The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

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.