1    Servant!

2    Mistress?

3    Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you.

4    Ay, boy, it's for love.

5    Not of you.

6    Of my mistress, then.

7    'Twere good you knocked him.

8    Servant, you are sad.

9    Indeed, madam, I seem so.

10   Seem you that you are not?

11   Haply I do.

12   So do counterfeits.

13   So do you.

14   What seem I that I am not?

15   Wise.

16   What instance of the contrary?

17   Your folly.

18   And how quote you my folly?

19   I quote it in your jerkin.

20   My jerkin is a doublet.

21   Well, then, I'll double your folly.

22   How?

23   What, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour?

24   Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.

25   That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live
26   in your air.

27   You have said, sir.

28   Ay, sir, and done too, for this time.

29   I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.

30   A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

31   'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver.

32   Who is that, servant?

33   Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir
34   Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks,
35   and spends what he borrows kindly in your company.

36   Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall
37   make your wit bankrupt.

38   I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words,
39   and, I think, no other treasure to give your
40   followers, for it appears by their bare liveries,
41   that they live by your bare words.

42   No more, gentlemen, no more:--here comes my father.

43   Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
44   Sir Valentine, your father's in good health:
45   What say you to a letter from your friends
46   Of much good news?

47   My lord, I will be thankful.
48   To any happy messenger from thence.

49   Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?

50   Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman
51   To be of worth and worthy estimation
52   And not without desert so well reputed.

53   Hath he not a son?

54   Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves
55   The honour and regard of such a father.

56   You know him well?

57   I know him as myself; for from our infancy
58   We have conversed and spent our hours together:
59   And though myself have been an idle truant,
60   Omitting the sweet benefit of time
61   To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection,
62   Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name,
63   Made use and fair advantage of his days;
64   His years but young, but his experience old;
65   His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
66   And, in a word, for far behind his worth
67   Comes all the praises that I now bestow,
68   He is complete in feature and in mind
69   With all good grace to grace a gentleman.

70   Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good,
71   He is as worthy for an empress' love
72   As meet to be an emperor's counsellor.
73   Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me,
74   With commendation from great potentates;
75   And here he means to spend his time awhile:
76   I think 'tis no unwelcome news to you.

77   Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he.

78   Welcome him then according to his worth.
79   Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio;
80   For Valentine, I need not cite him to it:
81   I will send him hither to you presently.

82   This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
83   Had come along with me, but that his mistress
84   Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks.

85   Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
86   Upon some other pawn for fealty.

87   Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.

88   Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind
89   How could he see his way to seek out you?

90   Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes.

91   They say that Love hath not an eye at all.

92   To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself:
93   Upon a homely object Love can wink.

94   Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman.

95   Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you,
96   Confirm his welcome with some special favour.

97   His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
98   If this be he you oft have wish'd to hear from.

99   Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him
100  To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.

101  Too low a mistress for so high a servant.

102  Not so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
103  To have a look of such a worthy mistress.

104  Leave off discourse of disability:
105  Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant.

106  My duty will I boast of; nothing else.

107  And duty never yet did want his meed:
108  Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.

109  I'll die on him that says so but yourself.

110  That you are welcome?

111  That you are worthless.

112  Madam, my lord your father would speak with you.

113  I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio,
114  Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome:
115  I'll leave you to confer of home affairs;
116  When you have done, we look to hear from you.

117  We'll both attend upon your ladyship.

118  Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?

119  Your friends are well and have them much commended.

120  And how do yours?

121  I left them all in health.

122  How does your lady? and how thrives your love?

123  My tales of love were wont to weary you;
124  I know you joy not in a love discourse.

125  Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now:
126  I have done penance for contemning Love,
127  Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
128  With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
129  With nightly tears and daily heart-sore sighs;
130  For in revenge of my contempt of love,
131  Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes
132  And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
133  O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord,
134  And hath so humbled me, as, I confess,
135  There is no woe to his correction,
136  Nor to his service no such joy on earth.
137  Now no discourse, except it be of love;
138  Now can I break my fast, dine, sup and sleep,
139  Upon the very naked name of love.

140  Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
141  Was this the idol that you worship so?

142  Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?

143  No; but she is an earthly paragon.

144  Call her divine.

145  I will not flatter her.

146  O, flatter me; for love delights in praises.

147  When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
148  And I must minister the like to you.

149  Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
150  Yet let her be a principality,
151  Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.

152  Except my mistress.

153  Sweet, except not any;
154  Except thou wilt except against my love.

155  Have I not reason to prefer mine own?

156  And I will help thee to prefer her too:
157  She shall be dignified with this high honour--
158  To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth
159  Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
160  And, of so great a favour growing proud,
161  Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower
162  And make rough winter everlastingly.

163  Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?

164  Pardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing
165  To her whose worth makes other worthies nothing;
166  She is alone.

167  Then let her alone.

168  Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own,
169  And I as rich in having such a jewel
170  As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
171  The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.
172  Forgive me that I do not dream on thee,
173  Because thou see'st me dote upon my love.
174  My foolish rival, that her father likes
175  Only for his possessions are so huge,
176  Is gone with her along, and I must after,
177  For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.

178  But she loves you?

179  Ay, and we are betroth'd: nay, more, our,
180  marriage-hour,
181  With all the cunning manner of our flight,
182  Determined of; how I must climb her window,
183  The ladder made of cords, and all the means
184  Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
185  Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
186  In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.

187  Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
188  I must unto the road, to disembark
189  Some necessaries that I needs must use,
190  And then I'll presently attend you.

191  Will you make haste?

192  I will.
Exit VALENTINE
193  Even as one heat another heat expels,
194  Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
195  So the remembrance of my former love
196  Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
197  Is it mine, or Valentine's praise,
198  Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
199  That makes me reasonless to reason thus?
200  She is fair; and so is Julia that I love--
201  That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
202  Which, like a waxen image, 'gainst a fire,
203  Bears no impression of the thing it was.
204  Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
205  And that I love him not as I was wont.
206  O, but I love his lady too too much,
207  And that's the reason I love him so little.
208  How shall I dote on her with more advice,
209  That thus without advice begin to love her!
210  'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
211  And that hath dazzled my reason's light;
212  But when I look on her perfections,
213  There is no reason but I shall be blind.
214  If I can cheque my erring love, I will;
215  If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.