And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named. What's more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time,- As calling home our exiled friends abroad, That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen (Who, as 't is thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life);-this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place: So thanks to all at once, and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. [Flourish. Exeunt.
IN Troy, their lies the scene. From isles of Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan,
The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruel war sixty and nine, that wore Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia: and their vow is made To ransack Troy; within whose strong immures The ravished Helen, Menelaus' queen, With wanton Paris sleeps; and that's the quarrel. To Tenedos they come;
And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains The fresh and yet unbruiséd Greeks do pitch Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
And Antenorides, with massy staples, And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, Sperr up the sons of Troy.
Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, On one and other side, Trojan and Greek, Sets all on hazard:-and hither am I come A prologue armed,-but not in confidence Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited In like conditions as our argument,- To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, 'Ginning in the middle; starting thence away To what may be digested in a play. Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are; Now good, or bad, 't is but the chance of war.
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance; Less valiant than the virgin in the night, And skill-less as unpractised infancy.
Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.
Tro. Have I not tarried?
Pan, Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.
Tro. Have I not tarried?
Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening,
Tro. Still have I tarried.
« PreviousContinue » |