Three QUEENS, widows of kings killed in the siege of Thebes

VALERIUS, a Theban

A HERALD

WOMAN, attending Emilia

An Athenian GENTLEMAN

MESSENGERS

Six KNIGHTS, three attending Arcite and three Palamon

A SERVANT

A JAILER in charge of Theseus’ prison

The JAILER’S DAUGHTER

The JAILER’S BROTHER

The WOOER of the Jailer’s daughter

Two FRIENDS of the Jailer

A DOCTOR

Six COUNTRYMEN, one dressed as a babion, or baboon

Gerald, a SCHOOLMASTER

NELL, a country wench

Four other country wenches: Friz, Madeline, Luce, and Barbara Timothy, a TABORER

EPILOGUE

Nymphs, attendants, maids, executioner, guard

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Prologue Flourish. Enter Prologue

PROLOGUE

New plays and maidenheads are near akin:

Much followed both, for both much money giv’n

If they stand sound and well. And a good play,

Whose modest scenes blush on his marriage day

And shake to lose his honour, is like her

That after holy tie and first night’s stir

Yet still is modesty, and still retains

More of the maid to sight than husband’s pains.

We pray our play may be so, for I am sure

It has a noble breeder and a pure,

A learned, and a poet never went

More famous yet ‘twixt Po and silver Trent.

Chaucer, of all admired, the story gives:

There constant to eternity it lives.

If we let fall the nobleness of this

And the first sound this child hear be a hiss,

How will it shake the bones of that good man,

And make him cry from under ground, ‛O fan

From me the witless chaff of such a writer,

That blasts my bays and my famed works makes

lighter

Than Robin Hood’? This is the fear we bring,

For to say truth, it were an endless thing

And too ambitious to aspire to him,

Weak as we are, and almost breathless swim

In this deep water. Do but you hold out

Your helping hands and we shall tack about

And something do to save us. You shall hear

Scenes, though below his art, may yet appear

Worth two hours’ travail. To his bones, sweet sleep;

Content to you. If this play do not keep

A little dull time from us, we perceive

Our losses fall so thick we must needs leave.

Flourish. Exit

1.1 Music. Enter Hymen with a torch burning, a Boy in a white robe before, singing and strewing flowers. After Hymen, a nymph encompassed in her tresses, bearing a wheaten garland. Then Theseus between two other nymphs with wheaten chaplets on their heads. Then Hippolyta, the bride, led by Pirithous and another holding a garland over her head, her tresses likewise hanging. After her, Emilia holding up her train. Then Artesius ⌈and other attendants⌉

BOY (sings during procession)

Roses, their sharp spines being gone,

Not royal in their smells alone,

But in their hue;

Maiden pinks, of odour faint,

Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,

And sweet thyme true;

Primrose, first-born child of Ver,

Merry springtime’s harbinger,

With harebells dim;

Oxlips, in their cradles growing,

Marigolds, on deathbeds blowing,

Lark’s-heels trim;

All dear nature’s children sweet,

Lie fore bride and bridegroom’s feet,

He strews flowers

Blessing their sense.

Not an angel of the air,

Bird melodious, or bird fair,

Is absent hence.

The crow, the sland’rous cuckoo, nor

The boding raven, nor chough hoar,

Nor chatt’ring pie,

May on our bridehouse perch or sing,

Or with them any discord bring,

But from it fly.

Enter three Queens in black, with veils stained, with imperial crowns. The First Queen falls down at the foot of Theseus; the Second falls down at the foot of Hippolyta; the Third, before Emilia

FIRST QUEEN (to Theseus)

For pity’s sake and true gentility’s,

Hear and respect me.

SECOND QUEEN (to Hippolyta)

For your mother’s sake, And as you wish your womb may thrive with fair ones,

Hear and respect me.

THIRD QUEEN (to Emilia)

Now for the love of him whom Jove hath marked

The honour of your bed, and for the sake

Of clear virginity, be advocate

For us and our distresses. This good deed

Shall raze you out o’th’ Book of Trespasses

All you are set down there.

THESEUS (to First Queen)

Sad lady, rise.

HIPPOLYTA (to Second Queen) Stand up.

EMILIA (to Third Queen)

No knees to me. What woman I may stead that is distressed

Does bind me to her.

THESEUS (to First Queen)

What’s your request? Deliver you for all.

FIRST QUEEN ⌈kneeling still⌉

We are three queens whose sovereigns fell before

The wrath of cruel Creon; who endured

The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites,

And pecks of crows in the foul fields of Thebes.

He will not suffer us to burn their bones,

To urn their ashes, nor to take th‘offence

Of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye

Of holy Phoebus, but infects the winds

With stench of our slain lords. O pity, Duke!

Thou purger of the earth, draw thy feared sword

That does good turns to’th’ world; give us the bones