VAL. Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes. Enter PROTEUS. SIL. Have done, have done: here comes the gentleman. SIL. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither, Sweet Lady, entertain him for your Servant. PRO. 100 No; that you are worthless. Enter a Servant. SERV. Madam, my Lord your father would speak with you. When you have done, we look to hear from you. [Exeunt SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. VAL. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came? PRO. Your friends are well, and have them much com mended. VAL. And how do yours? PRO. I left them all in health. 120 VAL. How does your Lady? and how thrives your love? ACT II ACT II PRO. My tales of woe were wont to weary you: I have done penance for contemning Love, Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes, And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord, And hath so humbled me, as, I confess, There is no woe to1 his correction, Nor to his service no such joy on earth! Now, no discourse, except it be of Love: Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep, PRO. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye. VAL. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint? VAL. Call her divine. PRO. I will not flatter her. VAL. O, flatter me; for Love delights in praises. VAL. Then speak the truth by her: if not divine, Sovran to all the creatures on the earth. PRO. Except my Mistress. VAL. Sweet, except not any; Except thou wilt except against my love. 130 140 150 160 PRO. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this? To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing: PRO. Then let her alone. VAL. Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own, As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, VAL. Ay, and we are betroth❜d: Nay, more, our marriage hour, With all the cunning manner of our flight, Some necessaries that I needs must use; And then I'll presently attend you. VAL. Will you make haste? PRO. I will. Even as one heat another heat expels, 170 180 190 [Exit VALENTINE. Or as one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is it mine eye, or Valentine his praise, 200 ACT II Bears no impression of the thing it was. 210 [exit. SCENE V. The Same. A Street. Enter SPEED and LAUNCE. SPEED. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan! LAUNCE. Forswear not thyself, sweet 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 some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say Welcome. SPEED. Come on, you madcap, I'll to the alehouse with you presently; where for one shot of five pence thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with Madam Julia? ΙΟ LAUNCE. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest. SPEED. But shall she marry him? LAUNCE. No. SPEED. How, then? Shall he marry her? LAUNCE. No, neither. SPEED. What, are they broken? LAUNCE. No, they are both as whole as a fish. SPEED. Why, then how stands the matter with them? LAUNCE. Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it stands well with her. SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. 21 LAUNCE. What a block art thou, that thou canst not! ACT II My staff understands me. SPEED. What thou say'st? LAUNCE. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me. SPEED. It stands under thee, indeed. 30 LAUNCE. Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one. LAUNCE. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me SPEED. 'Tis well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou that my master is become a notable lover? LAUNCE. I never knew him otherwise. SPEED. Than how? LAUNCE. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be. master. SPEED. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover. 4I LAUNCE. Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself in love. If thou wilt go with me to the alehouse, so; if not, thou art an Ebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian. SPEED. Why? LAUNCE. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to the ale1 with a Christian. Wilt thou go? 51 SPEED. At thy service. [exeunt. SCENE VI. The Same. An Apartment in the Palace. Enter PROTEUS. PRO. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn; To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn; To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn; And ev❜n that power, which gave me first my oath, 1 church-ale, i.e. an old Church festival. Sc. V |