The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 558

by William Shakespeare


  To those above us. Let no due be wanting.

  5

  They have a noble work in hand, will honour

  The very powers that love ’em.

  Flourish of cornets. Enter PALAMON and ARCITE and their knights.

  PIRITHOUS Sir, they enter.

  THESEUS You valiant and strong-hearted enemies,

  You royal german foes, that this day come

  To blow that nearness out that flames between ye:

  10

  Lay by your anger for an hour and, dove-like,

  Before the holy altars of your helpers,

  The all-feared gods, bow down your stubborn bodies.

  Your ire is more than mortal; so your help be;

  And, as the gods regard ye, fight with justice.

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  I’ll leave you to your prayers and betwixt ye

  I part my wishes.

  PIRITHOUS Honour crown the worthiest.

  Exeunt Theseus and his train.

  PALAMON The glass is running now that cannot finish

  Till one of us expire. Think you but thus:

  That were there aught in me which strove to show

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  Mine enemy in this business, were’t one eye

  Against another, arm oppressed by arm,

  I would destroy th’offender, coz, I would,

  Though parcel of myself. Then from this gather

  How I should tender you.

  ARCITE I am in labour

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  To push your name, your ancient love, our kindred

  Out of my memory and i’th’ selfsame place

  To seat something I would confound. So hoist we

  The sails that must these vessels port, even where

  The heavenly limiter pleases.

  PALAMON You speak well.

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  Before I turn, let me embrace thee, cousin.

  This I shall never do again.

  ARCITE One farewell.

  PALAMON Why, let it be so. Farewell, coz.

  ARCITE Farewell, sir.

  Exeunt Palamon and his knights.

  [Arcite addresses his three knights.]

  Knights, kinsmen, lovers – yea, my sacrifices –

  True worshippers of Mars, whose spirit in you

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  Expels the seeds of fear and th’apprehension

  Which still is father of it: go with me

  Before the god of our profession; there

  Require of him the hearts of lions and

  The breath of tigers, yea the fierceness too,

  40

  Yea, the speed also – to go on, I mean:

  Else wish we to be snails. You know my prize

  Must be dragged out of blood; force and great feat

  Must put my garland on, where she sticks

  The queen of flowers. Our intercession then

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  Must be to him that makes the camp a cistern

  Brimmed with the blood of men. Give me your aid

  And bend your spirits towards him.

  [They prostrate themselves before the altar, then kneel.]

  Thou mighty one, that with thy power hast turned

  Green Neptune into purple; whose approach

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  Comets prewarn; whose havoc in vast field

  Unearthed skulls proclaim; whose breath blows down

  The teeming Ceres’ foison; who dost pluck

  With hand armipotent from forth blue clouds

  The masoned turrets; that both mak’st and break’st

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  The stony girths of cities: me thy pupil,

  Youngest follower of thy drum, instruct this day

  With military skill, that to thy laud

  I may advance my streamer and by thee

  Be styled the lord o’th’ day. Give me, great Mars,

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  Some token of thy pleasure.

  [Here they fall on their faces, as formerly, and there is heard clanging of armour, with a short thunder, as the burst of a battle, whereupon they all rise and bow to the altar.]

  O great corrector of enormous times;

  Shaker of o’er-rank states; thou grand decider

  Of dusty and old titles, that heal’st with blood

  The earth when it is sick and cur’st the world

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  O’th’ pleurisy of people: I do take

  Thy signs auspiciously and in thy name

  To my design march boldly. Let us go.

  Exeunt Arcite and his knights.

  Enter PALAMON and his knights, with the former observance.

  PALAMON Our stars must glister with new fire or be

  Today extinct. Our argument is love,

  70

  Which, if the goddess of it grant, she gives

  Victory too; then blend your spirits with mine,

  You whose free nobleness do make my cause

  Your personal hazard. To the goddess Venus

  Commend we our proceeding and implore

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  Her power unto our party.

  [Here they kneel as formerly.]

  Hail, sovereign queen of secrets, who hast power

  To call the fiercest tyrant from his rage

  And weep unto a girl; that hast the might,

  Even with an eye-glance, to choke Mars’s drum

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  And turn th’alarm to whispers; that canst make

  A cripple flourish with his crutch and cure him

  Before Apollo; that mayst force the king

  To be his subject’s vassal and induce

  Stale gravity to dance! The polled bachelor –

  85

  Whose youth, like wanton boys through bonfires,

  Have skipped thy flame – at seventy, thou canst catch

  And make him, to the scorn of his hoarse throat,

  Abuse young lays of love. What godlike power

  Hast thou not power upon? To Phoebus thou

  90

  Add’st flames hotter than his: the heavenly fires

  Did scorch his mortal son, thine him; the huntress

  All moist and cold, some say, began to throw

  Her bow away and sigh. Take to thy grace

  Me thy vowed soldier, who do bear thy yoke

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  As ’twere a wreath of roses, yet is heavier

  Than lead itself, stings more than nettles.

  I have never been foul-mouthed against thy law;

  Ne’er revealed secret, for I knew none – would not,

  Had I kenned all there were. I never practised

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  Upon man’s wife nor would the libels read

  Of liberal wits. I never at great feasts

  Sought to betray a beauty, but have blushed

  At simpering sirs that did. I have been harsh

  To large confessors and have hotly asked them

  105

  If they had mothers – I had one, a woman,

  And women ’twere they wronged. I knew a man

  Of eighty winters, this I told them, who

  A lass of fourteen brided. ’Twas thy power

  To put life into dust: the aged cramp

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  Had screwed his square foot round;

  The gout had knit his fingers into knots;

  Torturing convulsions from his globy eyes

  Had almost drawn their spheres, that what was life

  In him seemed torture. This anatomy

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  Had by his young fair fere a boy, and I

  Believed it was his, for she swore it was –

  And who would not believe her? Brief, I am,

  To those that prate and have done, no companion;

  To those that boast and have not, a defier;

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  To those that would and cannot, a rejoicer.

  Yea, him I do not love that tells close offices

  The foulest way nor names concealments in

>   The boldest language. Such a one I am

  And vow that lover never yet made sigh

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  Truer than I. O, then, most soft sweet goddess,

  Give me the victory of this question, which

  Is true love’s merit, and bless me with a sign

  Of thy great pleasure.

  [Here music is heard; doves are seen to flutter. They fall

  again upon their faces, then rise to their knees.]

  O thou that from eleven to ninety reign’st

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  In mortal bosoms, whose chase is this world

  And we in herds thy game: I give thee thanks

  For this fair token, which, being laid unto

  Mine innocent true heart, arms in assurance

  My body to this business. Let us rise

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  And bow before the goddess. [They rise and bow.]

  Time comes on.

  Exeunt Palamon and his knights.

  Still music of recorders. Enter EMILIA in white, her hair about her shoulders, wearing a wheaten wreath. One maid in white holding up her train, her hair stuck with flowers.

  One maid before her carrying a silver hind, in which is conveyed incense and sweet odours, which being set upon the altar, her maids standing aloof, she sets fire to it. Then they curtsey and kneel.

  EMILIA O sacred, shadowy, cold and constant queen,

  Abandoner of revels, mute contemplative,

  Sweet, solitary, white as chaste, and pure

  As wind-fanned snow, who to thy female knights

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  Allow’st no more blood than will make a blush,

  Which is their order’s robe: I here, thy priest,

  Am humbled ’fore thine altar. O, vouchsafe

  With that thy rare green eye, which never yet

  Beheld thing maculate, look on thy virgin;

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  And, sacred silver mistress, lend thine ear,

  Which ne’er heard scurrile term, into whose port

  Ne’er entered wanton sound, to my petition

  Seasoned with holy fear. This is my last

  Of vestal office. I am bride-habited,

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  But maiden-hearted; a husband I have ’pointed,

  But do not know him. Out of two, I should

  Choose one and pray for his success, but I

  Am guiltless of election. Of mine eyes,

  Were I to lose one, they are equal precious;

  155

  I could doom neither: that which perished should

  Go to’t unsentenced. Therefore, most modest Queen,

  He of the two pretenders that best loves me

  And has the truest title in’t, let him

  Take off my wheaten garland, or else grant

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  The file and quality I hold I may

  Continue in thy band.

  [Here the hind vanishes under the altar and in the place

  ascends a rose tree, having one rose upon it.]

  See what our general of ebbs and flows,

  Out from the bowels of her holy altar,

  With sacred art advances: but one rose!

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  If well inspired, this battle shall confound

  Both these brave knights and I, a virgin flower,

  Must grow alone, unplucked.

  [Here is heard a sudden twang of instruments, and the

  rose falls from the tree, which then descends.]

  The flower is fall’n; the tree descends. O, mistress,

  Thou here dischargest me; I shall be gathered –

  170

  I think so – but I know not thine own will;

  Unclasp thy mystery! – I hope she’s pleased;

  Her signs were gracious. They curtsey and exeunt.

  5.2 Enter Doctor, Jailer and Wooer in the habit of Palamon.

  DOCTOR

  Has this advice I told you done any good upon her?

  WOOER

  O, very much. The maids that kept her company

  Have half persuaded her that I am Palamon.

  Within this half hour she came smiling to me

  And asked me what I would eat and when I would kiss her.

  5

  I told her, ‘Presently!’ and kissed her twice.

  DOCTOR

  ’Twas well done. Twenty times had been far better,

  For there the cure lies mainly.

  WOOER Then she told me

  She would watch with me tonight, for well she knew

  What hour my fit would take me.

  DOCTOR Let her do so.

  10

  And, when your fit comes, fit her home, and presently.

  WOOER She would have me sing.

  DOCTOR You did so?

  WOOER No.

  DOCTOR ’ Twas very ill-done then;

  You should observe her every way.

  WOOER Alas,

  I have no voice, sir, to confirm her that way.

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  DOCTOR That’s all one, if ye make a noise.

 

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