They are honourable;
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How good they’ll prove, I know not.
Enter Wooer.
1FRIEND ’Twill be known.
WOOER [to Jailer] Alas, sir, where’s your daughter?
JAILER Why do you ask?
WOOER O, sir, when did you see her?
2FRIEND How he looks!
JAILER This morning.
WOOER Was she well? Was she in health? Sir,
When did she sleep?
1FRIEND These are strange questions.
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JAILER I do not think she was very well, for now
You make me mind her: but this very day
I asked her questions, and she answered me
So far from what she was, so childishly,
So sillily, as if she were a fool,
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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 555