Imatges de pàgina
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Speed. She is not within hearing, Sir.
Val. Why, Sir, who bade you call her?
Speed. Your worship, Sir; or else I mistook.
Val. Well, you'll still be too forward.

Speed. And yet I was last chidden for being
too slow.

Val. Go to, Sir; tell me, do you know madam Silvia?

Speed. She that your worship loves?

Val. What should I see theu ? Speed. Your own present folly, and her pass ing deformity: for he, being in love, could not see to garter bis hose; and you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose.

Val. Belike, boy, then you are in love; fer last morning you could not see to wipe my shoes.

Speed. True, Sir; I was in love with my bed: I thank you, you swinged me for my love, which makes me the bolder to chide you for yours.

Val. In conclusion I stand affected to her. Speed. I would you were set: 10, your affer tion would cease.

Val. Last night she enjoined me to make some lines to one she loves.

Speed. And have you!

Val. I have.

Speed. Are they not lamely writ

Val. No, boy, but as well I can do them:Peace, here she comes.

Enter SILVIA.

Val. Why how know you that I am in love? Speed. Marry, by these special marks: First, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreath your arms like a male-content: to relish a lovesong, like a robin-red-breast; to walk alone like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school boy that bad lost his A, B, C; to weep, Speed. O excellent motion! O exceeding like a young wench that oad buried her gran-puppet! now will he interpret to her. dam; to fast, like one that takes diet; to Val. Madam and mistress, a thousand goodwatch, like one that fears robbing; to speak pul-morrows. ing like a beggar at Hallowmas. + You were wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions; when you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money and now you are metamorphosed with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.

Val. Are all these things perceiv'd in me? Speed. They are all perceiv'd without you. Val. Without me? They cannot. Speed. Without you? nay, that's certain, for, without you were so simple, none else would: but you are so without these follies, that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal; that not an eye, that sees you, but is a physician to comment on your malady.

Val. But, tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia ?

Speed. She, that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper?

Val. Hast thou observ'd that? even she I

mean.

Speed. Why, Sir, I know her not.

Speed. O'give you good even! Here's 1 million of manners.

Sil. Sir Valentine and servant, to you t thousand.

Speed. He should give her interest; and she gives it him.

Val. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your

letter,

Unto the secret nameless friend of your's;
Which I was much unwilling to proceed in,
But for my duty to your ladyship.

Sil. I thank you, gentle servant: 'tis very
clerkly done.

Val. Now trust me, madam, it came bardy
For, being ignorant to whom it goes,
I writ at random, very doubtfully,
Sil. Perchance you think too much of
much pains?

Val. No, madam; so it stead you, I will write,
Please you command, a thousand times a

much:

And yet,

Sil. A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel; And yet I will not name it:-and yet i care

not;

Val. Dost thou know her by my gazing on And yet take this again;-and yet I thank you;

her, and yet know'st her not.

Speed. Is she not hard favoured Sir?

Val. Not so fair, boy, as well favoured.
Speed. Sir, I know that well enough.
Val. What dost thou know?

Speed. That she is not so fair, as (of you) well favoured.

Val. I mean, that her beauty is exquisite, but ber favour infinite.

Speed. That's because the one is painted, and the other out of all count.

Val. How painted? and how out of count? Speed. Marry, Sir, so painted, to make her fair that no man counts of her beauty.

Val. How esteem'st thou me? I account of her beauty.

Speed. You never saw her since she was deformed.

Val. How long hath she been deformed?
Speed. Ever since you loved her;

Val. I have loved her ever since I saw her; and still I see her beautiful.

Speed. If you love her, you cannot see her.
Val. Why?

Speed. Because love is blind. O that you had mine eyes; or your own hand the lights they were wont to have, when you chid at Sir Proteas for going ungartered!

• Under a regimen.

Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more.
Speed. And yet you will; and yet another

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O excellent device! was there ever heard a

better?

That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter?

Val. How now, Sir ? what are you reasoning with yourself?

Speed. Nay, I was rhyming: 'tis you that have

the reason.

Val. To do what?

SCENE III.-The same.-A Street.

Enter LAUNCE, leading a dog. Laun. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I bave 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. think, Crab my dog to be the sourest-natured

Speed. To be a spokesman from madam dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father

Silvia.

Val. To whom?

wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her bands, and all our house

Speed. To yourself; why, she wooes you by a in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruelfigure.

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.

Speed. Why, she hath given you a letter. Val. That's the letter I writ to her friend. Speed. And that letter hath she deliver'd, and there an end. ⚫

Val. I would, it were no worse. Speed. I'll warrant you, 'tis as well: For often you have writ to her; and she, in modesty,

Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply,

Or fearing else some messenger, that might her mind discover,

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 yon, Sir? 'tis dinner time.

Val. I have dined.

hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble stoue, and bas 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, with the hole in it, 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,-Oh! 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 iny father; well, he weeps on :-Dow come

to my mother, (Oh! 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.

Pan. Launce, away, away, aboard; thy masshipped, 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.

Speed. Ay, but hearken, Sir: though the ca-ter is meleon Love can feed on the air, I am ove that am nourished by ny victuals, and would fain have meat: Oh! be not like your mistress, be [Exeunt. moved, be moved.

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

socner:

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,
W berein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake,
The next eusuing hour some fool mischauce
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 bath better deeds, than words, to grace it.

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Laun. It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied. Pan. What's the unkindest tide?

Laun. Why, he that's tied here; Crab, my dog.

Pan. Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lose the food; 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,-Why dost thou stop my mouth?

Laun. For fear thou should'st lose thy tongue.
Pan. Where should I lose my tongue ?
Laun. In thy tale.

Pan. In thy tail?

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.

Pan. Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee.

Laun. Sir, call me what thou darest.
Pan. Wilt thou go?

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-Milan.-An Apartment in the

Laun. Well, I will go.

DUKE'S Palace.

SPEED.

Enter VALENTINE, SILVIA, THURIO, and

Sil. Servant

Val. Mistress?

Speed. Master, Sir Thario frowns on you. Val. Ay, boy, it's for love.

Speed. Not of you.

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Val. Of my mistress then.

Speed. 'Twere good, you knocked him.
Sil. Servant, you are sad.

Val. Indeed, madam, I seem so.
Thu. Seem you that you are not?
Val. Haply, I do.

Thu. So do counterfeit.

Val. So do you.

Thu. What seem I, that I am not ?
Val. Wise.

Thu. What instance of the contrary?
Val. Your folly.

Thu. And how quote you my folly?
Val. I quote it in your jerkin.
Thu. My jerkin is a doublet.

Val. Well, then, I'll double your folly.
Thu. How?

Sil. What, angry, Sir Thurio? do you change colour?

Val. Give him leave, madam: he is a kind of cameleon.

Thu. That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live in your air.

Val. You have said, Sir.

Thu. Ay, Sir, and done too, for this time. Val. I know it well, Sir; you always end ere you begin.

Sil. A fiue volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

Val. 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver. Sil. Who is that, servant?

Val. Yourself, 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 coтрацу.

Thu. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.

Val. I know it well, Sir: you have an ex chequer 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

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The honour and regard of such a father.
Duke. You know him well?

Fal. I knew him as myself; for from our infancy

We have convers'd, and spent our hours together:

And though giyself 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
Come all the praises that I now bestow,)
He is complete in feature, and in mind,
With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
Duke. Beshrew ý me, Sir, but, if he make
this good,

He is as worthy for an empress' love,
As ineet to be an emperor's counsellor.

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Well, Sir; this gentleman is come to me,
With commendation from great potentates;
And here he means to spend his time a while:
I think, 'tis no unwelcome news to you.
Val. Should I have wish'd a thing, it had
been he.

Duke. Welcome him then according to his worth;

Silvia, I speak to you; and you, Sir Thario:-
For Valentine, I need not 'cite him to it:
I'll send him hither to you presently.

[Exit DUKE Val. This is the gentleman, I told your lady

ship,

Had come along with me, but that bis mistress Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks. Sil. Belike, that now she hath enfranchis'd

them

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Welcome, dear Proteus !—Mistress, I beseech you,

Confirm his welcome with some special faveur. Sil. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,

If this be he you oft have wish'd to hear from. Val. Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain bim.

To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
Sil. Too low a mistress for so high a servant
Pro. Not so, sweet lady; but too mean a

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come:

I'll leave you to confer of home affairs; When you have done, we look to hear from yes. Pro. We'll both attend upon your ladyship. [Exeunt SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED Val. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much commended.

Val. And bow do your's?
Pro. I left them all in health.

Val. How does you lady t and how thrives your love?

Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you;

I know, you joy not in a love-discourse.
Val. Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now :
I have done penance for contemning love;
Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd

me

• Incite.

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with bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs;
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's

sorrow.

◇ 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.

Pro. Enough; I read your fortune in your

eye:

Was this the idol that you worship so?

Val. Even she; and is she not a heavenly
saint?

Pro. No; but she is an earthly paragon.
Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. Oh! flatter me; for love delights in
praises.

Pro. When I was sick, you gave me bitter
pills;

And I must minister the like to you.

Val. Then speak the truth by her; if not
divine,

Yet let her be a principality,

Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any;

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
Val. 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 flower,
And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is
this?

Val. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can, is nothing
To her, whose worth makes other worthies no-

thing:

She is alone.

Pro. Then let her alone.

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:
Oh! 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 perfectious,
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;

SCENE V.-The same.-A Street.

[Exit.

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Laun. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always-that a man is never undone, till he be hanged; nor never welcome to a place, till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say, welcome.

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the alehouse with you presently: where, for one shot of fivepence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with madain Julia ?

Laun. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest.

Speed. But shall she marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? Shall he marry her?

Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

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

Laun. Marry, thus; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her.

Speed. What an ass art thou? I understand thee not.

Laun. What a block art thou, that thou canst not? My staff understands me.

Speed. What thou say'st ?

Laun. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll

Val. Not for the world: why man, she is mine but lean, and my staff understands me.

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.
Pro. But she loves you?

Val. 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 Protens, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I shall enquire you
forth :

I mast unto the road, to disembark
Some necessaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.
Fal. Will you make haste?
Pro. I will.-

[Exit VAL.

Even as one beat 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 eye, or Valentinus' praise,
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus ?
She's fair; and so is Julia, that I love ;-
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;

Speed. It stands under thee, indeed.
Laun. Why, stand under and understand is all

one.

Speed. But tell me true, will't be a match? Laun. Ask my dog: if he say, ay, it will; if be say, no, it will: if he shake his tail, and say nothing, it will.

Speed. The conclusion is then, that it will. Laun. 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 thy master is become a notable lover?

Laun. I never knew him otherwise.
Speed. Than how ?

Laun. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.

Speed. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistakest

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SCENE VI.-The same.-An Apartment in | Bat qualify the fire's extreme rage,

the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

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

To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn ; And even that power, which gave me first my oath,

Provokes me to this threefold perjury.
Love bade me swear, and love bids me for-

swear :

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 to exchange the bad for

ter.

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;

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason, Jul. The more thou dam'st it up, the more burns;

The current, that with gentle murmur glides, Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But, when bis fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with the enamel'd stopes,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport, to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,+
blessed soul doth in Elysium.

bet-A

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 Julià, Silvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend;

For love is still more precious than 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 used 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 proceed-
ing.

Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
As thou hast leut me wit to plot this drift!

[Exit. SCENE VII.-Verona.-A Room in JULIA'S

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And, even 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.

Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long. Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;

Luc. But in what habit will you go along! Jul. Not like a woman; for I would prevent The loose encounters of lascivious men : Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds As may beseen some well-reputed page. Luc. Why then your ladyship must cat your

hair.

Jut. No, girl; Pl knit it up in silken strings, With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots: To be fautastic may become a youth

Of greater time than I shall show to be.

Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches ?

Jul. That fits as well, as-" tell me, good my lord,

"What compass will you wear your farthingale ?"

Why, even that fashion thou best lik'st, Lacetta. Luc. You must needs have them with a cof

piece, madam.

Jul. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-ft

vour'd.

Luc. A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin,

Unless you have a cod-piece to stick pins on. Jul. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have What thou think'st meet, and is most a.anserly: But tell me, wench, how will the world repait

me,

For undertaking so unstaid a journey ↑
I fear me, it will make me scandaliz'd.
Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and
go not.

Jul. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go. If Proteus like your journey, when you court, No matter who's displeas'd, when you are

gode:

1 fear me, he will scarce be pleas'd withal.
Jul. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
And instances as infinite of love,
Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men. Jul. Base men, that use them to so base effect!

But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth:
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracies;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;

Much less shall she, that hath love's wings to His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;

fly;

And when the flight is made to one so dear,
Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Proteus make returu.

Jul. Oh! 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,
Thon would'st as soon go kindle fire with snow,
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot
fire;

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