Arcite. Dear Palamon, dearer in love than blood, And our prime cousin, yet unharden'd in

The crimes of nature, let us leave the city,

Thebes, and the temptings in't, before we further

Sully our gloss of youth :

And here to keep in abstinence we shame

As in incontinence; for not to swim

I' the aid o' the current were almost to sink,
At least to frustrate striving; and to follow
The common stream, 'twould bring us to an eddy
Where we should turn or drown; if labour through,1
Our gain but life and weakness.

Palamon.

Your advice

Is cried up with example. What strange ruins,2
Since first we went to school, may we perceive
Walking in Thebes! scars and bare weeds,
The gain o' the martialist, who did propound
To his bold ends honour and golden ingots,

ΙΟ

disdains anything like trick or mystery. This is almost peculiar to Shakespeare. Where, in his works, as much is revealed at the very opening as is necessary to the understanding of the plot, we find, in the works of other dramatists, as much kept back as possible; and we are continually greeted with some surprise or startled with some unexpected turn in the conduct of the piece."- Hickson.

1 If we should labor through it.

2་ Not material ruins of houses, but wrecks of men, that is, men who are but wrecks of their former selves. Palamon is following up the idea started by Arcite, that the men in Thebes were mostly coming to ruin." - Skeat.

Which though he won, he had not; and now flurted1
By Peace, for whom he fought ! Who then shall offer
To Mars's so-scorn'd altar? I do bleed

When such I meet, and wish great Juno would
Resume her ancient fit of jealousy,2

To get the soldier work, that Peace might purge
For her repletion, and retain anew

Her charitable heart, now hard, and harsher
Than strife or war could be.

Arcite.

Are you not out?

Meet you no ruin but the soldier in

The cranks and turns of Thebes? You did begin
As if you met decays of many kinds;

Perceive you none that do arouse your pity

But the unconsider'd soldier?

Palamon.

Yes; I pity

Decays where'er I find them; but such most

That, sweating in an honourable toil,

Are paid with ice to cool 'em.

Arcite.

'Tis not this

I did begin to speak of; this is virtue.

Of no respect in Thebes. I spake of Thebes,
How dangerous, if we will keep our honours,
It is for our residing; where every evil

Hath a good colour; where every seeming good's
A certain evil; where not to be even jump3
As they are here, were to be strangers, and
Such things to be mere monsters.

Palamon.

It is in our power

Unless we fear that apes can tutor 's — to

1 Scorned.

2 Refers to the cause of the Trojan war.

3 Precisely.

What need I

Be masters of our manners.
Affect another's gait, which is not catching
Where there is faith? or to be fond upon
Another's way of speech, when by mine own
I may be reasonably conceiv'd,2 sav'd too,
Speaking it truly? Why am I bound
By any generous bond to follow him
Follows his tailor, haply so long until

The follow'd make pursuit? Or let me know
Why mine own barber is unbless'd, with him
My poor chin too, for 'tis not scissar'd just
To such a favourite's glass? What canon is there
That does command my rapier from my hip,
To dangle't in my hand, or to go tip-toe
Before the street be foul! Either I am

50

The fore-horse in the team, or I am none
That draw i' the sequent trace.
Need not a plantain; that which rips my bosom,
Almost to the heart, 's

These poor slight sores 60

Arcite.

Palamon.

Our uncle Creon.

He,

A most unbounded tyrant, whose successes

Makes heaven unfear'd, and villainy assur'd
Beyond its power there's nothing; almost puts
Faith in a fever, and deifies alone

Voluble chance; who only attributes

The faculties of other instruments

To his own nerves and act; commands men's service,
And what they win in't, boot and glory; one
That fears not to do harm, good dares not.
The blood of mine that's sib 3 to him be suck'd

Let

3 Related to.

70

From me with leeches! let them break and fall

Off me with that corruption!

Arcite.

Clear-spirited cousin,

Let's leave his court, that we may nothing share

Of his loud infamy; for our milk

Will relish of the pasture, and we must

Be vile or disobedient, not his kinsmen
In blood, unless in quality.

Palamon.

Nothing truer !

80

I think the echoes of his shames have deaf'd
The ears of heavenly justice; widows' cries
Descend again into their throats, and have not
Due audience of the gods. - Valerius !

Enter VALERIUS.

Valerius. The king calls for you; yet be leaden-footed Till his great rage be off him. Phoebus, when He broke his whipstock and exclaim'd against The horses of the sun,' but whisper'd, to 2

The loudness of his fury.

Palamon.

But what's the matter?

Small winds shake him ;

Valerius. Theseus — who, where he threats, appals — hath

sent

Deadly defiance to him, and pronounces

Ruin to Thebes; who is at hand to seal

The promise of his wrath.

Arcite.

Let him approach!

But that we fear the gods in him, he brings not

A jot of terror to us; yet what man

1 Perhaps alludes to Phoebus's wrath after the death of Phaë hon.
2 Compared to.

90

Thirds his own worth the case is each of ours When that his action's dregg'd with mind assur'd 'Tis bad he goes about?1

Palamon.

Leave that unreason'd;
Our services stand now for Thebes, not Creon.
Yet to be neutral to him were dishonour,
Rebellious to oppose; therefore we must
With him stand to the mercy of our fate,
Who hath bounded our last minute.

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Should be as for our health; which were not spent,
Rather laid out for purchase: but, alas,

Our hands advanc'd before our hearts, what will
The fall o' the stroke do damage?

Arcite.

That never-erring arbitrator, tell us

Let the event,

When we know all ourselves; and let us follow
The becking of our chance.

[Exeunts

1" What man can exert a third part of his powers when his mind is clogged with a consciousness that he fights in a bad cause?"— Mason. 2 Messenger; cf. King John, iv, 2, 116.

Of this scene Spalding says: "Its broken versification points out Shakespeare; the quaintness of some conceits is his; and several of the phrases and images have much of his pointedness, brevity, or obscurity. The scene, though not lofty in tone, does not want interest, and contains