The Two Noble Kinsmen quotes

Pray you, say nothing; pray you:

Who cannot feel nor see the rain, being in’t, Knows neither wet nor dry.

If that you were The ground-piece of some painter, I would buy you T’instruct me ’gainst a capital grief indeed;— Such heart-pierc’d demonstration!—but, alas, Being a natural sister of our sex, Your sorrow beats so ardently upon me, That it shall make a counter-reflect ’gainst …

Thebes. The court of the palace.

Dear Palamon, dearer in love than blood,

And our prime cousin, yet unharden’d in The crimes of nature; let us leave the city Thebes, and the temptings in’t, before we further Sully our gloss of youth: And here to keep in abstinence we shame As in incontinence;

Yours this way. Heavens lend A thousand differing ways to one sure end.

This world’s a city full of straying streets, And death’s the market-place, where each one meets.

Exeunt severally.

Yet, cousin, Even from the bottom of these miseries, From all that fortune can inflict upon us, I see two comforts rising, two mere blessings, If the gods please, to hold here a brave patience, And the enjoying of our griefs together.

Whilst Palamon is with me, let me perish If I think this our prison!

Certainly ’Tis a main goodness, cousin, that our fortunes Were twinn’d together: ’tis most true, two souls Put in two noble bodies, let ’em suffer The gall of hazard, so they grow together, Will never sink; they must not, say they could:

That, liberty and common conversation, The poison of pure spirits, might, like women, Woo us to wander from. What worthy blessing Can be, but our imaginations May make it ours? and here being thus together, We are an endless mine to one another;

We’re one another’s wife, ever begetting New births of love; we’re father, friends, acquaintance;

We are, in one another, families; I am your heir, and you are mine; this place Is our inheritance; no hard oppressor Dare take this from us: here, with a little patience, We shall live long, and loving; no surfeits seek us;

Of all flowers, Methinks, a rose is best.

It is the very emblem of a maid:

For when the west wind courts her gently, How modestly she blows, and paints the sun With her chaste blushes!

Yes, I love her; And if the lives of all my name lay on it, I must do so;

I love her with my soul.

If that will lose ye, farewell, Palamon! I say again, I love;

O, that now, that now Thy false self and thy friend had but this fortune, To be one hour at liberty, and grasp Our good swords in our hands! I’d quickly teach thee What ’twere to filch affection from another!

Thou art baser in it than a cutpurse:

Put but thy head out of this window more, And, as I have a soul, I’ll nail thy life to’t!

Now, now, it beats upon it; now, now, now, There’s a leak sprung, a sound one; how they cry! Spoon her before the wind, you’ll lose all else; Up with a course or two, and tack about, boys:

Good night, good night; ye’re gone.

—I’m very hungry: Would I could find a fine frog! he would tell me News from all parts o’ the world;

And I’ll clip my yellow locks an inch below mine e’e: Hey, nonny, nonny, nonny. He s’ buy me a white cut, forth for to ride, And I’ll go seek him through the world that is so wide: Hey nonny, nonny, nonny.

O for a prick now, like a nightingale, To put my breast against!

I shall sleep like a top else. Exit.

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’ve said they die:

Better they fall by the law than one another.

Bow not my honour.

I tie you to your word now; if ye fall in’t, Think how you maim your honour— For now I’m set a-begging, sir, I’m 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 wisedom: do men proyne The straight young boughs that blush with thousand blossoms, Because they may be rotten?

He’s swarth and meagre, of an eye as heavy As if he had lost his mother; a still temper, No stirring in him, no alacrity; Of all this sprightly sharpness, not a smile;— Yet these that we count errors, may become him:

Narcissus was a sad boy, but a heavenly.

O, who can find the bent of woman’s fancy? I am a fool, my reason is lost in me; I have no choice, and I have lied so lewdly That women ought to beat me. On my knees I ask thy pardon, Palamon;

a still temper, No stirring in him, no alacrity; Of all this sprightly sharpness, not a smile;— Yet these that we count errors, may become him: Narcissus was a sad boy, but a heavenly.

O, who can find the bent of woman’s fancy?

I am a fool, my reason is lost in me; I have no choice, and I have lied so lewdly That women ought to beat me. On my knees I ask thy pardon, Palamon; thou art alone, And only beautiful;

Now if my sister, more for Palamon.— Stand both together.—Now, come, ask me, brother;— Alas, I know not!—Ask me now, sweet sister;— I may go look!—

What a mere child is fancy, That, having two fair gauds of equal sweetness, Cannot distinguish, but must cry for both!

From the noble duke your brother, Madam, I bring you news: the knights are come.

let it here be done. The scene’s not for our seeing: go we hence, Right joyful, with some sorrow.—Arm your prize; I know you will not lose her.—Hippolyta, I see one eye of yours conceives a tear, The which it will deliver.

Is this winning? O all you heavenly powers, where is your mercy?

But that your wills have said it must be so, And charge me live to comfort this unfriended, This miserable prince, that cuts away A life more worthy from him than all women, I should and would die too.

Infinite pity,

That four such eyes should be so fix’d on one, That two must needs be blind for’t!

So it is. Flourish. Exeunt.