1    Who's there? my woman Helen?

2    Please you, madam

3    What hour is it?

4    Almost midnight, madam.

5    I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak:
6    Fold down the leaf where I have left: to bed:
7    Take not away the taper, leave it burning;
8    And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock,
9    I prithee, call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly
Exit Lady
10   To your protection I commend me, gods.
11   From fairies and the tempters of the night
12   Guard me, beseech ye.

13   The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense
14   Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus
15   Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd
16   The chastity he wounded. Cytherea,
17   How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily,
18   And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!
19   But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd,
20   How dearly they do't! 'Tis her breathing that
21   Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper
22   Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids,
23   To see the enclosed lights, now canopied
24   Under these windows, white and azure laced
25   With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design,
26   To note the chamber: I will write all down:
27   Such and such pictures; there the window; such
28   The adornment of her bed; the arras; figures,
29   Why, such and such; and the contents o' the story.
30   Ah, but some natural notes about her body,
31   Above ten thousand meaner moveables
32   Would testify, to enrich mine inventory.
33   O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
34   And be her sense but as a monument,
35   Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come off:
Taking off her bracelet
36   As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard!
37   'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
38   As strongly as the conscience does within,
39   To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
40   A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
41   I' the bottom of a cowslip: here's a voucher,
42   Stronger than ever law could make: this secret
43   Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and ta'en
44   The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end?
45   Why should I write this down, that's riveted,
46   Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading late
47   The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down
48   Where Philomel gave up. I have enough:
49   To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
50   Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
51   May bare the raven's eye! I lodge in fear;
52   Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
Clock strikes
53   One, two, three: time, time!
Goes into the trunk. The scene closes