The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

1 Enter Julia and Lucetta.
2 JULIA.
3 Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me,
4 And ev’n in kind love I do conjure thee,
5 Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
6 Are visibly charactered and engraved,
7 To lesson me and tell me some good mean
8 How with my honour I may undertake
9 A journey to my loving Proteus.
10 LUCETTA.
11 Alas, the way is wearisome and long.
12 JULIA.
13 A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
14 To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
15 Much less shall she that hath Love’s wings to fly,
16 And when the flight is made to one so dear,
17 Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.
18 LUCETTA.
19 Better forbear till Proteus make return.
20 JULIA.
21 O, know’st thou not his looks are my soul’s food?
22 Pity the dearth that I have pined in
23 By longing for that food so long a time.
24 Didst thou but know the inly touch of love
25 Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
26 As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
27 LUCETTA.
28 I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire,
29 But qualify the fire’s extreme rage,
30 Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
31 JULIA.
32 The more thou damm’st it up, the more it burns.
33 The current that with gentle murmur glides,
34 Thou know’st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
35 But when his fair course is not hindered,
36 He makes sweet music with th’ enamelled stones,
37 Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
38 He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;
39 And so by many winding nooks he strays
40 With willing sport to the wild ocean.
41 Then let me go and hinder not my course.
42 I’ll be as patient as a gentle stream
43 And make a pastime of each weary step
44 Till the last step have brought me to my love,
45 And there I’ll rest as after much turmoil
46 A blessed soul doth in Elysium.
47 LUCETTA.
48 But in what habit will you go along?
49 JULIA.
50 Not like a woman, for I would prevent
51 The loose encounters of lascivious men.
52 Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds
53 As may beseem some well-reputed page.
54 LUCETTA.
55 Why then, your ladyship must cut your hair.
56 JULIA.
57 No, girl, I’ll knit it up in silken strings
58 With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots.
59 To be fantastic may become a youth
60 Of greater time than I shall show to be.
61 LUCETTA.
62 What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches?
63 JULIA.
64 That fits as well as “Tell me, good my lord,
65 What compass will you wear your farthingale?”
66 Why e’en what fashion thou best likes, Lucetta.
67 LUCETTA.
68 You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam.
69 JULIA.
70 Out, out, Lucetta, that will be ill-favoured.
71 LUCETTA.
72 A round hose, madam, now’s not worth a pin
73 Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.
74 JULIA.
75 Lucetta, as thou lov’st me, let me have
76 What thou think’st meet and is most mannerly.
77 But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me
78 For undertaking so unstaid a journey?
79 I fear me it will make me scandalized.
80 LUCETTA.
81 If you think so, then stay at home and go not.
82 JULIA.
83 Nay, that I will not.
84 LUCETTA.
85 Then never dream on infamy, but go.
86 If Proteus like your journey when you come,
87 No matter who’s displeased when you are gone.
88 I fear me he will scarce be pleased withal.
89 JULIA.
90 That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear.
91 A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
92 And instances of infinite of love,
93 Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.
94 LUCETTA.
95 All these are servants to deceitful men.
96 JULIA.
97 Base men that use them to so base effect!
98 But truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth.
99 His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
100 His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
101 His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
102 His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
103 LUCETTA.
104 Pray heav’n he prove so when you come to him.
105 JULIA.
106 Now, as thou lov’st me, do him not that wrong
107 To bear a hard opinion of his truth.
108 Only deserve my love by loving him.
109 And presently go with me to my chamber
110 To take a note of what I stand in need of
111 To furnish me upon my longing journey.
112 All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
113 My goods, my lands, my reputation;
114 Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
115 Come, answer not, but to it presently.
116 I am impatient of my tarriance.
117 [_Exeunt._]