The Two Noble Kinsmen

than any war; it more imports me
Than all the actions that I have foregone,
Or futurely can cope. First Queen

The more proclaiming
Our suit shall be neglected: when her arms,
Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall
By warranting moonlight corslet thee, O, when
Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall
Upon thy tasteful lips, what wilt thou think
Of rotten kings or blubber’d queens? what care
For what thou feel’st not, what thou feel’st being able
To make Mars spurn his drum? O, if thou couch
But one night with her, every hour in’t will
Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and
Thou shalt remember nothing more than what
That banquet bids thee to!

Hippolyta

Though much unlike kneeling
You should be so transported, as much sorry
I should be such a suitor; yet I think,
Did I not by th’ abstaining of my joy,
Which breeds a deeper longing, cure their surfeit
That craves a present medicine, I should pluck
All ladies’ scandal on me: therefore, sir,
As I shall here make trial of my prayers,
Either presuming them to have some force,
Or sentencing for aye their vigour dumb,
Prorogue this business we are going about, and hang
Your shield afore your heart, about that neck
Which is my fee, and which I freely lend
To do these poor queens service.

All Queens

To Emilia. O, help now!
Our cause cries for your knee.

Emilia

If you grant not kneeling
My sister her petition, in that force,
With that celerity and nature, which
She makes it in, from henceforth I’ll not dare
To ask you anything, nor be so hardy
Ever to take a husband.

Theseus

Pray, stand up:
I am entreating of myself to do
That which you kneel to have me.⁠—Pirithous,
Lead on the bride: get you and pray the gods
For success and return; omit not anything
In the pretended celebration.⁠—Queens,
Follow your soldier.⁠—To Artesius. As before, hence you,
And at the banks of Aulis meet us with
The forces you can raise, where we shall find
The moiety of a number, for a business
More bigger look’d.⁠—Since that our theme is haste,
I stamp this kiss upon thy currant lip; Kisses Hippolyta.
Sweet, keep it as my token.⁠—Set you forward;
For I will see you gone.⁠—Exit Artesius.
Farewell, my beauteous sister.⁠—Pirithous,
Keep the feast full; bate not an hour on’t.

Pirithous

Sir,
I’ll follow you at heels: the feast’s solemnity
Shall want till your return.

Theseus

Cousin, I charge you
Budge not from Athens; We shall be returning
Ere you can end this feast, of which, I pray you,
Make no abatement. Once more, farewell all.

First Queen

Thus dost thou still make good
The tongue o’ the world.

Second Queen

And earn’st a deity
Equal with Mars.

Third Queen

If not above him; for
Thou, being but mortal, mak’st affections bend
To godlike honours; they themselves, some say,
Groan under such a mastery.

Theseus

As we are men,
Thus should we do; being sensually subdu’d,
We lose our humane title. Good cheer, ladies!
Now turn we towards your comforts. Flourish. Exeunt.

Scene II

Thebes. The court of the palace.

	Enter Palamon, and Arcite.
Arcite	Dear Palamon, dearer in love than blood, And our prime cousin, yet unharden’d in The crimes of nature; let us leave the city Thebes, and the temptings in’t, before we further Sully our gloss of youth: And here to keep in abstinence we shame As in incontinence; for not to swim I’ th’ aide o’ the current, were almost to sink, At least to frustrate striving; and to follow The common stream, ’twould bring us to an eddy Where we should turn or drown; if labour through, Our gain but life and weakness.
Palamon	Your advice Is cried up with example: what strange ruins, Since first we went to school, may we perceive Walking in Thebes! scars and bare weeds, The gain o’ the martialist, who did propound To his bold ends honour and golden ingots, Which, though he won, he had not; and now flurted By peace, for whom he fought! Who, then, shall offer To Mars’s so-scorn’d altar? I do bleed When such I meet, and wish great Juno would Resume her ancient fit of jealousy, To get the soldier work, that peace might purge For her repletion, and retain anew Her charitable heart, now hard, and harsher Than strife or war could be.
Arcite	Are you not out? Meet you no ruin but the soldier in The cranks and turns of Thebes? You did begin As if you met decays of many kinds: Perceive you none that do arouse your pity, But the unconsider’d soldier?
Palamon	Yes; I pity Decays where’er I find them; but such most That, sweating in an honourable toil, Are paid with ice to cool ’em.
Arcite	’Tis not this I did begin to speak of; this is virtue Of no respect in Thebes: I spake of Thebes, How dangerous, if we will keep our honours, It is for our residing; where every evil Hath a good colour; where every seeming good’s A certain evil; where not to be even jump As they are here, were to be strangers, and Such things to be, mere monsters.
Palamon	’Tis in our power⁠— Unless we fear that apes can tutor’s⁠—to Be masters of our manners: what need I Affect another’s gait, which is not catching Where there is faith? or to be fond upon Another’s way of speech, when by mine own I may be reasonably conceiv’d, sav’d too, Speaking it truly? why am I bound By any generous bond to follow him Follows his tailor, haply so long until The follow’d make pursuit? or let me know Why mine own barber is unblest, with him My poor chin too, for ’tis not scissar’d just To such a favourite’s glass? what canon is there That does command my rapier from my hip, To dangle ’t in my hand, or to go tip-toe Before the street be foul? Either I am The fore-horse in the team, or I am none That draw i’ the sequent trace. These poor slight sores Need not a plantain; that which rips my bosom, Almost to th’ heart, ’s⁠—
Arcite	Our Uncle Creon.
Palamon	He, A most unbounded tyrant, whose successes Makes heaven unfear’d, and villainy assur’d Beyond its power there’s nothing; almost puts Faith in a fever, and deifies alone Voluble chance; who only attributes The faculties of other instruments To his own nerves and act; commands men service, And what they win in’t, boot and glory; one That fears not to do harm: good, dares not; let The blood of