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
ladderTo 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,