William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

SPEED.

‘And more faults than hairs.’—

LAUNCE.

That’s monstrous! O, that that were out!

SPEED.

‘And more wealth than faults.’

LAUNCE. Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I’ll have her; an if it be a match, as nothing is impossible,—

SPEED.

What then?

LAUNCE. Why, then will I tell thee,—that thy master stays for thee at the North-gate.

SPEED.

For me?

LAUNCE. For thee! ay, who art thou? He hath stay’d for a better man than thee.

SPEED.

And must I go to him?

LAUNCE. Thou must run to him, for thou hast stayed so long that going will scarce serve the turn.

SPEED.

Why didst not tell me sooner? Pox of your love letters!

[Exit.]

LAUNCE. Now will he be swing’d for reading my letter. An unmannerly slave that will thrust himself into secrets! I’ll after, to rejoice in the boy’s correction.

[Exit.]

SCENE 2. The same. A room in the DUKE’S palace.

[Enter DUKE and THURIO.]

DUKE.

Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you

Now Valentine is banish’d from her sight.

THURIO.

Since his exile she hath despis’d me most,

Forsworn my company and rail’d at me,

That I am desperate of obtaining her.

DUKE.

This weak impress of love is as a figure

Trenched in ice, which with an hour’s heat

Dissolves to water and doth lose his form.

A little time will melt her frozen thoughts,

And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.

[Enter PROTEUS.]

How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman,

According to our proclamation, gone?

PROTEUS.

Gone, my good lord.

DUKE.

My daughter takes his going grievously.

PROTEUS.

A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.

DUKE.

So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.

Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee,—

For thou hast shown some sign of good desert,—

Makes me the better to confer with thee.

PROTEUS.

Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace

Let me not live to look upon your Grace.

DUKE.

Thou know’st how willingly I would effect

The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter.

PROTEUS.

I do, my lord.

DUKE.

And also, I think, thou art not ignorant

How she opposes her against my will.

PROTEUS.

She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

DUKE.

Ay, and perversely she persevers so.

What might we do to make the girl forget

The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?

PROTEUS.

The best way is to slander Valentine

With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent,

Three things that women highly hold in hate.

DUKE.

Ay, but she’ll think that it is spoke in hate.

PROTEUS.

Ay, if his enemy deliver it;

Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken

By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

DUKE.

Then you must undertake to slander him.

PROTEUS.

And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:

‘Tis an ill office for a gentleman,

Especially against his very friend.

DUKE.

Where your good word cannot advantage him,

Your slander never can endamage him;

Therefore the office is indifferent,

Being entreated to it by your friend.

PROTEUS.

You have prevail’d, my lord; if I can do it

By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,

She shall not long continue love to him.

But say this weed her love from Valentine,

It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.

THURIO.

Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,

Lest it should ravel and be good to none,

You must provide to bottom it on me;

Which must be done by praising me as much

As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

DUKE.

And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,

Because we know, on Valentine’s report,

You are already Love’s firm votary

And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.

Upon this warrant shall you have access

Where you with Silvia may confer at large;

For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,

And, for your friend’s sake, will be glad of you;

Where you may temper her by your persuasion

To hate young Valentine and love my friend.

PROTEUS.

As much as I can do I will effect.

But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;

You must lay lime to tangle her desires

By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes

Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.

DUKE.

Ay,

Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

PROTEUS.

Say that upon the altar of her beauty

You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart.

Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears

Moist it again, and frame some feeling line

That may discover such integrity:

For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews,

Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,

Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans

Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.

After your dire-lamenting elegies,

Visit by night your lady’s chamber-window

With some sweet consort: to their instruments

Tune a deploring dump; the night’s dead silence

Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance.

This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

DUKE.

This discipline shows thou hast been in love.

THURIO.

And thy advice this night I’ll put in practice.

Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,

Let us into the city presently

To sort some gentlemen well skill’d in music.

I have a sonnet that will serve the turn

To give the onset to thy good advice.

DUKE.

About it, gentlemen!

PROTEUS.

We’ll wait upon your Grace till after-supper,

And afterward determine our proceedings.

DUKE.

Even now about it! I will pardon you.

[Exeunt.]

ACT 4.

SCENE 1. A forest between Milan and Verona.

[Enter certain OUTLAWS.]

FIRST OUTLAW.

Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.

SECOND OUTLAW.

If there be ten, shrink not, but down with ‘em.

[Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.]

THIRD OUTLAW.

Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye;

If not, we’ll make you sit, and rifle you.

SPEED.

Sir, we are undone: these are the villains

That all the travellers do fear so much.

VALENTINE.

My friends,—

FIRST OUTLAW.

That’s not so, sir; we are your enemies.

SECOND OUTLAW.

Peace! we’ll hear him.

THIRD OUTLAW.

Ay, by my beard, will we, for he is a proper man.

VALENTINE.

Then know that I have little wealth to lose;

A man I am cross’d with adversity;

My riches are these poor habiliments,

Of which if you should here disfurnish me,

You take the sum and substance that I have.

SECOND OUTLAW.

Whither travel you?

VALENTINE.

To Verona.

FIRST OUTLAW.

Whence came you?

VALENTINE.

From Milan.

THIRD OUTLAW.

Have you long sojourn’d there?

VALENTINE.

Some sixteen months, and longer might have stay’d,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

FIRST OUTLAW.

What! were you banish’d thence?

VALENTINE.

I was.

SECOND OUTLAW.

For what offence?

VALENTINE.

For that which now torments me to rehearse:

I kill’d a man, whose death I much repent;

But yet I slew him manfully in fight,

Without false vantage or base treachery.

FIRST OUTLAW.

Why, ne’er repent it, if it were done so.

But were you banish’d for so small a fault?

VALENTINE.

I was, and held me glad of such a doom.

SECOND OUTLAW.