Duke. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant How she opposes her against my will.

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

Duke. Ay, and perversely she persèvers so. What might we do to make the girl forget The love of Valentine and love Sir Thurio?

30

Pro. The best way is to slander Valentine With falsehood, cowardice and poor descent, Three things that women highly hold in hate. Duke. Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.

Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it:

Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him.

Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loth to do: 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman, Especially against his very friend.

40

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.

Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it

By ought that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not long continue love to him.
But say this weed her love from Valentine,
It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.
Thu. Therefore, as you unwind her love from
him,

Lest it should ravel and be good to none,
You must provide to bottom it on me;
Which must be done by praising me as much
As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

50

Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,

60

Because we know, on Valentine's report,
You are already Love's firm votary,
And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant shall you have access
Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her by your persuasion
To hate young Valentine and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect:
But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
You must lay lime to tangle her desires
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows. 70
Duke. Ay,

Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

Pro. 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 frame some feeling line

SCENE I. The frontiers of Mantua. A forest. Enter certain Outlaws.

First Out. Fellows, stand fast; I see a pas

senger.

Sec. Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED. Third Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye:

If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.
Speed. Sir, we are undone; these are the
villains

That all the travellers do fear so much.
Val. My friends,-

First Out. That's not so, sir: we are your enemies.

Sec. Out. Peace! we'll hear him.

Third Out. Ay, by my beard, will we, for he's a proper man.

10

Val. Then know that I have little wealth to lose:

A man I am cross'd with adversity;

My riches are these poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I have.
Sec. Out. Whither travel you?

Val. To Verona.

First Out. Whence came you

Val. From Milan.

?

Third Out. Have you long sojourned there? Val. Some sixteen months, and longer might have stay'd,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
First Out. What, were you banish'd thence?
Val. I was.

Sec. Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse:

I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage or base treachery.
First Out. Why, ne'er repent it, if it were
done so.

30

But were you banish'd for so small a fault?
Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
Sec. Out. Have you the tongues?
Val. My youthful travel therein made me
happy,

Or else I often had been miserable.

Third Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,

This fellow were a king for our wild faction! First Out. We'll have him. Sirs, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them; it's an honorable kind of thievery.

Val. Peace, villain!

40

Sec. Out. Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?

Val. Nothing but my fortune.

Third Out. Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,

Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men :
Myself was from Verona banished

For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the Duke.

Sec. Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentle

Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you: 60 Are you content to be our general?

To make a virtue of necessity

And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

Third Out. What say'st thou wilt thou be of our consort?

Say ay, and be the captain of us all:
We'll do thee homage and be ruled by thee,
Love thee as our commander and our king.

First Out. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.

Sec. Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

Val. I take your offer and will live with you, Provided that you do no outrages On silly women or poor passengers.

71

Third Out. No, we detest such vile base practices.

Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews, And show thee all the treasure we have got: Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Milan. Outside the DUKE'S palace, under SILVIA'S chamber.

Enter PROTEUS.

Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine,

And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the color of commending 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 protest true loyalty to her,
She twits me with my falsehood to my friend;
When to her beauty I commend my vows,
She bids me think how I have been forsworn 10
In breaking faith with Julia whom I loved:
And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
The least whereof would quail a lover's hope,
Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
But here comes Thurio: now must we to her
window,

And give some evening music to her ear.

Enter THURIO and Musicians.

Thu. How now, Sir Proteus, are your crept before us?

Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio: for you know that love

Will creep in service where it cannot go.

20

Thu. Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here. Pro. Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence. Thu. Who? Silvia?

Host. Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked for.

Jul. But shall I hear him speak?
Host. Ay, that you shall.
Jul. That will be music.

Host. Hark, hark!

Jul. Is he among these?

[Music plays.

Host. Ay: but, peace! let's hear 'em.

You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.

Sil. Sir Proteus, as I take it.
Pro. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your
Sil. What's your will?
Pro.

89

[ant. serv

That I may compass yours.
Sil. You have your wish; my will is even this:
That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal man!
Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be seduced by thy flattery,

That hast deceived so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me, by this pale queen of night I swear, 100
I am so far from granting thy request
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
And by and by intend to chide myself
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.
[it:
Ju. [Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak
For I am sure she is not buried.

110

Sil Say that she be; yet Valentine thy friend Survives; to whom, thyself art witness, I am betroth'd: and art thou not ashamed To wrong him with thy importunacy?

Pro. I likewise hear that Valentine is dead. Sil. And so suppose am I; for in his grave Assure thyself my love is buried.

Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. Sil. Go to thy lady's grave and call hers thence,

Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.

Jul. (Aside] He heard not that. Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love, 121 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 else devoted, I am but a shadow; And to your shadow will I make true love. Jul. [Aside] If twere a substance, you would, sure, deceive it,

And make it but a shadow, as I am.

Sil. I am very loath to be your idol, sir; But since your falsehood shall become you well To worship shadows and adore false shapes, 131 Send to me in the morning and I'll send it: And so, good rest.

Pro.

As wretches have o'ernight That wait for execution in the morn.

[Exeunt. Pro. and Sil. severally.

Jul. Host, will you go?

Hest. By my halidom, I was fast asleep.
Ju. Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus?
Host. Marry, at my house.
Trust ine, I

think 'tis almost day.

Jul. Not so; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd and the most heaviest. 141 [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

Egl. 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.

Sil. Who calls? Egl. Your servant and your friend; One that attends your ladyship's command. Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good

morrow.

Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself: According to your ladyship's impose,

I am thus early come to know what service It is your pleasure to command me in.

ΙΟ

20

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentlemanThink not I flatter, for I swear I do notValiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd: Thou art not ignorant what dear good will I bear unto the banish'd Valentine, Now how my father would enforce me marry Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhors. 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 vow'dst pure chastity. Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine, To Mantua, where I hear he makes abode; And, for the ways are dangerous to pass, I do desire thy worthy company, Upon whose faith and honor I repose. Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour, But think upon my grief, a lady's grief, And on the justice of my flying hence, To keep me from a most unholy match, 30 Which heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues.

Where I intend holy confession.

Egl. I will not fail your ladyship. morrow, gentle lady.

Good

Sil. Good morrow, kind Sir Eglamour. [Exeunt severally. SCENE IV. The same. Enter LAUNCE, with his dog. Launce. When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I saved from drowning when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it. I have taught him, even as one would say precisely, thus I would teach a dog.' I was sent to deliver him as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber but he steps me to her trencher and steals her capon's leg: 0, 'tis a foul thing when a cur cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hanged for't; sure as I live, he had suffered for't: you shall judge. He thrusts me himselfinto the company of three or four gentlemanlike dogs, under the duke's table: he had not been there--bless the mark!-a pissing while, but all the chamber smeft him. Out with the dog!' says one: 'What cur is that?' says another: "Whip him out,' says the third: Hang him up,' says the duke. I, having been acquainted with the smell before, knew it was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs: Friend,' quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? Ah, marry, do I,' quoth he. "You do him the more wrong," quoth I; "twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would do this for his servant? Nay, I'll be sworn, I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for't. Thou thinkest not of this now. Nay, I remember the trick you served me when I took my leave of Madam Silvia: did not I bid thee still mark me and do as I do? when didst thou see me heave up my leg and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didst thou ever see me do such a trick? Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

Pro. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in some service presently.

Jul. In what you please: I'll do what I can. Pro. I hope thou wilt. [To Launce] How now, you whoreson peasant!

Where have you been these two days loitering? Launce. Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.

50

Pro. And what says she to my little jewel? Launce. Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you currish thanks is good enough for such a present.

Pro. But she received my dog?

Launce. No, indeed, did she not: here have I brought him back again.

Pro. What, didst thou offer her this from me? Launce. Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman boys in the marketplace: and then I offered her mine own, who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater.

Pro. Go get thee hence, and find my dog again,

Or ne er return again into my sight. Away, I say! stay'st thou to vex me here? Exit Law.ice. A slave, that still an end turns me to shame! Sebastian, I have entertained thee, Partly that I have need of such a youth 69 That can with some discretion do my business, For 'tis no trusting to yond foolish lout, But chiefly for thy face and thy behavior, Which, if my augury deceive ine not, Witness good bringing up, fortune and truth: Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee. Go presently and take this ring with thee,

Deliver it to Madam Silvia:

She loved me well deliver'd it to me.

Jul. It seems you loved not her, to leave her token.

She is dead, belike? Pro.

Not so; I think she lives. So 'alas?' I cannot choose

Ful. Alas!
Pro. Why dost thou cry
Jul.
But pity her.

Pro. Wherefore shouldst thou pity her? Jul. Because methinks that she loved you as well

As you do love your lady Silvia:
She dreams on him that has forgot her love;
You dote on her that cares not for your love.
'Tis pity love should be so contrary;
And thinking on it makes me cry alas!'

Pro. Well, give her that ring and therewithal This letter. That's her chamber. Tell my lady I claim the promise for her heavenly picture. Your message done, hie home unto my chamber, Where thou shalt find me sad and solitary. [Exit. Jul. How many women would do such a message?

100

Alas, poor Proteus! thou hast entertain'd
A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs.
Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he despiseth me;
Because I love him, I must pity him.
This ring I gave him when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will;
And now am I, unhappy messenger,
To plead for that which I would not obtain,

Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean
To bring me where to speak with Madame Silvia.
Sil. What would you with her, if that I be she?
Jul. If you be she, I do entreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am sent on.
Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.
Sil. O, he sends you for a picture.
Jul. Ay, madam.

120

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there. Go give your master this: tell him from me, One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget, Would better fit his chamber than this shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.Pardon me, madam; I have unadvised Deliver'd you a paper that I should not: This is the letter to your ladyship.

Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again.
Jul. It may not be; good madam, pardon me.
Sil. There, hold!

I will not look upon your master's lines;
I know they are stuff'd with protestations
And full of new-found oaths; which he will break
As easily as I do tear this paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring. Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it me;

[Exit Silvia, with attendants. Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you know her.

190

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful!
I hope my master's suit will be but cold,
Since she respects my mistress' love so much.
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: let me see; I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers;
And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow:
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a color'd periwig.

200

Here eyes are gray as glass, and so are mine:
Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high.
What should it be that he respects in her
But I can make respective in myself,
If this fond Love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form,
Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, loved and
adored!

And, were there sense in his idolatry,
My substance should be statue in thy stead.
I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That used me so; or else, by Jove I vow,
I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes,
To make my master out of love with thee! [Exit.