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The Two Noble Kinsmen: Act I, Scene 3

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The Two Noble Kinsmen
Act I, Scene 3

Before the gates of Athens.

Dramatic Personae from American Book Company edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen

Dramatic Personae from American Book Company edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen

W. J. Rolfe, 1898

  1. Enter Pirithous, Hippolyta, Emilia.

Pirithous

1
  1. No further.

Hippolyta

2 - 7
  1.             Sir, farewell. Repeat my wishes
  2. To our great lord, of whose success I dare not
  3. Make any timorous question; yet I wish him
  4. Excess and overflow of power, and’t might be,
  5. To dure ill-dealing fortune. Speed to him,
  6. Store never hurts good governors.

Pirithous

8 - 13
  1.                                   Though I know
  2. His ocean needs not my poor drops, yet they
  3. Must yield their tribute there. My precious maid,
  4. Those best affections that the heavens infuse
  5. In their best-temper’d pieces, keep enthron’d
  6. In your dear heart!

Emilia

14 - 20
  1.                     Thanks, sir. Remember me
  2. To our all-royal brother, for whose speed
  3. The great Bellona I’ll solicit; and
  4. Since in our terrene state petitions are not
  5. Without gifts understood, I’ll offer to her
  6. What I shall be advis’d she likes. Our hearts
  7. Are in his army, in his tent.

Hippolyta

21 - 28
  1.                               In ’s bosom.
  2. We have been soldiers, and we cannot weep
  3. When our friends don their helms, or put to sea,
  4. Or tell of babes broach’d on the lance, or women
  5. That have sod their infants in (and after eat them)
  6. The brine they wept at killing ’em. Then if
  7. You stay to see of us such spinsters, we
  8. Should hold you here forever.

Pirithous

29 - 31
  1.                               Peace be to you
  2. As I pursue this war, which shall be then
  3. Beyond further requiring.
  1. Exit Pirithous.

Emilia

32 - 40
  1.                           How his longing
  2. Follows his friend: since his depart, his sports,
  3. Though craving seriousness and skill, pass’d slightly
  4. His careless execution, where nor gain
  5. Made him regard, or loss consider, but
  6. Playing o’er business in his hand, another
  7. Directing in his head, his mind nurse equal
  8. To these so diff’ring twins. Have you observ’d him
  9. Since our great lord departed?

Hippolyta

41 - 54
  1.                                With much labor;
  2. And I did love him for’t. They two have cabin’d
  3. In many as dangerous as poor a corner,
  4. Peril and want contending, they have skiff’d
  5. Torrents whose roaring tyranny and power
  6. I’ th’ least of these was dreadful, and they have
  7. Fought out together where death’s self was lodg’d;
  8. Yet fate hath brought them off. Their knot of love
  9. Tied, weav’d, entangled, with so true, so long,
  10. And with a finger of so deep a cunning,
  11. May be outworn, never undone. I think
  12. Theseus cannot be umpire to himself,
  13. Cleaving his conscience into twain and doing
  14. Each side like justice, which he loves best.

Emilia

55 - 62
  1.                                              Doubtless
  2. There is a best, and reason has no manners
  3. To say it is not you. I was acquainted
  4. Once with a time when I enjoy’d a playfellow;
  5. You were at wars when she the grave enrich’d,
  6. Who made too proud the bed, took leave o’ th’ moon
  7. (Which then look’d pale at parting) when our count
  8. Was each eleven.

Hippolyta

63
  1.                  ’Twas Flavina.

Emilia

64 - 92
  1.                Yes.
  2. You talk of Pirithous’ and Theseus’ love:
  3. Theirs has more ground, is more maturely season’d,
  4. More buckled with strong judgment, and their needs
  5. The one of th’ other may be said to water
  6. Their intertangled roots of love, but I
  7. And she (I sigh and spoke of) were things innocent,
  8. Lov’d for we did, and like the elements
  9. That know not what nor why, yet do effect
  10. Rare issues by their operance, our souls
  11. Did so to one another. What she lik’d
  12. Was then of me approv’d, what not, condemn’d,
  13. No more arraignment. The flow’r that I would pluck
  14. And put between my breasts (O then but beginning
  15. To swell about the blossom), she would long
  16. Till she had such another, and commit it
  17. To the like innocent cradle, where phoenix-like
  18. They died in perfume. On my head no toy
  19. But was her pattern, her affections (pretty,
  20. Though happily her careless wear) I followed
  21. For my most serious decking. Had mine ear
  22. Stol’n some new air, or at adventure humm’d one
  23. From musical coinage, why, it was a note
  24. Whereon her spirits would sojourn (rather dwell on)
  25. And sing it in her slumbers. This rehearsal
  26. (Which, ev’ry innocent wots well, comes in
  27. Like old importment’s bastard) has this end,
  28. That the true love ’tween maid and maid may be
  29. More than in sex dividual.

Hippolyta

93 - 96
  1.                            Y’ are out of breath,
  2. And this high-speeded pace is but to say
  3. That you shall never (like the maid Flavina)
  4. Love any that’s call’d man.

Emilia

97
  1.                             I am sure I shall not.

Hippolyta

98 - 108
  1. Now alack, weak sister,
  2. I must no more believe thee in this point
  3. (Though in’t I know thou dost believe thyself)
  4. Than I will trust a sickly appetite,
  5. That loathes even as it longs. But sure, my sister,
  6. If I were ripe for your persuasion, you
  7. Have said enough to shake me from the arm
  8. Of the all-noble Theseus, for whose fortunes
  9. I will now in and kneel, with great assurance
  10. That we, more than his Pirithous, possess
  11. The high throne in his heart.

Emilia

109 - 110
  1.                               I am not
  2. Against your faith, yet I continue mine.
  1. Exeunt.
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