User:Sbh/Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes (critical edition)/Scene viii

Scene viii

Here let them make a noise as though they were Mariners; and after, Clyomon, knight of G[olden] S[hield], come in with one.

Clyomon

[within] Ah, set me to shore sirs, in what country soever we be!

Shipmaster^[1]

[within] Well, hale out the cock-boat, seeing so sick we do him see:

Strike sail, cast anchors, till we have rigged our ship again,

For never were we in such storms before, that’s plain.

Enter Clyomon, Boatswain.

Clyomon

Ah, boatswain, gramercies for thy setting me to shore!

Boatswain

Truly, gentleman, we were never in the like tempests before.

Clyomon

What country is this wherein now we be!

Boatswain

Sure, the Isle of Strange Marshes, as our master told to me.

Clyomon

How far is it from Macedonia canst thou declare?

Boatswain

More than twenty days’ sailing, and if the weather were fair.

Clyomon

Ah cruel hap of Fortune’s spite, which ‘signed this luck to me!—

What palace, boatswain, is this same, canst thou declare, we see?

Boatswain

There King Patranius keeps his court, so far as I do guess,

And by this train of ladies here I sure can judge no less.

Clyomon

Well, boatswain, there is for thy pains; and here upon the shore

[Gives money.]

I’ll lie to rest my weary bones; of thee I crave no more.

[Exit [Boatswain. Clyomon lies down.]

Enter Neronis, daughter to Patranius, King of the Strange Marshes, two Lords, two Ladies.

Neronis

My lords,^[2]

Come, will it please you walk abroad to take the pleasant air,

According to our wonted use, in fields both fresh and fair?

My ladies here, I know right well, will not gainsay the same.

First Lord

Nor we, sure, for to pleasure you, Neronis, noble dame.

Neronis

Yes, yes, men they love entreaty much before they will be won.

Second Lord

No, princess, that hath women’s natures^[3] been since first the world begun.

Neronis

So you say.

First Lord

We boldly may,

Under correction of your grace.

Neronis

Well, will it please you forth to trace?

That, when we have of fragrant fields the dulcet fumes obtained,

We may unto the sea-side go, whereas are to be gained

More stranger^[4] sights among Neptune’s waves in seeing ships to sail,

Which pass her by my father’s shore with merry western gale.

First Lord

We shall your highness lead the way to fields erst spoke before.

Neronis

Do so, and, as we do return, we’ll come hard by the shore.

[Exeunt.

Clyomon

What greater grief can grow to gripe the heart of grieved wight

That thus to see fell Fortune she to hold his state in spite?

Ah cruel chance, ah luckless lot, to me poor wretch assigned!

Was^[5] ever seen such contraries by fraudulent goddess blind

To any one, save only I, imparted for to be?

T’amate^[6] the mind of any man, did ever Fortune she

Show forth herself so cruel bent as thus to keep me back

From pointed place by weather driven, my sorrows more to sack?

Ah fatal hap! herein, alas, what further shall I say?

Since I am forced for to break mine oath and pointed day

Before King Alexander’s grace: Clamydes will be there,

And I through Fortune’s cruel spite oppressed with sickness here;

For now within two days it is that we should meet togither:

Woe worth the wind and raging storms, alas, that brought me hither!

Now will Clamydes me accuse a faithless knight to be,

And eke report that cowardliness did daunt the heart of me:

The worthy praise that I have won through fame shall be defaced,

The name of the Knight of the Golden Shield, alas, shall be erased!^[7]

Before that noble prince of might whereas Clamydes he

Will show himself in combat-wise for to exclaim on me

For breaking of my pointed day; and, Clyomon, to thy grief,

Now art thou in a country strange, clean void of all relief,

Oppressed with sickness through the rage of stormy blasts and cold:—

Ah Death, come with thy direful mace! for longer to unfold

My sorrows here it booteth not: yet, Clyomon, do stay;

The ladies, lo, come towards thee that walked the other way.

Enter Neronis, two Lords, and two Ladies.

Neronis

Come, fair dames, sith that we have in fragrant fields obtained,

Of dulcet flowers the pleasant smell, and that these knights disdained

Not to bear us company, our walk more large to make,

Here by the sea of surging waves our home-return we’ll take.^[8]—

My lords, therefore, do keep your way.

First Lord

As it please your grace, we shall obey.

But, behold, madam, what woeful wight here in our way before,

As seemeth very sick to me, doth lie upon the shore.

Neronis

My lords, let’s know the cause of grief whereof he is oppressed,

That, if he be a knight, it may by some means be redressed.—

Fair sir, well met: why lie you here? what is your cause of grief?

Clyomon

O lady, sickness by the sea hath me oppressed, in brief.

Neronis

Of truth, my lords, his countenance bewrays him for to be,

In health, of valiant heart and mind and eke of high degree.

Second Lord

It doth no less than so import, O princess, as you say.

Neronis

Of whence are you, or what’s your name, you wander forth this way?

Clyomon

Of small valure, O lady fair, alas, my name it is!

And for not telling of the same hath brought me unto this.

Neronis

Why, for what cause, sir knight, should you not once^[9] express your name?

Clyomon

Because, O lady, I have vowed contrary to the same;

But where I travel, lady fair, in city, town, or field,

I am^[10] called and do bear by name the Knight of the Golden Shield.

Neronis

Are you that Knight of the Golden Shield, of whom such fame doth go?

Clyomon

I am that selfsame knight, fair dame, as here my shield doth show.

Neronis

Ah worthy, then, of help indeed!—My lords, assist, I pray,

And to my lodging in the court see that you him convey.

For certainly within my mind his state is much deplored.—

But do despair in naught, sir knight, for you shall be restored,

If physic may your grief redress; for I, Neronis, lo,

Daughter to Partanius King, for that which fame doth show

Upon your acts, will be your friend, as after you shall prove.

First Lord

In doing so you shall have meed^[11] of mighty Jove above.

Clyomon

O princess, if I ever be to health restored again,

Your faithful servant, day and night, I vow here to remain.

Neronis

Well, my lords, come after me; do bring him, I require.

Both Lords

We shall, O princess, willingly accomplish your desire.

[Exeunt.

Textual Notes

1. Shipmaster] D B; Shiftmai Q
2. My lords] printed as part of the next line in Q
3. natures] Q B; nature D. Dyce's correction "nature" is unnecessary.—Bullen
4. stranger] Q B; strange D
5. Was] Q; Were D B
6. T'amate] D B; To animate Q
7. erased] D B; defaced Q
8. take] D B; make Q
9. not once] B (following a suggestion by P. A. Daniel); not Q D. The line is metrically defective; some such word seems needed.
10. I am] Q; I'm D B
11. meed] D B; need Q

Explanatory Notes

Clyomon lies down: The audience, of course, were to suppose that a change of scene took place on the entrance of Neronis; and that after her exit the stage again represented the sea-shore.—Dyce.

stranger: The double comparative was frequently used; but here it mars the verse, unless we alter “among” to “’mong.”—Dyce

T'amate: to daunt, dismay—Dyce

sack: i.e. heap—as by pouring out of a sack: so we afterwards find in the present play ‘Hath sacked on me such hugy heaps of ceaseless sorrows here,’—a sense in which I do not remember to have seen the word used elsewhere.—Dyce

togither: So written for the rhyme.

valure: value

meed: reward