SCENE II. The prison

PALAMON

How do you, noble cousin?

ARCITE

How do you, sir?

PALAMON

Why, strong enough to laugh at misery

And bear the chance of war; yet we are prisoners

I fear for ever, cousin.

ARCITE

I believe it,

And to that destiny have patiently

Laid up my hour to come.

PALAMON

O, cousin Arcite,

Where is Thebes now? Where is our noble country?

Where are our friends and kindreds? Never more

Must we behold those comforts, never see

The hardy youths strive for the games of honour,

Hung with the painted favours of their ladies,

Like tall ships under sail; then start amongst ’em,

And as an east wind leave ’em all behind us,

Like lazy clouds, whilst Palamon and Arcite,

Even in the wagging of a wanton leg,

Outstripped the people’s praises, won the garlands,

Ere they have time to wish ’em ours. O, never

Shall we two exercise, like twins of honour,

Our arms again, and feel our fiery horses

Like proud seas under us! Our good swords now—

Better the red-eyed god of war ne’er wore—

Ravished our sides, like age must run to rust

And deck the temples of those gods that hate us;

These hands shall never draw ’em out like lightning

To blast whole armies more.

ARCITE

No, Palamon,

Those hopes are prisoners with us. Here we are,

And here the graces of our youths must wither

Like a too-timely spring; here age must find us

And, which is heaviest, Palamon, unmarried.

The sweet embraces of a loving wife,

Loaden with kisses, armed with thousand Cupids,

Shall never clasp our necks; no issue know us,

No figures of ourselves shall we e’er see,

To glad our age, and like young eagles teach ’em

Boldly to gaze against bright arms and say

“Remember what your fathers were, and conquer!”

The fair-eyed maids shall weep our banishments

And in their songs curse ever-blinded Fortune

Till she for shame see what a wrong she has done

To youth and nature. This is all our world.

We shall know nothing here but one another,

Hear nothing but the clock that tells our woes.

The vine shall grow, but we shall never see it;

Summer shall come, and with her all delights,

But dead-cold winter must inhabit here still.

PALAMON

’Tis too true, Arcite. To our Theban hounds

That shook the aged forest with their echoes

No more now must we hallow, no more shake

Our pointed javelins whilst the angry swine

Flies like a Parthian quiver from our rages,

Struck with our well-steeled darts. All valiant uses,

The food and nourishment of noble minds,

In us two here shall perish; we shall die,

Which is the curse of honour, lastly,

Children of grief and ignorance.

ARCITE

Yet, cousin,

Even from the bottom of these miseries,

From all that fortune can inflict upon us,

I see two comforts rising, two mere blessings,

If the gods please: to hold here a brave patience,

And the enjoying of our griefs together.

Whilst Palamon is with me, let me perish

If I think this our prison!

PALAMON

Certainly

’Tis a main goodness, cousin, that our fortunes

Were twined together; ’tis most true, two souls

Put in two noble bodies, let ’em suffer

The gall of hazard, so they grow together,

Will never sink; they must not, say they could.

A willing man dies sleeping and all’s done.

ARCITE

Shall we make worthy uses of this place

That all men hate so much?

PALAMON

How, gentle cousin?

ARCITE

Let’s think this prison holy sanctuary,

To keep us from corruption of worse men.

We are young and yet desire the ways of honour;

That liberty and common conversation,

The poison of pure spirits, might like women,

Woo us to wander from. What worthy blessing

Can be but our imaginations

May make it ours? And here being thus together,

We are an endless mine to one another;

We are one another’s wife, ever begetting

New births of love; we are father, friends, acquaintance;

We are, in one another, families;

I am your heir, and you are mine. This place

Is our inheritance; no hard oppressor

Dare take this from us; here with a little patience

We shall live long and loving. No surfeits seek us;

The hand of war hurts none here, nor the seas

Swallow their youth. Were we at liberty,

A wife might part us lawfully, or business;

Quarrels consume us; envy of ill men

Crave our acquaintance. I might sicken, cousin,

Where you should never know it, and so perish

Without your noble hand to close mine eyes,

Or prayers to the gods. A thousand chances,

Were we from hence, would sever us.

PALAMON

You have made me—

I thank you, cousin Arcite—almost wanton

With my captivity. What a misery

It is to live abroad and everywhere!

’Tis like a beast, methinks. I find the court here,

I am sure, a more content; and all those pleasures

That woo the wills of men to vanity

I see through now, and am sufficient

To tell the world ’tis but a gaudy shadow

That old Time as he passes by takes with him.

What had we been, old in the court of Creon,

Where sin is justice, lust and ignorance

The virtues of the great ones? Cousin Arcite,

Had not the loving gods found this place for us,

We had died as they do, ill old men, unwept,

And had their epitaphs, the people’s curses.

Shall I say more?

ARCITE

I would hear you still.

PALAMON

Ye shall.

Is there record of any two that loved

Better than we do, Arcite?

ARCITE

Sure, there cannot.

PALAMON

I do not think it possible our friendship

Should ever leave us.

ARCITE

Till our deaths it cannot;

EMILIA

This garden has a world of pleasures in’t.

What flower is this?

WOMAN

’Tis called narcissus, madam.

EMILIA

That was a fair boy, certain, but a fool,

To love himself. Were there not maids enough?

ARCITE

Pray, forward.

PALAMON

Yes.

EMILIA

Or were they all hard-hearted?

WOMAN

They could not be to one so fair.

EMILIA

Thou wouldst not.

WOMAN

I think I should not, madam.

EMILIA

That’s a good wench.

But take heed to your kindness, though.

WOMAN

Why, madam?

EMILIA

Men are mad things.

ARCITE

Will ye go forward, cousin?

EMILIA

Canst not thou work such flowers in silk, wench?

WOMAN

Yes.

EMILIA

I’ll have a gown full of ’em, and of these.

This is a pretty colour; will ’t not do

Rarely upon a skirt, wench?

WOMAN

Dainty, madam.

ARCITE

Cousin, cousin! How do you, sir? Why, Palamon!

PALAMON

Never till now I was in prison, Arcite.

ARCITE

Why, what’s the matter, man?

PALAMON

Behold, and wonder!

By heaven, she is a goddess.

ARCITE

Ha!

PALAMON

Do reverence. She is a goddess, Arcite.

EMILIA

Of all flowers,

Methinks a rose is best.

WOMAN

Why, gentle madam?

EMILIA

It is the very emblem of a maid.

For when the west wind courts her gently,

How modestly she blows and paints the sun

With her chaste blushes! When the north comes near her,

Rude and impatient, then, like chastity,

She locks her beauties in her bud again,

And leaves him to base briers.

WOMAN

Yet, good madam,

Sometimes her modesty will blow so far

She falls for ’t. A maid,

If she have any honour, would be loath

To take example by her.

EMILIA

Thou art wanton.

ARCITE

She is wondrous fair.

PALAMON

She is all the beauty extant.

EMILIA

The sun grows high; let’s walk in. Keep these flowers.

We’ll see how near art can come near their colours.

I am wondrous merry-hearted. I could laugh now.

WOMAN

I could lie down, I am sure.

EMILIA

And take one with you?

WOMAN

That’s as we bargain, madam.

EMILIA

Well, agree then.

PALAMON

What think you of this beauty?

ARCITE

’Tis a rare one.

PALAMON

Is’t but a rare one?

ARCITE

Yes, a matchless beauty.

PALAMON

Might not a man well lose himself, and love her?

ARCITE

I cannot tell what you have done; I have,

Beshrew mine eyes for’t! Now I feel my shackles.

PALAMON

You love her, then?

ARCITE

Who would not?

PALAMON

And desire her?

ARCITE

Before my liberty.

PALAMON

I saw her first.

ARCITE

That’s nothing.

PALAMON

But it shall be.

ARCITE

I saw her too.

PALAMON

Yes, but you must not love her.

ARCITE

I will not, as you do, to worship her

As she is heavenly and a blessed goddess.

I love her as a woman, to enjoy her.

So both may love.

PALAMON

You shall not love at all.

ARCITE

Not love at all! Who shall deny me?

PALAMON

I, that first saw her; I that took possession

First with mine eye of all those beauties in her

Revealed to mankind. If thou lovest her,

Or entertain’st a hope to blast my wishes,

Thou art a traitor, Arcite, and a fellow

False as thy title to her. Friendship, blood,

And all the ties between us, I disclaim

If thou once think upon her.

ARCITE

Yes, I love her;

And, if the lives of all my name lay on it,

I must do so; I love her with my soul.

If that will lose ye, farewell, Palamon.

I say again, I love, and in loving her maintain

I am as worthy and as free a lover

And have as just a title to her beauty,

As any Palamon, or any living

That is a man’s son.

PALAMON

Have I called thee friend?

ARCITE

Yes, and have found me so. Why are you moved thus?

Let me deal coldly with you: am not I

Part of your blood, part of your soul? You have told me

That I was Palamon and you were Arcite.

PALAMON

Yes.

ARCITE

Am not I liable to those affections,

Those joys, griefs, angers, fears, my friend shall suffer?

PALAMON

Ye may be.

ARCITE

Why then would you deal so cunningly,

So strangely, so unlike a noble kinsman,

To love alone? Speak truly; do you think me

Unworthy of her sight?

PALAMON

No; but unjust,

If thou pursue that sight.

ARCITE

Because another

First sees the enemy, shall I stand still

And let mine honour down, and never charge?

PALAMON

Yes, if he be but one.

ARCITE

But say that one

Had rather combat me?

PALAMON

Let that one say so,

And use thy freedom. Else, if thou pursuest her,

Be as that cursed man that hates his country,

A branded villain.

ARCITE

You are mad.

PALAMON

I must be,

Till thou art worthy, Arcite; it concerns me;

And in this madness, if I hazard thee

And take thy life, I deal but truely.

ARCITE

Fie, sir!

You play the child extremely. I will love her;

I must, I ought to do so, and I dare,

And all this justly.

PALAMON

O, that now, that now,

Thy false self and thy friend had but this fortune,

To be one hour at liberty, and grasp

Our good swords in our hands! I would quickly teach thee

What ’twere to filch affection from another!

Thou art baser in it than a cutpurse.

Put but thy head out of this window more

And, as I have a soul, I’ll nail thy life to ’t.

ARCITE

Thou dar’st not, fool, thou canst not, thou art feeble.

Put my head out? I’ll throw my body out

And leap the garden, when I see her next

And pitch between her arms, to anger thee.

PALAMON

No more; the keeper’s coming. I shall live

To knock thy brains out with my shackles.

ARCITE

Do!

JAILER

By your leave, gentlemen.

PALAMON

Now, honest keeper?

JAILER

Lord Arcite, you must presently to th’ Duke;

The cause I know not yet.

ARCITE

I am ready, keeper.

JAILER

Prince Palamon, I must awhile bereave you

Of your fair cousin’s company.

PALAMON

And me too,

Even when you please, of life.—Why is he sent for?

It may be he shall marry her; he’s goodly,

And like enough the Duke hath taken notice

Both of his blood and body. But his falsehood!

Why should a friend be treacherous? If that

Get him a wife so noble and so fair,

Let honest men ne’er love again. Once more

I would but see this fair one. Blessed garden

And fruit and flowers more blessed that still blossom

As her bright eyes shine on ye! Would I were,

For all the fortune of my life hereafter,

Yon little tree, yon blooming apricock!

How I would spread and fling my wanton arms

In at her window! I would bring her fruit

Fit for the gods to feed on; youth and pleasure

Still as she tasted should be doubled on her;

And, if she be not heavenly, I would make her

So near the gods in nature, they should fear her.

JAILER

Banished. Prince Pirithous

Obtained his liberty, but never more

Upon his oath and life must he set foot

Upon this kingdom.

PALAMON

He’s a blessed man.

He shall see Thebes again, and call to arms

The bold young men that, when he bids ’em charge,

Fall on like fire. Arcite shall have a fortune,

If he dare make himself a worthy lover,

Yet in the field to strike a battle for her;

And, if he lose her then, he’s a cold coward.

How bravely may he bear himself to win her

If he be noble Arcite, thousand ways!

Were I at liberty, I would do things

Of such a virtuous greatness that this lady,

This blushing virgin, should take manhood to her

And seek to ravish me.

JAILER

My lord for you

I have this charge to—

PALAMON

To discharge my life?

JAILER

No, but from this place to remove your lordship;

The windows are too open.

PALAMON

Devils take ’em,

That are so envious to me! Prithee, kill me.

JAILER

And hang for’t afterward!

PALAMON

By this good light,

Had I a sword I would kill thee.

JAILER

Why, my Lord?

PALAMON

Thou bringst such pelting, scurvy news continually,

Thou art not worthy life. I will not go.

JAILER

Indeed, you must, my lord.

PALAMON

May I see the garden?

JAILER

No.

PALAMON

Then I am resolved, I will not go.

JAILER

I must constrain you then; and, for you are dangerous,

I’ll clap more irons on you.

PALAMON

Do, good keeper.

I’ll shake ’em so, ye shall not sleep;

I’ll make you a new morris. Must I go?

JAILER

There is no remedy.

PALAMON

Farewell, kind window.

May rude wind never hurt thee!—O, my lady,

If ever thou hast felt what sorrow was,

Dream how I suffer.—Come, now bury me.

ACT II

SCENE II. The prison