| PROTEUS
|
Already have I been false to Valentine
And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,
I have access my own love to prefer:
But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
When I protest true loyalty to her,
She twits me with my falsehood to my friend;
When to her beauty I commend my vows,
She bids me think how I have been forsworn
In breaking faith with Julia whom I loved:
And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
The least whereof would quell a lover's hope,
Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window,
And give some evening music to her ear. |
| |
[Enter THURIO and Musicians]
|
| THURIO
|
How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept before us?
|
| PROTEUS
|
Ay, gentle Thurio: for you know that love
Will creep in service where it cannot go. |
| THURIO
|
Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here.
|
| PROTEUS
|
Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence.
|
| THURIO
|
Who? Silvia? |
| PROTEUS
|
Ay, Silvia; for your sake.
|
| THURIO
|
I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen,
Let's tune, and to it lustily awhile. |
| |
[Enter, at a distance, Host, and JULIA in boy's clothes]
|
| Host |
Now, my young guest, methinks you're allycholly: I
pray you, why is it? |
| JULIA |
Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.
|
| Host |
Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where
you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked for. |
| JULIA |
But shall I hear him speak?
|
| Host |
Ay, that you shall. |
| JULIA |
That will be music. |
| |
[Music plays] |
| Host |
Hark, hark! |
| JULIA |
Is he among these? |
| Host |
Ay: but, peace! let's hear 'em.
|
| |
SONG.
Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be. |
| |
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness,
And, being help'd, inhabits there. |
| |
Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring. |
| Host |
How now! are you sadder than you were before? How
do you, man? the music likes you not. |
| JULIA |
You mistake; the musician likes me not.
|
| Host |
Why, my pretty youth? |
| JULIA |
He plays false, father.
|
| Host |
How? out of tune on the strings?
|
| JULIA |
Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very
heart-strings. |
| Host |
You have a quick ear. |
| JULIA |
Ay, I would I were deaf; it makes me have a slow heart.
|
| Host |
I perceive you delight not in music.
|
| JULIA |
Not a whit, when it jars so.
|
| Host |
Hark, what fine change is in the music!
|
| JULIA |
Ay, that change is the spite.
|
| Host |
You would have them always play but one thing?
|
| JULIA |
I would always have one play but one thing.
But, host, doth this Sir Proteus that we talk on
Often resort unto this gentlewoman? |
| Host |
I tell you what Launce, his man, told me: he loved
her out of all nick. |
| JULIA |
Where is Launce? |
| Host |
Gone to seek his dog; which tomorrow, by his
master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady. |
| JULIA |
Peace! stand aside: the company parts.
|
| PROTEUS
|
Sir Thurio, fear not you: I will so plead
That you shall say my cunning drift excels. |
| THURIO
|
Where meet we? |
| PROTEUS
|
At Saint Gregory's well.
|
| THURIO
|
Farewell. |
| |
[Exeunt THURIO and Musicians]
|
| |
[Enter SILVIA above] |
| PROTEUS
|
Madam, good even to your ladyship.
|
| SILVIA
|
I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
Who is that that spake? |
| PROTEUS
|
One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,
You would quickly learn to know him by his voice. |
| SILVIA
|
Sir Proteus, as I take it.
|
| PROTEUS
|
Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
|
| SILVIA
|
What's your will? |
| PROTEUS
|
That I may compass yours.
|
| SILVIA
|
You have your wish; my will is even this:
That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal man!
Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be seduced by thy flattery,
That hast deceived so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me, by this pale queen of night I swear,
I am so far from granting thy request
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
And by and by intend to chide myself
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee. |
| PROTEUS
|
I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead. |
| JULIA |
[Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak it;
For I am sure she is not buried. |
| SILVIA
|
Say that she be; yet Valentine thy friend
Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,
I am betroth'd: and art thou not ashamed
To wrong him with thy importunacy? |
| PROTEUS
|
I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
|
| SILVIA
|
And so suppose am I; for in his grave
Assure thyself my love is buried. |
| PROTEUS
|
Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
|
| SILVIA
|
Go to thy lady's grave and call hers thence,
Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine. |
| JULIA |
[Aside] He heard not that.
|
| PROTEUS
|
Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:
For since the substance of your perfect self
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
And to your shadow will I make true love. |
| JULIA |
[Aside] If 'twere a substance, you would, sure,
deceive it,
And make it but a shadow, as I am. |
| SILVIA
|
I am very loath to be your idol, sir;
But since your falsehood shall become you well
To worship shadows and adore false shapes,
Send to me in the morning and I'll send it:
And so, good rest. |
| PROTEUS
|
As wretches have o'ernight
That wait for execution in the morn. |
| |
[Exeunt PROTEUS and SILVIA severally]
|
| JULIA |
Host, will you go? |
| Host |
By my halidom, I was fast asleep.
|
| JULIA |
Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus?
|
| Host |
Marry, at my house. Trust me, I think 'tis almost
day. |
| JULIA |
Not so; but it hath been the longest night
That e'er I watch'd and the most heaviest. |
| |
[Exeunt] |
