I thank you, gentle love:
And 'cause you shall not come to me in debt,
Being now my steward, here upon your lips
I sign your Quietus est. This you should have begged now:
I have seen children oft eat sweetmeats thus,
As fearful to devour them too soon.
Do not think of them:
All discord without this circumference
Is only to be pitied, and not feared:
Yet, should they know it, time will easily
Scatter the tempest.
These words should be mine,
And all the parts you have spoke, if some part of it
Would not have savored flattery.
Be not amazed; this woman's of my counsel:
I have heard lawyers say, a contract in a chamber
Per verba presenti is absolute marriage.
[She and ANTONIO kneel. Bless, Heaven, this sacred gordian, which let violence Never untwine!
And may our sweet affections, like the spheres,
Be still in motion!
Quickening, and make
The like soft music!
That we may imitate the loving palms,
Best emblem of a peaceful marriage,
That never bore fruit, divided!
only to exercise the privilege of rank in raising merit from obscurity." - DYCE. "It may be added that neither in the English Drama nor in English Fiction shall we find a scene in which womanly dignity and womanly love are exhibited more naturally than in this. A noble woman, as Webster here depicts her, is neither the unreal, ethereal creature of the Age of Chivalry, nor is she the toy or servant of man."-THAYER.
What can the church force more ?
That fortune may not know an accident,
Either of joy or sorrow, to divide
How can the church build faster?
We now are man and wife, and 'tis the church
That must but echo this. - Maid, stand apart:
I now am blind.
What's your conceit in this?
I would have you lead your fortune by the hand
Unto your marriage bed:
(You speak in me this, for we now are one :)
We'll only lie, and talk together, and plot
To appease my humorous kindred; and if you please,
Like the old tale in Alexander and Lodowick,
Lay a naked sword between us, keep us chaste.
O, let me shroud my blushes in your bosom,
Since 'tis the treasury of all my secrets!
[Exeunt DUCHESS and ANTONIO.
Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman
Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows
A fearful madness: I owe her much of pity. [Exit.
(From "The Two Noble Kinsmen.")
Scene: Athens. An open space before the Temples of Mars, Venus, and Diana.
You valiant and strong-hearted enemies,
You royal germane foes, that this day come
To blow the nearness out that flames between ye,
Lay by your anger for an hour, and dovelike
Before the holy altars of our 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!
I'll leave you to your prayers, and betwixt ye
I part my wishes.
Honor crown the worthiest !
[Exeunt THESEUS and train.
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
Mine enemy in this business, were't one eye
Against another, arm oppresst by arm,
I would destroy the offender; coz, I would,
Though parcel of myself: then from this gather
How I should tender you.
I am in labor
To push your name, your ancient love, our kindred,
Out of my memory; and i' the selfsame place
To seat something I would confound: so hoist we
The sails that must these vessels port even where
The heavenly Limiter pleases!
Why, let it be so; farewell, coz!
Farewell, sir!
[Exeunt PALAMON and his Knights.
Knights, kinsmen, lovers, yea, my sacrifices,
True worshipers of Mars, whose spirit in you
Expels the seeds of fear, and the 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;
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 will stick
The queen of flowers. Our intercession, then,
Must be to him who makes the camp a cestron1
Brimmed with the blood of men; give me your aid,
And bend your spirits towards him.
[They advance to the altar of Mars, and fall on their faces;
Thou mighty one, that with thy power hast turned
Green Neptune into purple; whose approach
Comets prewarn; whose havoc in vast field
Unearthed skulls proclaim; whose breath blows down
The teaming Ceres' foison; who dost pluck
With hand armipotent from forth blue clouds
The masoned turrets; that both makest and breakest
The stony girths of cities; me, thy pupil,
Young'st follower of thy drum, instruct this day
With military skill, that to thy laud
may advance my streamer, and by thee
Be styled the lord o' the day. Give me, great Mars,
Some token of thy pleasure.
[Here they fall on their faces as before, and there is heard clanging of armor, with a short thunder, as the burst of a battle, whereupon they all rise, and bow to the altar.
O great corrector of enormous1 times,
Shaker of o'errank states, thou grand decider
Of dusty and old titles, that heal'st with blood
The earth when it is sick, and curest the world
O' the plurisy of people, I do take
Thy signs auspiciously, and in thy name
To my design march boldly! - Let us go.
Reënter PALAMON and his Knights.
Our stars must glister with new fires, or be
To-day extinct; our argument is love,
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
Her power unto our party!
[Here they advance to the altar of Venus, and fall on their
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 eyeglance to choke Mars's drum,
And turn the 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,
Whose youth, like wanton boys through bonfires,
Have skipt 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
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
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 that were; I never practiced
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
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
Had screwed his square foot round,
The gout had knit his fingers into knots,
Torturing convulsions from his globy2 eyes
Had almost drawn their spheres, that what was life
In him seemed torture. This anatomy
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;
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
2 Bulging.
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