Page 1381 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

To all but your compassion − how their lives
Might breed the ruin of my name, opinion. [240]
Shall anything that loves me perish for me?
That were a cruel wisdom; do men prune

The straight young boughs that blush with thousand blossoms
Because they may be rotten? O Duke Theseus,
The goodly mothers that have groaned for these, [245]
And all the longing maids that ever loved ’em,

If your vow stand, shall curse me and my beauty,
And in their funeral songs for these two cousins
Despise my cruelty, and cry woe worth me,
Till I am nothing but the scorn of women; [250]

For heaven’s sake, save their lives and banish ’em.

THESEUS
On what conditions?

EMILIA
Swear ’em never more
To make me their contention, or to know me,
To tread upon thy dukedom, and to be,

Wherever they shall travel, ever strangers [255]
To one another.

PALAMON
I’ll be cut a-pieces
Before I take this oath! Forget I love her?
O all ye gods, despise me then. Thy banishment

I not mislike, so we may fairly carry
Our swords and cause along; else never trifle, [260]
But take our lives, Duke. I must love and will,

And for that love must and dare kill this cousin
On any piece the earth has.

THESEUS
Will you, Arcite,
Take these conditions?