University of Virginia Library

Scæna Prima.

Enter Jaylor and Wooer.
Jail.
I may depart with little, while I live, something I
May cast to you, not much: Alas the Prison I
Keep, though it be for great ones, yet they seldom
Come; before one Salmon, you shall take a number
Of Minnows: I am given out to be better lin'd
Than it can appear, to me report is a true
Speaker: I would I were really, that I am
Deliver'd to be: Marry, what I have (be it what
It will) I will assure upon my daughter at
The day of my death.

Wooer.
Sir, I demand no more than your own offer,
And I will estate your Daughter, in what I
Have promised,

Jail.
Well, we will talk more of this, when the solemnity
Is past; But have you a full promise of her?
Enter Daughter.
When that shall be seen, I tender my consent.

Wooer.
I have Sir; here she comes.

Jail.
Your friend and I have chanced to name
You here, upon the old business: but no more of that.
Now, so soon as the Court-hurry is over, we will
Have an end of it: I'th' mean time look tenderly
To the two prisoners. I can tell you they are Princes.

Daugh.
These strewings are for their Chamber; 'tis pity they
Are in prison, and 'twere pity they should be out: I
Do think they have patience to make any adversity
Asham'd; the prison it self is proud of 'em; and
They have all the world in their Chamber.

Jail.
They are sam'd to be a pair of absolute men.

Daugh.
By my troth, I think Fame but stammers 'em, they
Stand a grief above the reach of report.

Jail.
I heard them reported in the battel, to be the only doers.

Daugh.
Nay, most likely, for they are noble sufferers; I
Marvel how they would have look'd, had they been
Victors, that with such a constant Nobility, enforce
A freedom out of bondage, making misery their
Mirth, and affliction a toy to jest at.

Jail.
Doe they so?

Daugh.
It seems to me, they have no more sence of their
Captivity, than I of ruling Athens: they eat
Well, look merrily, discourse of many things,
But nothing of their own restraint, and disasters:
Yet sometime a divided sigh, martyr'd as 'twere
I'th' deliverance, will break from one of them,
When the other presently gives it so sweet a rebuke,
That I could wish my self a sigh to be so chid,
Or at least a sigher to be comforted.

Wooer.
I never saw 'em.

Jail.
The Duke himself came privately in the night.
Enter Palamon, and Arcite above.
And so did they, what the reason of it is, I
Know not: Look, yonder they are; that's
Arcite looks out.

Daugh.
No Sir, no, that's Palamon: Arcite is the
Lower of the twain; you may perceive a part
Of him.

Jail.
Go to, leave your pointing; they would not
Make us their object; out of their sight.

Daugh.
It is a holliday to look on them: Lord, the
Diff'rence of men.

Exeunt.