Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 4
Milan. The DUKE’s palace.
Silvia : Servant!
Valentine : Mistress?
Speed : Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you.
Valentine : Ay, boy, it's for love.
Speed : Not of you.
Valentine : Of my mistress, then.
Speed : 'Twere good you knocked him.
Silvia : Servant, you are sad.
Valentine : Indeed, madam, I seem so.
Thurio : Seem you that you are not?
Valentine : Haply I do.
Thurio : So do counterfeits.
Valentine : So do you.
Thurio : What seem I that I am not?
Valentine : Wise.
Thurio : What instance of the contrary?
Valentine : Your folly.
Thurio : And how quote you my folly?
Valentine : I quote it in your jerkin.
Thurio : My jerkin is a doublet.
Valentine : Well, then, I'll double your folly.
Thurio : How?
Silvia : What, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour?
Valentine : Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.
Thurio : That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live
[p]in your air.
Valentine : You have said, sir.
Thurio : Ay, sir, and done too, for this time.
Valentine : I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.
Silvia : A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.
Valentine : 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver.
Silvia : Who is that, servant?
Valentine : Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir
[p]Thurio borrows his
wit from your ladyship's looks,
[p]and spends what he borrows kindly
in your company.
Thurio : Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall
[p]make your wit
bankrupt.
Valentine : I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words,
[p]and, I think,
no other treasure to give your
[p]followers, for it appears by their
bare liveries,
[p]that they live by your bare words.
Silvia : No more, gentlemen, no more:--here comes my father.
Duke of Milan : Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
[p]Sir Valentine, your
father's in good health:
[p]What say you to a letter from your
friends
[p]Of much good news?
Valentine : My lord, I will be thankful.
[p]To any happy messenger from thence.
Duke of Milan : Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?
Valentine : Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman
[p]To be of worth and worthy
estimation
[p]And not without desert so well reputed.
Duke of Milan : Hath he not a son?
Valentine : Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves
[p]The honour and regard of
such a father.
Duke of Milan : You know him well?
Valentine : I know him as myself; for from our infancy
[p]We have conversed and
spent our hours together:
[p]And though myself have been an idle
truant,
[p]Omitting the sweet benefit of time
[p]To clothe mine age
with angel-like perfection,
[p]Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his
name,
[p]Made use and fair advantage of his days;
[p]His years but
young, but his experience old;
[p]His head unmellow'd, but his
judgment ripe;
[p]And, in a word, for far behind his worth
[p]Comes
all the praises that I now bestow,
[p]He is complete in feature and in
mind
[p]With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
Duke of Milan : Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good,
[p]He is as worthy for an
empress' love
[p]As meet to be an emperor's counsellor.
[p]Well, sir,
this gentleman is come to me,
[p]With commendation from great
potentates;
[p]And here he means to spend his time awhile:
[p]I think
'tis no unwelcome news to you.
Valentine : Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he.
Duke of Milan : Welcome him then according to his worth.
[p]Silvia, I speak to you,
and you, Sir Thurio;
[p]For Valentine, I need not cite him to it:
[p]I
will send him hither to you presently.
Valentine : This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
[p]Had come along with me,
but that his mistress
[p]Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal
looks.
Silvia : Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
[p]Upon some other pawn for
fealty.
Valentine : Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.
Silvia : Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind
[p]How could he see his
way to seek out you?
Valentine : Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes.
Thurio : They say that Love hath not an eye at all.
Valentine : To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself:
[p]Upon a homely object Love
can wink.
Silvia : Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman.
Valentine : Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you,
[p]Confirm his welcome
with some special favour.
Silvia : His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
[p]If this be he you oft
have wish'd to hear from.
Valentine : Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him
[p]To be my fellow-servant
to your ladyship.
Silvia : Too low a mistress for so high a servant.
Proteus : Not so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
[p]To have a look of such a
worthy mistress.
Valentine : Leave off discourse of disability:
[p]Sweet lady, entertain him for
your servant.
Proteus : My duty will I boast of; nothing else.
Silvia : And duty never yet did want his meed:
[p]Servant, you are welcome to a
worthless mistress.
Proteus : I'll die on him that says so but yourself.
Silvia : That you are welcome?
Proteus : That you are worthless.
Thurio : Madam, my lord your father would speak with you.
Silvia : I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio,
[p]Go with me. Once more,
new servant, welcome:
[p]I'll leave you to confer of home
affairs;
[p]When you have done, we look to hear from you.
Proteus : We'll both attend upon your ladyship.
Valentine : Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?
Proteus : Your friends are well and have them much commended.
Valentine : And how do yours?
Proteus : I left them all in health.
Valentine : How does your lady? and how thrives your love?
Proteus : My tales of love were wont to weary you;
[p]I know you joy not in a
love discourse.
Valentine : Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now:
[p]I have done penance for
contemning Love,
[p]Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd
me
[p]With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
[p]With nightly
tears and daily heart-sore sighs;
[p]For in revenge of my contempt of
love,
[p]Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes
[p]And made
them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
[p]O gentle Proteus, Love's
a mighty lord,
[p]And hath so humbled me, as, I confess,
[p]There is
no woe to his correction,
[p]Nor to his service no such joy on
earth.
[p]Now no discourse, except it be of love;
[p]Now can I break
my fast, dine, sup and sleep,
[p]Upon the very naked name of love.
Proteus : Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
[p]Was this the idol that you
worship so?
Valentine : Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
Proteus : No; but she is an earthly paragon.
Valentine : Call her divine.
Proteus : I will not flatter her.
Valentine : O, flatter me; for love delights in praises.
Proteus : When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
[p]And I must minister the
like to you.
Valentine : Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
[p]Yet let her be a
principality,
[p]Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
Proteus : Except my mistress.
Valentine : Sweet, except not any;
[p]Except thou wilt except against my love.
Proteus : Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
Valentine : And I will help thee to prefer her too:
[p]She shall be dignified with
this high honour--
[p]To bear my lady's train, lest the base
earth
[p]Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
[p]And, of so
great a favour growing proud,
[p]Disdain to root the summer-swelling
flower
[p]And make rough winter everlastingly.
Proteus : Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?
Valentine : Pardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing
[p]To her whose worth makes
other worthies nothing;
[p]She is alone.
Proteus : Then let her alone.
Valentine : Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own,
[p]And I as rich in
having such a jewel
[p]As twenty seas, if all their sand were
pearl,
[p]The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.
[p]Forgive me that
I do not dream on thee,
[p]Because thou see'st me dote upon my
love.
[p]My foolish rival, that her father likes
[p]Only for his
possessions are so huge,
[p]Is gone with her along, and I must
after,
[p]For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.
Proteus : But she loves you?
Valentine : Ay, and we are betroth'd: nay, more, our,
[p]marriage-hour,
[p]With
all the cunning manner of our flight,
[p]Determined of; how I must
climb her window,
[p]The ladder made of cords, and all the
means
[p]Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
[p]Good Proteus, go
with me to my chamber,
[p]In these affairs to aid me with thy
counsel.
Proteus : Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
[p]I must unto the road, to
disembark
[p]Some necessaries that I needs must use,
[p]And then I'll
presently attend you.
Valentine : Will you make haste?
Proteus : I will.
[p][Exit VALENTINE]
[p]Even as one heat another heat
expels,
[p]Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
[p]So the
remembrance of my former love
[p]Is by a newer object quite
forgotten.
[p]Is it mine, or Valentine's praise,
[p]Her true
perfection, or my false transgression,
[p]That makes me reasonless to
reason thus?
[p]She is fair; and so is Julia that I love--
[p]That I
did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
[p]Which, like a waxen image,
'gainst a fire,
[p]Bears no impression of the thing it
was.
[p]Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
[p]And that I love him
not as I was wont.
[p]O, but I love his lady too too much,
[p]And
that's the reason I love him so little.
[p]How shall I dote on her
with more advice,
[p]That thus without advice begin to love
her!
[p]'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
[p]And that hath
dazzled my reason's light;
[p]But when I look on her
perfections,
[p]There is no reason but I shall be blind.
[p]If I can
cheque my erring love, I will;
[p]If not, to compass her I'll use my
skill.
Previous: Act 2 - Scene 3
Next: Act 2 - Scene 5
