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  • Title: Two Noble Kinsmen (Quarto, 1634)

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Two Noble Kinsmen (Quarto, 1634)

    The Two Noble Kinsmen.
    2730Abuse yong laies of love; what godlike power
    Hast thou not power upon? To Phaebus thou
    Add'st flames, hotter then his the heavenly fyres
    Did scortch his mortall Son, thine him; the huntresse
    All moyst and cold, some say began to throw
    2735Her Bow away, and sigh: take to thy grace
    Me thy vowd Souldier, who doe beare thy yoke
    As t'wer a wreath of Roses, yet is heavier
    Then Lead it selfe, stings more than Nettles;
    I have never beene foule mouthd against thy law,
    2740Nev'r reveald secret, for I knew none; would not
    Had I kend all that were; I never practised
    Vpon mans wife, nor would the Libells reade
    Of liberall wits: I never at great feastes
    Sought to betray a Beautie, but have blush'd
    2745At simpring Sirs that did: I have beene harsh
    To large Confessors, and have hotly ask'd them
    If they had Mothers, I had one, a woman,
    And women t'wer they wrong'd. I knew a man
    Of eightie winters, this I told them, who
    2750A Lasse of foureteene brided, twas thy power
    To put life into dust, the aged Crampe
    Had screw'd his square foote round,
    The Gout had knit his fingers into knots,
    Torturing Convulsions from his globie eyes,
    2755Had almost drawne their spheeres, that what was life
    In him seem'd torture: this Anatomie
    Had by his yong faire pheare a Boy, and I
    Beleev'd it was his, for she swore it was,
    And who would not beleeve her? briefe I am
    2760To those that prate and have done; no Companion
    To those that boast and have not; a defyer
    To those that would and cannot; a Rejoycer,
    Yea him I doe not love, that tells close offices
    The fowlest way, nor names concealements in
    2765The boldest language, such a one I am,
    And vow that lover never yet made sigh
    Truer then I. O then most soft sweet goddesse
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