Page 1302 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

This grand act of our life, this daring deed
Of fate in wedlock.

FIRST QUEEN
Dowagers, take hands. [165]
Let us be widows to our woes; delay
Commends us to a famishing hope.

ALL QUEENS
Farewell.

SECOND QUEEN
We come unseasonably; but when could grief
Cull forth, as unpanged judgement can, fittest time
For best solicitation?

THESEUS
Why, good ladies, [170]

This is a service, whereto I am going,
Greater than any war; it more imports me
Than all the actions that I have foregone
Or futurely can cope.

FIRST QUEEN
The more proclaiming

Our suit shall be neglected, when her arms, [175]
Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall
By warranting moonlight corslet 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 [180]
For what thou feelest not, what thou feelest 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 [185]

That banquet bids thee to.