Page 1431 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

MESSENGER

Hold, hold, O hold, hold, hold! [40]

Enter Pirithous in haste.

PIRITHOUS
Hold, ho! It is a cursèd haste you made
If you have done so quickly. Noble Palamon,
The gods will show their glory in a life

That thou art yet to lead.

PALAMON
Can that be, when
Venus I have said is false? How do things fare? [45]

PIRITHOUS
Arise, great sir, and give the tidings ear

That are most early sweet and bitter.

PALAMON

What
Hath waked us from our dream?

PIRITHOUS
List then. Your cousin,
Mounted upon a steed that Emily
Did first bestow on him, a black one, owing [50]

Not a hair-worth of white, which some will say
Weakens his price, and many will not buy
His goodness with this note − which superstition

Here finds allowance − on this horse is Arcite
Trotting the stones of Athens, which the calkins [55]
Did rather tell than trample, for the horse
Would make his length a mile, if’t pleased his rider
To put pride in him. As he thus went counting

The flinty pavement, dancing as ’twere to th’music
His own hooves made − for, as they say, from iron [60]
Came music’s origin − what envious flint,