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Full speech
¶Oh mighty King, your commandment will I do speedily. As you commanded, Oh mighty King, we have brought Damo ¶It shall be done sir: Because your eyes have made such a do, will knock down this your Lantern, & shut up your shop window too. Damon, thou servest the Gods well to day, be thou of comfort, As for you sir, I think you will be hanged in sport, You herd what the King said? I must keep you safely, By cock so I will, you shall rather hang then I: Come on your way, I am glad he is gone. I had almost wept to, come Pithias So God help me, I am sorry for thy foolish case, Wilt thou venture thy life for a man, so fondly? Here is a mad man I tell Thee, I have a wife whom I love well, And if iche woald die for her, chould ich wear in Hell: Wilt thou do more for a man, then I would for a woman. Then come on your ways, you must to Prison in haste, repent this folly at last. Sir, all things are ready, here is the place, here is y e hand, here is the sword Here lacketh non but Pithias, whose head at a word, If he were present I could finely strike of, You may report that all things are ready. It shall be done: since you came into this place, I might have stroken of seven heads in this space: Ber lady here are good garments, these are mine by the rood, It is and evil wind that blows no man good: Now Pithias kneel down, ask me blessing Like a pretty boy, And with a trice thy head from thy shoulders I will convey. Stay, stay, stay, for the kings advantage stay, Oh mighty king, mine appointed time is not yet fully passed, Within the compass of mine hour lo, here, I come at last: A life I owe, a life I will you pay: O my Pithias, my noble pledge, my constant friend, Ah w is me for Damons sake, how near were thou to thy end: Give place to me, this room is mine, on this stage must I play, Damon is the man, none ought but he to Dionisius his blood to pay. Are you come sir? you might have tarried if you had be wise, For your hasty coming you are like to know the prize. My hand with Sudden fear quivereth. I am glad to hear this word, though their lives they do not lose, It is no reason the Hangman should loose his fees: These are mine, I am gone with a trice. EXIT I m cruel very much, under what constilation, All hangmen are born, for they are hated of all, beloved of none Which hatred is showed by this point evidently, The Hangman always dwells in the vilest place of the City: That such spite should be, I know no cause why, Unless it be for their offices sake, which is cruel and blondye Yet some men must do it to execute laws? Me think they hate me without any joust cause: But I must lo ke to my toil, Pithias must loose his head at one low, Else the Boys will stone me to death in the street as I go: But hark, the prisoner comes, and the King also, I see there is no help, Pithias his life must forgo. Bring forth Pithias that pleasant companion, Which took me at my word and became pledge for Damon: It pricks fast upon noon, I do him no injury, If now he loose his head for so he requested me. If Damon return not, which now in Greece is full merry: Therefore shall Pithias pay his death, and that by and by, He thought belike, if Damon were out of the City, I would not put him to death, for some foolish pity: But seeing it was his request, I will not be mocked he shall di Bring him forth. Give place, let the prisoner come by, give place.
Plot summary
Plot — Damon and Pithias
Damon and Pythias, close friends since their schooldays, arrive in Syracuse, only to discover that the ruler, Dionysius, is a tyrant given to executing his subjects for trivial reasons, and whose court is a magnet for mercenary men. Eager to cement his position there, the parasite Carisophus tries to trap Damon into indiscreet talk, then seizes on his tourist’s interest in the city as a pretext to brand him a spy. Damon is arrested and condemned to death. Pythias seeks the help of the philosopher courtier Aristippus, who refers him to Eubulus, whose advice has already been rejected by Dionysius. Eubulus argues that kings should inspire their subjects’ love, but Dionysius is convinced that terror is the only effective instrument of rule, and orders the execution to proceed. Damon asks for leave to return to Greece to put his affairs in order, with the promise that he will then return to face his death. Dionysius will not accept his word of honour, so Pythias offers himself as pledge. He is imprisoned and Damon released. Dionysius grows more suspicious, to the extent that he will allow only his own daughters to shave him. Two pages induce Grim the collier to pass on the common talk about the Damon case and the court in general. When he expresses interest in being shaved by the King’s daughters, the pages offer to do it in the same style, and take the opportunity to rob him. The day of Pythias’s execution approaches, and Damon has not returned. Carisophus falls from favour after Eubulus warns the King against flatterers in general and Aristippus drops hints against him in particular. However, Eubulus cannot dissuade Dionysius from executing Pythias. Damon arrives just as his friend is about to be beheaded, and they argue over which of them should die to save the other. Dionysius is stunned by the example: he realizes the value of friendship, pardons both, and eschews his former tyranny. The court is purged of vice and Carisophus beaten away.