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The Two Noble Kinsmen: Act IV, Scene 3

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The Two Noble Kinsmen
Act IV, Scene 3

A room in the prison.

  1. Enter Jailer, Wooer, Doctor.

Doctor

1 - 2
  1. Her distraction is more at some time of the moon than at
  2. other some, is it not?

Jailer

3 - 8
  1. She is continually in a harmless distemper, sleeps little,
  2. altogether without appetite, save often drinking, dreaming
  3. of another world and a better; and what broken piece of
  4. matter soe’er she’s about, the name Palamon lards it, that
  5. she farces ev’ry business withal, fits it to every question.
  6. Enter Daughter.
  7. Look where she comes, you shall perceive her behavior.

Daughter

9 - 13
  1. I have forgot it quite; the burden on’t was “Down-a,
  2. down-a,” and penn’d by no worse man than Giraldo, Emilia’s
  3. schoolmaster. He’s as fantastical, too, as ever he may go
  4. upon ’s legs, for in the next world will Dido see Palamon,
  5. and then will she be out of love with Aeneas.

Doctor

14
  1. What stuff’s here? Poor soul!

Jailer

15
  1. Ev’n thus all day long.

Daughter

16 - 23
  1. Now for this charm that I told you of, you must bring a
  2. piece of silver on the tip of your tongue, or no ferry.
  3. Then, if it be your chance to come where the blessed
  4. spirits—as there’s a sight now! We maids that have our
  5. livers perish’d, crack’d to pieces with love, we shall come
  6. there, and do nothing all day long but pick flowers with
  7. Proserpine. Then will I make Palamon a nosegay, then let him
  8. mark me—then—

Doctor

24
  1. How prettily she’s amiss! Note her a little further.

Daughter

25 - 33
  1. Faith, I’ll tell you; sometime we go to barley-break, we of
  2. the blessed. Alas, ’tis a sore life they have i’ th’ tother
  3. place, such burning, frying, boiling, hissing, howling,
  4. chatt’ring, cursing! O, they have shrewd measure! Take heed:
  5. if one be mad, or hang or drown themselves, thither they
  6. go—Jupiter bless us!—and there shall we be put in a cauldron
  7. of lead and usurers’ grease, amongst a whole million of
  8. cutpurses, and there boil like a gammon of bacon that will
  9. never be enough.
  1. Exit.

Doctor

34
  1. How her brain coins!
  1. Enter Daughter.

Daughter

35 - 41
  1. Lords and courtiers that have got maids with child, they are
  2. in this place. They shall stand in fire up to the nav’l, and
  3. in ice up to th’ heart, and there th’ offending part burns,
  4. and the deceiving part freezes: in troth a very grievous
  5. punishment, as one would think, for such a trifle. Believe
  6. me, one would marry a leprous witch to be rid on’t, I’ll
  7. assure you.

Doctor

42 - 43
  1. How she continues this fancy! ’Tis not an engraff’d madness,
  2. but a most thick and profound melancholy.

Daughter

44 - 49
  1. To hear there a proud lady and a proud city-wife howl
  2. together! I were a beast and I’ld call it good sport. One
  3. cries, “O, this smoke!” th’ other, “This fire!” One cries,
  4. “O, that ever I did it behind the arras!” and then howls;
  5. th’ other curses a suing fellow and her garden-house.
  6. Sings.
  7. “I will be true, my stars, my fate,” etc.
  1. Exit Daughter.

Jailer

50
  1. What think you of her, sir?

Doctor

51 - 52
  1. I think she has a perturb’d mind, which I cannot minister
  2. to.

Jailer

53
  1. Alas, what then?

Doctor

54 - 55
  1. Understand you she ever affected any man ere she beheld
  2. Palamon?

Jailer

56 - 57
  1. I was once, sir, in great hope she had fix’d her liking on
  2. this gentleman, my friend.

Wooer

58 - 60
  1. I did think so too, and would account I had a great
  2. penn’worth on’t to give half my state that both she and I at
  3. this present stood unfeignedly on the same terms.

Doctor

61 - 89
  1. That intemp’rate surfeit of her eye hath distemper’d the
  2. other senses. They may return and settle again to execute
  3. their preordain’d faculties, but they are now in a most
  4. extravagant vagary. This you must do: confine her to a place
  5. where the light may rather seem to steal in than be
  6. permitted. Take upon you, young sir her friend, the name of
  7. Palamon, say you come to eat with her, and to commune of
  8. love. This will catch her attention, for this her mind beats
  9. upon; other objects that are inserted ’tween her mind and
  10. eye become the pranks and friskins of her madness. Sing to
  11. her such green songs of love as she says Palamon hath sung
  12. in prison. Come to her, stuck in as sweet flowers as the
  13. season is mistress of, and thereto make an addition of some
  14. other compounded odors which are grateful to the sense. All
  15. this shall become Palamon, for Palamon can sing, and Palamon
  16. is sweet, and ev’ry good thing. Desire to eat with her,
  17. carve her, drink to her, and still among intermingle your
  18. petition of grace and acceptance into her favor. Learn what
  19. maids have been her companions and play-feres, and let them
  20. repair to her with Palamon in their mouths, and appear with
  21. tokens, as if they suggested for him. It is a falsehood she
  22. is in, which is with falsehoods to be combated. This may
  23. bring her to eat, to sleep, and reduce what’s now out of
  24. square in her into their former law and regiment. I have
  25. seen it approv’d, how many times I know not, but to make the
  26. number more I have great hope in this. I will, between the
  27. passages of this project, come in with my appliance. Let us
  28. put it in execution; and hasten the success, which doubt not
  29. will bring forth comfort.
  1. Exeunt.
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