• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

I may advance my streamer, and by thee

Be styled the lord o'th' day. Give me, great Mars,

Some token of thy pleasure. ...

[Here they fall on their faces, as formerly, and there is heard clanging of Armour, with a short thunder, as the burst of a battle, whereupon they all rise and bow to the altar.]

O great corrector of enormous times,

Shaker of e'er-rank states, thou grand decider

Of dusty and old titles, that heal'st with blood

The earth when it is sick, and cur'st the world

O'th' pleurisy of people, I do take

Thy signs auspiciously, and in thy name,

To my design, march boldly. [to his Knights.] Let us go.

Act V, Scene 2

Enter Palamon and his Knights with the former observance.

PALAMON [to his Knights.] Our stars must glister with new fire, or be

Today extinct. Our argument is love,

Which if the goddess of it grant, she gives

Victory too. Then blend your spirits with mine,

You whose free nobleness do make my cause

Your personal hazard. To the goddess Venus

Commend we our proceeding, and implore

Her power unto our party.

[Here they kneel before the altar, fall on their faces, then on their knees again.]

[Praying to Venus.] Hail, sovereign queen of secrets, who hast power

To call the fiercest tyrant from his rage ...

And weep unto a girl; that hast the might

Even with an eye-glance, to choke Mars's drum

And turn th'alarum to whispers; that canst make

A cripple flourish with his crutch, and cure him

Before Apollo; that mayst force the king

To be his subject's vassal, and induce

Stale gravity to dance; the polled bachelor

Whose youth, like wanton boys through bonfires,

Have skipped thy flame, at seventy thou canst catch

And make him to the scorn of his hoarse throat ...

Abuse young lays of love. What godlike power

Hast thou not power upon? To Phoebus thou

Add'st flames hotter than his -- the heavenly fires

Did scorch his mortal son, thine him. The huntress,

All moist and cold, some say, began to throw

Her bow away and sigh. Take to thy grave

Me, thy vowed soldier, who do bear thy yoke

As 'twere a wreath of roses, yet is heavier

Than lead itself, stings more than nettles.

I have never been foul-mouthed against thy law; ...

Ne'er revealed secret, for I knew none; would not,

Had I kenned all that were. I never practiced

Upon man's wife, nor would the libels read

Of liberal wits. I never at great feasts

Sought to betray a beauty, but have blushed

At simp'ring sirs that did. I have been harsh

To large confessors, and have hotly asked them

If they had mothers -- I had one, a woman,

And women 'twere they wronged. I knew a man

Of eighty winters, this I told them, who ...

A lass of fourteen brided -- 'twas thy power

To put life into dust. The aged cramp

Had screwed his square foot round,

The gout had knit his fingers into knots,

Torturing convulsions from his globy eyes

Had almost drawn their spheres, that what was life

In him seemed torture. This anatomy

Had by his young fair fere a boy, and I

Believed it was his, for she swore it was,

And who would not believe her? Brief -- I am ...

To those that prate and have done, no companion;

To those that boast, and have not, a defier;

To those that would and cannot, a rejoicer.

Yea, him I do not love that tells close offices

The foulest way, nor names concealments in

The boldest language. Such a one I am,

And vow that lover never yet made sigh

Truer than I. O, then, most soft sweet goddess,

Give me the victory of this question, which

Is true love's merit, and bless me with a sign ...

Of thy great pleasure.

[Here music is heard, doves are seen to flutter.

They fall again upon their faces, then on their knees.]

O thou that from eleven to ninety reign'st

In mortal bosoms, whose chase is this world

And we in herds thy game, I give thee thanks

For this fair token, which, being laid unto

Mine innocent true heart, arms in assurance

My body to this business. [to his Knights.] Let us rise

And bow before the goddess. [They rise and bow.]

~ ~ ~ Time comes on. [Exeunt.]

Act