Page 1409 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Exeunt Arcite and his knights.

Enter Palamon and his knights, with the former observance.

PALAMON
Our stars must glister with new fire, or be
Today extinct; our argument is love, [70]
Which if the goddess of it grant, she gives

Victory too. Then blend your spirits with mine,
You whose free nobleness do make my cause
Your personal hazard; to the goddess Venus
Commend we our proceeding, and implore [75]

Her power unto our party.
Here they prostrate themselves, then kneel as formerly to the altar of
Venus.
Hail, sovereign queen of secrets, who hast power

To call the fiercest tyrant from his rage
And weep unto a girl; that hast the might
Even with an eye-glance to choke Mars’s drum [80]
And turn th’alarm to whispers; that canst make

A cripple flourish with his crutch, and cure him
Before Apollo; that mayst force the king
To be his subject’s vassal, and induce
Stale gravity to dance; the polled bachelor, [85]

Whose youth, like wanton boys through bonfires,
Have skipped thy flame, at seventy thou canst catch,
And make him, to the scorn of his hoarse throat,
Abuse young lays of love. What godlike power

Hast thou not power upon? To Phoebus thou [90]
Addest flames hotter than his; the heavenly fires
Did scorch his mortal son, thine him; the huntress
All moist and cold, some say began to throw

Her bow away and sigh. Take to thy grace
Me thy vowed soldier, who do bear thy yoke [95]
As ’twere a wreath of roses, yet is heavier
Than lead itself, stings more than nettles.

I have never been foul-mouthed against thy law;
Ne’er revealed secret, for I knew none; would not,