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- $Unique_ID{SSP00214}
- $Title{The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act IV, Scene II}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00200.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
-
-
- ACT IV
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE II: Milan. Outside the DUKE's palace, under SILVIA's
- chamber.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter PROTEUS.}
-
- PROTEUS: Already have I been false to Valentine
- And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
- Under the color 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 10
- 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. 20
-
- 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 30
- 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; 40
- 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 50
- 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. 60
-
- 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 70
- 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. 80
-
- 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: 90
- 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 100
- 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 110
- 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 120
- 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. 140
-
- [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.]
-