Two Noble Kinsmen (Oxford 1908)/Act 2/Scene 6

Scaena 6. (Before the prison.)

[Enter Iaylors Daughter alone.]

DAUGHTER.

Let all the Dukes, and all the divells rore, He is at liberty: I have venturd for him, And out I have brought him to a little wood A mile hence. I have sent him, where a Cedar, Higher than all the rest, spreads like a plane Fast by a Brooke, and there he shall keepe close, Till I provide him Fyles and foode, for yet His yron bracelets are not off. O Love, What a stout hearted child thou art! My Father Durst better have indur'd cold yron, than done it: I love him beyond love and beyond reason, Or wit, or safetie: I have made him know it. I care not, I am desperate; If the law Finde me, and then condemne me for't, some wenches, Some honest harted Maides, will sing my Dirge, And tell to memory my death was noble, Dying almost a Martyr: That way he takes, I purpose is my way too: Sure he cannot Be so unmanly, as to leave me here; If he doe, Maides will not so easily Trust men againe: And yet he has not thank'd me For what I have done: no not so much as kist me, And that (me thinkes) is not so well; nor scarcely Could I perswade him to become a Freeman, He made such scruples of the wrong he did To me, and to my Father. Yet I hope, When he considers more, this love of mine Will take more root within him: Let him doe What he will with me, so he use me kindly; For use me so he shall, or ile proclaime him, And to his face, no man. Ile presently Provide him necessaries, and packe my cloathes up, And where there is a patch of ground Ile venture, So hee be with me; By him, like a shadow, Ile ever dwell; within this houre the whoobub Will be all ore the prison: I am then Kissing the man they looke for: farewell, Father; Get many more such prisoners and such daughters, And shortly you may keepe your selfe. Now to him!