Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed

Two Noble Kinsmen (Quarto, 1634)

The Two Noble Kinsmen.
650Iailor. Wel, we will talke more of this, when the solemnity
Is past; But have you a full promise of her?
Enter Daughter.
When that shall be seene, I tender my consent.
Wooer. I have Sir; here shee comes.
655Iailor. Your Friend and I have chanced to name
You here, upon the old busines: But no more of that.
Now, so soone as the Court hurry is over, we will
Have an end of it: I'th meane time looke tenderly
To the two Prisoners. I can tell you they are princes.
660Daug. These strewings are for their Chamber; tis pitty they
Are in prison, and twer pitty they should be out: I
Doe thinke they have patience to make any adversity
Asham'd; the prison it selfe is proud of 'em; and
They have all the world in their Chamber.
665Iailor. They are fam'd to be a paire of absolute men.
Daugh. By my troth, I think Fame but stammers 'em, they
Stand a greise above the reach of report.
Iai. I heard them reported in the Battaile, to be the only(doers.
Daugh. Nay most likely, for they are noble suffrers; I
670Mervaile how they would have lookd had they beene
Victors, that with such a constant Nobility, enforce
A freedome out of Bondage, making misery their
Mirth, and affliction, a toy to jest at.
Iailor. Doe they so?
675Daug. It seemes to me they have no more sence of their
Captivity, then I of ruling Athens: they eate
Well, looke merrily, discourse of many things,
But nothing of their owne restraint, and disasters:
Yet sometime a devided sigh, martyrd as twer
680I'th deliverance, will breake from one of them.
When the other presently gives it so sweete a rebuke,
That I could wish my selfe a Sigh to be so chid,
Or at least a Sigher to be comforted.
Wooer. I never saw'em.
685Iailor. The Duke himselfe came privately in the night,
Enter Palamon, and Arcite, above.
And so did they, what the reason of it is, I
Know