The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Уильям Шекспир

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СКАЧАТЬ What is not holy, that we swear not by,

       But take the Highest to witness: then, pray you, tell me,

       If I should swear by Jove’s great attributes

       I lov’d you dearly, would you believe my oaths

       When I did love you ill? This has no holding,

       To swear by him whom I protest to love

       That I will work against him: therefore your oaths

       Are words and poor conditions; but unseal’d,—

       At least in my opinion.

       BERTRAM.

       Change it, change it;

       Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy;

       And my integrity ne’er knew the crafts

       That you do charge men with. Stand no more off,

       But give thyself unto my sick desires,

       Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever

       My love as it begins shall so persever.

       DIANA.

       I see that men make hopes in such a case,

       That we’ll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring.

       BERTRAM.

       I’ll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power

       To give it from me.

       DIANA.

       Will you not, my lord?

       BERTRAM.

       It is an honour ‘longing to our house,

       Bequeathed down from many ancestors;

       Which were the greatest obloquy i’ the world

       In me to lose.

       DIANA.

       Mine honour’s such a ring:

       My chastity’s the jewel of our house,

       Bequeathed down from many ancestors;

       Which were the greatest obloquy i’ the world

       In me to lose. Thus your own proper wisdom

       Brings in the champion honour on my part

       Against your vain assault.

       BERTRAM.

       Here, take my ring:

       My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine,

       And I’ll be bid by thee.

       DIANA.

       When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window;

       I’ll order take my mother shall not hear.

       Now will I charge you in the band of truth,

       When you have conquer’d my yet maiden-bed,

       Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:

       My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them

       When back again this ring shall be deliver’d;

       And on your finger in the night, I’ll put

       Another ring; that what in time proceeds

       May token to the future our past deeds.

       Adieu till then; then fail not. You have won

       A wife of me, though there my hope be done.

       BERTRAM.

       A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee.

       [Exit.]

       DIANA.

       For which live long to thank both heaven and me!

       You may so in the end.—

       My mother told me just how he would woo,

       As if she sat in’s heart; she says all men

       Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me

       When his wife’s dead; therefore I’ll lie with him

       When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,

       Marry that will, I live and die a maid:

       Only, in this disguise, I think’t no sin

       To cozen him that would unjustly win.

       [Exit.]

      SCENE 3. The Florentine camp.

       [Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers.]

       FIRST LORD.

       You have not given him his mother’s letter?

       SECOND LORD. I have deliv’red it an hour since: there is something in’t that stings his nature; for on the reading, it he changed almost into another man.

       FIRST LORD. He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off so good a wife and so sweet a lady.

       SECOND LORD. Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the king, who had even tuned his bounty to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.

       FIRST LORD.

       When you have spoken it, ‘tis dead, and I am the grave of it.

       SECOND LORD. He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition.

       FIRST LORD. Now, God delay our rebellion: as we are ourselves, what things are we!

       SECOND LORD. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves till they attain to their abhorred ends; so he that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream, o’erflows himself.

       FIRST LORD. Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We shall not then have his company tonight?

       SECOND LORD.

       Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour.

       FIRST LORD. That approaches apace: I would gladly have him see his company anatomized, that he might take a measure of his own judgments, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit.

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