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The Two Noble Kinsmen - Act 1, scene 1
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The Two Noble Kinsmen - Act 1, scene 1Act 1, scene 1
⌜Scene 1⌝
Synopsis:
The wedding procession of Duke Theseus and his Amazonian bride Hippolyta is interrupted by three weeping queens whose dead kings lie unburied on the battlefield in Thebes. With the support of Hippolyta, Emilia, and Pirithous, the queens persuade Theseus to leave immediately for Thebes in order to protect their husbands’ rights against Creon.
Music. Enter Hymen with a torch burning, a Boy ina 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 Attendants.⌝
The Song, ⌜sung by the Boy.⌝
0034 Roses, their sharp spines being gone,
0035 Not royal in their smells alone,
0036 But in their hue;
0037 Maiden pinks, of odor faint,
0038 5 Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,
0039 And sweet thyme true;
0040 Primrose, firstborn child of Ver,
0041 Merry springtime’s harbinger,
0042 With her bells dim;
0043 10 Oxlips in their cradles growing,
0044 Marigolds on deathbeds blowing,
0045 Lark’s-heels trim;
0046 All dear Nature’s children ⌜sweet
0047 Lie⌝ ’fore bride and bridegroom’s feet,
Strew flowers.
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13
0048
15 Blessing their sense.0049 Not an angel of the air,
0050 Bird melodious or bird fair,
0051 Is absent hence.
0052 The crow, the sland’rous cuckoo, nor
0053 20 The boding raven, nor ⌜chough hoar,⌝
0054 Nor chatt’ring pie,
0055 May on our bridehouse perch or sing,
0056 Or with them any discord bring,
0057 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.
FIRST QUEEN, ⌜to Theseus⌝
0058 25 For pity’s sake and true gentility’s,
0059 Hear and respect me.
SECOND QUEEN, ⌜to Hippolyta⌝ 0060 For your mother’s sake,
0061 And as you wish your womb may thrive with fair
0062 ones,
0063 30 Hear and respect me.
THIRD QUEEN, ⌜to Emilia⌝
0064 Now for the love of him whom Jove hath marked
0065 The honor of your bed, and for the sake
0066 Of clear virginity, be advocate
0067 For us and our distresses. This good deed
0068 35 Shall raze you out o’ th’ book of trespasses
0069 All you are set down there.
THESEUS, ⌜to First Queen⌝
0070 Sad lady, rise.
HIPPOLYTA, ⌜to Second Queen⌝ 0071 Stand up.
EMILIA, ⌜to Third Queen⌝ 0072 No knees to me.
0073 40 What woman I may stead that is distressed
0074 Does bind me to her.
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THESEUS, ⌜to First Queen⌝ 0075 What’s your request? Deliver you for all.
FIRST QUEEN
0076 We are three queens whose sovereigns fell before
0077 The wrath of cruel Creon; who endured
0078 45 The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites,
0079 And pecks of crows in the foul fields of Thebes.
0080 He will not suffer us to burn their bones,
0081 To urn their ashes, nor to take th’ offense
0082 Of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye
0083 50 Of holy Phoebus, but infects the winds
0084 With stench of our slain lords. O, pity, duke!
0085 Thou purger of the Earth, draw thy feared sword
0086 That does good turns to th’ world; give us the bones
0087 Of our dead kings, that we may chapel them;
0088 55 And of thy boundless goodness take some note
0089 That for our crownèd heads we have no roof
0090 Save this, which is the lion’s and the bear’s,
0091 And vault to everything.
THESEUS 0092 Pray you, kneel not.
0093 60 I was transported with your speech and suffered
0094 Your knees to wrong themselves. I have heard the
0095 fortunes
0096 Of your dead lords, which gives me such lamenting
0097 As wakes my vengeance and revenge for ’em.
0098 65 King Capaneus was your lord. The day
0099 That he should marry you, at such a season
0100 As now it is with me, I met your groom
0101 By Mars’s altar. You were that time fair—
0102 Not Juno’s mantle fairer than your tresses,
0103 70 Nor in more bounty spread her. Your wheaten
0104 wreath
0105 Was then nor threshed nor blasted. Fortune at you
0106 Dimpled her cheek with smiles. Hercules, our
0107 kinsman,
0108 75 Then weaker than your eyes, laid by his club;
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0109
He tumbled down upon his ⌜Nemean⌝ hide0110 And swore his sinews thawed. O grief and time,
0111 Fearful consumers, you will all devour!
FIRST QUEEN 0112 O, I hope some god,
0113 80 Some god hath put his mercy in your manhood,
0114 Whereto he’ll infuse power, and press you forth
0115 Our undertaker.
THESEUS 0116 O, no knees, none, widow!
0117 Unto the helmeted Bellona use them
0118 85 And pray for me, your soldier.⌜The First Queen rises.⌝
0119 Troubled I am.Turns away.
SECOND QUEEN 0120 Honored Hippolyta,
0121 Most dreaded Amazonian, that hast slain
0122 The scythe-tusked boar; that with thy arm, as strong
0123 90 As it is white, wast near to make the male
0124 To thy sex captive, but that this thy lord,
0125 Born to uphold creation in that honor
0126 First nature styled it in, shrunk thee into
0127 The bound thou wast o’erflowing, at once subduing
0128 95 Thy force and thy affection; soldieress
0129 That equally canst poise sternness with pity,
0130 Whom now I know hast much more power on him
0131 Than ever he had on thee, who ow’st his strength
0132 And his love too, who is a servant for
0133 100 The tenor of ⌜thy⌝ speech, dear glass of ladies,
0134 Bid him that we, whom flaming war doth scorch,
0135 Under the shadow of his sword may cool us;
0136 Require him he advance it o’er our heads;
0137 Speak ’t in a woman’s key, like such a woman
0138 105 As any of us three; weep ere you fail.
0139 Lend us a knee;
0140 But touch the ground for us no longer time
0141 Than a dove’s motion when the head’s plucked off.
0142 Tell him if he i’ th’ blood-sized field lay swoll’n,
0143 110 Showing the sun his teeth, grinning at the moon,
0144 What you would do.
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HIPPOLYTA
0145
Poor lady, say no more.0146 I had as lief trace this good action with you
0147 As that whereto I am going, and never yet
0148 115 Went I so willing way. My lord is taken
0149 Heart-deep with your distress; let him consider.
0150 I’ll speak anon.⌜Second Queen rises.⌝
THIRD QUEEN 0151 O, my petition was
0152 Set down in ice, which by hot grief uncandied
0153 120 Melts into drops; so sorrow, wanting form,
0154 Is pressed with deeper matter.
EMILIA 0155 Pray stand up.
0156 Your grief is written in your cheek.
THIRD QUEEN 0157 O, woe!
0158 125 You cannot read it there.⌜She rises.⌝
0159 There through my tears,
0160 Like wrinkled pebbles in a ⌜glassy⌝ stream,
0161 You may behold ’em. Lady, lady, alack!
0162 He that will all the treasure know o’ th’ Earth
0163 130 Must know the center too; he that will fish
0164 For my least minnow, let him lead his line
0165 To catch one at my heart. O, pardon me!
0166 Extremity, that sharpens sundry wits,
0167 Makes me a fool.
EMILIA 0168 135 Pray you say nothing, pray you.
0169 Who cannot feel nor see the rain, being in ’t,
0170 Knows neither wet nor dry. If that you were
0171 The groundpiece of some painter, I would buy you
0172 T’ instruct me ’gainst a capital grief—indeed,
0173 140 Such heart-pierced demonstration. But, alas,
0174 Being a natural sister of our sex,
0175 Your sorrow beats so ardently upon me
0176 That it shall make a counter-reflect ’gainst
0177 My brother’s heart and warm it to some pity,
0178 145 Though it were made of stone. Pray have good
0179 comfort.
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THESEUS, ⌜coming forward⌝ 0180 Forward to th’ temple. Leave not out a jot
0181 O’ th’ sacred ceremony.
FIRST QUEEN 0182 O, this celebration
0183 150 Will ⌜longer⌝ last and be more costly than
0184 Your suppliants’ war. Remember that your fame
0185 Knolls in the ear o’ th’ world; what you do quickly
0186 Is not done rashly; your first thought is more
0187 Than others’ labored meditance, your premeditating
0188 155 More than their actions. But, O Jove, your actions,
0189 Soon as they ⌜move,⌝ as ospreys do the fish,
0190 Subdue before they touch. Think, dear duke, think
0191 What beds our slain kings have!
SECOND QUEEN 0192 What griefs our beds,
0193 160 That our dear lords have none!
THIRD QUEEN 0194 None fit for th’ dead.
0195 Those that with cords, knives, drams, precipitance,
0196 Weary of this world’s light, have to themselves
0197 Been death’s most horrid agents, human grace
0198 165 Affords them dust and shadow.
FIRST QUEEN 0199 But our lords
0200 Lie blist’ring ’fore the visitating sun,
0201 And were good kings when living.
THESEUS
0202 It is true, and I will give you comfort
0203 170 To give your dead lords graves;
0204 The which to do must make some work with Creon.
FIRST QUEEN
0205 And that work presents itself to th’ doing.
0206 Now ’twill take form; the heats are gone tomorrow.
0207 Then, bootless toil must recompense itself
0208 175 With its own sweat. Now he’s secure,
0209 Not dreams we stand before your puissance,
0210 Rinsing our holy begging in our eyes
0211 To make petition clear.
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SECOND QUEEN
0212
Now you may take him,0213 180 Drunk with his victory.
THIRD QUEEN 0214 And his army full
0215 Of bread and sloth.
THESEUS 0216 Artesius, that best knowest
0217 How to draw out, fit to this enterprise,
0218 185 The prim’st for this proceeding, and the number
0219 To carry such a business: forth and levy
0220 Our worthiest instruments, whilst we dispatch
0221 This grand act of our life, this daring deed
0222 Of fate in wedlock.
FIRST QUEEN, ⌜to Second and Third Queens⌝
0223 190 Dowagers, take hands.
0224 Let us be widows to our woes. Delay
0225 Commends us to a famishing hope.
ALL ⌜THE QUEENS⌝ 0226 Farewell.
SECOND QUEEN
0227 We come unseasonably; but when could grief
0228 195 Cull forth, as unpanged judgment can, fitt’st time
0229 For best solicitation?
THESEUS 0230 Why, good ladies,
0231 This is a service whereto I am going
0232 Greater than any was; it more imports me
0233 200 Than all the actions that I have foregone,
0234 Or futurely can cope.
FIRST QUEEN 0235 The more proclaiming
0236 Our suit shall be neglected when her arms,
0237 Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall
0238 205 By warranting moonlight corselet thee. O, when
0239 Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall
0240 Upon thy tasteful lips, what wilt thou think
0241 Of rotten kings or blubbered queens? What care
0242 For what thou feel’st not, what thou feel’st being
0243 210 able
0244 To make Mars spurn his drum? O, if thou couch
0245 But one night with her, every hour in ’t will
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0246
Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and0247 Thou shalt remember nothing more than what
0248 215 That banquet bids thee to.
HIPPOLYTA, ⌜to Theseus⌝ 0249 Though much unlike
0250 You should be so transported, as much sorry
0251 I should be such a suitor, yet I think
0252 Did I not, by th’ abstaining of my joy—
0253 220 Which breeds a deeper longing—cure their surfeit
0254 That craves a present med’cine, I should pluck
0255 All ladies’ scandal on me.⌜She kneels.⌝
0256 Therefore, sir,
0257 As I shall here make trial of my prayers,
0258 225 Either presuming them to have some force,
0259 Or sentencing for aye their vigor dumb,
0260 Prorogue this business we are going about, and
0261 hang
0262 Your shield afore your heart—about that neck
0263 230 Which is my fee, and which I freely lend
0264 To do these poor queens service.
ALL QUEENS, ⌜to Emilia⌝ 0265 O, help now!
0266 Our cause cries for your knee.
EMILIA, ⌜to Theseus, kneeling⌝ 0267 If you grant not
0268 235 My sister her petition in that force,
0269 With that celerity and nature which
0270 She makes it in, from henceforth I’ll not dare
0271 To ask you anything, nor be so hardy
0272 Ever to take a husband.
THESEUS 0273 240 Pray stand up.
⌜Hippolyta and Emilia rise.⌝
0274 I am entreating of myself to do
0275 That which you kneel to have me.—Pirithous,
0276 Lead on the bride; get you and pray the gods
0277 For success and return; omit not anything
0278 245 In the pretended celebration.—Queens,
0279 Follow your soldier. ⌜To Artesius.⌝ As before, hence
0280 you,
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0281
And at the banks of ⌜Aulis⌝ meet us with0282 The forces you can raise, where we shall find
0283 250 The moiety of a number for a business
0284 More bigger looked.⌜Artesius exits.⌝
⌜To Hippolyta.⌝ 0285 Since that our theme is haste,
0286 I stamp this kiss upon thy currant lip;
0287 Sweet, keep it as my token.—Set you forward,
0288 255 For I will see you gone.
⌜The wedding procession begins to⌝ exit
towards the temple.
0289 Farewell, my beauteous sister.—Pirithous,
0290 Keep the feast full; bate not an hour on ’t.
PIRITHOUS 0291 Sir,
0292 I’ll follow you at heels. The feast’s solemnity
0293 260 Shall want till your return.
THESEUS 0294 Cousin, I charge you,
0295 Budge not from Athens. We shall be returning
0296 Ere you can end this feast, of which I pray you
0297 Make no abatement.—Once more, farewell all.
⌜All but Theseus and the Queens exit.⌝
FIRST QUEEN
0298 265 Thus dost thou still make good the tongue o’ th’
0299 world.
SECOND QUEEN
0300 And earn’st a deity equal with Mars.
THIRD QUEEN 0301 If not above him, for
0302 Thou, being but mortal, makest affections bend
0303 270 To godlike honors; they themselves, some say,
0304 Groan under such a mast’ry.
THESEUS 0305 As we are men,
0306 Thus should we do; being sensually subdued,
0307 We lose our human title. Good cheer, ladies.
0308 275 Now turn we towards your comforts.
Flourish. They exit.