Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
Milan. Outside the DUKE’s palace, under SILVIA’s chamber.
Proteus : Already have I been false to Valentine
[p]And now I must be as unjust
to Thurio.
[p]Under the colour of commending him,
[p]I have access my
own love to prefer:
[p]But Silvia is too fair, too true, too
holy,
[p]To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
[p]When I protest
true loyalty to her,
[p]She twits me with my falsehood to my
friend;
[p]When to her beauty I commend my vows,
[p]She bids me think
how I have been forsworn
[p]In breaking faith with Julia whom I
loved:
[p]And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
[p]The least
whereof would quell a lover's hope,
[p]Yet, spaniel-like, the more she
spurns my love,
[p]The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
[p]But
here comes Thurio: now must we to her window,
[p]And give some evening
music to her ear.
Thurio : How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept before us?
Proteus : Ay, gentle Thurio: for you know that love
[p]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,
[p]Let's tune, and to it
lustily awhile.
Host : Now, my young guest, methinks you're allycholly: I
[p]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
[p]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.
Host : Hark, hark!
Julia : Is he among these?
Host : Ay: but, peace! let's hear 'em.
[p]SONG.
[p]Who is Silvia? what is
she,
[p]That all our swains commend her?
[p]Holy, fair and wise is
she;
[p]The heaven such grace did lend her,
[p]That she might admired
be.
[p]Is she kind as she is fair?
[p]For beauty lives with
kindness.
[p]Love doth to her eyes repair,
[p]To help him of his
blindness,
[p]And, being help'd, inhabits there.
[p]Then to Silvia let
us sing,
[p]That Silvia is excelling;
[p]She excels each mortal
thing
[p]Upon the dull earth dwelling:
[p]To her let us garlands
bring.
Host : How now! are you sadder than you were before? How
[p]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
[p]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.
[p]But, host, doth this
Sir Proteus that we talk on
[p]Often resort unto this gentlewoman?
Host : I tell you what Launce, his man, told me: he loved
[p]her out of all
nick.
Julia : Where is Launce?
Host : Gone to seek his dog; which tomorrow, by his
[p]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
[p]That you shall say my
cunning drift excels.
Thurio : Where meet we?
Proteus : At Saint Gregory's well.
Thurio : Farewell.
Proteus : Madam, good even to your ladyship.
Silvia : I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
[p]Who is that that spake?
Proteus : One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,
[p]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:
[p]That presently you hie
you home to bed.
[p]Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal
man!
[p]Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,
[p]To be
seduced by thy flattery,
[p]That hast deceived so many with thy
vows?
[p]Return, return, and make thy love amends.
[p]For me, by this
pale queen of night I swear,
[p]I am so far from granting thy
request
[p]That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
[p]And by and by
intend to chide myself
[p]Even for this time I spend in talking to
thee.
Proteus : I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
[p]But she is dead.
Julia : [Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak it;
[p]For I am sure she is
not buried.
Silvia : Say that she be; yet Valentine thy friend
[p]Survives; to whom,
thyself art witness,
[p]I am betroth'd: and art thou not ashamed
[p]To
wrong him with thy importunacy?
Proteus : I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
Silvia : And so suppose am I; for in his grave
[p]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,
[p]Or, at the least, in
hers sepulchre thine.
Julia : [Aside] He heard not that.
Proteus : Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
[p]Vouchsafe me yet your picture
for my love,
[p]The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
[p]To
that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:
[p]For since the
substance of your perfect self
[p]Is else devoted, I am but a
shadow;
[p]And to your shadow will I make true love.
Julia : [Aside] If 'twere a substance, you would, sure,
[p]deceive it,
[p]And
make it but a shadow, as I am.
Silvia : I am very loath to be your idol, sir;
[p]But since your falsehood
shall become you well
[p]To worship shadows and adore false
shapes,
[p]Send to me in the morning and I'll send it:
[p]And so, good
rest.
Proteus : As wretches have o'ernight
[p]That wait for execution in the morn.
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
[p]day.
Julia : Not so; but it hath been the longest night
[p]That e'er I watch'd and
the most heaviest.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 3
