Thu. And how quote you my folly? T'hu. My jerkin is a doublet. Val. Well, then, I'll double your folly. 20 Sil. What, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour? Val. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon. Thu. That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live in your air. Val. You have said, sir. Thu. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. 30 Val. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin. Val. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks, and spends what he borrows kindly in your company. 40 Thu. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt. Val. I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers, for it appears, by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words. Sil. No more, gentlemen, no more: here comes my father. Enter DUKE. Duke. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. Sir Valentine, your father's in good health : Of much good news? Val. My lord, I will be thankful To any happy messenger from thence. Duke. Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman? To be of worth and worthy estimation And not without desert so well reputed. Duke. Hath he not a son? 50 Val. Ay, my good lord; a son that weil deserves The honour and regard of such a father. Duke. You know him well? Val. I know him as myself; for from our infancy To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection, Duke. Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good As meet to be an emperor's counsellor. Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me, With commendation from great potentates; And here he means to spend his time awhile: I think 'tis no unwelcome news to you. Val. Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he. Had come along with me, but that his mistress Sil. Belike that now she hath enfranchised them Upon some other pawn for fealty. ΤΟ 80 [Exit. Val. Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still, Sil. Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind. How could he see his way to seek out you? Val. Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes. Thu. They say that Love hath not an eye at all. Val. To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself : Upon a homely object Love can wink. Sil. Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman. Enter PROTEUS. [Exit THURIO. Val. Welcome, dear Proteus ! Mistress, I beseech you, Confirm his welcome with some special favour. Sil. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither, If this be he you oft have wish'd to hear from. 90 Val. Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him Sil. To low a mistress for so high a servant. That you are worthless. Re-enter THURIO. 110 Thu. Madam, my lord your father would speak with you. When you have done, we look to hear from you. [Exeunt Silvia and Thurio. Val. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came? Pro. Your friends are well and have them much commended. Val. And how do yours? 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, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now: I have done penance for contemning Love, Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me With nightly tears and daily heart-sore sighs; For in revenge of my contempt of love, Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. And hath so humbled me as I confess There is no woe to 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, Upon the very naked name of love. Pro. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye. Was this the idol that you worship so? 140 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. Pro. When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills, And I must minister the like to you. Val. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality, Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth. Pro. Except my mistress. Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own? Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this? To her whose worth makes other worthies nothing; Val. Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own, As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, 150 160 170 Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd: nay, more, our marriage hour, With all the cunning manner of our flight, Determined of; how I must climb her window, The ladder made of cords, and all the means Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber, Pro. Go on before; I shall inquire you forth: 180 Some necessaries that I needs must use, Val. Will you make haste? Pro. I will. Even as one heat another heat expels, 190 [Exit Valentine. Or as one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten. Her true perfection, or my false trangression, SCENE V. The same. A street. Enter SPEED and LAUNCE severally. 200 210 [Exit. 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 hanged, 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 inaster part with Madam Julia? 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? 11 |