(Enter Hinata)
Hinata (pacing back and forth)
The
clock struck nine when I did send the Kurenai;
In half an hour
she promised to return.
Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not
so.
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which
ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,
Driving back shadows
over louring hills:
Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun
upon the highmost hill
Of this day's journey, and from nine till
twelve
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she
affections and warm youthful blood,
She would be as swift in
motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And
his to me:
But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
O God, she comes!
(Enter Kurenai and Chouji)
O honey Kurenai,
what news?
Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.
Kurenai Chouji, stay at the gate.
(Exit Chouji )
Hinata
Now, good sweet Kurenai,--O Lord, why look'st thou sad?
Though
news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
If good, thou shamest the
music of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face.
Kurenai I am a-weary, give me leave awhile:
Fie,
how my bones ache! what a jaunt have I had!
Hinata I
would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news:
Nay, come, I pray
thee, speak; good, good nurse, speak.
Kurenai Jesu,
what haste? can you not stay awhile?
Do you not see that I am out
of breath?
Hinata How art thou out of breath, when
thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The
excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale
thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;
Say
either, and I'll stay the circumstance:
Let me be satisfied, is't
good or bad?
Kurenai Well, you have made a simple
choice; you know not
how to choose a man: Itachi! no, not he;
though his
face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels
all
men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body,
though they be not
to be talked on, yet they are
past compare: he is not the flower
of courtesy,
but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy
ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home?
Hinata
No, no: but all this did I know before.
What says he of our
marriage? what of that?
Kurenai Lord, how my head
aches! what a head have I!
It beats as it would fall in twenty
pieces.
My back o' t' other side,--O, my back, my back!
Beshrew
your heart for sending me about,
To catch my death with jaunting
up and down!
Hinata I' faith, I am sorry that thou
art not well.
Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my
love?
Kurenai Your love says, like an honest
gentleman, and a
courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I
warrant, a virtuous,--Where is your mother?
Hinata
Where is my mother! why, she is within;
Where should she be? How
oddly thou repliest!
'Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
Where is your mother?'
Kurenai O God's lady dear!
Are you so hot? marry, come up, I trow;
Is this the poultice
for my aching bones?
Henceforward do your messages yourself.
Hinata Here's such a coil! come, what says Itachi?
Kurenai Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
Hinata I have.
Kurenai Then hie you
hence to Shikamaru cell;
There stays a husband to make you a
wife:
Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,
They'll
be in scarlet straight at any news.
Hie you to church; I must
another way,
To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
Must
climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark:
I am the drudge and
toil in your delight,
But you shall bear the burden soon at
night.
Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell.
Hinata Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.
(Exeunt)
