ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 4
1Milan. The Duke’s palace.
2Enter Silvia, Valentine, Thurio, and Speed.
3SilviaServant!
4ValentineMistress?
5SpeedMaster, Sir Thurio frowns on you.
6ValentineAy, boy, it’s for love.
7SpeedNot of you.
8ValentineOf my mistress, then.
9Speed’Twere good you knocked him. Exit.
10SilviaServant, you are sad.
11ValentineIndeed, madam, I seem so.
12ThurioSeem you that you are not?
13ValentineHaply I do.
14ThurioSo do counterfeits.
15ValentineSo do you.
16ThurioWhat seem I that I am not?
17ValentineWise.
18ThurioWhat instance of the contrary?
19ValentineYour folly.
20ThurioAnd how quote you my folly?
21ValentineI quote it in your jerkin.
22ThurioMy jerkin is a doublet.
23ValentineWell, then, I’ll double your folly.
24ThurioHow?
25SilviaWhat, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour?
26ValentineGive him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.
27ThurioThat hath more mind to feed on your blood than live in your air.
28ValentineYou have said, sir.
29ThurioAy, sir, and done too, for this time.
30ValentineI know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.
31SilviaA fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.
32Valentine’Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver.
33SilviaWho is that, servant?
34ValentineYourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship’s looks, and spends what he borrows kindly in your company.
35ThurioSir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.
36ValentineI know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers, for it appears by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.
37SilviaNo more, gentlemen, no more: here comes my father.
38Enter Duke.
39DukeNow, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
Sir Valentine, your father’s in good health:
What say you to a letter from your friends
Of much good news?
40ValentineMy lord, I will be thankful
To any happy messenger from thence.
41DukeKnow ye Don Antonio, your countryman?
42ValentineAy, my good lord, I know the gentleman
To be of worth and worthy estimation
And not without desert so well reputed.
43DukeHath he not a son?
44ValentineAy, my good lord; a son that well deserves
The honour and regard of such a father.
45DukeYou know him well?
46ValentineI know him as myself; for from our infancy
We have conversed and spent our hours together:
And though myself have been an idle truant,
Omitting the sweet benefit of time
To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection,
Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that’s his name,
Made use and fair advantage of his days;
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow’d, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word, for far behind his worth
Comes all the praises that I now bestow,
He is complete in feature and in mind
With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
47DukeBeshrew me, sir, but if he make this good,
He is as worthy for an empress’ love
As meet to be an emperor’s counsellor.
Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me,
With commendation from great potentates;
And here he means to spend his time awhile:
I think ’tis no unwelcome news to you.
48ValentineShould I have wish’d a thing, it had been he.
49DukeWelcome him then according to his worth.
Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio;
For Valentine, I need not cite him to it:
I will send him hither to you presently. Exit.
50ValentineThis is the gentleman I told your ladyship
Had come along with me, but that his mistress
Did hold his eyes lock’d in her crystal looks.
51SilviaBelike that now she hath enfranchised them
Upon some other pawn for fealty.
52ValentineNay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.
53SilviaNay, then he should be blind; and, being blind,
How could he see his way to seek out you?
54ValentineWhy, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes.
55ThurioThey say that Love hath not an eye at all.
56ValentineTo see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself:
Upon a homely object Love can wink.
57SilviaHave done, have done; here comes the gentleman.
58Enter Proteus. Exit Thurio.
59ValentineWelcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you,
Confirm his welcome with some special favour.
60SilviaHis worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
If this be he you oft have wish’d to hear from.
61ValentineMistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him
To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
62SilviaToo low a mistress for so high a servant.
63ProteusNot so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
To have a look of such a worthy mistress.
64ValentineLeave off discourse of disability:
Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant.
65ProteusMy duty will I boast of; nothing else.
66SilviaAnd duty never yet did want his meed:
Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.
67ProteusI’ll die on him that says so but yourself.
68SilviaThat you are welcome?
69ProteusThat you are worthless.
70Reenter Thurio.
71ThurioMadam, my lord your father would speak with you.
72SilviaI wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio,
Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome:
I’ll leave you to confer of home affairs;
When you have done, we look to hear from you.
73ProteusWe’ll both attend upon your ladyship. Exeunt Silvia and Thurio.
74ValentineNow, tell me, how do all from whence you came?
75ProteusYour friends are well and have them much commended.
76ValentineAnd how do yours?
77ProteusI left them all in health.
78ValentineHow does your lady? and how thrives your love?
79ProteusMy tales of love were wont to weary you;
I know you joy not in a love-discourse.
80ValentineAy, Proteus, but that life is alter’d now:
I have done penance for contemning Love,
Whose high imperious thoughts have punish’d me
With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears and daily heart-sore sighs;
For in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes
And made them watchers of mine own heart’s sorrow.
O gentle Proteus, Love’s a mighty lord
And hath so humbled me as I confess
There is no woe to his correction
Nor to his service no such joy on earth.
Now no discourse, except it be of love;
Now can I break my fast, dine, sup and sleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.
81ProteusEnough; I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol that you worship so?
82ValentineEven she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
83ProteusNo; but she is an earthly paragon.
84ValentineCall her divine.
85ProteusI will not flatter her.
86ValentineO, flatter me; for love delights in praises.
87ProteusWhen I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
And I must minister the like to you.
88ValentineThen speak the truth by her; if not divine,
Yet let her be a principality,
Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
89ProteusExcept my mistress.
90ValentineSweet, except not any;
Except thou wilt except against my love.
91ProteusHave I not reason to prefer mine own?
92ValentineAnd I will help thee to prefer her too:
She shall be dignified with this high honour—
To bear my lady’s train, lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower
And make rough winter everlastingly.
93ProteusWhy, Valentine, what braggardism is this?
94ValentinePardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing
To her whose worth makes other worthies nothing;
She is alone.
95ProteusThen let her alone.
96ValentineNot for the world: why, man, she is mine own,
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou see’st me dote upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes
Only for his possessions are so huge,
Is gone with her along, and I must after,
For love, thou know’st, is full of jealousy.
97ProteusBut she loves you?
98ValentineAy, and we are betroth’d: nay, more, our marriage-hour,
With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determined of; how I must climb her window,
The ladder made of cords, and all the means
Plotted and ’greed on for my happiness.
Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
99ProteusGo on before; I shall inquire you forth:
I must unto the road, to disembark
Some necessaries that I needs must use,
And then I’ll presently attend you.
100ValentineWill you make haste?
101ProteusI will. Exit Valentine.
Even as one heat another heat expels,
Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine, or Valentine’s praise,
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me reasonless to reason thus?
She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—
That I did love, for now my love is thaw’d;
Which, like a waxen image, ’gainst a fire,
Bears no impression of the thing it was.
Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
And that I love him not as I was wont.
O, but I love his lady too too much,
And that’s the reason I love him so little.
How shall I dote on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her!
’Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled my reason’s light;
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason but I shall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I’ll use my skill. Exit.