The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

1 Enter Proteus.
2 PROTEUS.
3 Already have I been false to Valentine,
4 And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
5 Under the colour of commending him,
6 I have access my own love to prefer.
7 But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy
8 To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
9 When I protest true loyalty to her,
10 She twits me with my falsehood to my friend;
11 When to her beauty I commend my vows,
12 She bids me think how I have been forsworn
13 In breaking faith with Julia, whom I loved;
14 And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
15 The least whereof would quell a lover’s hope,
16 Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
17 The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
18 But here comes Thurio. Now must we to her window,
19 And give some evening music to her ear.
20 Enter Thurio and Musicians.
21 THURIO.
22 How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept before us?
23 PROTEUS.
24 Ay, gentle Thurio, for you know that love
25 Will creep in service where it cannot go.
26 THURIO.
27 Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here.
28 PROTEUS.
29 Sir, but I do, or else I would be hence.
30 THURIO.
31 Who? Silvia?
32 PROTEUS.
33 Ay, Silvia, for your sake.
34 THURIO.
35 I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen,
36 Let’s tune, and to it lustily awhile.
37 Enter Host and Julia in boy’s clothes, as Sebastian.
38 HOST.
39 Now, my young guest, methinks you’re allycholly. I pray you, why is it?
40 JULIA.
41 Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.
42 HOST.
43 Come, we’ll have you merry. I’ll bring you where you shall hear music,
44 and see the gentleman that you asked for.
45 JULIA.
46 But shall I hear him speak?
47 HOST.
48 Ay, that you shall.
49 JULIA.
50 That will be music.
51 [_Music plays._]
52 HOST.
53 Hark, hark!
54 JULIA.
55 Is he among these?
56 HOST.
57 Ay; but peace, let’s hear ’em.
58 SONG
59 PROTEUS.
60 Who is Silvia? What is she,
61 That all our swains commend her?
62 Holy, fair, and wise is she;
63 The heaven such grace did lend her,
64 That she might admired be.
65 Is she kind as she is fair?
66 For beauty lives with kindness.
67 Love doth to her eyes repair,
68 To help him of his blindness;
69 And, being helped, inhabits there.
70 Then to Silvia let us sing,
71 That Silvia is excelling;
72 She excels each mortal thing
73 Upon the dull earth dwelling.
74 To her let us garlands bring.
75 HOST.
76 How now, are you sadder than you were before?
77 How do you, man? The music likes you not.
78 JULIA.
79 You mistake; the musician likes me not.
80 HOST.
81 Why, my pretty youth?
82 JULIA.
83 He plays false, father.
84 HOST.
85 How, out of tune on the strings?
86 JULIA.
87 Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very heart-strings.
88 HOST.
89 You have a quick ear.
90 JULIA.
91 Ay, I would I were deaf; it makes me have a slow heart.
92 HOST.
93 I perceive you delight not in music.
94 JULIA.
95 Not a whit, when it jars so.
96 HOST.
97 Hark, what fine change is in the music!
98 JULIA.
99 Ay, that change is the spite.
100 HOST.
101 You would have them always play but one thing?
102 JULIA.
103 I would always have one play but one thing.
104 But, host, doth this Sir Proteus, that we talk on,
105 Often resort unto this gentlewoman?
106 HOST.
107 I tell you what Lance, his man, told me: he loved her out of all nick.
108 JULIA.
109 Where is Lance?
110 HOST.
111 Gone to seek his dog, which tomorrow, by his master’s command, he must
112 carry for a present to his lady.
113 JULIA.
114 Peace, stand aside. The company parts.
115 PROTEUS.
116 Sir Thurio, fear not you; I will so plead
117 That you shall say my cunning drift excels.
118 THURIO.
119 Where meet we?
120 PROTEUS.
121 At Saint Gregory’s well.
122 THURIO.
123 Farewell.
124 [_Exeunt Thurio and Musicians._]
125 Enter Silvia above.
126 PROTEUS.
127 Madam, good even to your ladyship.
128 SILVIA.
129 I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
130 Who is that that spake?
131 PROTEUS.
132 One, lady, if you knew his pure heart’s truth,
133 You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.
134 SILVIA.
135 Sir Proteus, as I take it.
136 PROTEUS.
137 Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
138 SILVIA.
139 What’s your will?
140 PROTEUS.
141 That I may compass yours.
142 SILVIA.
143 You have your wish. My will is even this,
144 That presently you hie you home to bed.
145 Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal man,
146 Think’st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,
147 To be seduced by thy flattery,
148 That hast deceived so many with thy vows?
149 Return, return, and make thy love amends.
150 For me, by this pale queen of night I swear,
151 I am so far from granting thy request
152 That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
153 And by and by intend to chide myself
154 Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
155 PROTEUS.
156 I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady,
157 But she is dead.
158 JULIA.
159 [_Aside_.] ’Twere false, if I should speak it,
160 For I am sure she is not buried.
161 SILVIA.
162 Say that she be; yet Valentine thy friend
163 Survives, to whom, thyself art witness,
164 I am betrothed. And art thou not ashamed
165 To wrong him with thy importunacy?
166 PROTEUS.
167 I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
168 SILVIA.
169 And so suppose am I, for in his grave,
170 Assure thyself, my love is buried.
171 PROTEUS.
172 Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
173 SILVIA.
174 Go to thy lady’s grave and call hers thence,
175 Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.
176 JULIA.
177 [_Aside_.] He heard not that.
178 PROTEUS.
179 Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
180 Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
181 The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
182 To that I’ll speak, to that I’ll sigh and weep;
183 For since the substance of your perfect self
184 Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
185 And to your shadow will I make true love.
186 JULIA.
187 [_Aside_.] If ’twere a substance you would sure deceive it
188 And make it but a shadow, as I am.
189 SILVIA.
190 I am very loath to be your idol, sir;
191 But since your falsehood shall become you well
192 To worship shadows and adore false shapes,
193 Send to me in the morning, and I’ll send it.
194 And so, good rest.
195 [_Exit._]
196 PROTEUS.
197 As wretches have o’ernight
198 That wait for execution in the morn.
199 [_Exit._]
200 JULIA.
201 Host, will you go?
202 HOST.
203 By my halidom, I was fast asleep.
204 JULIA.
205 Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus?
206 HOST.
207 Marry, at my house. Trust me, I think ’tis almost day.
208 JULIA.
209 Not so; but it hath been the longest night
210 That e’er I watched, and the most heaviest.
211 [_Exeunt._]