And yet I will not name it:-and yet I care not;- [Aside. Val. What means your ladyship? do you not like it? Sil. Yes, yes; the lines are very quaintly writ: But since unwillingly, take them again; Nay, take them. Val. Madam, they are for you. Sil. Ay, ay; you writ them, sir, at my request: But I will none of them; they are for you: I would have had them writ more movingly. Val. Please you, I'll write your ladyship another. Sil. And, when it's writ, for my sake read it over: And, if it please you, so; if not, why, so. Val. If it please me, madam! what then? And so good-morrow, servant. [Exit SILVIA. My master sues to her; and she hath taught her suitor, He being her pupil, to become her tutor. O excellent device! was there ever heard a better? That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter? Val. How now, yourself? sir? what are you reasoning with Speed. Nay, I was rhyming; 'tis you that have the reason. Val. To do what? Speed. To be a spokesman from madam Silvia. Speed. To yourself: why, she wooes you by a figure? Val. What figure? Speed. By a letter, I should say. Val. Why, she hath not writ to me? Speed. What need she, when she hath made you write to yourself? Why, do you not perceive the jest? Val. No, believe me. Speed. No believing you indeed, sir: But did you perceive her earnest? Val. She gave me none, except an angry word. Val. That's the letter I writ to her friend. Val. I would, it were no worse. For often you have writ to her; and she, in modesty, Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover. All this I speak in print; for in print I found it. — Why muse you, sir? 'tis dinner-time. Val. I have dined. Speed. Ay, but hearken, sir: though the cameleon Love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my victuals, and would fain have meat: O, be not like your mistress; be moved, be moved. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Verona. A Room in Julia's House. Enter PROTEUS and JULIA. Pro. Have patience, gentle Julia. Jul. I must, where is no remedy. Pro. When possibly I can, I will return. Jul. If you turn not, you will return the sooner : Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake. [Giving a ring. Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this. Jul. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss. Pro. Here is my hand for my true constancy; And when that hour o'er-slips me in the day, Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake, The next ensuing hour some foul mischance Torment me for my love's forgetfulness! My father stays my coming; answer not; The tide is now: nay, not the tide of tears; That tide will stay me longer than I should; [Exit JULIA. Julia, farewell. - What! gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak; For truth hath better deeds, than words, to grace it. Enter PANTHINO. Pant. Sir Proteus, you are staid for. Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb. SCENE III. The same. A street. Enter LAUNCE, leading a dog. [Exeunt. Laun. Nay, it will be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault: I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think, Crab my dog be the I Kindred. sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebblestone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it: This shoe is my father;-no, this left shoe is my father; - no, no, this left shoe is my mother; nay that cannot be so neither; yes, it is so, it is so; it hath the worser sole; This shoe is my mother, and this my father; A vengeance on't there 'tis : now, sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog: no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog; —Ō, the dog is me, and I am myself; ay, so, so. Now come I to my father; Father your blessing; now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps on:-now come I to my mother, (O, that she could speak now!) like a wood' woman; well, I kiss her; why there 'tis; here's my mother's breath up and down: now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes; now the dog all this while sheds not a tear, nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears. Enter PANTHINO. Pant. Launce, away, away, aboard; thy master is shipped, and thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter? why weepest thou, man? Away, ass; you will lose the tide, if you tarry any longer. 2 Crazy, distracted. Laun. It is no matter if the ty'd were lost; is the unkindest ty'd that ever any man ty❜d. Pant. What's the unkindest tide? for it Laun. Why, he that's ty'd here; Crab, my dog. Pant. Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lose the flood; and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage; and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy master; and, in losing thy master, lose thy service; and, in losing thy service, Laun. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service? The tide! Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive the boat with my sighs. Pant. Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee. Laun. Sir, call me what thou darest. Pant. Wilt thou go? Laun. Well, I will go. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. Milan. An apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter VALENTINE, SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. Sil. Servant Val. Mistress? Speed. Master, sir Thurio frowns on you. Val. Ay, boy, it's for love. Speed. Not of you. Val. Of my mistress then. Speed. 'Twere good, you knocked him. Sil. Servant, you are sad. 3 Val. Indeed, madam, I seem so. Thu. Seem you that Val. Haply, I do. you are not? Thu. So do counterfeits. Val. So do you. 3 Serious. |