酷兔英语

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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.

PROTEUS. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol that you worship so?

VALENTINE. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
PROTEUS. No; but she is an earthly paragon.

VALENTINE. Call her divine.
PROTEUS. I will not flatter her.

VALENTINE. O, flatter me; for love delights in praises!
PROTEUS. When I was sick you gave me bitter pills,

And I must minister the like to you.
VALENTINE. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,

Yet let her be a principality,
Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.

PROTEUS. Except my mistress.
VALENTINE. Sweet, except not any;

Except thou wilt except against my love.
PROTEUS. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?

VALENTINE. And 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 flow'r

And make rough winter everlastingly.
PROTEUS. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?

VALENTINE. Pardon me, Proteus; all I can is nothing
To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing;

She is alone.
PROTEUS. Then let her alone.

VALENTINE. Not 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 seest 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.

PROTEUS. But she loves you?
VALENTINE. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage-hour,

With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determin'd 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.

PROTEUS. Go on before; I shall enquire you forth;
I must unto the road to disembark

Some necessaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.

VALENTINE. Will you make haste?
PROTEUS. I 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 my mind, or Valentinus' 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
SCENE V.

Milan. A street
Enter SPEED and LAUNCE severally

SPEED. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Padua.
LAUNCE. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I

reckon this always, that a man is never undone till he be hang'd,
nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid, and

the hostess say 'Welcome!'
SPEED. Come on, you madcap; I'll to the alehouse with you

presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have
five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with

Madam Julia?
LAUNCE. Marry, after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very

fairly in jest.
SPEED. But shall she marry him?

LAUNCE. No.
SPEED. How then? Shall he marry her?

LAUNCE. No, neither.
SPEED. What, are they broken?

LAUNCE. No, they are both as whole as a fish.
SPEED. Why then, how stands the matter with them?

LAUNCE. Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it stands well
with her.

SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.
LAUNCE. What a block art thou that thou canst not! My staff

understands me.
SPEED. What thou say'st?

LAUNCE. Ay, and what I do too; look thee, I'll but lean, and my
staff understands me.

SPEED. It stands under thee, indeed.
LAUNCE. Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.

SPEED. But tell me true, will't be a match?
LAUNCE. Ask my dog. If he say ay, it will; if he say no, it will;

if he shake his tail and say nothing, it will.
SPEED. The conclusion is, then, that it will.

LAUNCE. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a
parable.

SPEED. 'Tis well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou
that my master is become a notable lover?

LAUNCE. I never knew him otherwise.
SPEED. Than how?

LAUNCE. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.
SPEED. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistak'st me.

LAUNCE. Why, fool, I meant not thee, I meant thy master.
SPEED. I tell thee my master is become a hot lover.

LAUNCE. Why, I tell thee I care not though he burn himself in love.
If thou wilt, go with me to the alehouse; if not, thou art an

Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.
SPEED. Why?

LAUNCE. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to
the ale with a Christian. Wilt thou go?

SPEED. At thy service. Exeunt
SCENE VI.

Milan. The DUKE's palace
Enter PROTEUS

PROTEUS. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;
To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn;

To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
And ev'n that pow'r which gave me first my oath

Provokes me to this threefold perjury:
Love bade me swear, and Love bids me forswear.

O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinn'd,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!

At first I did adore a twinkling star,
But now I worship a celestial sun.

Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
And he wants wit that wants resolved will

To learn his wit t' exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue, to call her bad

Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths!

I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;
But there I leave to love where I should love.

Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose;
If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;

If I lose them, thus find I by their loss:
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia.

I to myself am dearer than a friend;
For love is still most precious in itself;

And Silvia- witness heaven, that made her fair!-
Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,
Rememb'ring that my love to her is dead;

And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.

I cannot now prove constant to myself
Without some treachery us'd to Valentine.

This night he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber window,

Myself in counsel, his competitor.
Now presently I'll give her father notice

Of their disguising and pretended flight,
Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine,

For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter;
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross

By some sly trick blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,

As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift. Exit
SCENE VII.

Verona. JULIA'S house
Enter JULIA and LUCETTA

JULIA. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me;
And, ev'n in kind love, I do conjure thee,

Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'd and engrav'd,

To lesson me and tell me some good mean
How, with my honour, I may undertake

A journey to my loving Proteus.
LUCETTA. Alas, the way is wearisome and long!

JULIA. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;

Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly,
And when the flight is made to one so dear,

Of such divineperfection, as Sir Proteus.
LUCETTA. Better forbear till Proteus make return.

JULIA. O, know'st thou not his looks are my soul's food?
Pity the dearth that I have pined in

By longing for that food so long a time.
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love.

Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

LUCETTA. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,
But qualify the fire's extreme rage,



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