We challenge too the bank of any nymph

  That makes the stream seem flowers: thou, oh jewel

  10 O’th’ wood, o’th’ world, hast likewise blest a pace

  With thy sole presence. In thy rumination,

  That I, poor man, might eftsoons come between

  And chop on some cold thought! Thrice blessed chance

  To drop on such a mistress, expectation

  15 Most guiltless on’t! Tell me, oh Lady Fortune

  (Next, after Emily, my sovereign), how far

  I may be proud. She takes strong note of me,

  Hath made me near her and, this beauteous morn,

  The prim’st of all the year, presents me with

  20 A brace of horses: two such steeds might well

  Be by a pair of kings backed, in a field

  That their crowns’ titles tried. Alas, alas,

  Poor cousin Palamon, poor prisoner, thou

  So little dream’st upon my fortune, that

  25 Thou thinkst thyself the happier thing, to be

  So near Emilia; me thou deem’st at Thebes,

  And therein wretched, although free. But if

  Thou knew’st my mistress breathed on me, and that

  I eared her language, lived in her eye; oh, coz,

  What passion would enclose thee!

  Enter PALAMON as out of a bush, with his shackles; [he] bends his fist at Arcite.

  30 PALAMON Traitor kinsman,

  Thou shouldst perceive my passion, if these signs

  Of prisonment were off me and this hand

  But owner of a sword! By all oaths in one,

  I and the justice of my love would make thee

  35 A confessed traitor! Oh, thou most perfidious

  That ever gently looked, the void’st of honour

  That e’er bore gentle token, falsest cousin

  That ever blood made kin: call’st thou her thine?

  I’ll prove it in my shackles, with these hands,

  40 Void of appointment, that thou liest, and art

  A very thief in love, a chaffy lord

  Not worth the name of villain. Had I a sword

  And these house-clogs away –

  ARCITE Dear cousin Palamon –

  PALAMON

  Cozener Arcite, give me language such

  As thou hast showed me feat.

  45 ARCITE Not finding in

  The circuit of my breast any gross stuff

  To form me like your blazon holds me to

  This gentleness of answer. ’Tis your passion

  That thus mistakes, the which to you being enemy,

  50 Cannot to me be kind: honour and honesty

  I cherish and depend on, howsoe’er

  You skip them in me, and with them, fair coz,

  I’ll maintain my proceedings. Pray be pleased

  To show in generous terms your griefs, since that

  55 Your question’s with your equal, who professes

  To clear his own way with the mind and sword

  Of a true gentleman.

  PALAMON That thou durst, Arcite!

  ARCITE

  My coz, my coz, you have been well advertised

  How much I dare; you’ve seen me use my sword

  60 Against th’advice of fear. Sure, of another

  You would not hear me doubted, but your silence

  Should break out, though i’th’ sanctuary.

  PALAMON Sir,

  I have seen you move in such a place, which well

  Might justify your manhood; you were called

  65 A good knight and a bold. But the whole week’s not fair

  If any day it rain: their valiant temper

  Men lose when they incline to treachery

  And then they fight like compelled bears, would fly

  Were they not tied.

  ARCITE Kinsman, you might as well

  70 Speak this and act it in your glass as to

  His ear which now disdains you.

  PALAMON Come up to me;

  Quit me of these cold gyves; give me a sword,

  Though it be rusty, and the charity

  Of one meal lend me. Come before me then,

  75 A good sword in thy hand, and do but say

  That Emily is thine – I will forgive

  The trespass thou hast done me, yea, my life,

  If then thou carry’t, and brave souls in shades

  That have died manly, which will seek of me

  80 Some news from earth, they shall get none but this:

  That thou art brave and noble.

  ARCITE Be content.

  Again betake you to your hawthorn house.

  With counsel of the night, I will be here

  With wholesome viands. These impediments

  85 Will I file off; you shall have garments and

  Perfumes to kill the smell o’th’ prison. After,

  When you shall stretch yourself and say but, ‘Arcite,

  I am in plight’, there shall be at your choice

  Both sword and armour.

  PALAMON Oh you heavens, dares any

  90 So nobly bear a guilty business? None

  But only Arcite; therefore none but Arcite

  In this kind is so bold.

  ARCITE Sweet Palamon. [Offers to embrace him.]

  PALAMON

  I do embrace you and your offer; for

  Your offer do’t I only, sir; your person

  95 Without hypocrisy I may not wish

  More than my sword’s edge on’t. Horns [offstage]

  ARCITE You hear the horns;

  Enter your musit, lest this match between’s

  Be crossed ere met. Give me your hand; farewell.

  I’ll bring you every needful thing. I pray you

  Take comfort and be strong.

  100 PALAMON Pray hold your promise

  And do the deed with a bent brow. Most certain

  You love me not; be rough with me and pour

  This oil out of your language. By this air,

  I could for each word give a cuff, my stomach

  Not reconciled by reason.

  105 ARCITE Plainly spoken.

  Yet pardon me hard language. When I spur

  My horse I chide him not; content and anger

  In me have but one face. Horns again [offstage]

  Hark, sir, they call

  The scattered to the banquet. You must guess

  I have an office there.

  110 PALAMON Sir, your attendance

  Cannot please heaven and I know your office

  Unjustly is achieved.

  ARCITE ’Tis a good title.

  I am persuaded, this question, sick between ’s,

  By bleeding must be cured. I am a suitor

  115 That to your sword you will bequeath this plea

  And talk of it no more.

  PALAMON But this one word:

  You are going now to gaze upon my mistress –

  For, note you, mine she is –

  ARCITE Nay, then –

  PALAMON Nay, pray you!

  You talk of feeding me to breed me strength.

  120 You are going now to look upon a sun

  That strengthens what it looks o’er; there

  You have a vantage o’er me. But enjoy’t till

  I may enforce my remedy. Farewell. Exeunt.

  [3.2] Enter Jailer’s DAUGHTER alone.

  DAUGHTER

  He has mistook the brake I meant, is gone

  After his fancy. ’Tis now well-nigh morning.

  No matter: would it were perpetual night,

  And darkness lord o’th’ world! – Hark, ’tis a wolf!

  5 In me hath grief slain fear and but for one thing

  I care for nothing and that’s Palamon.

  I reck not if the wolves would jaw me, so

  He had this file. What if I hallooed for him?

  I cannot hallow. If I whooped – what then?

  10 If he not answered, I should call a wolf,

  And do him but that service. I have heard

  Strange howls this livelong night; why may’t not be

  They have made prey of him? He has no weapons;

  He cannot run: the jangling of his gyves

  15 Might call fell things to listen, who have in them

  A sense to know a man unarmed and can

  Smell where resistance is. I’ll set it down,

  He’s torn to pieces; they howled many together

  And then they fed on him. So much for that:

  20 Be bold to ring the bell. How stand I then?

  All’s chared when he is gone – no, no, I lie.

  My father’s to be hanged for his escape,

  Myself to beg, if I prized life so much

  As to deny my act – but that I would not,

  25 Should I try death by dozens. I am moped.

  Food took I none these two days;

  Sipped some water. I have not closed mine eyes,

  Save when my lids scoured off their brine. Alas,

  Dissolve, my life! Let not my sense unsettle,

  30 Lest I should drown, or stab, or hang myself.

  Oh, state of nature, fail together in me,

  Since thy best props are warped! – So, which way now?

  The best way is the next way to a grave:

  Each errant step beside is torment. Lo,

  35 The moon is down, the crickets chirp, the screech-owl

  Calls in the dawn; all offices are done

  Save what I fail in. But the point is this:

  An end, and that is all. Exit

  [3.3] Enter ARCITE with meat, wine and files.

  ARCITE

  I should be near the place. Ho! Cousin Palamon?

  PALAMON [from the bush]

  Arcite?

  ARCITE The same. I have brought you food and files.

  Come forth and fear not; here’s no Theseus.

  Enter PALAMON.

  PALAMON

  Nor none so honest, Arcite.

  ARCITE That’s no matter.

  5 We’ll argue that hereafter. Come, take courage!

  You shall not die thus beastly; here, sir, drink –

  I know you are faint – then I’ll talk further with you.

  PALAMON

  Arcite, thou mightst now poison me.

  ARCITE I might,

  But I must fear you first. Sit down and, good now,

  10 No more of these vain parleys; let us not,

  Having our ancient reputation with us,

  Make talk for fools and cowards. To your health – [Drinks.]

  PALAMON

  Do!

  ARCITE Pray sit down then, and let me entreat you,

  By all the honesty and honour in you,

  15 No mention of this woman; ’twill disturb us.

  We shall have time enough.

  PALAMON Well, sir, I’ll pledge you. [Drinks.]

  ARCITE

  Drink a good hearty draught: it breeds good blood, man.

  Do not you feel it thaw you?

  PALAMON Stay, I’ll tell you

  After a draught or two more.

  ARCITE Spare it not;

  The Duke has more, coz. Eat now.

  PALAMON Yes.

  20 ARCITE I am glad

  You have so good a stomach.

  PALAMON I am gladder

  I have so good meat to’t.

  ARCITE Is’t not mad lodging,

  Here in the wild woods, cousin?

  PALAMON Yes, for them

  That have wild consciences.

  ARCITE How tastes your victuals?

  Your hunger needs no sauce, I see.

  25 PALAMON Not much.

  But if it did, yours is too tart, sweet cousin.

  What is this?

  ARCITE Venison.

  PALAMON ’Tis a lusty meat.

  Give me more wine. – Here, Arcite, to the wenches

  We have known in our days. The Lord Steward’s daughter –

  Do you remember her?

  30 ARCITE After you, coz.

  PALAMON

  She loved a black-haired man –

  ARCITE She did so; well, sir?

  PALAMON

  And I have heard some call him Arcite, and –

  ARCITE

  Out with’t, faith.

  PALAMON She met him in an arbour.

  What did she there, coz? play o’th’ virginals?

  ARCITE

  Something she did, sir –

  35 PALAMON Made her groan a month for’t.

  Or two, or three, or ten.

  ARCITE The Marshall’s sister

  Had her share too, as I remember, cousin;

  Else there be tales abroad. You’ll pledge her?

  PALAMON Yes.

  ARCITE

  A pretty brown wench ’tis. There was a time

  40 When young men went a-hunting, and a wood,

  And a broad beech; and thereby hangs a tale –

  Hey ho.

  PALAMON For Emily, upon my life! Fool,

  Away with this strained mirth! I say again,

  That sigh was breathed for Emily; base cousin,

  Dar’st thou break first?

  ARCITE You are wide.

  45 PALAMON By heaven and earth,

  There’s nothing in thee honest.

  ARCITE Then I’ll leave you;

  You are a beast now.

  PALAMON As thou mak’st me, traitor.

  ARCITE

  There’s all things needful – files and shirts, and perfumes;

  I’ll come again some two hours hence, and bring

  That that shall quiet all –

  50 PALAMON A sword and armour.

  ARCITE

  Fear me not. You are now too foul; farewell.

  Get off your trinkets. You shall want nought.

  PALAMON Sirrah –

  ARCITE

  I’ll hear no more. Exit.

  PALAMON If he keep touch, he dies for’t. Exit.

  [3.4] Enter Jailer’s DAUGHTER.

  DAUGHTER

  I am very cold and all the stars are out too,

  The little stars and all, that look like aglets;

  The sun has seen my folly. – Palamon! –

  Alas, no, he’s in heaven; where am I now?

  5 Yonder’s the sea and there’s a ship; how’t tumbles!

  And there’s a rock lies watching under water;

  Now, now, it beats upon it; now, now, now!

  There’s a leak sprung, a sound one! How they cry!

  Run her before the wind, you’ll lose all else.

  10 Up with a course or two and tack about, boys!

  Good night, good night, you’re gone. – I am very hungry.

  Would I could find a fine frog; he would tell me

  News from all parts o’th’ world. Then would I make

  A carrack of a cockle shell and sail

  15 By east and north-east to the king of pygmies,

  For he tells fortunes rarely. Now, my father

  Twenty to one is trussed up in a trice

  Tomorrow morning; I’ll say never a word. Sings.

  For I’ll cut my green coat, a foot above my knee

  20 And I’ll clip my yellow locks, an inch below mine eye.

  Hey, nonny, nonny, nonny,

  He’s buy me a white cut, forth for to ride,

  And I’ll go seek him through the world that is so wide,

  Hey, nonny, nonny, nonny.

  25 Oh, for a prick now, like a nightingale,

  To put my breast against. I shall sleep like a top else. Exit.

  [3.5] Enter SCHOOLMASTER [Gerald] and six Countrymen (one costumed as a Bavian)

  SCHOOLMASTER

  Fie, fie,

  What tediosity and disinsanity

  Is here among ye! Have my rudiments

  Been laboured so long with ye, milked unto ye

  5 And, by a figure, even the very plum-broth

  And marrow of my understanding laid upon ye,

  And do ye still cry ‘Where?’ and ‘How?’ and ‘Wherefore?’

  You most coarse-frieze capacities, ye jean judgments,

  Have I said, ‘Thus let be’ and ‘There let be’

  10 And ‘Then let be’, and no man understand me?

  Proh Deum! Medius Fidius! Ye are all dunces.

  For why?

  Here stand I. Here the Duke comes; there are you,

  Close in the thicket; the Duke appears; I meet him

  15 And unto him I utter learned things

  And many figures; he hears and nods and hums

  And then cries, ‘Rare!’ and I go forward. At length,

  I fling my cap up – mark there! Then do you,

  As once did Meleager and the boar,

  20 Break comely out before him; like true lovers,

  Cast yourselves in a body decently

  And sweetly, by a figure, trace and turn, boys.

  1 COUNTRYMAN

  And sweetly we will do it, Master Gerald.

  2 COUNTRYMAN

  Draw up the company. Where’s the taborer?

  3 COUNTRYMAN

  Why, Timothy!

  [Enter Taborer.]

  25 TABORER Here, my mad boys, have at ye!

  SCHOOLMASTER

  But, I say, where’s these women?

  4 COUNTRYMAN Here’s Friz and Maudlin.

  [Enter five Countrywomen.]

  2 COUNTRYMAN

  And little Luce with the white legs and bouncing Barbary.

  1 COUNTRYMAN

  And freckled Nell that never failed her master.

  SCHOOLMASTER

  Where be your ribbons, maids? Swim with your bodies

  30 And carry it sweetly and deliverly

  And now and then a favour and a frisk.

  NELL

  Let us alone, sir.

  SCHOOLMASTER Where’s the rest o’th’ music?

  3 COUNTRYMAN

  Dispersed, as you commanded.

  SCHOOLMASTER Couple then

  And see what’s wanting; where’s the Bavian?

  35 – My friend, carry your tail without offence

  Or scandal to the ladies and be sure

  You tumble with audacity and manhood

  And, when you bark, do it with judgment.

  BAVIAN Yes, sir.

  SCHOOLMASTER

  Quo usque tandem! Here’s a woman wanting.

  4 COUNTRYMAN

  40 We may go whistle; all the fat’s i’th’ fire.

  SCHOOLMASTER

  We have, as learned authors utter, washed a tile.

  We have been fatuus and laboured vainly.

  2 COUNTRYMAN

  This is that scornful piece, that scurvy hilding

  That gave her promise faithfully, she would be here –

  45 Cicely, the sempster’s daughter.

  The next gloves that I give her shall be dogskin!

  Nay, an she fail me once – you can tell, Arcas,

  She swore by wine and bread, she would not break.