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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [1268]

By Root 19370 0
time of the moon

than at other some, is it not?

JAILER She is continually in a harmless distemper: sleeps

little; altogether without appetite, save often drinking;

dreaming of another world, and a better; and what

broken piece of matter soe'er she's about, the name

'Palamon' lards it, that she farces every business.

[Enter the Jailer's Daughter.]withal, fits it to every question. Look where she comes --

you shall perceive her behavior. [They stand apart.]

DAUGHTER I have forgot it quite -- the burden on't ...

was 'Down-a, down-a' and penned by no worse man

than Giraldo, Emilia's schoolmaster. He's as fantastical,

too, as ever he may go upon's legs -- for in the next

world will Dido see Palamon, and then will she be out

of love with Aeneas

DOCTOR What stuff's here? Poor soul.

JAILER E'en thus all day long.

DAUGHTER Now for this charm that I told you

of -- you must bring a piece of silver on the tip of your

tongue, or no ferry: then, if it be your chance to come ...

where the blessed spirits are -- there's a sight now! We

maids that have our livers perished, cracked to pieces

with love, we shall come there and do nothing all day

long but pick flowers with Proserpine. Then will I make

Palamon a nosegay, then let him mark me, then --

DOCTOR How prettily she's amiss! Note her a little further.

DAUGHTER Faith, I'll tell you: sometime we go to

barley-break, we of the blessed. Alas, 'tis a sore life

they have i' th' other place -- such burning, frying,

boiling, hissing, howling, chattering, cursing -- O they ...

have shrewd measure -- take heed! If one be mad or

hang or drown themselves, thither they go, Jupiter

bless us, and there shall we be put in a cauldron of

lead and usurers' grease, amongst a whole million of

cut-purses, and there boil like a gammon of bacon that

will never be enough.

DOCTOR How her brain coins!

DAUGHTER Lords and courtiers that have got

maids with child -- they are in this place. They shall

stand in fire up to the navel and in ice up to th' heart, ...

and there th'offending part burns, and the deceiving

part freezes -- in truth a very grievous punishment as

one would think for such a trifle. Believe me, one would

marry a leprous witch to be rid on't, I'll assure you.

DOCTOR How she continues this fancy! 'Tis not an

engrafted madness, but a most thick and profound melancholy.

DAUGHTER To hear there a proud lady and a

proud city wife howl together! I were a beast and I'd

call it good sport. One cries, 'O this smoke!', th'other, ...

'This fire!'; one cries, 'O that ever I did it behind the

arras!', and then howls -- th'other curses a suing fellow

and her garden-house.

[Sings] 'I will be true, my stars, my fate . . .' [Exit Daughter.]

JAILER [to the Doctor.] What think you of her, sir?

DOCTOR I think she has a perturbed mind, which I cannot minister to.

JAILER Alas, what then?

DOCTOR Understand you she ever affected any man ere she beheld Palamon?

JAILER I was once, sir, in great hope that she had fixed her

liking on this gentleman, my friend.

WOOER I did think so too, and would account I had a

great penn'orth on't to give half my state that both

she and I, at this present, stood unfeignedly on the same terms.

DOCTOR That intemperate surfeit of her eye hath distempered

the other senses. They may return and settle

again to execute their preordained faculties, but they

are now in a most extravagant vagary. This you must ...

do: confine her to a place where the light may rather

seem to steal in than be permitted; take upon you,

young sir her friend, the name of Palamon; say you

come to eat with her and to commune of love. This

will catch her attention, for this her mind beats upon --

other objects that are inserted 'tween her mind and

eye become the pranks and friskins of her madness.

Sing to her such green songs of love as she says

Palamon hath sung in prison; come to her stuck in as

sweet flowers as the season is mistress of, and thereto ...

make an addition of some other compounded odors

which are

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