Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 2
The same. The DUKE’s palace.
Duke of Milan : Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you,
[p]Now Valentine is
banish'd from her sight.
Thurio : Since his exile she hath despised me most,
[p]Forsworn my company and
rail'd at me,
[p]That I am desperate of obtaining her.
Duke of Milan : This weak impress of love is as a figure
[p]Trenched in ice, which
with an hour's heat
[p]Dissolves to water and doth lose his form.
[p]A
little time will melt her frozen thoughts
[p]And worthless Valentine
shall be forgot.
[p][Enter PROTEUS]
[p]How now, Sir Proteus! Is your
countryman
[p]According to our proclamation gone?
Proteus : Gone, my good lord.
Duke of Milan : My daughter takes his going grievously.
Proteus : A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke of Milan : So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.
[p]Proteus, the good conceit I
hold of thee--
[p]For thou hast shown some sign of good
desert--
[p]Makes me the better to confer with thee.
Proteus : Longer than I prove loyal to your grace
[p]Let me not live to look
upon your grace.
Duke of Milan : Thou know'st how willingly I would effect
[p]The match between Sir
Thurio and my daughter.
Proteus : I do, my lord.
Duke of Milan : And also, I think, thou art not ignorant
[p]How she opposes her
against my will
Proteus : She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.
Duke of Milan : Ay, and perversely she persevers so.
[p]What might we do to make the
girl forget
[p]The love of Valentine and love Sir Thurio?
Proteus : The best way is to slander Valentine
[p]With falsehood, cowardice and
poor descent,
[p]Three things that women highly hold in hate.
Duke of Milan : Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.
Proteus : Ay, if his enemy deliver it:
[p]Therefore it must with circumstance be
spoken
[p]By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.
Duke of Milan : Then you must undertake to slander him.
Proteus : And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:
[p]'Tis an ill office for a
gentleman,
[p]Especially against his very friend.
Duke of Milan : Where your good word cannot advantage him,
[p]Your slander never can
endamage him;
[p]Therefore the office is indifferent,
[p]Being
entreated to it by your friend.
Proteus : You have prevail'd, my lord; if I can do it
[p]By ought that I can
speak in his dispraise,
[p]She shall not long continue love to
him.
[p]But say this weed her love from Valentine,
[p]It follows not
that she will love Sir Thurio.
Thurio : Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,
[p]Lest it should ravel
and be good to none,
[p]You must provide to bottom it on me;
[p]Which
must be done by praising me as much
[p]As you in worth dispraise Sir
Valentine.
Duke of Milan : And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,
[p]Because we know, on
Valentine's report,
[p]You are already Love's firm votary
[p]And
cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
[p]Upon this warrant shall
you have access
[p]Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
[p]For
she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
[p]And, for your friend's sake,
will be glad of you;
[p]Where you may temper her by your
persuasion
[p]To hate young Valentine and love my friend.
Proteus : As much as I can do, I will effect:
[p]But you, Sir Thurio, are not
sharp enough;
[p]You must lay lime to tangle her desires
[p]By wailful
sonnets, whose composed rhymes
[p]Should be full-fraught with
serviceable vows.
Duke of Milan : Ay,
[p]Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.
Proteus : Say that upon the altar of her beauty
[p]You sacrifice your tears,
your sighs, your heart:
[p]Write till your ink be dry, and with your
tears
[p]Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
[p]That may
discover such integrity:
[p]For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets'
sinews,
[p]Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
[p]Make
tigers tame and huge leviathans
[p]Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on
sands.
[p]After your dire-lamenting elegies,
[p]Visit by night your
lady's chamber-window
[p]With some sweet concert; to their
instruments
[p]Tune a deploring dump: the night's dead silence
[p]Will
well become such sweet-complaining grievance.
[p]This, or else
nothing, will inherit her.
Duke of Milan : This discipline shows thou hast been in love.
Thurio : And thy advice this night I'll put in practise.
[p]Therefore, sweet
Proteus, my direction-giver,
[p]Let us into the city presently
[p]To
sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music.
[p]I have a sonnet that
will serve the turn
[p]To give the onset to thy good advice.
Duke of Milan : About it, gentlemen!
Proteus : We'll wait upon your grace till after supper,
[p]And afterward
determine our proceedings.
Duke of Milan : Even now about it! I will pardon you.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 1
