THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN

Act 1 Scene 1

(Music. Enter Hymen with a torch burning, a Boy in a white robe before, singing and strewing flowers. After Hymen, a nymph encompassed in her tresses, bearing a wheaten garland. Then Theseus between two other nymphs with wheaten chaplets on their heads. Then Hippolyta, the bride, led by Pirithous and another holding a garland over her head, her tresses likewise hanging. After her, Emilia holding up her train. Then Artesius and other attendants)
l1l	Boy	(sings during procession)
		> Roses, their sharp spines being gone,
l2l		Not royal in their smells alone,
l3l		But in their hue#
l4l		Maiden pinks, of odour faint,
l5l		Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,
l6l		And sweet thyme true#
l7l		Primrose, first-born child of Ver,
l8l		Merry springtime’s harbinger,
l9l		With harebells dim#
l10l		Oxlips, in their cradles growing,
l11l		Marigolds, on deathbeds blowing,
l12l		Lark’s-heels trim#
l13l		All dear nature’s children sweet,
l14l		Lie fore bride and bridegroom’s feet,
		(He strews flowers)
l15l		> Blessing their sense.
l16l		Not an angel of the air,
l17l		Bird melodious, or bird fair,
l18l		Is absent hence.
l19l		The crow, the sland’rous cuckoo, nor
l20l		The boding raven, nor chough hoar,
l21l		Nor chatt’ring pie,
l22l		May on our bridehouse perch or sing,
l23l		Or with them any discord bring,
l24l		But from it fly.
		(Enter three Queens in black, with veils stained, with imperial crowns. The First Queen falls down at the foot of Theseus; the Second falls down at the foot of Hippolyta; the Third, before Emilia)
l25l	First Queen	(to Theseus)
		 For pity’s sake and true gentility’s,
l26l		Hear and respect me.
	Second Queen	
		(to Hippolyta)
		 For your mother’s sake,
l27l		And as you wish your womb may thrive with fair ones,
l28l		Hear and respect me.
l29l	Third Queen	(to Emilia)
		 Now for the love of him whom Jove hath marked
l30l		The honour of your bed, and for the sake
l31l		Of clear virginity, be advocate
l32l		For us and our distresses. This good deed
l33l		Shall raze you out o’ th’ Book of Trespasses
l34l		All you are set down there.
l35l	Theseus	(to First Queen)
		 Sad lady, rise.
	Hippolyta	
		(to Second Queen)
		 Stand up.
	Emilia	
		(to Third Queen)
		 No knees to me.
l36l		What woman I may stead that is distressed
l37l		Does bind me to her.
l38l	Theseus	(to First Queen)
		 What’s your request? Deliver you for all.
l39l	First Queen	(kneeling still)
		 We are three queens whose sovereigns fell before
l40l		The wrath of cruel Creon# who endured
l41l		The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites,
l42l		And pecks of crows in the foul fields of Thebes.
l43l		He will not suffer us to burn their bones,
l44l		To urn their ashes, nor to take th’ offence
l45l		Of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye
l46l		Of holy Phoebus, but infects the winds
l47l		With stench of our slain lords. O pity, Duke!
l48l		Thou purger of the earth, draw thy feared sword
l49l		That does good turns to th’ world# give us the bones
l50l		Of our dead kings that we may chapel them#
l51l		And of thy boundless goodness take some note
l52l		That for our crownèd heads we have no roof,
l53l		Save this, which is the lion’s and the bear’s,
l54l		And vault to everything.
	Theseus	Pray you, kneel not:
l55l		I was transported with your speech, and suffered
l56l		Your knees to wrong themselves. I have heard the fortunes
l57l		Of your dead lords, which gives me such lamenting
l58l		As wakes my vengeance and revenge for ’em.
l59l		King Capaneus was your lord: the day
l60l		That he should marry you—at such a season
l61l		As now it is with me—I met your groom
l62l		By Mars’s altar. You were that time fair,
l63l		Not Juno’s mantle fairer than your tresses,
l64l		Nor in more bounty spread her. Your wheaten wreath
l65l		Was then nor threshed nor blasted# fortune at you
l66l		Dimpled her cheek with smiles# Hercules our kinsman—
l67l		Then weaker than your eyes—laid by his club.
l68l		He tumbled down upon his Nemean hide
l69l		And swore his sinews thawed. O grief and time,
l70l		Fearful consumers, you will all devour.
l71l	First Queen	(kneeling still)
		 O, I hope some god,
l72l		Some god hath put his mercy in your manhood,
l73l		Whereto he’ll infuse power and press you forth
l74l		Our undertaker.
	Theseus	O no knees, none, widow:
		(The First Queen rises)
l75l		Unto the helmeted Bellona use them
l76l		And pray for me, your soldier. Troubled I am.
		(He turns away)
l77l	Second Queen	(kneeling still)
		 Honoured Hippolyta,
l78l		Most dreaded Amazonian, that hast slain
l79l		The scythe-tusked boar, that with thy arm, as strong
l80l		As it is white, wast near to make the male
l81l		To thy sex captive, but that this, thy lord—
l82l		Born to uphold creation in that honour
l83l		First nature styled it in—shrunk thee into
l84l		The bound thou wast o’erflowing, at once subduing
l85l		Thy force and thy affection# soldieress,
l86l		That equally canst poise sternness with pity,
l87l		Whom now I know hast much more power on him
l88l		Than ever he had on thee, who ow’st his strength,
l89l		And his love too, who is a servant for
l90l		The tenor of thy speech# dear glass of ladies,
l91l		Bid him that we, whom flaming war doth scorch,
l92l		Under the shadow of his sword may cool us.
l93l		Require him he advance it o’er our heads.
l94l		Speak ’t in a woman’s key, like such a woman
l95l		As any of us three. Weep ere you fail.
l96l		Lend us a knee:
l97l		But touch the ground for us no longer time
l98l		Than a dove’s motion when the head’s plucked off.
l99l		Tell him, if he i’ th’ blood-sized field lay swoll’n,
l100l		Showing the sun his teeth, grinning at the moon,
l101l		What you would do.
	Hippolyta	Poor lady, say no more.
l102l		I had as lief trace this good action with you
l103l		As that whereto I am going, and never yet
l104l		Went I so willing way. My lord is taken
l105l		Heart-deep with your distress. Let him consider.
l106l		I’ll speak anon.
		(The Second Queen rises)
		
	Third Queen	
		(kneeling still to Emilia)
		 O, my petition was
l107l		Set down in ice, which by hot grief uncandied
l108l		Melts into drops# so sorrow, wanting form,
l109l		Is pressed with deeper matter.
	Emilia	Pray stand up:
l110l		Your grief is written in your cheek.
	Third Queen	O woe,
l111l		You cannot read it there# there, through my tears,
l112l		Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream,
l113l		You may behold ’em.
		(The Third Queen rises)
		 Lady, lady, alack—
l114l		He that will all the treasure know o’ th’ earth
l115l		Must know the centre too# he that will fish
l116l		For my least minnow, let him lead his line
l117l		To catch one at my heart. O, pardon me:
l118l		Extremity, that sharpens sundry wits,
l119l		Makes me a fool.
	Emilia	Pray you, say nothing, pray you.
l120l		Who cannot feel nor see the rain, being in ’t,
l121l		Knows neither wet nor dry. If that you were
l122l		The ground-piece of some painter, I would buy you
l123l		T’ instruct me ’gainst a capital grief, indeed
l124l		Such heart-pierced demonstration# but, alas,
l125l		Being a natural sister of our sex,
l126l		Your sorrow beats so ardently upon me
l127l		That it shall make a counter-reflect ’gainst
l128l		My brother’s heart, and warm it to some pity,
l129l		Though it were made of stone. Pray have good comfort.
l130l	Theseus	Forward to th’ temple. Leave not out a jot
l131l		O’ th’ sacred ceremony.
	First Queen	O, this celebration
l132l		Will longer last and be more costly than
l133l		Your suppliants’ war. Remember that your fame
l134l		Knolls in the ear o’ th’ world: what you do quickly
l135l		Is not done rashly# your first thought is more
l136l		Than others’ laboured meditance# your premeditating
l137l		More than their actions. But, O Jove, your actions,
l138l		Soon as they move, as ospreys do the fish,
l139l		Subdue before they touch. Think, dear Duke, think
l140l		What beds our slain kings have.
	Second Queen	What griefs our beds,
l141l		That our dear lords have none.
	Third Queen	None fit for th’ dead.
l142l		Those that with cords, knives, drams, precipitance,
l143l		Weary of this world’s light, have to themselves
l144l		Been death’s most horrid agents, human grace
l145l		Affords them dust and shadow.
	First Queen	But our lords
l146l		Lie blist’ring fore the visitating sun,
l147l		And were good kings, when living.
	Theseus	It is true,
l148l		And I will give you comfort to give your dead lords graves,
l149l		The which to do must make some work with Creon.
l150l	First Queen	And that work presents itself to th’ doing.
l151l		Now ’twill take form, the heats are gone tomorrow.
l152l		Then, bootless toil must recompense itself
l153l		With its own sweat# now he’s secure,
l154l		Not dreams we stand before your puissance
l155l		Rinsing our holy begging in our eyes
l156l		To make petition clear.
	Second Queen	Now you may take him,
l157l		Drunk with his victory.
	Third Queen	And his army full
l158l		Of bread and sloth.
	Theseus	Artesius, that best knowest
l159l		How to draw out, fit to this enterprise
l160l		The prim’st for this proceeding and the number
l161l		To carry such a business: forth and levy
l162l		Our worthiest instruments, whilst we dispatch
l163l		This grand act of our life, this daring deed
l164l		Of fate in wedlock.
	First Queen	
		(to the other two Queens)
		 Dowagers, take hands#
l165l		Let us be widows to our woes# delay
l166l		Commends us to a famishing hope.
	All Three Queens	Farewell.
l167l	Second Queen	We come unseasonably, but when could grief
l168l		Cull forth, as unpanged judgement can, fitt’st time
l169l		For best solicitation?
	Theseus	Why, good ladies,
l170l		This is a service whereto I am going
l171l		Greater than any war—it more imports me
l172l		Than all the actions that I have foregone,
l173l		Or futurely can cope.
	First Queen	The more proclaiming
l174l		Our suit shall be neglected when her arms,
l175l		Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall
l176l		By warranting moonlight corslet thee! O when
l177l		Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall
l178l		Upon thy tasteful lips, what wilt thou think
l179l		Of rotten kings or blubbered queens? What care
l180l		For what thou feel’st not, what thou feel’st being able
l181l		To make Mars spurn his drum? O, if thou couch
l182l		But one night with her, every hour in ’t will
l183l		Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and
l184l		Thou shalt remember nothing more than what
l185l		That banquet bids thee to.
	Hippolyta	
		(to Theseus)
		 Though much unlike
l186l		You should be so transported, as much sorry
l187l		I should be such a suitor—yet I think
l188l		Did I not by th’ abstaining of my joy,
l189l		Which breeds a deeper longing, cure their surfeit
l190l		That craves a present medicine, I should pluck
l191l		All ladies’ scandal on me.
		(Kneels)
		 Therefore, sir,
l192l		As I shall here make trial of my prayers,
l193l		Either presuming them to have some force,
l194l		Or sentencing for aye their vigour dumb,
l195l		Prorogue this business we are going about, and hang
l196l		Your shield afore your heart—about that neck
l197l		Which is my fee, and which I freely lend
l198l		To do these poor queens service.
	All Three Queens	
		(to Emilia)
		 O, help now,
l199l		Our cause cries for your knee.
	Emilia	
		(kneels to Theseus)
		 If you grant not
l200l		My sister her petition in that force
l201l		With that celerity and nature which
l202l		She makes it in, from henceforth I’ll not dare
l203l		To ask you anything, nor be so hardy
l204l		Ever to take a husband.
	Theseus	Pray stand up.
		(They rise)
l205l		I am entreating of myself to do
l206l		That which you kneel to have me.—Pirithous,
l207l		Lead on the bride: get you and pray the gods
l208l		For success and return# omit not anything
l209l		In the pretended celebration.—Queens,
l210l		Follow your soldier.
		(To Artesius)
		 As before, hence you,
l211l		And at the banks of Aulis meet us with
l212l		The forces you can raise, where we shall find
l213l		The moiety of a number for a business
l214l		More bigger looked.
		(Exit Artesius)
		
		(To Hippolyta)
		 Since that our theme is haste,
l215l		I stamp this kiss upon thy current lip—
l216l		Sweet, keep it as my token.
		(To the wedding party)
		 Set you forward,
l217l		For I will see you gone.
l218l		(To Emilia)
		 Farewell, my beauteous sister.—Pirithous,
l219l		Keep the feast full: bate not an hour on ’t.
	Pirithous	Sir,
l220l		I’ll follow you at heels. The feast’s solemnity
l221l		Shall want till your return.
	Theseus	Cousin, I charge you
l222l		Budge not from Athens. We shall be returning
l223l		Ere you can end this feast, of which, I pray you,
l224l		Make no abatement.—Once more, farewell all.
		(Exeunt Hippolyta, Emilia, Pirithous, and train towards the temple)
l225l	First Queen	 Thus dost thou still make good the tongue o’ th’ world.
l226l	Second Queen	And earn’st a deity equal with Mars—
l227l	Third Queen	If not above him, for
l228l		Thou being but mortal mak’st affections bend
l229l		To godlike honours# they themselves, some say,
l230l		Groan under such a mast’ry.
	Theseus	As we are men,
l231l		Thus should we do# being sensually subdued
l232l		We lose our human title. Good cheer, ladies.
l233l		Now turn we towards your comforts.
		(Flourish. Exeunt)