ACT II
ACT II, SCENE I. Milan. The DUKE's palace.
[Enter VALENTINE and SPEED]
VALENTINE:
- Not mine; my gloves are on.
SPEED:
- Why, then, this may be yours, for this is but one.
VALENTINE:
- Ha! let me see: ay, give it me, it's mine:
- Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine!
- Ah, Silvia, Silvia!
SPEED:
- Madam Silvia! Madam Silvia!
VALENTINE:
- How now, sirrah?
SPEED:
- She is not within hearing, sir.
VALENTINE:
- Why, sir, who bade you call her?
SPEED:
- Your worship, sir; or else I mistook.
VALENTINE:
- Well, you'll still be too forward.
SPEED:
- And yet I was last chidden for being too slow.
VALENTINE:
- Go to, sir: tell me, do you know Madam Silvia?
SPEED:
- She that your worship loves?
VALENTINE:
- Why, how know you that I am in love?
SPEED:
- Marry, by these special marks: first, you have
- learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe your arms,
- like a malecontent; to relish a love-song, like a
- robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had
- the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had
- lost his A B C; to weep, like a young wench that had
- buried her grandam; to fast, like one that takes
- diet; to watch like one that fears robbing; to
- speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were
- wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you
- walked, to walk like one of the lions; when you
- fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you
- looked sadly, it was for want of money: and now you
- are metamorphosed with a mistress, that, when I look
- on you, I can hardly think you my master.
VALENTINE:
- Are all these things perceived in me?
SPEED:
- They are all perceived without ye.
VALENTINE:
- Without me? they cannot.
SPEED:
- Without you? nay, that's certain, for, without you
- were so simple, none else would: but you are so
- without these follies, that these follies are within
- you and shine through you like the water in an
- urinal, that not an eye that sees you but is a
- physician to comment on your malady.
VALENTINE:
- But tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia?
SPEED:
- She that you gaze on so as she sits at supper?
VALENTINE:
- Hast thou observed that? even she, I mean.
SPEED:
- Why, sir, I know her not.
VALENTINE:
- Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet
- knowest her not?
SPEED:
- Is she not hard-favoured, sir?
VALENTINE:
- Not so fair, boy, as well-favoured.
SPEED:
- Sir, I know that well enough.
VALENTINE:
- What dost thou know?
SPEED:
- That she is not so fair as, of you, well-favoured.
VALENTINE:
- I mean that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour infinite.
SPEED:
- That's because the one is painted and the other out
- of all count.
VALENTINE:
- How painted? and how out of count?
SPEED:
- Marry, sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no
- man counts of her beauty.
VALENTINE:
- How esteemest thou me? I account of her beauty.
SPEED:
- You never saw her since she was deformed.
VALENTINE:
- How long hath she been deformed?
SPEED:
- Ever since you loved her.
VALENTINE:
- I have loved her ever since I saw her; and still I
- see her beautiful.
SPEED:
- If you love her, you cannot see her.
SPEED:
- Because Love is blind. O, that you had mine eyes;
- or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to
- have when you chid at Sir Proteus for going
- ungartered!
VALENTINE:
- What should I see then?
SPEED:
- Your own present folly and her passing deformity:
- for he, being in love, could not see to garter his
- hose, and you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose.
VALENTINE:
- Belike, boy, then, you are in love; for last
- morning you could not see to wipe my shoes.
SPEED:
- True, sir; I was in love with my bed: I thank you,
- you swinged me for my love, which makes me the
- bolder to chide you for yours.
VALENTINE:
- In conclusion, I stand affected to her.
SPEED:
- I would you were set, so your affection would cease.
VALENTINE:
- Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to
- one she loves.
SPEED:
- Are they not lamely writ?
VALENTINE:
- No, boy, but as well as I can do them. Peace!
- here she comes.
SPEED:
-
[Aside]
- O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet!
- Now will he interpret to her.
-
[Enter SILVIA]
VALENTINE:
- Madam and mistress, a thousand good-morrows.
SPEED:
-
[Aside]
- O, give ye good even! here's a million of manners.
SILVIA:
- Sir Valentine and servant, to you two thousand.
SPEED:
-
[Aside]
- He should give her interest and she gives it him.
VALENTINE:
- As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter
- Unto the secret nameless friend of yours;
- Which I was much unwilling to proceed in
- But for my duty to your ladyship.
SILVIA:
- I thank you gentle servant: 'tis very clerkly done.
VALENTINE:
- Now trust me, madam, it came hardly off;
- For being ignorant to whom it goes
- I writ at random, very doubtfully.
SILVIA:
- Perchance you think too much of so much pains?
VALENTINE:
- No, madam; so it stead you, I will write
- Please you command, a thousand times as much; And yet--
SILVIA:
- A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel;
- And yet I will not name it; and yet I care not;
- And yet take this again; and yet I thank you,
- Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more.
SPEED:
-
[Aside]
- And yet you will; and yet another 'yet.'
VALENTINE:
- What means your ladyship? do you not like it?
SILVIA:
- Yes, yes; the lines are very quaintly writ;
- But since unwillingly, take them again.
- Nay, take them.
VALENTINE:
- Madam, they are for you.
SILVIA:
- Ay, ay: you writ them, sir, at my request;
- But I will none of them; they are for you;
- I would have had them writ more movingly.
VALENTINE:
- Please you, I'll write your ladyship another.
SILVIA:
- And when it's writ, for my sake read it over,
- And if it please you, so; if not, why, so.
VALENTINE:
- If it please me, madam, what then?
SILVIA:
- Why, if it please you, take it for your labour:
- And so, good morrow, servant.
-
[Exit]
SPEED:
- O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,
- As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple!
- My master sues to her, and she hath
- taught her suitor,
- He being her pupil, to become her tutor.
- O excellent device! was there ever heard a better,
- That my master, being scribe, to himself should write
- the letter?
VALENTINE:
- How now, sir? what are you reasoning with yourself?
SPEED:
- Nay, I was rhyming: 'tis you that have the reason.
SPEED:
- To be a spokesman for Madam Silvia.
SPEED:
- To yourself: why, she wooes you by a figure.
SPEED:
- By a letter, I should say.
VALENTINE:
- Why, she hath not writ to me?
SPEED:
- What need she, when she hath made you write to
- yourself? Why, do you not perceive the jest?
VALENTINE:
- No, believe me.
SPEED:
- No believing you, indeed, sir. But did you perceive
- her earnest?
VALENTINE:
- She gave me none, except an angry word.
SPEED:
- Why, she hath given you a letter.
VALENTINE:
- That's the letter I writ to her friend.
SPEED:
- And that letter hath she delivered, and there an end.
VALENTINE:
- I would it were no worse.
SPEED:
- I'll warrant you, 'tis as well:
- For often have you writ to her, and she, in modesty,
- Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply;
- Or fearing else some messenger that might her mind discover,
- Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.
- All this I speak in print, for in print I found it.
- Why muse you, sir? 'tis dinner-time.
SPEED:
- Ay, but hearken, sir; though the chameleon Love can
- feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my
- victuals, and would fain have meat. O, be not like
- your mistress; be moved, be moved.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE II. Verona. JULIA'S house.
[Enter PROTEUS and JULIA]
PROTEUS:
- Have patience, gentle Julia.
JULIA:
- I must, where is no remedy.
PROTEUS:
- When possibly I can, I will return.
JULIA:
- If you turn not, you will return the sooner.
- Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.
-
[Giving a ring]
PROTEUS:
- Why then, we'll make exchange; here, take you this.
JULIA:
- And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.
PROTEUS:
- Here is my hand for my true constancy;
- And when that hour o'erslips me in the day
- Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake,
- The next ensuing hour some foul mischance
- Torment me for my love's forgetfulness!
- My father stays my coming; answer not;
- The tide is now: nay, not thy tide of tears;
- That tide will stay me longer than I should.
- Julia, farewell!
-
[Exit JULIA]
- What, gone without a word?
- Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak;
- For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.
-
[Enter PANTHINO]
PANTHINO:
- Sir Proteus, you are stay'd for.
PROTEUS:
- Go; I come, I come.
- Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE III. The same. A street.
[Enter LAUNCE, leading a dog]
LAUNCE:
- Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping;
- all the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I
- have received my proportion, like the prodigious
- son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's
- court. I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured
- dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father
- wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat
- wringing her hands, and all our house in a great
- perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed
- one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and
- has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have
- wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam,
- having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my
- parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it. This
- shoe is my father: no, this left shoe is my father:
- no, no, this left shoe is my mother: nay, that
- cannot be so neither: yes, it is so, it is so, it
- hath the worser sole. This shoe, with the hole in
- it, is my mother, and this my father; a vengeance
- on't! there 'tis: now, sit, this staff is my
- sister, for, look you, she is as white as a lily and
- as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid: I
- am the dog: no, the dog is himself, and I am the
- dog--Oh! the dog is me, and I am myself; ay, so,
- so. Now come I to my father; Father, your blessing:
- now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping:
- now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps on. Now
- come I to my mother: O, that she could speak now
- like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her; why, there
- 'tis; here's my mother's breath up and down. Now
- come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes. Now
- the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor speaks a
- word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.
-
[Enter PANTHINO]
PANTHINO:
- Launce, away, away, aboard! thy master is shipped
- and thou art to post after with oars. What's the
- matter? why weepest thou, man? Away, ass! You'll
- lose the tide, if you tarry any longer.
LAUNCE:
- It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the
- unkindest tied that ever any man tied.
PANTHINO:
- What's the unkindest tide?
LAUNCE:
- Why, he that's tied here, Crab, my dog.
PANTHINO:
- Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lose the flood, and, in
- losing the flood, lose thy voyage, and, in losing
- thy voyage, lose thy master, and, in losing thy
- master, lose thy service, and, in losing thy
- service,--Why dost thou stop my mouth?
LAUNCE:
- For fear thou shouldst lose thy tongue.
PANTHINO:
- Where should I lose my tongue?
LAUNCE:
- Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and
- the service, and the tied! Why, man, if the river
- were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the
- wind were down, I could drive the boat with my sighs.
PANTHINO:
- Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee.
LAUNCE:
- Sir, call me what thou darest.
LAUNCE:
- Well, I will go.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE IV. Milan. The DUKE's palace.
[Enter SILVIA, VALENTINE, THURIO, and SPEED]
SPEED:
- Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you.
VALENTINE:
- Ay, boy, it's for love.
VALENTINE:
- Of my mistress, then.
SPEED:
- 'Twere good you knocked him.
-
[Exit]
SILVIA:
- Servant, you are sad.
VALENTINE:
- Indeed, madam, I seem so.
THURIO:
- Seem you that you are not?
THURIO:
- So do counterfeits.
THURIO:
- What seem I that I am not?
THURIO:
- What instance of the contrary?
THURIO:
- And how quote you my folly?
VALENTINE:
- I quote it in your jerkin.
THURIO:
- My jerkin is a doublet.
VALENTINE:
- Well, then, I'll double your folly.
SILVIA:
- What, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour?
VALENTINE:
- Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.
THURIO:
- That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live
- in your air.
VALENTINE:
- You have said, sir.
THURIO:
- Ay, sir, and done too, for this time.
VALENTINE:
- I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.
SILVIA:
- A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.
VALENTINE:
- 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver.
SILVIA:
- Who is that, servant?
VALENTINE:
- Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir
- Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks,
- and spends what he borrows kindly in your company.
THURIO:
- Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall
- make your wit bankrupt.
VALENTINE:
- I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words,
- and, I think, no other treasure to give your
- followers, for it appears by their bare liveries,
- that they live by your bare words.
SILVIA:
- No more, gentlemen, no more:--here comes my father.
-
[Enter DUKE]
DUKE:
- Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
- Sir Valentine, your father's in good health:
- What say you to a letter from your friends
- Of much good news?
VALENTINE:
- My lord, I will be thankful.
- To any happy messenger from thence.
DUKE:
- Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?
VALENTINE:
- Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman
- To be of worth and worthy estimation
- And not without desert so well reputed.
VALENTINE:
- Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves
- The honour and regard of such a father.
VALENTINE:
- I know him as myself; for from our infancy
- We have conversed and spent our hours together:
- And though myself have been an idle truant,
- Omitting the sweet benefit of time
- To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection,
- Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name,
- Made use and fair advantage of his days;
- His years but young, but his experience old;
- His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
- And, in a word, for far behind his worth
- Comes all the praises that I now bestow,
- He is complete in feature and in mind
- With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
DUKE:
- Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good,
- He is as worthy for an empress' love
- As meet to be an emperor's counsellor.
- Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me,
- With commendation from great potentates;
- And here he means to spend his time awhile:
- I think 'tis no unwelcome news to you.
VALENTINE:
- Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he.
DUKE:
- Welcome him then according to his worth.
- Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio;
- For Valentine, I need not cite him to it:
- I will send him hither to you presently.
-
[Exit]
VALENTINE:
- This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
- Had come along with me, but that his mistress
- Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks.
SILVIA:
- Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
- Upon some other pawn for fealty.
VALENTINE:
- Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.
SILVIA:
- Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind
- How could he see his way to seek out you?
VALENTINE:
- Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes.
THURIO:
- They say that Love hath not an eye at all.
VALENTINE:
- To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself:
- Upon a homely object Love can wink.
SILVIA:
- Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman.
-
[Exit THURIO]
-
[Enter PROTEUS]
VALENTINE:
- Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you,
- Confirm his welcome with some special favour.
SILVIA:
- His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
- If this be he you oft have wish'd to hear from.
VALENTINE:
- Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him
- To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
SILVIA:
- Too low a mistress for so high a servant.
PROTEUS:
- Not so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
- To have a look of such a worthy mistress.
VALENTINE:
- Leave off discourse of disability:
- Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant.
PROTEUS:
- My duty will I boast of; nothing else.
SILVIA:
- And duty never yet did want his meed:
- Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.
PROTEUS:
- I'll die on him that says so but yourself.
SILVIA:
- That you are welcome?
PROTEUS:
- That you are worthless.
-
[Re-enter THURIO]
THURIO:
- Madam, my lord your father would speak with you.
SILVIA:
- I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio,
- Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome:
- I'll leave you to confer of home affairs;
- When you have done, we look to hear from you.
VALENTINE:
- Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?
PROTEUS:
- Your friends are well and have them much commended.
VALENTINE:
- And how do yours?
PROTEUS:
- I left them all in health.
VALENTINE:
- How does your lady? and how thrives your love?
PROTEUS:
- My tales of love were wont to weary you;
- I know you joy not in a love discourse.
VALENTINE:
- Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now:
- I have done penance for contemning Love,
- Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
- With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
- With nightly tears and daily heart-sore sighs;
- For in revenge of my contempt of love,
- Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes
- And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
- O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord,
- And hath so humbled me, as, I confess,
- There is no woe to his correction,
- Nor to his service no such joy on earth.
- Now no discourse, except it be of love;
- Now can I break my fast, dine, sup and sleep,
- Upon the very naked name of love.
PROTEUS:
- Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
- Was this the idol that you worship so?
VALENTINE:
- Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
PROTEUS:
- No; but she is an earthly paragon.
VALENTINE:
- Call her divine.
PROTEUS:
- I will not flatter her.
VALENTINE:
- O, flatter me; for love delights in praises.
PROTEUS:
- When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
- And I must minister the like to you.
VALENTINE:
- Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
- Yet let her be a principality,
- Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
PROTEUS:
- Except my mistress.
VALENTINE:
- Sweet, except not any;
- Except thou wilt except against my love.
PROTEUS:
- Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
VALENTINE:
- And I will help thee to prefer her too:
- She shall be dignified with this high honour--
- To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth
- Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
- And, of so great a favour growing proud,
- Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower
- And make rough winter everlastingly.
PROTEUS:
- Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?
VALENTINE:
- Pardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing
- To her whose worth makes other worthies nothing;
- She is alone.
PROTEUS:
- Then let her alone.
VALENTINE:
- Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own,
- And I as rich in having such a jewel
- As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
- The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.
- Forgive me that I do not dream on thee,
- Because thou see'st me dote upon my love.
- My foolish rival, that her father likes
- Only for his possessions are so huge,
- Is gone with her along, and I must after,
- For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.
PROTEUS:
- But she loves you?
VALENTINE:
- Ay, and we are betroth'd: nay, more, our,
- marriage-hour,
- With all the cunning manner of our flight,
- Determined of; how I must climb her window,
- The ladder made of cords, and all the means
- Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
- Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
- In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
PROTEUS:
- Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
- I must unto the road, to disembark
- Some necessaries that I needs must use,
- And then I'll presently attend you.
VALENTINE:
- Will you make haste?
PROTEUS:
- I will.
-
[Exit VALENTINE]
- Even as one heat another heat expels,
- Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
- So the remembrance of my former love
- Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
- Is it mine, or Valentine's praise,
- Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
- That makes me reasonless to reason thus?
- She is fair; and so is Julia that I love--
- That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
- Which, like a waxen image, 'gainst a fire,
- Bears no impression of the thing it was.
- Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
- And that I love him not as I was wont.
- O, but I love his lady too too much,
- And that's the reason I love him so little.
- How shall I dote on her with more advice,
- That thus without advice begin to love her!
- 'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
- And that hath dazzled my reason's light;
- But when I look on her perfections,
- There is no reason but I shall be blind.
- If I can cheque my erring love, I will;
- If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.
-
[Exit]
ACT II, SCENE V. The same. A street.
[Enter SPEED and LAUNCE severally]
SPEED:
- Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan!
LAUNCE:
- Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not
- welcome. I reckon this always, that a man is never
- undone till he be hanged, nor never welcome to a
- place till some certain shot be paid and the hostess
- say 'Welcome!'
SPEED:
- Come on, you madcap, I'll to the alehouse with you
- presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou
- shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how
- did thy master part with Madam Julia?
LAUNCE:
- Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very
- fairly in jest.
SPEED:
- But shall she marry him?
SPEED:
- How then? shall he marry her?
SPEED:
- What, are they broken?
LAUNCE:
- No, they are both as whole as a fish.
SPEED:
- Why, then, how stands the matter with them?
LAUNCE:
- Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it
- stands well with her.
SPEED:
- What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.
LAUNCE:
- What a block art thou, that thou canst not! My
- staff understands me.
LAUNCE:
- Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean,
- and my staff understands me.
SPEED:
- It stands under thee, indeed.
LAUNCE:
- Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.
SPEED:
- But tell me true, will't be a match?
LAUNCE:
- Ask my dog: if he say ay, it will! if he say no,
- it will; if he shake his tail and say nothing, it will.
SPEED:
- The conclusion is then that it will.
LAUNCE:
- Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable.
SPEED:
- 'Tis well that I get it so. But, Launce, how sayest
- thou, that my master is become a notable lover?
LAUNCE:
- I never knew him otherwise.
LAUNCE:
- A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.
SPEED:
- Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistakest me.
LAUNCE:
- Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master.
SPEED:
- I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover.
LAUNCE:
- Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself
- in love. If thou wilt, go with me to the alehouse;
- if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the
- name of a Christian.
LAUNCE:
- Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to
- go to the ale with a Christian. Wilt thou go?
SPEED:
- At thy service.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE VI. The same. The DUKE'S palace.
[Enter PROTEUS]
PROTEUS:
- To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;
- To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn;
- To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
- And even that power which gave me first my oath
- Provokes me to this threefold perjury;
- Love bade me swear and Love bids me forswear.
- O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinned,
- Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!
- At first I did adore a twinkling star,
- But now I worship a celestial sun.
- Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken,
- And he wants wit that wants resolved will
- To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.
- Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
- Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd
- With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths.
- I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;
- But there I leave to love where I should love.
- Julia I lose and Valentine I lose:
- If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
- If I lose them, thus find I by their loss
- For Valentine myself, for Julia Silvia.
- I to myself am dearer than a friend,
- For love is still most precious in itself;
- And Silvia--witness Heaven, that made her fair!--
- Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.
- I will forget that Julia is alive,
- Remembering that my love to her is dead;
- And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
- Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.
- I cannot now prove constant to myself,
- Without some treachery used to Valentine.
- This night he meaneth with a corded ladder
- To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window,
- Myself in counsel, his competitor.
- Now presently I'll give her father notice
- Of their disguising and pretended flight;
- Who, all enraged, will banish Valentine;
- For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter;
- But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross
- By some sly trick blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
- Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
- As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!
-
[Exit]
ACT II, SCENE VII. Verona. JULIA'S house.
[Enter JULIA and LUCETTA]
JULIA:
- Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me;
- And even in kind love I do conjure thee,
- Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
- Are visibly character'd and engraved,
- To lesson me and tell me some good mean
- How, with my honour, I may undertake
- A journey to my loving Proteus.
LUCETTA:
- Alas, the way is wearisome and long!
JULIA:
- A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
- To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
- Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly,
- And when the flight is made to one so dear,
- Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.
LUCETTA:
- Better forbear till Proteus make return.
JULIA:
- O, know'st thou not his looks are my soul's food?
- Pity the dearth that I have pined in,
- By longing for that food so long a time.
- Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
- Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
- As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
LUCETTA:
- I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,
- But qualify the fire's extreme rage,
- Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
JULIA:
- The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns.
- The current that with gentle murmur glides,
- Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
- But when his fair course is not hindered,
- He makes sweet music with the enamell'ed stones,
- Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
- He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
- And so by many winding nooks he strays
- With willing sport to the wild ocean.
- Then let me go and hinder not my course
- I'll be as patient as a gentle stream
- And make a pastime of each weary step,
- Till the last step have brought me to my love;
- And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil
- A blessed soul doth in Elysium.
LUCETTA:
- But in what habit will you go along?
JULIA:
- Not like a woman; for I would prevent
- The loose encounters of lascivious men:
- Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds
- As may beseem some well-reputed page.
LUCETTA:
- Why, then, your ladyship must cut your hair.
JULIA:
- No, girl, I'll knit it up in silken strings
- With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots.
- To be fantastic may become a youth
- Of greater time than I shall show to be.
LUCETTA:
- What fashion, madam shall I make your breeches?
JULIA:
- That fits as well as 'Tell me, good my lord,
- What compass will you wear your farthingale?'
- Why even what fashion thou best likest, Lucetta.
LUCETTA:
- You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam.
JULIA:
- Out, out, Lucetta! that would be ill-favour'd.
LUCETTA:
- A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin,
- Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.
JULIA:
- Lucetta, as thou lovest me, let me have
- What thou thinkest meet and is most mannerly.
- But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me
- For undertaking so unstaid a journey?
- I fear me, it will make me scandalized.
LUCETTA:
- If you think so, then stay at home and go not.
JULIA:
- Nay, that I will not.
LUCETTA:
- Then never dream on infamy, but go.
- If Proteus like your journey when you come,
- No matter who's displeased when you are gone:
- I fear me, he will scarce be pleased withal.
JULIA:
- That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
- A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears
- And instances of infinite of love
- Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.
LUCETTA:
- All these are servants to deceitful men.
JULIA:
- Base men, that use them to so base effect!
- But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth
- His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
- His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
- His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
- His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
LUCETTA:
- Pray heaven he prove so, when you come to him!
JULIA:
- Now, as thou lovest me, do him not that wrong
- To bear a hard opinion of his truth:
- Only deserve my love by loving him;
- And presently go with me to my chamber,
- To take a note of what I stand in need of,
- To furnish me upon my longing journey.
- All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
- My goods, my lands, my reputation;
- Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
- Come, answer not, but to it presently!
- I am impatient of my tarriance.
-
[Exeunt]