O time most accurst,

’Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

PROTEUS    My shame and guilt confounds77 me.

Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow

Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I tender’t80 here. I do as truly suffer

As e’er I did commit.81

VALENTINE    Then I am paid:

And once again I do receive thee83 honest.

Who84 by repentance is not satisfied

Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these85 are pleased:

By penitence th’Eternal’s86 wrath’s appeased.

And that my love may appear plain and free,87

All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.

Swoons

JULIA    O, me unhappy!

PROTEUS    Look to the boy.

VALENTINE    Why, boy! Why, wag!91 How now? What’s the matter?

Look up: speak.

JULIA    O, good sir, my master charged93 me to deliver a ring

to Madam Silvia, which, out of my neglect, was never done.

PROTEUS    Where is that ring, boy?

Produces her own ring

JULIA    Here ’tis: this is it.

Takes ring

PROTEUS    How? Let me see. Why, this is the ring I

gave to Julia.

JULIA    O, cry you mercy99, sir, I have mistook:

Offers another ring

This is the ring you sent to Silvia.

PROTEUS    But how cam’st thou by this ring? At my depart101 I

gave this unto Julia.

JULIA    And Julia herself did give it me,

Reveals herself

And Julia herself hath brought it hither.

PROTEUS    How? Julia?

JULIA    Behold her that gave aim106 to all thy oaths,

And entertained107 ’em deeply in her heart.

How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root!108

O Proteus, let this habit109 make thee blush.

Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me

Such an immodest raiment, if shame live111

In a disguise of love!

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,113

Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

PROTEUS    Than men their minds? ’Tis true. O heaven, were man

But constant, he were perfect. That one error

Fills him with faults, makes him run through all th’sins:

Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.118

What is in Silvia’s face but I may spy

More fresh in Julia’s, with a constant eye?

Proteus and Julia join hands

VALENTINE    Come, come, a hand from either.

Let me be blest to make this happy close:

’Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.

PROTEUS    Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish forever.

JULIA    And I mine.

[Enter Outlaws, with Duke and Turio]

OUTLAWS    A prize, a prize, a prize!

Outlaws release Duke and Turio

VALENTINE    Forbear, forbear, I say! It is my lord the Duke.

Your grace is welcome to a man disgraced,128

Banished Valentine.

DUKE    Sir Valentine?

Steps forward

TURIO    Yonder is Silvia, and Silvia’s mine.

VALENTINE    Turio, give132 back, or else embrace thy death:

Draws his sword

Come not within the measure133 of my wrath.

Do not name Silvia thine: if once again,

Verona shall not hold135 thee. Here she stands,

Take but possession of her with a touch:

I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.

TURIO    Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I.

I hold him but a fool that will endanger

His body for a girl that loves him not:

I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

DUKE    The more degenerate and base art thou

To make such means143 for her as thou hast done,

And leave her on such slight conditions.144

Now, by the honour of my ancestry,

I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an empress’ love:

Know then, I here forget all former griefs,

Cancel all grudge, repeal149 thee home again,

Plead a new state in thy unrivalled merit,150

To which I thus subscribe:151 Sir Valentine,

Thou art a gentleman and well derived,

Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved her.

VALENTINE    I thank your grace: the gift hath made me happy.

I now beseech you, for your daughter’s sake,

To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

DUKE    I grant it, for thine own, whate’er it be.

VALENTINE    These banished men that I have kept withal158

Are men endued with worthy qualities:

Forgive them what they have committed here

And let them be recalled from their exile:

They are reformèd, civil, full of good,

And fit for great employment163, worthy lord.

DUKE    Thou hast prevailed: I pardon them and thee.

Dispose of them as thou know’st their deserts.165

Come, let us go: we will include all jars166

With triumphs, mirth and rare solemnity.167

VALENTINE    And as we walk along, I dare be bold

With our discourse to make your grace to smile.

What think you of this page, my lord?

DUKE    I think the boy hath grace171 in him: he blushes.

VALENTINE    I warrant you, my lord, more grace172 than boy.

DUKE    What mean you by that saying?

VALENTINE    Please you, I’ll tell you as we pass along,

That you will wonder what hath fortunèd.175

Come Proteus, ’tis your penance but to hear

The story of your loves discoverèd.

That done, our day of marriage shall be yours,

One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

Exeunt

TEXTUAL NOTES

F = First Folio text of 1623, the only authority for the play

F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SD = stage direction

List of parts based on “Names of all the Actors” (reordered) at end of F text

F spells Protheus, Thurio, Panthino

All entrances mid-scene = Ed. F groups names of all characters in each scene at beginning of scene

1.1.26 swam spelled swom in F 44 eating love = F. Some eds emend to doting love 65 leave = Ed. F = loue 67 metamorphosed spelled metamorphis’d in F 78 a sheep = F2. F = sheep 138 testerned = F2. F = cestern’d

1.2.101 your = F2. F = you

1.3.17 travel spelled trauaile in F which could mean either travel or travail 89 father = F2. F = Fathers

2.4.105 worthy = F2. F = worthy a 198 Is it = F2. F = It is mine eye = Ed. F = mine 216 SD Exit = F2. F = Exeunt

2.5.36 that = F2. F = that that

2.6.0 SD alone F = solus

3.1.56 tenor = Ed. F = tenure 278 master’s ship = Ed. F = Mastership

314 kissed fasting = Ed. F = fasting

3.2.14 grievously = F (corrected). F (uncorrected) = heauily

4.1.35 often had been = F2. F = often had beene often

4.2.114 his = F2. F = her

4.3.42 Recking = Ed. F = Wreaking

4.4.50 hangman = Ed. F = Hangmans 64 thou = F2. F = thee 68 to leave = F2. F = not leaue

5.2.18 your = Ed. F = you

SCENE-BY-SCENE ANALYSIS

ACT 1 SCENE 1

The two friends Valentine and Proteus are discussing Valentine’s imminent departure for Milan while Proteus is to stay in Verona and woo his beloved Julia. Valentine leaves and his servant Speed arrives hurrying after his master.