Speeches (Lines) for HIPPOLYTA in "The Two Noble Kinsmen"

THESEUS. [to First Queen]
Sad lady, rise.

HIPPOLYTA. [to Second Queen] Stand up.

SECOND QUEEN. Honored Hippolyta,
Most dreaded Amazonian, that hast slain
The scythe-tusked boar; that with thy arm, as strong
As it is white, wast near to make the male
To thy sex captive, but that this thy lord,
Born to uphold creation in that honor
First nature styled it in, shrunk thee into
The bound thou wast o'erflowing, at once subduing
Thy force and thy affection; soldieress
That equally canst poise sternness with pity,
Whom now I know hast much more power on him
Than ever he had on thee, who ow'st his strength
And his love too, who is a servant for
The tenor of thy speech, dear glass of ladies,
Bid him that we, whom flaming war doth scorch,
Under the shadow of his sword may cool us;
Require him he advance it o'er our heads;
Speak 't in a woman's key, like such a woman
As any of us three; weep ere you fail.
Lend us a knee;
But touch the ground for us no longer time
Than a dove's motion when the head's plucked off.
Tell him if he i' th' blood-sized field lay swoll'n,
Showing the sun his teeth, grinning at the moon,
What you would do.

HIPPOLYTA. Poor lady, say no more.
I had as lief trace this good action with you
As that whereto I am going, and never yet
Went I so willing way. My lord is taken
Heart-deep with your distress; let him consider.
I'll speak anon. [Second Queen rises.]

FIRST QUEEN. The more proclaiming
Our suit shall be neglected when her arms,
Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall
By warranting moonlight corselet thee. O, when
Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall
Upon thy tasteful lips, what wilt thou think
Of rotten kings or blubbered queens? What care
For what thou feel'st not, what thou feel'st being able
To make Mars spurn his drum? O, if thou couch
But one night with her, every hour in 't will
Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and
Thou shalt remember nothing more than what
That banquet bids thee to.

HIPPOLYTA. [to Theseus]
Though much unlike
You should be so transported, as much sorry
I should be such a suitor, yet I think
Did I not, by th' abstaining of my joy--
Which breeds a deeper longing--cure their surfeit
That craves a present med'cine, I should pluck
All ladies' scandal on me. [She kneels.]
Therefore, sir,
As I shall here make trial of my prayers,
Either presuming them to have some force,
Or sentencing for aye their vigor dumb,
Prorogue this business we are going about, and hang
Your shield afore your heart--about that neck
Which is my fee, and which I freely lend
To do these poor queens service.

PIRITHOUS. [Enter Pirithous, Hippolyta, Emilia.]
No further.

HIPPOLYTA. Sir, farewell. Repeat my wishes
To our great lord, of whose success I dare not
Make any timorous question; yet I wish him
Excess and overflow of power, an 't might be,
To dure ill-dealing fortune. Speed to him.
Store never hurts good governors.

EMILIA. Thanks, sir. Remember me
To our all-royal brother, for whose speed
The great Bellona I'll solicit; and
Since in our terrene state petitions are not
Without gifts understood, I'll offer to her
What I shall be advised she likes. Our hearts
Are in his army, in his tent.

HIPPOLYTA. In 's bosom.
We have been soldiers, and we cannot weep
When our friends don their helms or put to sea,
Or tell of babes broached on the lance, or women
That have sod their infants in--and after ate them--
The brine they wept at killing 'em. Then if
You stay to see of us such spinsters, we
Should hold you here forever.

EMILIA. How his longing
Follows his friend! Since his depart, his sports,
Though craving seriousness and skill, passed slightly
His careless execution, where nor gain
Made him regard, or loss consider, but
Playing one business in his hand, another
Directing in his head, his mind nurse equal
To these so diff'ring twins. Have you observed him
Since our great lord departed?

HIPPOLYTA. With much labor,
And I did love him for 't. They two have cabined
In many as dangerous as poor a corner,
Peril and want contending; they have skiffed
Torrents whose roaring tyranny and power
I' th' least of these was dreadful, and they have
Fought out together where Death's self was lodged.
Yet fate hath brought them off. Their knot of love,
Tied, weaved, entangled, with so true, so long,
And with a finger of so deep a cunning,
May be outworn, never undone. I think
Theseus cannot be umpire to himself,
Cleaving his conscience into twain and doing
Each side like justice, which he loves best.

EMILIA. Doubtless
There is a best, and reason has no manners
To say it is not you. I was acquainted
Once with a time when I enjoyed a playfellow;
You were at wars when she the grave enriched,
Who made too proud the bed; took leave o' th' moon,
Which then looked pale at parting, when our count
Was each eleven.

HIPPOLYTA. 'Twas Flavina.

EMILIA. Yes.
You talk of Pirithous' and Theseus' love.
Theirs has more ground, is more maturely seasoned,
More buckled with strong judgment, and their needs
The one of th' other may be said to water
Their intertangled roots of love. But I,
And she I sigh and spoke of, were things innocent,
Loved for we did, and like the elements
That know not what nor why, yet do effect
Rare issues by their operance, our souls
Did so to one another. What she liked
Was then of me approved, what not, condemned,
No more arraignment. The flower that I would pluck
And put between my breasts--O, then but beginning
To swell about the blossom--she would long
Till she had such another, and commit it
To the like innocent cradle, where, Phoenix-like,
They died in perfume. On my head no toy
But was her pattern; her affections--pretty,
Though haply hers careless were--I followed
For my most serious decking. Had mine ear
Stol'n some new air, or at adventure hummed one
From musical coinage, why, it was a note
Whereon her spirits would sojourn--rather, dwell on--
And sing it in her slumbers. This rehearsal--
Which fury-innocent wots well comes in
Like old importment's bastard--has this end,
That the true love 'tween maid and maid may be
More than in sex individual.

HIPPOLYTA. You're out of breath,
And this high-speeded pace is but to say
That you shall never--like the maid Flavina--
Love any that's called man.

EMILIA. I am sure I shall not.

HIPPOLYTA. Now, alack, weak sister,
I must no more believe thee in this point--
Though in 't I know thou dost believe thyself--
Than I will trust a sickly appetite,
That loathes even as it longs. But sure, my sister,
If I were ripe for your persuasion, you
Have said enough to shake me from the arm
Of the all-noble Theseus, for whose fortunes
I will now in and kneel, with great assurance
That we, more than his Pirithous, possess
The high throne in his heart.

PIRITHOUS. [to Hippolyta]
How do you like him, lady?

HIPPOLYTA. I admire him.
I have not seen so young a man so noble,
If he say true, of his sort.

EMILIA. Believe,
His mother was a wondrous handsome woman;
His face, methinks, goes that way.

HIPPOLYTA. But his body
And fiery mind illustrate a brave father.

PIRITHOUS. Mark how his virtue, like a hidden sun,
Breaks through his baser garments.

HIPPOLYTA. He's well got, sure.

THESEUS. Take twenty, Domine.--How does my sweetheart?

HIPPOLYTA. Never so pleased, sir.

THESEUS. I grant your wish, for to say true, your cousin
Has ten times more offended, for I gave him
More mercy than you found, sir, your offenses
Being no more than his.--None here speak for 'em,
For ere the sun set both shall sleep forever.

HIPPOLYTA. Alas, the pity! Now or never, sister,
Speak not to be denied. That face of yours
Will bear the curses else of after ages
For these lost cousins.

EMILIA. In my face, dear sister,
I find no anger to 'em, nor no ruin.
The misadventure of their own eyes kill 'em.
Yet that I will be woman and have pity,
My knees shall grow to th' ground but I'll get mercy.

[She kneels.]

Help me, dear sister; in a deed so virtuous,
The powers of all women will be with us.

[Hippolyta kneels.]

Most royal brother--

HIPPOLYTA. Sir, by our tie of marriage--

EMILIA. By your own spotless honor--

HIPPOLYTA. By that faith,
That fair hand, and that honest heart you gave me--

EMILIA. By that you would have pity in another;
By your own virtues infinite--

HIPPOLYTA. By valor;
By all the chaste nights I have ever pleased you--

PIRITHOUS. To crown all this: by your most noble soul,
Which cannot want due mercy, I beg first--

HIPPOLYTA. Next hear my prayers--

PIRITHOUS. For mercy.

HIPPOLYTA. Mercy.

EMILIA. I cannot, sir; they are both too excellent.
For me, a hair shall never fall of these men.

HIPPOLYTA. What will become of 'em?

THESEUS. Now, as I have a soul, I long to see 'em.--
Lady, you shall see men fight now.

HIPPOLYTA. I wish it,
But not the cause, my lord. They would show
Bravely about the titles of two kingdoms;
'Tis pity love should be so tyrannous.--
O, my soft-hearted sister, what think you?
Weep not till they weep blood. Wench, it must be.

EMILIA. I am extinct;
There is but envy in that light which shows
The one the other. Darkness, which ever was
The dam of horror, who does stand accursed
Of many mortal millions, may even now,
By casting her black mantle over both,
That neither could find other, get herself
Some part of a good name, and many a murder
Set off whereto she's guilty.

HIPPOLYTA. You must go.

THESEUS. Well, well, then; at your pleasure.
Those that remain with you could wish their office
To any of their enemies.

HIPPOLYTA. Farewell, sister.
I am like to know your husband 'fore yourself
By some small start of time. He whom the gods
Do of the two know best, I pray them he
Be made your lot.
[Theseus, Hippolyta, Pirithous, and others,
exit. Emilia remains, comparing again
the pictures of Arcite and Palamon.]

EMILIA. 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.

HIPPOLYTA. Infinite pity
That four such eyes should be so fixed on one
That two must needs be blind for 't.