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Thu. That hath more mind to feed on your blood, Made use and fair advantage of his days;

than live in your air.

Val. You have said, sir.

Thu. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time.

His years but young, but his experience old;

His head unmellowed, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word (for far behind his worth

Val. I know it well, sir; you always end ere Come all the praises that I now bestow), you begin. He is complete in feature and in mind,

Sil. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and With all good grace to grace a gentleman. quickly shot off.

Val. 'T is 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 company.

Duke. Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this

good,

He is as worthy for an empress' love,
As meet to be an emperor's counselor.
Well, sir; this gentleman is come to me,
With commendation from great potentates;
And here he means to spend his time awhile:

Thu. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I think 't is no unwelcome news to you. I shall make your wit bankrupt.

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Val. I 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.

Val. Should I have wished a thing, it had been

he.

Duke. Welcome him then according to his

worth;

Silvia, I speak to you; and you, Sir Thurio:—

Sil. No more, gentlemen, no more; here comes For Valentine, I need not 'cite him to it: my father.

Enter DUKE.

I'll send him hither to you presently. [Exit DUKE.
Val. This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
Had come along with me, but that his mistress

Duke. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard Did hold his eyes locked in her crystal looks.

beset.

Sir Valentine, your father's in good health:

What say you to a letter from your friends

Of much good news?

Val.

My lord, I will be thankful

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Sil. Belike that now she hath enfranchised them Upon some other pawn for fealty.

Val. Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.

Sil. Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind,

Duke. Know you Don Antonio, your country- How could he see his way to seek out you?

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Ser. Madam, my lord your father would speak Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth. with you.

Sil. I wait upon his pleasure. [Exit Servant.
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. 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. 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 honor,—
To bear my lady's train; lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss,
And, of so great a favor growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower,

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much And make rough winter everlastingly.

commended.

Val. And how do yours?

Pro.

I left them all in health.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?

Val. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can, is nothing

Val. How does your lady? and how thrives To her, whose worth makes other worthies noyour love?

thing;

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

I know you joy not in a love-discourse.

Val. Ay, Proteus, but that life is altered now:

I have done pennance for contemning love;

Pro. Then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world: why, man, she is mine

own;

Whose high imperious thoughts have punished me And I as rich in having such a jewel,

With bitter fasts, with penitental groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs;
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chased sleep from my enthralléd eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's sor-

row.

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;

As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou seest me doat upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes
Only for his possessions are so huge,

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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.

Pro. 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.

Val. Will you make haste?

Pro. 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 her mein, 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 thawed;
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!
"T is 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.

SCENE V.-The same. A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

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Speed. But tell me true, will 't be a match? Laun. 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. Laun. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. 'T is well that I get it so. But, Launce, [Exit. how say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?

Speed. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan.

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 welcome to a place, till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say, welcome.

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Speed. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the ale-burn himself in love. If thou wilt go with me to

the ale-house, so; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Of their disguising, and pretended flight; Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.

Speed. Why?

Who, all enraged, 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,
[Exeunt. As thou hast lent me wit to plan this drift. [Exit.

Laun. 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.

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A Room in the Palace. SCENE VII.-Verona. A Room in JULIA'S

Enter PROTEUS.

oath

Pro. 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 even that power which gave me first my
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.
Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear:
O sweet-suggesting love, if thou hast sinned,
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 resolvéd will
To learn his wit to change the bad for better.—
Fye, fye, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferred
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!
Shews 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

House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me! And, even in kind love, I do cónjure thee,Who art the table wherein all my thoughts Are visibly charáctered and engraved,— To lesson me; and tell me some good mean, How, with my honor, 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; Much less shall she, that hath love's wings to fly; And when the flight is made to one so dear, Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Proteus make return. Jul. O, know'st thou not, his looks are my soul's food?

Pity the dearth that I have pinéd 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.
Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot
fire;

But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

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

burns.

The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth

rage;

But when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enameled stones,
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,
A blesséd soul doth in Elysium.

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 beseem some well-reputed page.

Luc. Why then, your ladyship must cut your
hair.

Jul. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings, With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots: To be fantastic may become a youth

Of greater time than I shall shew to be.

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Jul. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go. If Proteus like your journey, when you come, No matter who's displeased when you are gone: I fear me he will scarce be pleased withal. Jul. This 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 oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;

Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your His heart, as far from fraud, as heaven from

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, Lucetta. Luc. You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam.

Jul. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-favored. 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 mannerly: But tell me, wench, how will the world repute

me,

For undertaking so unstaid a journey? I fear me it will make me scandalized.

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