Thus for Act 4 Scene 2 line 114: “4.2.114 his = F2. F = her” means that we have adopted the correction of the Second Folio, when Silvia is discussing being buried in Valentine’s grave.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with number of speeches/scenes on stage) Proteus (20%/147/11), Valentine (17%/149/6), Julia (14%/107/7), Speed (9%/117/6), Lance (9%/68/4), Duke (9%/48/5), Silvia (7%/58/6), Lucetta (3%/48/2), Turio (3%/36/5).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 80% verse, 20% prose. High frequency of rhyme.
DATE: Early 1590s. Mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598. Presumed on stylistic grounds to be one of the earliest plays, but no firm evidence for any particular year.
SOURCES: Main plot based on a story in Jorge de Montemayor, Diana Enamorada (originally in Spanish—English translation by Bartholomew Yong published 1598, but circulated in manuscript several years earlier); plot may be mediated via a lost Queen’s Men play of the 1580s, Felix and Feliomena. Other literary influences seem to include Arthur Brooke, Romeus and Juliet (1562) and John Lyly, Euphues (1578), and perhaps Midas (c.1589).
TEXT: First Folio of 1623 is the only early printed text. Based on a transcript by Ralph Crane, professional scribe working for the King’s Men. Generally good quality of printing.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
LIST OF PARTS
the two gentlemen
VALENTINE
PROTEUS
SPEED a clownish servant to Valentine
LANCE the like to Proteus
DUKE of Milan, father to Silvia
SILVIA beloved of Valentine
EGLAMOUR agent for Silvia in her escape
ANTONIO father to Proteus
PANTINO servant to Antonio
TURIO a foolish rival to Valentine
JULIA beloved of Proteus
LUCETTA waiting-woman to Julia
HOST where Julia lodges
OUTLAWS with Valentine
Servants, Musicians, Lance’s dog Crab
running scene 1
Enter Valentine [and] Proteus
VALENTINE Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:
Home-keeping youth have ever homely2 wits.
Were’t not affection chains thy tender3 days
To the sweet glances of thy honoured love,
I rather would entreat thy company
To see the wonders of the world abroad,
Than — living dully sluggardized7 at home—
Wear out thy youth with shapeless8 idleness.
But since thou lov’st, love still9, and thrive therein,
Even as I would, when I to love begin.
PROTEUS Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu.
Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply12 see’st
Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel.
Wish me partaker in thy happiness
When thou dost meet good hap15: and in thy danger—
If ever danger do environ16 thee—
Commend thy grievance17 to my holy prayers,
For I will be thy beadsman18, Valentine.
VALENTINE And on a love-book19 pray for my success?
PROTEUS Upon some book I love, I’ll pray for thee.
VALENTINE That’s on some shallow story of deep love:
How young Leander crossed the Hellespont.22
PROTEUS That’s a deep story, of a deeper love,
For he was more than over-shoes in love.24
VALENTINE ’Tis true: for you are over-boots in love,
And yet you never swam the Hellespont.
PROTEUS Over the boots? Nay, give me not the boots.27
VALENTINE No, I will not, for it boots28 thee not.
PROTEUS What?
VALENTINE To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans:
Coy31 looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment’s mirth,
With twenty watchful32, weary, tedious nights;
If haply won, perhaps a hapless33 gain,
If lost, why then a grievous labour won;34
However, but a folly35 bought with wit,
Or else a wit by folly vanquishèd.
PROTEUS So, by your circumstance37, you call me fool.
VALENTINE So, by your circumstance38, I fear you’ll prove.
PROTEUS ’Tis Love you cavil39 at: I am not Love.
VALENTINE Love is your master, for he masters you:
And he that is so yokèd41 by a fool,
Methinks should not be chronicled for42 wise.
PROTEUS Yet writers say: as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker44 dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
VALENTINE And writers say: as the most forward46 bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,47
Even so by love, the young and tender wit
Is turned to folly, blasting49 in the bud,
Losing his verdure, even in the prime,50
And all the fair effects51 of future hopes.
But wherefore waste I time to counsel52 thee
That art a votary to fond53 desire?
Once more, adieu. My father at the road54
Expects my coming, there to see me shipped.55
PROTEUS And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
VALENTINE Sweet Proteus, no: now let us take our leave.
To Milan58 let me hear from thee by letters
Of thy success59 in love, and what news else
Betideth60 here in absence of thy friend:
And I likewise will visit thee with mine.61
PROTEUS All happiness bechance62 to thee in Milan.
VALENTINE As much to you at home: and so, farewell.
Exit
PROTEUS He after honour hunts, I after love;
He leaves his friends to dignify65 them more;
I leave66 myself, my friends and all, for love.
Thou, Julia67, thou hast metamorphosed me:
Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
War69 with good counsel, set the world at nought;
Made wit with musing70 weak, heart sick with thought.
[Enter Speed]
SPEED Sir Proteus, ’save you.71 Saw you my master?
PROTEUS But72 now he parted hence to embark for Milan.
SPEED Twenty to one then, he is shipped already,
And I have played the sheep74 in losing him.
PROTEUS Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray,
An if76 the shepherd be awhile away.
SPEED You conclude that my master is a shepherd, then,
and I a sheep?
PROTEUS I do.
SPEED Why then, my horns are his horns80, whether I wake
or sleep.
PROTEUS A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep.
SPEED This proves me still a sheep.
PROTEUS True: and thy master a shepherd.
SPEED Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance.85
PROTEUS It shall go hard but I’ll prove it by another.86
SPEED The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the
shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me.
Therefore I am no sheep.
PROTEUS The sheep for fodder90 follow the shepherd, the
shepherd for food follows not the sheep: thou for wages
followest thy master, thy master for wages follows not thee.
Therefore thou art a sheep.
SPEED Such another proof will make me cry ‘baa’.94
PROTEUS But dost thou hear? Gav’st thou my letter to Julia?
SPEED Ay, sir: I, a lost-mutton96, gave your letter to her, a
laced-mutton97, and she, a laced-mutton, gave me, a lost-
mutton, nothing for my labour.
PROTEUS Here’s too small a pasture for such store99 of muttons.
SPEED If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick100
her.
PROTEUS Nay, in that you are astray: ’twere best pound102 you.
SPEED Nay, sir, less than a pound103 shall serve me for
carrying your letter.
PROTEUS You mistake: I mean the pound — a pinfold.105
SPEED From a pound to a pin? Fold106 it over and over, ’tis
Speed nods his head
threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover.
PROTEUS But what said she?
SPEED Ay.
PROTEUS Nod — ay — why, that’s ‘noddy’.110
SPEED You mistook, sir: I say she did nod, and you ask me
if she did nod, and I say ‘ay’.
PROTEUS And that set together is noddy.
SPEED Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take114
it for your pains.
PROTEUS No, no, you shall have it for bearing the letter.
SPEED Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear117 with you.
PROTEUS Why sir, how do you bear with me?
SPEED Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly119, having nothing
but the word ‘noddy’ for my pains.
PROTEUS Beshrew121 me, but you have a quick wit.
SPEED And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.
PROTEUS Come come, open the matter123 in brief: what said she?
SPEED Open your purse, that the money and the matter
may be both at once delivered.
Gives a coin
PROTEUS Well, sir: here is for your pains. What said
she?
Examines coin, with contempt
SPEED Truly, sir, I think you’ll hardly128 win her.
PROTEUS Why? Couldst thou perceive129 so much
from her?
SPEED Sir, I could perceive131 nothing at all from her; no, not
so much as a ducat132 for delivering your letter. And being so
hard to me that brought your mind133, I fear she’ll prove as
hard to you in telling your mind. Give her no token134 but
stones135, for she’s as hard as steel.
PROTEUS What said she, nothing?
SPEED No, not so much as ‘Take this for thy pains.’ To
testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testerned me138; in
requital whereof139, henceforth carry your letters yourself. And
so, sir, I’ll commend140 you to my master.
PROTEUS Go, go, begone141, to save your ship from wreck,
[Exit Speed]
Which cannot perish having thee aboard,
Being destined to a drier death143 on shore.
I must go send some better messenger:
I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,145
Receiving them from such a worthless post.146
Exit
Act 1 Scene 2
running scene 2
Enter Julia and Lucetta
JULIA But say, Lucetta — now we are alone—
Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?
LUCETTA Ay, madam, so you stumble not unheedfully.3
JULIA Of all the fair resort4 of gentlemen
That every day with parle5 encounter me,
In thy opinion, which is worthiest love?
LUCETTA Please you repeat their names, I’ll show my mind,
According to my shallow simple skill.
JULIA What think’st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour?9
LUCETTA As of a knight well-spoken, neat10 and fine;
But, were I you, he never should be mine.
JULIA What think’st thou of the rich Mercatio?12
LUCETTA Well of his wealth; but of himself, so so.
JULIA What think’st thou of the gentle14 Proteus?
LUCETTA Lord, Lord: to see what folly reigns in us!
JULIA How now? What means this passion16 at his name?
LUCETTA Pardon, dear madam: ’tis a passing17 shame
That I — unworthy body as I am—
Should censure19 thus on lovely gentlemen.
JULIA Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest?
LUCETTA Then thus: of many good, I think him best.
JULIA Your reason?
LUCETTA I have no other, but a woman’s reason:
I think him so because I think him so.
JULIA And wouldst thou have me cast25 my love on him?
LUCETTA Ay, if you thought your love not cast away.26
JULIA Why he, of all the rest, hath never moved27 me.
LUCETTA Yet he, of all the rest, I think best loves ye.
JULIA His little speaking29 shows his love but small.
LUCETTA Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all.
JULIA They do not love that do not show their love.
LUCETTA O, they love least that let men know their love.
JULIA I would I knew his mind.
Gives a letter
LUCETTA Peruse this paper, madam.
JULIA ‘To Julia’. Say, from whom?
LUCETTA That the contents will show.
JULIA Say, say: who gave it thee?
LUCETTA Sir Valentine’s page: and sent, I think, from Proteus.
He would have given it you, but I, being in the way,39
Did in your name receive it: pardon the fault, I pray.
JULIA Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker!41
Dare you presume to harbour wanton42 lines?
To whisper and conspire against my youth?
Now trust me, ’tis an office44 of great worth,
And you an officer fit for the place.
There, take the paper: see it be returned,
Or else return no more into my sight.
LUCETTA To plead for love deserves more fee48 than hate.
JULIA Will ye be gone?
LUCETTA That you may ruminate.50
Exit
JULIA And yet I would I had o’erlooked51 the letter;
It were a shame to call her back again
And pray her to a fault for which I chid53 her.
What fool is she, that knows I am a maid,
And would not force the letter to my view!
Since maids, in modesty, say ‘no’ to that
Which they would have the profferer construe ‘ay’.57
Fie, fie: how wayward58 is this foolish love
That — like a testy59 babe — will scratch the nurse
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod!60
How churlishly61 I chid Lucetta hence,
When willingly I would have had her here!
How angerly63 I taught my brow to frown,
When inward joy enforced my heart to smile!
My penance is to call Lucetta back
And ask remission66 for my folly past.
What ho! Lucetta!
[Enter Lucetta]
LUCETTA What would your ladyship?
JULIA Is’t near dinner-time?
LUCETTA I would it were,
That you might kill your stomach71 on your meat
And not upon your maid.
Drops a letter, then picks it up
JULIA What is’t that you took up so gingerly?
LUCETTA Nothing.
JULIA Why didst thou stoop then?
LUCETTA To take a paper up that I let fall.
JULIA And is that paper nothing?
LUCETTA Nothing concerning me.
JULIA Then let it lie for those that it concerns.79
LUCETTA Madam, it will not lie where it concerns,80
Unless it have a false interpreter.81
JULIA Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme.
LUCETTA That83 I might sing it, madam, to a tune.
Give me a note: your ladyship can set84—
JULIA As little by such toys85 as may be possible.
Best sing it to the tune of ‘Light o’love’.86
LUCETTA It is too heavy for so light87 a tune.
JULIA Heavy? Belike it hath some burden88 then?
LUCETTA Ay, and melodious were it, would you sing it.
JULIA And why not you?
LUCETTA I cannot reach so high.91
JULIA Let’s see your song.
Takes the letter
How now, minion!92
LUCETTA Keep tune there still, so you will sing it out:93
And yet methinks I do not like this tune.
JULIA You do not?
LUCETTA No, madam, ’tis too sharp.96
JULIA You, minion, are too saucy.
LUCETTA Nay, now you are too flat,98
And mar the concord with too harsh a descant:99
There wanteth but a mean100 to fill your song.
JULIA The mean is drowned with your unruly bass.101
LUCETTA Indeed, I bid the base102 for Proteus.
JULIA This babble shall not henceforth trouble me.
Tears the letter
Here is a coil with protestation!104
Go, get you gone, and let the papers lie:
You would be fing’ring106 them to anger me.
LUCETTA She makes it strange107, but she would be best pleased
To be so angered with another letter.
[Exit]
JULIA Nay, would I were so angered with the same:109
O hateful hands, to tear such loving words;
Injurious wasps111, to feed on such sweet honey
And kill the bees that yield it with your stings!
I’ll kiss each several paper113 for amends.
↓Examining the pieces↓
Look, here is writ ‘kind Julia’. Unkind114 Julia,
As115 in revenge of thy ingratitude,
I throw thy name against the bruising stones,
Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain.
And here is writ ‘love-wounded Proteus’.
Poor wounded name: my bosom as a bed119
Shall lodge thee till thy wound be throughly120 healed;
And thus I search it with a sovereign121 kiss.
But twice or thrice was ‘Proteus’ written down.
Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away
Till I have found each letter, in the letter,
Except mine own name: that, some whirlwind bear
Unto a ragged126, fearful, hanging rock,
And throw it thence into the raging sea.
Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ:
‘Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus,
To the sweet Julia’: that130 I’ll tear away:
And yet I will not, sith131 so prettily
He couples it to his complaining names.132
Thus will I fold them, one upon another;133
Now kiss, embrace, contend134, do what you will.
[Enter Lucetta]
LUCETTA Madam, dinner is ready, and your father stays.135
JULIA Well, let us go.
LUCETTA What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here?
JULIA If you respect138 them, best to take them up.
LUCETTA Nay, I was taken up139 for laying them down.
Picks up the pieces
Yet here they shall not lie, for140 catching cold.
JULIA I see you have a month’s mind to141 them.
LUCETTA Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see;
I see things too, although you judge I wink.143
JULIA Come, come: will’t please you go?
Exeunt
Act 1 Scene 3
running scene 3
Enter Antonio and Pantino
ANTONIO Tell me, Pantino, what sad1 talk was that
Wherewith my brother held you in the cloister?2
PANTINO ’Twas of his nephew Proteus, your son.
ANTONIO Why? What of him?
PANTINO He wondered that your lordship
Would suffer6 him to spend his youth at home,
While other men, of slender reputation,7
Put forth their sons to seek preferment8 out:
Some to the wars to try their fortune there,
Some to discover islands far away,
Some to the studious universities;
For any or for all these exercises,
He said that Proteus your son was meet,13
And did request me to importune14 you
To let him spend his time no more at home,
Which would be great impeachment to his age,16
In having known no travel in his youth.
ANTONIO Nor need’st thou much importune me to that
Whereon this month I have been hammering.19
I have considered well his loss of time,
And how he cannot be a perfect21 man,
Not being tried22 and tutored in the world:
Experience is by industry achieved
And perfected by the swift course of time.
Then tell me, whither were I best to send him?
PANTINO I think your lordship is not ignorant26
How his companion, youthful Valentine,
Attends the emperor28 in his royal court.
ANTONIO I know it well.
PANTINO ’Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither:
There shall he practise tilts31 and tournaments,
Hear sweet discourse32, converse with noblemen,
And be in eye of33 every exercise
Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.
ANTONIO I like thy counsel: well hast thou advised.
And that thou mayst perceive how well I like it,
The execution37 of it shall make known.
Even with the speediest expedition38
I will dispatch him to the emperor’s court.
PANTINO Tomorrow, may it please you, Don Alfonso
With other gentlemen of good esteem
Are journeying to salute the emperor
And to commend43 their service to his will.
ANTONIO Good company: with them shall Proteus go.
[Enter Proteus, reading]
And in good time! Now will we break with45 him.
PROTEUS Sweet love, sweet lines, sweet life!
Here is her hand47, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour’s pawn.48
O, that our fathers would applaud our loves
To seal50 our happiness with their consents.
O heavenly Julia!
ANTONIO How now? What letter are you reading there?
PROTEUS May’t please your lordship, ’tis a word or two
Of commendations54 sent from Valentine,
Delivered by a friend that came from him.
ANTONIO Lend me the letter: let me see what news.
PROTEUS There is no news, my lord, but that he writes
How happily he lives, how well beloved
And daily gracèd59 by the emperor,
Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.
ANTONIO And how stand you affected61 to his wish?
PROTEUS As one relying on your lordship’s will,
And not depending on his63 friendly wish.
ANTONIO My will is something sorted64 with his wish.
Muse65 not that I thus suddenly proceed:
For what I will, I will, and there an end.
I am resolved that thou shalt spend some time
With Valentinus in the emperor’s court:
What maintenance he from his friends69 receives,
Like exhibition70 thou shalt have from me.
Tomorrow be in readiness to go:
Excuse it not, for I am peremptory.72
PROTEUS My lord, I cannot be so soon provided:73
Please you deliberate a day or two.
ANTONIO Look75 what thou want’st shall be sent after thee.
No more of stay:76 tomorrow thou must go.
Come on, Pantino, you shall be employed
To hasten on his expedition.
[Exeunt Antonio and Pantino]
PROTEUS Thus have I shunned the fire for fear of burning,
And drenched me in the sea where I am drowned.
I feared to show my father Julia’s letter,
Lest he should take exceptions82 to my love,
And with the vantage83 of mine own excuse
Hath he excepted most against84 my love.
O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away.
[Enter Pantino]
PANTINO Sir Proteus, your father calls for you:
He is in haste, therefore I pray you go.
PROTEUS Why, this it is: my heart accords91 thereto,
And yet a thousand times it answers ‘no’.
Exeunt
running scene 4
Enter Valentine [and] Speed
SPEED Sir, your glove.
VALENTINE Not mine: my gloves are on.2
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 decks5 a thing divine.
Ah, Silvia6, Silvia!
Calls
SPEED Madam Silvia! Madam Silvia!
VALENTINE How now, sirrah?8
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.12
SPEED And yet I was last chidden for being too slow.
VALENTINE Go to14, 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 marks17: first, you have
learned — like Sir Proteus — to wreathe18 your arms like a
malcontent: to relish19 a love-song like a robin-redbreast: to
walk alone like one that had the pestilence20: to sigh like a
school-boy that had lost his A B C21: to weep like a young
wench that had buried her grandam22: to fast like one that
takes diet: to watch23 like one that fears robbing: to speak
puling like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont24, when you
laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like
one of the lions: when you fasted, it was presently26 after
dinner: when you looked sadly, it was for want27 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.31
VALENTINE Without me?32 They cannot.
SPEED Without33 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 shine35
through you like the water in an urinal36, that not an eye that
sees you but is a physician to comment on your malady.37
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 she40, I mean.
SPEED Why sir, I know her not.
VALENTINE Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet
know’st her not?
SPEED Is she not hard-favoured44, sir?
VALENTINE Not so fair, boy, as well-favoured.45
SPEED Sir, I know that well enough.
VALENTINE What dost thou know?
SPEED That she is not so fair as, of you, well-favoured.48
VALENTINE I mean that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour49
infinite.
SPEED That’s because the one is painted and the other out51
of all count.
VALENTINE How painted? And how out of count?
SPEED Marry, sir, so painted to make her fair, that no man
counts of55 her beauty.
VALENTINE How esteem’st thou me?56 I account of her beauty.
SPEED You never saw her since she was deformed.57
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.
VALENTINE Why?
SPEED Because Love is blind.64 O, that you had mine eyes, or
your own eyes had the lights65 they were wont to have when
you chid at Sir Proteus for going ungartered!66
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 hose69; 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
swinged74 me for my love, which makes me the bolder to chide
you for yours.
VALENTINE In conclusion, I stand affected to76 her.
SPEED I would you were set77, so your affection would cease.
VALENTINE Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to
one she loves.
SPEED And have you?
VALENTINE I have.
SPEED Are they not lamely writ?
VALENTINE No, boy, but as well as I can do them.
Peace! Here she comes.
Aside
SPEED O, excellent motion!85 O, exceeding
puppet! Now will he interpret to her.86
[Enter Silvia]
VALENTINE Madam and mistress, a thousand good-morrows.
Aside
SPEED O, ’give ye good ev’n: here’s a million of88 manners.
SILVIA Sir Valentine and servant89, to you two thousand.
Aside
SPEED He should give her interest, and she gives it him.90
VALENTINE As you enjoined me, I have writ your letter
Unto the secret, nameless friend92 of yours,
Which I was much unwilling to proceed in
Gives her a letter
But for my duty to your ladyship.
SILVIA I thank you, gentle servant: ’tis very clerkly95 done.
VALENTINE Now trust me, madam, it came hardly off:96
For being ignorant to whom it goes
I writ at random, very doubtfully.98
SILVIA Perchance you think too much of so much pains?99
VALENTINE No, madam, so it stead you100, I will write—
Please you command — a thousand times as much.
And yet—
SILVIA A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel,103
And yet I will not name it: and yet I care not.
Offers him the letter
And yet take this105 again. And yet I thank you,
Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more.
Aside
SPEED 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 quaintly109 writ,
Offers the letter again
But, since unwillingly, take them again.110
Nay, take them.
VALENTINE Madam, they are for you.
SILVIA Ay, ay: you writ them, sir, at my request,
But I will none of114 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, so118: if not, why, so.
VALENTINE If it please me, madam? What then?
SILVIA Why, if it please you, take it for your labour;120
And so, good morrow, servant.
Exit
Aside
SPEED O, jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible
As a nose on a man’s face, or a weathercock on a steeple!
My master sues to124 her, and she hath taught her suitor,
He being her pupil, to become her tutor.
O, excellent device!126 Was there ever heard a better?
That my master, being scribe,
To himself should write the letter?
VALENTINE How now, sir? What, are you reasoning129 with yourself?
SPEED Nay, I was rhyming: ’tis you that have the reason.
VALENTINE To do what?
SPEED To be a spokesman from Madam Silvia.
VALENTINE To whom?
SPEED To yourself: why, she woos you by a figure.134
VALENTINE What 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?142
VALENTINE She gave me none143, 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.146
VALENTINE I would it were no worse.
SPEED I’ll warrant148 you, ’tis as well:
For often have you writ to her, and she in modesty,
Or else for want150 of idle time, could not again reply,
Or fearing else some messenger that might her mind discover,151
Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.
All this I speak in print153, for in print I found it.
Why muse you, sir? ’Tis dinner-time.
VALENTINE I have dined.155
SPEED Ay, but hearken, sir: though the chameleon Love156
can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my
victuals, and would fain158 have meat. O, be not like your
mistress: be moved159, be moved.
Exeunt
running scene 5
Enter Proteus [and] Julia
PROTEUS Have patience, gentle Julia.
JULIA I must, where is2 no remedy.
PROTEUS When possibly I can, I will return.
JULIA If you turn4 not, you will return the sooner.
Keep this remembrance5 for thy Julia’s sake.
Gives a ring
PROTEUS Why then, we’ll make exchange; here, take you this.
Gives a ring
JULIA And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.
They kiss
PROTEUS Here is my hand for my true constancy:8
And when that hour o’erslips9 me in the day,
Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake,
The next ensuing hour some foul mischance11
Torment me for my love’s forgetfulness.
My father stays13 my coming: answer not,
The tide is now; nay, not thy tide of tears,
That tide will stay15 me longer than I should.
Julia, farewell. What, gone without a word?
[Exit Julia]
Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak,
For truth hath better deeds than words to grace18 it.
[Enter Pantino]
PANTINO Sir Proteus, you are stayed for.
PROTEUS Go: I come, I come.
Alas, this parting strikes poor lovers dumb.
Exeunt
Act 2 Scene 3
running scene 6
Enter Lance [leading his dog, Crab]
LANCE Nay, ’twill be this hour ere1 I have done weeping: all
the kind2 of the Lances have this very fault. I have received
my proportion, like the prodigious3 son, and am going with
Sir Proteus to the Imperial’s court. I think Crab4, 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 cur8 shed one tear: he is a stone,
a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog.
A Jew10 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 shoe12 is my
father. No, this left13 shoe is my father. No, no, this left shoe is
my mother.
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