The Two Gentlemen of Verona Read online

  DUKE This weak impress of love is as a figure6

  Trenched7 in ice, which with an hour's heat

  Dissolves to water and doth lose his form.

  A little time will melt her frozen thoughts

  And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.

  [Enter Proteus]

  How now, Sir Proteus, is your countryman,

  According to our proclamation, gone?

  PROTEUS Gone, my good lord.

  DUKE My daughter takes his going grievously?14

  PROTEUS A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.

  DUKE So I believe, but Turio thinks not so.

  Proteus, the good conceit17 I hold of thee--

  For thou hast shown some sign of good desert18--

  Makes me the better19 to confer with thee.

  PROTEUS Longer than I prove loyal to your grace

  Let me not live to look upon your grace.

  DUKE Thou know'st how willingly I would effect22

  The match between Sir Turio and my daughter?

  PROTEUS I do, my lord.

  DUKE And also, I think, thou art not ignorant

  How she opposes her against my will?

  PROTEUS She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

  DUKE Ay, and perversely she persevers so.

  What might we do to make the girl forget

  The love of Valentine, and love Sir Turio?

  PROTEUS The best way is to slander Valentine

  With falsehood, cowardice and poor descent:32

  Three things that women highly hold in hate.

  DUKE Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.

  PROTEUS Ay, if his enemy deliver35 it:

  Therefore it must with circumstance36 be spoken

  By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

  DUKE Then you must undertake to slander him.

  PROTEUS And that, my lord, I shall be loath39 to do:

  'Tis an ill office for a gentleman,

  Especially against his very41 friend.

  DUKE Where your good word cannot advantage him,

  Your slander never can endamage him;

  Therefore the office is indifferent,

  Being entreated to it by your friend.45

  PROTEUS You have prevailed, my lord: if I can do it

  By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,47

  She shall not long continue love to him.

  But say this weed49 her love from Valentine,

  It follows not that she will love Sir Turio.

  TURIO Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,

  Lest it should ravel52 and be good to none,

  You must provide to bottom53 it on me,

  Which must be done by praising me as much

  As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

  DUKE And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind56

  Because we know, on Valentine's report,

  You are already Love's firm votary,

  And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.

  Upon this warrant60 shall you have access

  Where you with Silvia may confer at large--

  For she is lumpish, heavy62, melancholy,

  And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you--

  Where you may temper64 her by your persuasion

  To hate young Valentine and love my friend.

  PROTEUS As much as I can do, I will effect.

  But you, Sir Turio, are not sharp67 enough:

  You must lay lime to tangle68 her desires

  By wailful sonnets, whose composed69 rhymes

  Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.70

  DUKE Ay, much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.71

  PROTEUS Say that upon the altar of her beauty

  You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart.

  Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears

  Moist it again, and frame75 some feeling line

  That may discover such integrity:76

  For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,77

  Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,

  Make tigers tame and huge leviathans79

  Forsake unsounded deeps80 to dance on sands.

  After your dire-lamenting elegies,81

  Visit by night your lady's chamber-window

  With some sweet consort83; to their instruments

  Tune a deploring dump.84 The night's dead silence

  Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance.

  This, or else nothing, will inherit86 her.

  DUKE This discipline87 shows thou hast been in love.

  TURIO And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.

  Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,

  Let us into the city presently

  To sort91 some gentlemen well skilled in music.

  I have a sonnet that will serve the turn

  To give the onset to93 thy good advice.

  DUKE About it,94 gentlemen!

  PROTEUS We'll wait upon your grace till after supper,

  And afterward determine our proceedings.

  DUKE Even now about it. I will pardon you.97

  Exeunt

  Act 4 Scene 1

  running scene 13

  Enter certain Outlaws

  FIRST OUTLAW Fellows, stand fast: I see a passenger.1

  SECOND OUTLAW If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.

  [Enter Valentine and Speed]

  THIRD OUTLAW Stand3, sir, and throw us that you have about ye.

  If not, we'll make you sit and rifle4 you.

  SPEED Sir, we are undone; these are the villains

  That all the travellers do fear so much.

  VALENTINE My friends--

  FIRST OUTLAW That's not so, sir: we are your enemies.

  SECOND OUTLAW Peace: we'll hear him.

  THIRD OUTLAW Ay, by my beard, will we: for he is a proper10 man.

  VALENTINE Then know that I have little wealth to lose;

  A man I am, crossed with12 adversity:

  My riches are these poor habiliments,13

  Of which, if you should here disfurnish14 me,

  You take the sum and substance15 that I have.

  SECOND OUTLAW Whither travel you?

  VALENTINE To Verona.

  FIRST OUTLAW Whence came you?

  VALENTINE From Milan.

  THIRD OUTLAW Have you long sojourned20 there?

  VALENTINE Some sixteen months, and longer might have stayed,

  If crooked22 fortune had not thwarted me.

  FIRST OUTLAW What, were you banished thence?

  VALENTINE I was.

  SECOND OUTLAW For what offence?

  VALENTINE For that which now torments me to rehearse:

  I killed a man, whose death I much repent,

  But yet I slew him manfully, in fight,

  Without false vantage29 or base treachery.

  FIRST OUTLAW Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so;

  But were you banished for so small a fault?

  VALENTINE I was, and held me glad of such a doom.32

  SECOND OUTLAW Have you the tongues?33

  VALENTINE My youthful travel therein made me happy,34

  Or else I often had been miserable.

  THIRD OUTLAW By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,36

  This fellow were a king for our wild faction!37

  FIRST OUTLAW We'll have him. Sirs, a word.

  Outlaws confer privately

  SPEED Master, be one of them: it's an honourable kind of

  thievery.

  VALENTINE Peace, villain.

  SECOND OUTLAW Tell us this: have you anything to take to?42

  VALENTINE Nothing but my fortune.

  THIRD OUTLAW Know then that some of us are gentlemen,

  Such as the fury of ungoverned45 youth

  Thrust from the company of awful46 men.

  Myself was from Verona banished

  For
practising48 to steal away a lady,

  An heir and niece49, allied unto the duke.

  SECOND OUTLAW And I from Mantua50, for a gentleman,

  Who, in my mood51, I stabbed unto the heart.

  FIRST OUTLAW And I for such like petty crimes as these.

  But to the purpose: for we cite53 our faults,

  That they may hold excused54 our lawless lives;

  And partly, seeing you are beautified

  With goodly shape56, and by your own report

  A linguist and a man of such perfection

  As we do in our quality58 much want--

  SECOND OUTLAW Indeed, because you are a banished man,

  Therefore, above the rest, we parley60 to you:

  Are you content to be our general?

  To make a virtue of necessity

  And live as we do in this wilderness?

  THIRD OUTLAW What say'st thou? Wilt thou be of our consort?64

  Say 'ay', and be the captain of us all:

  We'll do thee homage66 and be ruled by thee,

  Love thee as our commander and our king.

  FIRST OUTLAW But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.

  SECOND OUTLAW Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offered.

  VALENTINE I take your offer and will live with you,

  Provided that you do no outrages71

  On silly72 women or poor passengers.

  THIRD OUTLAW No, we detest such vile base practices.

  Come, go with us: we'll bring thee to our crews,74

  And show thee all the treasure we have got,

  Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.76

  Exeunt

  Act 4 Scene 2

  running scene 14

  Enter Proteus

  PROTEUS Already have I been false to Valentine,

  And now I must be as unjust to Turio:

  Under the colour of commending3 him,

  I have access my own love to prefer.

  But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,

  To be corrupted with my worthless gifts;

  When I protest7 true loyalty to her,

  She twits8 me with my falsehood to my friend;

  When to her beauty I commend9 my vows,

  She bids me think how I have been forsworn

  In breaking faith with Julia, whom I loved;

  And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,12

  The least whereof would quell a lover's hope,

  Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,

  The more it grows and fawneth on her still.

  [Enter Turio and Musicians]

  But here comes Turio; now must we to her window,

  And give some evening music to her ear.

  TURIO How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept18 before us?

  PROTEUS Ay, gentle Turio, for you know that love

  Will creep in service where it cannot go.20

  TURIO Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here.21

  PROTEUS Sir, but I do: or else I would be hence.

  TURIO Who, Silvia?

  PROTEUS Ay, Silvia: for your sake.

  TURIO I thank you for your own.25 Now, gentlemen,

  Let's tune, and to it lustily26 awhile.

  [Enter, at a distance, the Host, and Julia in boy's clothes]

  They talk apart

  HOST Now, my young guest, methinks you're allicholly27; I

  pray you, why is it?

  JULIA Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.

  HOST Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where

  you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked

  for.

  JULIA But shall I hear him speak?

  HOST Ay, that you shall.

  Music plays

  JULIA That will be music.

  HOST Hark, hark!

  JULIA Is he among these?

  HOST Ay: but peace, let's hear 'em.

  [PROTEUS or A MUSICIAN sings the] song

  Who is Silvia? What is she?

  That all our swains40 commend her?

  Holy, fair and wise is she:

  The heaven such grace42 did lend her,

  That she might admired43 be.

  Is she kind as she is fair?

  For beauty lives with kindness:

  Love doth to her eyes repair,46

  To help him of47 his blindness,

  And, being helped, inhabits there.

  Then to Silvia let us sing,

  That Silvia is excelling;

  She excels each mortal thing

  Upon the dull earth dwelling.

  To her let us garlands bring.

  HOST How now? Are you sadder than you were before?

  How do you, man? The music likes55 you not.

  JULIA You mistake: the musician likes me not.56

  HOST Why, my pretty youth?

  JULIA He plays false, father.58

  HOST How, out of tune on the strings?

  JULIA Not so: but yet so false that he grieves my very

  heart-strings.

  HOST You have a quick62 ear.

  JULIA Ay, I would I were deaf: it makes me have a slow63

  heart.

  HOST I perceive you delight not in music.

  JULIA Not a whit, when it jars66 so.

  HOST Hark what fine change67 is in the music.

  JULIA Ay, that change is the spite.68

  HOST You would have them always play but one thing?69

  JULIA I would always have one play but one thing.70

  But, host, doth this Sir Proteus that we talk on

  Often resort unto this gentlewoman?

  HOST I tell you what Lance his man told me: he loved her

  out of all nick.74

  JULIA Where is Lance?

  HOST Gone to seek his dog, which tomorrow, by his

  master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady.

  JULIA Peace, stand aside: the company parts.

  Julia and the Host stand aside

  PROTEUS Sir Turio, fear not you: I will so plead

  That you shall say my cunning drift excels.

  TURIO Where meet we?

  PROTEUS At Saint Gregory's well.82

  TURIO Farewell.

  [Exeunt Turio and Musicians]

  [Enter Silvia above, at her window]

  PROTEUS Madam, good even to your ladyship.

  SILVIA I thank you for your music, gentlemen.

  Who is that that spake?

  PROTEUS One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,

  You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.

  SILVIA Sir Proteus, as I take it.

  PROTEUS Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.

  SILVIA What's your will?91

  PROTEUS That I may compass yours.92

  SILVIA You have your wish: my will is even this,

  That presently you hie94 you home to bed.

  Thou subtle,95 perjured, false, disloyal man:

  Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,96

  To be seduced by thy flattery,

  That hast deceived so many with thy vows?

  Return, return, and make thy love99 amends.

  For me -- by this pale queen of night100 I swear--

  I am so far from granting thy request

  That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,102

  And by and by103 intend to chide myself,

  Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.

  PROTEUS I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady:

  But she is dead.

  Aside

  JULIA 'Twere false, if107 I should speak it;

  For I am sure she is not buried.

  SILVIA Say that she be: yet Valentine thy friend

  Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,

  I am betrothed. And art thou not ashamed

  To wrong him with thy importunacy?112

  PROTEUS I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.

  SILVI
A And so suppose am I114: for in his grave

  Assure thyself, my love is buried.

  PROTEUS Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.

  SILVIA Go to thy lady's grave and call hers117 thence,

  Or at the least, in hers sepulchre118 thine.

  Aside

  JULIA He heard not that.

  PROTEUS Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,120

  Vouchsafe121 me yet your picture for my love,

  The picture that is hanging in your chamber.

  To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:

  For since the substance of your perfect self

  Is else125 devoted, I am but a shadow,

  And to your shadow126 will I make true love.

  Aside

  JULIA If 'twere a substance, you would sure deceive it,127

  And make it but a shadow, as I am.

  SILVIA I am very loath to be your idol, sir;

  But, since your falsehood shall become you well130

  To worship shadows and adore false shapes,

  Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it.

  And so, good rest.

  PROTEUS As wretches have o'ernight

  That wait for execution in the morn.

  [Exeunt Proteus and Silvia, separately]

  JULIA Host, will you go?

  HOST By my halidom137, I was fast asleep.

  JULIA Pray you, where lies138 Sir Proteus?

  HOST Marry, at my house.139 Trust me, I think 'tis almost

  day.

  JULIA Not so: but it hath been the longest night

  That e'er I watched, and the most heaviest.142

  [Exeunt]

  Act 4 Scene 3

  running scene 15

  Enter Eglamour

  EGLAMOUR This is the hour that Madam Silvia

  Entreated me to call and know her mind:

  There's some great matter she'd employ me in.

  Madam, madam.

  [Enter Silvia above, at her window]

  SILVIA Who calls?

  EGLAMOUR Your servant and your friend;

  One that attends your ladyship's command.

  SILVIA Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow.

  EGLAMOUR As many, worthy lady, to yourself:

  According to your ladyship's impose,10

  I am thus early come to know what service

  It is your pleasure to command me in.

  SILVIA O, Eglamour, thou art a gentleman--

  Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not--

  Valiant, wise, remorseful15, well accomplished.

  Thou art not ignorant what dear good will

  I bear unto the banished Valentine,

  Nor how my father would enforce me marry

  Vain19 Turio, whom my very soul abhorred.

  Thyself hast loved, and I have heard thee say

  No grief did ever come so near thy heart

  As when thy lady and thy true love died,

  Upon whose grave thou vowed'st pure chastity.

  Sir Eglamour, I would24 to Valentine,

  To Mantua, where I hear he makes abode;

  And for26 the ways are dangerous to pass,

  I do desire thy worthy company,

  Upon whose faith and honour I repose.28

  Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,

  But think upon my grief, a lady's grief,

  And on the justice of my flying hence,