The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

FIRST QUEEN [kneeling stilll We are three queens whose sovereigns fell before The wrath of cruel Creon; who endured 40 The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites, And pecks of crows in the foul fields of Thebes. He will not suffer us to burn their bones, To urn their ashes, nor to take th'offence Of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye 45 Of holy Phoebus, but infects the winds With stench of our slain lords. 0 pity, Duke! Thou purger of the earth, draw thy feared sword That does good turns to'th' world; give us the bones Of our dead kings that we may chapel them; 50 And of thy boundless goodness take some note That for our crowned heads we have no roof, Save this, which is the lion's and the bear's, And vault to everything.

SECOND QUEEN [kneeling stilll Honoured Hippolyta, Most dreaded Amazonian, that hast slain The scythe-tusked boar, that with thy arm, as strong As it is white, wast near to make the male 80 To thy sex captive, but that this, thy lord— Born to uphold creation in that honour First nature styled it in—shrunk thee into The bound thou wast o'erflowing, at once subduing Thy force and thy affection; soldieress, 85 That equally canst poise sternness with pity, Whom now I know hast much more power on him Than ever he had on thee, who ow'st his strength, And his love too, who is a servant for The tenor of thy speech; dear glass of ladies, 90 Bid him that we, whom flaming war doth scorch, Under the shadow of his sword may cool us. Require him he advance it o'er our heads. Speak't in a woman's key, like such a woman As any of us three. Weep ere you fail. 95 Lend us a knee: But touch the ground for us no longer time Than a dove's motion when the head's plucked off. Tell him, if he i'th' blood-sized field lay swoll'n, Showing the sun his teeth, grinning at the moon, 100 What you would do.

THIRD QUEEN (kneeling [stilt] to Emilia) 0, my petition was Set down in ice, which by hot grief uncandied Melts into drops; so sorrow, wanting form, Is pressed with deeper matter. EMILIA Pray stand up: Your grief is written in your cheek. THIRD QUEEN 0 WO6, no You cannot read it there; there, through my tears, Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream, You may behold 'em. [The Third Queen rises! Lady, lady, alack— He that will all the treasure know o'th' earth Must know the centre too; he that will fish For my least minnow, let him lead his line To catch one at my heart. 0, pardon me: Fjttremity, that sharpens sundry wits, Makes me a fool.