Theseus. Pray stand up:
I am entreating of myself to do
That which you kneel to have me. Perithous!
Lead on the bride! Get you, and pray the gods
For success and return; omit not any thing
In the pretended celebration. Queens!
Follow your soldier....
... [32:1](To Hippolita.) Since that our theme is haste,
I stamp this kiss upon thy currant lip:
Sweet, keep it as my token!...
Shakspere metaphor.
1 Queen. Thus dost thou still make good the tongue o' the world.
2 Queen. And earn'st a deity equal with Mars.
Shakspere.
3 Queen. If not above him; for
Thou, being but mortal, mak'st affections bend
To godlike honours; they themselves, some say,
Groan under such a mas|tery.|
Theseus. As we are men,
Thus should we do: being sensually subdued,
We lose our human title. Good cheer, la|dies!
Now turn we towards your comforts. (Exeunt.)
Act I. scene ii.
The second scene introduces the heroes of the piece, Palamon and Arcite. They are two youths of the blood-royal of Thebes, who follow the banners of their sovereign with a sense that obedience is their duty, but under a sorrowful conviction that his cause is unjust, and their country rotten at the core. The scene is a dialogue between them, occupied in lamentations and repinings over the dissolute manners of their native Thebes. has the characteristics of Shakspere. Its broken versification points out Shakspeare; 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 some extremely original illustrations. But quotations will be multiplied abundantly before we have done; and their number must not be increased by the admission of any which are not either unusually good or very distinctly characteristic of their author. Some lines of the scene have been already given.