THESEUS.
You are a right woman, sister: you have pity,
But want the understanding where to use it.
If you desire their lives, invent a way
Safer than banishment. Can these two live,
And have the agony of love about ’em,
And not kill one another? Every day
They’d fight about you, hourly bring your honour
In public question with their swords. Be wise, then,
And here forget ’em; it concerns your credit
And my oath equally. I have said they die.
Better they fall by th’ law than one another.
Bow not my honour.
EMILIA.
O, my noble brother,
That oath was rashly made, and in your anger;
Your reason will not hold it; if such vows
Stand for express will, all the world must perish.
Besides, I have another oath ’gainst yours,
Of more authority, I am sure more love,
Not made in passion neither, but good heed.
THESEUS.
What is it, sister?
PIRITHOUS.
Urge it home, brave lady.
EMILIA.
That you would ne’er deny me anything
Fit for my modest suit and your free granting.
I tie you to your word now; if ye fail in ’t,
Think how you maim your honour—
For now I am set a-begging, sir, I am deaf
To all but your compassion—how their lives
Might breed the ruin of my name. Opinion!
Shall anything that loves me perish for me?
That were a cruel wisdom. Do men prune
The straight young boughs that blush with thousand blossoms
Because they may be rotten? O, Duke Theseus,
The goodly mothers that have groaned for these,
And all the longing maids that ever loved,
If your vow stand, shall curse me and my beauty,
And in their funeral songs for these two cousins
Despise my cruelty, and cry woe worth me,
Till I am nothing but the scorn of women.
For heaven’s sake, save their lives, and banish ’em.
THESEUS.
On what conditions?
EMILIA.
Swear ’em never more
To make me their contention, or to know me,
To tread upon thy dukedom, and to be,
Wherever they shall travel, ever strangers
To one another.
PALAMON.
I’ll be cut a-pieces
Before I take this oath! Forget I love her?
O, all ye gods, despise me then! Thy banishment
I not mislike, so we may fairly carry
Our swords and cause along; else never trifle,
But take our lives, Duke. I must love, and will
And for that love must and dare kill this cousin
On any piece the earth has.
THESEUS.
Will you, Arcite,
Take these conditions?
PALAMON.
He’s a villain, then.