Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 1
Verona. An open place.
Valentine : Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:
[p]Home-keeping youth have ever
homely wits.
[p]Were't not affection chains thy tender days
[p]To the
sweet glances of thy honour'd love,
[p]I rather would entreat thy
company
[p]To see the wonders of the world abroad,
[p]Than, living
dully sluggardized at home,
[p]Wear out thy youth with shapeless
idleness.
[p]But since thou lovest, love still and thrive
therein,
[p]Even as I would when I to love begin.
Proteus : Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu!
[p]Think on thy Proteus,
when thou haply seest
[p]Some rare note-worthy object in thy
travel:
[p]Wish me partaker in thy happiness
[p]When thou dost meet
good hap; and in thy danger,
[p]If ever danger do environ
thee,
[p]Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
[p]For I will be
thy beadsman, Valentine.
Valentine : And on a love-book pray for my success?
Proteus : Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee.
Valentine : That's on some shallow story of deep love:
[p]How young Leander
cross'd the Hellespont.
Proteus : That's a deep story of a deeper love:
[p]For he was more than over
shoes in love.
Valentine : 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love,
[p]And yet you never swum
the Hellespont.
Proteus : Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.
Valentine : No, I will not, for it boots thee not.
Proteus : What?
Valentine : To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans;
[p]Coy looks with
heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth
[p]With twenty watchful,
weary, tedious nights:
[p]If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
[p]If
lost, why then a grievous labour won;
[p]However, but a folly bought
with wit,
[p]Or else a wit by folly vanquished.
Proteus : So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
Valentine : So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove.
Proteus : 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.
Valentine : Love is your master, for he masters you:
[p]And he that is so yoked by
a fool,
[p]Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.
Proteus : Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud
[p]The eating canker dwells,
so eating love
[p]Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
Valentine : And writers say, as the most forward bud
[p]Is eaten by the canker ere
it blow,
[p]Even so by love the young and tender wit
[p]Is turn'd to
folly, blasting in the bud,
[p]Losing his verdure even in the
prime
[p]And all the fair effects of future hopes.
[p]But wherefore
waste I time to counsel thee,
[p]That art a votary to fond
desire?
[p]Once more adieu! my father at the road
[p]Expects my
coming, there to see me shipp'd.
Proteus : And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
Valentine : Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave.
[p]To Milan let me hear
from thee by letters
[p]Of thy success in love, and what news
else
[p]Betideth here in absence of thy friend;
[p]And likewise will
visit thee with mine.
Proteus : All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!
Valentine : As much to you at home! and so, farewell.
Proteus : He after honour hunts, I after love:
[p]He leaves his friends to
dignify them more,
[p]I leave myself, my friends and all, for
love.
[p]Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me,
[p]Made me neglect
my studies, lose my time,
[p]War with good counsel, set the world at
nought;
[p]Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.
Speed : Sir Proteus, save you! Saw you my master?
Proteus : But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan.
Speed : Twenty to one then he is shipp'd already,
[p]And I have play'd the
sheep in losing him.
Proteus : Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray,
[p]An if the shepherd be a
while away.
Speed : You conclude that my master is a shepherd, then,
[p]and I a sheep?
Proteus : I do.
Speed : Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep.
Proteus : A silly answer and fitting well a sheep.
Speed : This proves me still a sheep.
Proteus : True; and thy master a shepherd.
Speed : Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance.
Proteus : It shall go hard but I'll prove it by another.
Speed : The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the
[p]shepherd; but I
seek my master, and my master seeks
[p]not me: therefore I am no
sheep.
Proteus : The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the
[p]shepherd for food
follows not the sheep: thou for
[p]wages followest thy master; thy
master for wages
[p]follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep.
Speed : Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.'
Proteus : But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia?
Speed : Ay sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her,
[p]a laced mutton,
and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a
[p]lost mutton, nothing for my
labour.
Proteus : Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.
Speed : If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her.
Proteus : Nay: in that you are astray, 'twere best pound you.
Speed : Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for
[p]carrying your
letter.
Proteus : You mistake; I mean the pound,--a pinfold.
Speed : From a pound to a pin? fold it over and over,
[p]'Tis threefold too
little for carrying a letter to
[p]your lover.
Proteus : But what said she?
Speed : [First nodding] Ay.
Proteus : Nod--Ay--why, that's noddy.
Speed : You mistook, sir; I say, she did nod: and you ask
[p]me if she did
nod; and I say, 'Ay.'
Proteus : And that set together is noddy.
Speed : Now you have taken the pains to set it together,
[p]take it for your
pains.
Proteus : No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter.
Speed : Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you.
Proteus : Why sir, how do you bear with me?
Speed : Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly; having nothing
[p]but the word
'noddy' for my pains.
Proteus : Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.
Speed : And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.
Proteus : Come come, open the matter in brief: what said she?
Speed : Open your purse, that the money and the matter may
[p]be both at once
delivered.
Proteus : Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she?
Speed : Truly, sir, I think you'll hardly win her.
Proteus : Why, couldst thou perceive so much from her?
Speed : Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no,
[p]not so much as a
ducat for delivering your letter:
[p]and being so hard to me that
brought your mind, I
[p]fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling
your
[p]mind. Give her no token but stones; for she's as
[p]hard as
steel.
Proteus : What said she? nothing?
Speed : No, not so much as 'Take this for thy pains.' To
[p]testify your
bounty, I thank you, you have testerned
[p]me; in requital whereof,
henceforth carry your
[p]letters yourself: and so, sir, I'll commend
you to my master.
Proteus : Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck,
[p]Which cannot perish
having thee aboard,
[p]Being destined to a drier death on
shore.
[p][Exit SPEED]
[p]I must go send some better messenger:
[p]I
fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
[p]Receiving them from such a
worthless post.
Next: Act 1 - Scene 2
