The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  ARCITE Not far, sir;

  Are there such games today?

  1COUNTRYMAN Yes, marry, are there

  And such as you never saw; the Duke himself

  Will be in person there.

  ARCITE What pastimes are they?

  2COUNTRYMAN

  Wrestling and running. – ’Tis a pretty fellow.

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  3COUNTRYMAN Thou wilt not go along?

  ARCITE Not yet, sir.

  4COUNTRYMAN Well, sir,

  Take your own time. Come, boys.

  1COUNTRYMAN [aside to the others]

  My mind misgives me,

  This fellow has a vengeance trick o’th’ hip;

  Mark how his body’s made for’t.

  2COUNTRYMAN I’ll be hanged, though,

  If he dare venture. Hang him, plum porridge!

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  He wrestle? He roast eggs! Come, let’s be gone, lads.

  Exeunt Countrymen.

  ARCITE This is an offered opportunity

  I durst not wish for. Well I could have wrestled –

  The best men called it excellent – and run

  Swifter than wind upon a field of corn,

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  Curling the wealthy ears, never flew. I’ll venture

  And in some poor disguise be there; who knows

  Whether my brows may not be girt with garlands

  And happiness prefer me to a place,

  Where I may ever dwell in sight of her? Exit.

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  2.4 Enter Jailer’s Daughter alone.

  DAUGHTER

  Why should I love this gentleman? ’Tis odds

  He never will affect me: I am base,

  My father the mean keeper of his prison,

  And he a prince. To marry him is hopeless;

  To be his whore is witless. Out upon’t,

  5

  What pushes are we wenches driven to

  When fifteen once has found us! – First, I saw him;

  I, seeing, thought he was a goodly man;

  He has as much to please a woman in him,

  If he please to bestow it so, as ever

  10

  These eyes yet looked on. Next, I pitied him –

  And so would any young wench, o’ my conscience,

  That ever dreamed, or vowed her maidenhead

  To a young handsome man. Then, I loved him,

  Extremely loved him, infinitely loved him!

  15

  And yet he had a cousin fair as he too,

  But in my heart was Palamon and there,

  Lord, what a coil he keeps! To hear him

  Sing in an evening, what a heaven it is!

  And yet his songs are sad ones. Fairer spoken

  20

  Was never gentleman. When I come in

  To bring him water in a morning, first

  He bows his noble body, then salutes me, thus:

  ‘Fair, gentle maid, good morrow; may thy goodness

  Get thee a happy husband.’ Once, he kissed me.

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  I loved my lips the better ten days after:

  Would he would do so every day! He grieves much –

  And me as much to see his misery.

  What should I do to make him know I love him?

  For I would fain enjoy him. Say I ventured

  30

  To set him free? What says the law then?

  Thus much for law or kindred! I will do it!

  And this night, or tomorrow, he shall love me. Exit.

  2.5 A short flourish of cornets and shouts within.

  Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PIRITHOUS, EMILIA; ARCITE, disguised as a countryman, with a garland; attendants and spectators.

  THESEUS You have done worthily; I have not seen,

  Since Hercules, a man of tougher sinews.

  Whate’er you are, you run the best and wrestle,

  That these times can allow.

  ARCITE I am proud to please you.

  THESEUS What country bred you?

  ARCITE This; but far off, Prince.

  5

  THESEUS Are you a gentleman?

  ARCITE My father said so

  And to those gentle uses gave me life.

  THESEUS Are you his heir?

  ARCITE His youngest, sir.

  THESEUS Your father

  Sure is a happy sire then. What profess you?

  ARCITE A little of all noble qualities.

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  I could have kept a hawk and well have hallowed

  To a deep cry of dogs. I dare not praise

  My feat in horsemanship, yet they that knew me

  Would say it was my best piece; last and greatest,

  I would be thought a soldier.

  THESEUS You are perfect.

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  PIRITHOUS [to Emilia] Upon my soul, a proper man.

  EMILIA He is so.

  PIRITHOUS [to Hippolyta] How do you like him, lady?

  HIPPOLYTA I admire him.

  I have not seen so young a man so noble,

  If he say true, of his sort.

  EMILIA Believe,

  His mother was a wondrous handsome woman;

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  His face, methinks, goes that way.

  HIPPOLYTA But his body

  And fiery mind illustrate a brave father.

  PIRITHOUS Mark how his virtue, like a hidden sun,

  Breaks through his baser garments.

  HIPPOLYTA He’s well got, sure.

  THESEUS [to Arcite] What made you seek this place, sir?

  ARCITE Noble Theseus,

  To purchase name and do my ablest service

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  To such a well-found wonder as thy worth,

  For only in thy court, of all the world,

  Dwells fair-eyed Honour.

  PIRITHOUS All his words are worthy.

  THESEUS [to Arcite]

  Sir, we are much indebted to your travel,

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  Nor shall you lose your wish. Pirithous,

  Dispose of this fair gentleman.

  PIRITHOUS Thanks, Theseus.

  [to Arcite] Whate’er you are, you’re mine, and I shall give you

  To a most noble service: to this lady,

  [Leads him to Emilia.]

  This bright young virgin; pray observe her goodness.

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  You have honoured her fair birthday with your virtues

  And, as your due, you’re hers; kiss her fair hand, sir.

  ARCITE Sir, you’re a noble giver. – Dearest beauty,

  Thus let me seal my vowed faith. [Kisses her hand.]

  When your servant,

  Your most unworthy creature, but offends you,

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  Command him die: he shall.

  EMILIA That were too cruel.

  If you deserve well, sir, I shall soon see’t.

  You’re mine and somewhat better than your rank I’ll

  use you.

  PIRITHOUS I’ll see you furnished and, because you say

  You are a horseman, I must needs entreat you

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  This afternoon to ride, but ’tis a rough one.

  ARCITE I like him better, Prince; I shall not then

  Freeze in my saddle.

  THESEUS [to Hippolyta] Sweet, you must be ready,

  And you, Emelia, and

  [to Pirithous] you, friend, and all,

  Tomorrow by the sun, to do observance

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  To flowery May, in Dian’s wood.

  [to Arcite] Wait well, sir,

  Upon your mistress. – Emily, I hope

  He shall not go afoot.

  EMILIA That were a shame, sir,

  While I have horses.

  [to Arcite] Take your choice and what

  You want at any time, let me but know it;

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  If you serve faithfully, I dare assure you

  You’ll find a loving mistress.

  ARCITE If
I do not,

  Let me find that my father ever hated,

  Disgrace and blows.

  THESEUS Go lead the way; you have won it

  It shall be so: you shall receive all dues

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  Fit for the honour you have won; ’twere wrong else.

  – Sister, beshrew my heart, you have a servant,

  That, if I were a woman, would be a master.

  But you are wise.

  EMILIA I hope, too wise for that, sir.

  Flourish. Exeunt.

  2.6 Enter Jailer’s Daughter alone.

  DAUGHTER Let all the dukes and all the devils roar,

  He is at liberty! I have ventured for him

  And out I have brought him; to a little wood

  A mile hence I have sent him, where a cedar

  Higher than all the rest spreads like a plane

  5

  Fast by a brook, and there he shall keep close

  Till I provide him files and food, for yet

  His iron bracelets are not off. O, Love,

  What a stout-hearted child thou art! My father

  Durst better have endured cold iron than done it.

  10

  I love him beyond love and beyond reason,

  Or wit, or safety; I have made him know it;

  I care not, I am desperate. If the law

  Find me and then condem me for’t, some wenches,

  Some honest-hearted maids, will sing my dirge

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  And tell to memory my death was noble,

  Dying almost a martyr. That way he takes,

  I purpose, is my way too. Sure he cannot

  Be so unmanly as to leave me here;

  If he do, maids will not so easily

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  Trust men again. And yet he has not thanked me

  For what I have done, no, not so much as kissed me,

  And that methinks is not so well; nor scarcely

  Could I persuade him to become a free man,

  He made such scruples of the wrong he did

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  To me and my father. Yet I hope,

  When he considers more, this love of mine

  Will take more root within him. Let him do

  What he will with me, so he use me kindly –

  For use me so he shall, or I’ll proclaim him,

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  And to his face, no man. I’ll presently

  Provide him necessaries and pack my clothes up

  And where there is a path of ground I’ll venture,

  So he be with me; by him, like a shadow,

  I’ll ever dwell. Within this hour the hubbub

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  Will be all o’er the prison: I am then

  Kissing the man they look for. Farewell, father!

  Get many more such prisoners and such daughters

  And shortly you may keep yourself. Now to him.

  Exit.

  3.1 Cornets in sundry places. Noise and hallooing as people a-Maying. Enter ARCITE alone.

  ARCITE The Duke has lost Hippolyta; each took

  A several laund. This is a solemn rite

  They owe bloomed May and the Athenians pay it

  To th’ heart of ceremony. O, Queen Emilia,

  Fresher than May, sweeter

  5

  Than her gold buttons on the boughs, or all

  Th’enamelled knacks o’th’ mead, or garden – yea,

  We challenge too the bank of any nymph

  That makes the stream seem flowers: thou, oh jewel

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

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  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

  Most guiltless on’t! Tell me, O Lady Fortune

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  (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

  A brace of horses: two such steeds might well

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  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

  Thou thinkst thyself the happier thing, to be

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  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; O, coz,