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Pro. I left them all in health.

Val. How does your lady? and how thrives your love?
Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you;
I know, you joy not in a love-discourse.

Val. Ay, Protheus, but that life is alter'd now;
I have done penance for contemning love,
Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
With bitter fafts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs.
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chac'd fleep from my enthralled eyes,

And made them watchers of mine own heart's-forrow.
O gentle Protheus, love's a mighty lord,

And hath fo humbled me, as, I confefs

There is no wo to his correction;

Nor, to his fervice, any joy on earth.

Now, no discourse, except it be of love;

Now can I break my faft, dine, fup, and fleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough: I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol that you worship fo?

Val. Even fhe; and is she not a heav'nly faint?
Pro. No; but she is an earthly paragon.
Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O, flatter me; for love delights in praise. Pro. When I was fick, you gave me bitter pills, And I must minifter the like to you.

Val. Then speak the truth by her: if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

Sov'reign to all the creatures on the earth.

Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any,

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too:

She

She fhall be dignify'd with this high honour,
To bear my lady's train, left the base earth
Should from her vefture chance to steal a kifs;
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Difdain to root the fummer-fwelling flower;
And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what bragadifm is this?
Val. Pardon me, Protheus; all I can is nothing
To her, whofe worth makes other worthies nothing;
She is alone.

Pro. Why, then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world: why, man, fhe is mine own.
And I as rich in having fuch a jewel,

As twenty feas, if all their fand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou feeft me dote upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes
Only for his poffeffions are so huge,
Is gone with her along, and I must after;
For love, thou know'ft, is full of jealousy.
Pro. But fhe loves you?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage,
With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determin'd of; how I must climb her window,
The ladder made of cords, and all the means
Plotted, and 'greed on, for my happiness.
Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.

Pro. Go on before; I fhall enquire you forth.
I muft unto the road, to difembark
Sorne neceffaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend upon you.
Val. Will you make haste ?

Pro. I will.

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[Exit Val.

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Or as one nail by strength drives out another;
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine eyne, or Valentino's praise ?
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonlefs, to reason thus?
She's fair; and fo is Julia that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire
Bears no impreffion of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold,
And that I love him not as I was wont.
O, but I love his lady too, too much;
And that's the reason I love him fo little.
How fhall I dote on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her?
'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazled fo my reafon's light:
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reafon but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

SCENE

[Exit.

VIII.

Enter Speed and Launce.

Speed. Launce, by mine honefty, welcome to Milan. Laun. Forfwear not thyfelf, fweet youth; for I am not welcome: I reckon this always, that a man is never undone 'till he be hang'd, nor never welcome to a place 'till fome certain shot be pay'd, and the hoftefs fay, welcome.

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap; I'll to the ale-house with you presently, where, for one shot of five-pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, firrah, how did thy master part with madam Julia?

Laun. Marry, after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very fairly in jeft. Speed.

Speed. But fhall she marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? shall he marry her?

Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Laun. No, they are both as whole as a fish.

Speed. Why then, how ftands the matter with them? Laun. Marry, thus; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her."

Speed. But, tell me true, will't be a match?

Laun. Afk my dog: if he fay, ay, it will; if he fay, no, it will; if he shake his tail, and fay nothing, it will.

Speed. The conclufion is then, that it will.

Laun. Thou shalt never get fuch a fecret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. 'Tis well, that I get it fo: but, Launce, how fay'st thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover?

Laun. I never knew him otherwise.

Speed. Than how?

Laun. A notable lubber, as thou reporteft him to be.
Speed. Why, thou whorefon afs, thou mistak'ft me.
Laun. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master.
Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover.

Laun. Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself in love: if thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, fo; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Chriftian. Speed. Why?

Laun. Because thou haft not so much charity in thee as to go to the ale-house with a Chriftian: wilt thou go? Speed. At thy fervice.

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My ftaff understands me.

Speed. What thou fay'ft?

Laun. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me.

Speed. It ftands under thee, indeed.

Laun. Why, ftand-under, and understand, is all one.

Speed. But tell me true, &c.

[Exeunt.

Y 2

SCENE

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Pro. To leave my Julia, fhall I be forfworn: To love fair Silvia, fhall I be forfworn:

To wrong my friend, I fhall be much forfworn:
And ev❜n that pow'r which gave me first my oath,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.

Love bad me fwear, and love bids me forfwear:
O sweet suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.
At first I did adore a twinkling star,
But now I worship a celestial fun.

Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
And he wants wit that wants refolved will
To learn his wit t'exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose fov'reignty so oft thou haft preferr'd
With twenty thousand foul-confirmed oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do :
But there I leave to love where I fhould love:
Julia I lofe, and Valentine I lofe:

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself :
If I lose them, this find I by their lofs,
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia:
I to myself am dearer than a friend;
For love is ftill most precious in itself :

And Silvia (witness heav'n, that made her fair!)
Shows Julia but a fwarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,

Remembring that my love to her is dead:
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,

Aiming at Silvia as a fweeter friend.
cannot now prove conftant to myself,

Without some treachery us'd to Valentine :

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