The Two Noble Kinsmen · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. Athens. A garden, with a castle in the background
Enter Jailer and Wooer. JAILER. I may depart with little while I live; something I may cast to you, not much. Alas, the prison I keep, though it be for great ones, yet they seldom come; before one salmon, you shall take a number of minnows. I am given out to be better lined than it can appear to me report is a true speaker. I would I were really that I am delivered to be. Marry, what I have, be it what it will, I will assure upon my daughter at the day of my death. WOOER. Sir, I demand no more than your own offer, and I will estate your daughter in what I have promised. JAILER. Well, we will talk more of this when the solemnity is past. But have you a full promise of her? When that shall be seen, I tender my consent. Enter the Jailer’s Daughter, carrying rushes. WOOER. I have sir. Here she comes. JAILER. Your friend and I have chanced to name you here, upon the old business. But no more of that now; so soon as the court hurry is over, we will have an end of it. I’ th’ meantime, look tenderly to the two prisoners. I can tell you they are princes. DAUGHTER. These strewings are for their chamber. ’Tis pity they are in prison, and ’twere pity they should be out. I do think they have patience to make any adversity ashamed. The prison itself is proud of ’em, and they have all the world in their chamber.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.