SCENE I. Athens. ACT V. A Court before the Temples of Mars, Venus, and Diana. A flourish. Enter THESEUS, PIRITHOUS, HIPPOLYTA, and At tendants. Thes. Now let 'em enter, and before the gods Pir. Sir, they enter. A flourish of cornets. Enter PALAMON, ARCITE, and their Knights. Thes. You valiant and strong-hearted enemies, The all-fear'd gods, bow down your stubborn bodies. Pir. Honour crown the worthiest ! [Exeunt all but PALAMON, ARCITE, and their Knights. 1 Germane is, properly, brother, but was used for kinsman. Pal. The glass is running now that cannot finish I would destroy th' offender; coz, I would, Though parcel of myself: then from this gather Arc. I am in labour To push your name, your ancient love, our kindred, Pal. You speak well. Before I turn, let me embrace thee, cousin : This I shall never do again. Arc. One farewell! Pal. Why, let it be so farewell, coz ! Arc. Farewell, sir! [They embrace. - Exeunt PALAMON and his Knights. Knights, kinsmen, lovers, yea, my sacrifices, The breath of tigers, yea, the fierceness too, Else wish we to be snails. You know my prize Must be dragg'd out of blood; force and great feat 2 To port is to bring into port or harbour. In the next line, Limiter is appointer. The word does not occur again in Shakespeare; but the use of to limit for to appoint is quite frequent. See vol. ix. page 271, note 3. 3 Must put my garland on, where she shall stick [They advance to the altar of Mars, and fall on their Thou mighty one, that with thy power hast turn'd I may advance my streamer, and by thee Be styled the lord o' the day. Give me, great Mars, [Here they fall on their faces as before, and there is and bow to the altar. O great corrector of enormous 6 times, 8 Cestron is cistern; probably another form of the word. 4 Vast, not in the sense of large, but of the Latin vastus, waste, desolate; or rather of devastating, destructive. See vol. xii. page 36, note 14. 5 Foison is abundance, especially of such fruits as Ceres had in charge. See vol. vii. page 83, note 23. 8 Enormous in the radical Latin sense; out of rule, abnormal, or errant from the normal state. See vol. xv. page 62, note 30. 7 O' the plurisy of people; I do take Thy signs auspiciously, and in thy name Re-enter PALAMON and his Knights. Pal. Our stars must glister with new fire, or be To-day extinct; our argument is love, Which if the goddess of it grant, she gives Victory too: then blend your spirits with mine, -- [Exeunt. [They advance to the altar of Venus, and fall on their Hail, sovereign queen of secrets, who hast power To weep unto a girl; that hast the might Even with an eye-glance to choke Mars's drum, To be his subject's vassal, and induce Plurisy, from the Latin plus, is superabundance. Shakespeare has it repeatedly so. See vol. xiv. page 283, note 24. 8 The three concluding scenes of the fifth Act, like the stately march or the procession of a triumph, with all its "pride, pomp, and circumstance," proceed, without interval or interruption, to the end. The human agents have become instruments in the hands of the gods, to whose "divine arbitrement" the event is referred; an impeding and inevitable fate is visible; "The glass is running now that cannot finish till one of us expire"; and we, the spectators, with the actors, abandon ourselves to "the sails that must these vessels port even where the heavenly Limiter pleases." The address of Arcite to his friends, "Knights, kinsmen, lovers," is sufficiently remarkable; but the address to Mars, which follows, unparalleled as an invocation, is one of the grandest examples of the application of circumstances to the character of a power that we have ever met with. - HICKSON. Stale gravity to dance: the pollèd 9 bachelor- at seventy thou canst catch, — A lass of fourteen brided; 'twas thy power To put life into dust: the agèd cramp 9 Polled is shorn or bald-headed. So Ezekiel, xliv. 20, speaking of the priests: "Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads." 10 An instance of the verb agreeing with the nearest noun, instead of with its proper subject. Often so. See vol. xiv. page 154, note 12. 11 Alluding to the old myth of Phaethon. See vol. i. page 206, note 10. 12 Large, here, is loose, coarse, licentious. Men boasting of their lewd intrigues and their seductions, are the sort referred to. |