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