The Two Gentlemen of Verona (11 page)
Read The Two Gentlemen of Verona Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Exeunt
running scene 13
Enter certain Outlaws
FIRST OUTLAW
Fellows, stand fast: I see a
passenger.
1
SECOND OUTLAW
If there be ten, shrink not, but down with ’em.
[
Enter Valentine and Speed
]
THIRD OUTLAW
Stand
3
, sir, and throw us that you have about ye.
If not, we’ll make you sit and
rifle
4
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
10
man.
VALENTINE
Then know that I have little wealth to lose;
A man I am,
crossed with
12
adversity:
My riches are these poor
habiliments,
13
Of which, if you should here
disfurnish
14
me,
You take the
sum and substance
15
that I have.
SECOND OUTLAW
Whither travel you?
VALENTINE
To Verona.
FIRST OUTLAW
Whence came you?
VALENTINE
From Milan.
THIRD OUTLAW
Have you long
sojourned
20
there?
VALENTINE
Some sixteen months, and longer might have stayed,
If
crookèd
22
fortune had not thwarted me.
FIRST OUTLAW
What, were you banished thence?
VALENTINE
I was.
SECOND OUTLAW
For what offence?
VALENTINE
For that which now torments me to rehearse:
I killed a man, whose death I much repent,
But yet I slew him manfully, in fight,
Without
false vantage
29
or base treachery.
FIRST OUTLAW
Why, ne’er repent it, if it were done so;
But were you banished for so small a fault?
VALENTINE
I was, and
held me glad of such a doom.
32
SECOND OUTLAW
Have you the tongues?
33
VALENTINE
My youthful travel therein made me
happy,
34
Or else I often had been miserable.
THIRD OUTLAW
By the bare scalp of Robin Hood’s
fat friar,
36
This fellow
were
a king for our wild
faction!
37
FIRST OUTLAW
We’ll have him. Sirs, a word.
Outlaws confer privately
SPEED
Master, be one of them: it’s an honourable kind of
thievery.
VALENTINE
Peace, villain.
SECOND OUTLAW
Tell us this: have you
anything to take to?
42
VALENTINE
Nothing but my fortune.
THIRD OUTLAW
Know then that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of
ungoverned
45
youth
Thrust from the company of
awful
46
men.
Myself was from Verona banishèd
For
practising
48
to steal away a lady,
An heir and
niece
49
, allied unto the duke.
SECOND OUTLAW
And I from
Mantua
50
, for a gentleman,
Who, in my
mood
51
, I stabbed unto the heart.
FIRST OUTLAW
And I for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose: for we
cite
53
our faults,
That they may
hold excused
54
our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly
shape
56
, and by your own report
A linguist and a man of such perfection
As we do in our
quality
58
much want—
SECOND OUTLAW
Indeed, because you are a banished man,
Therefore,
above the rest
, we
parley
60
to you:
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity
And live as we do in this wilderness?
THIRD OUTLAW
What say’st thou? Wilt thou be of our
consort?
64
Say ‘ay’, and be the captain of us all:
We’ll
do thee homage
66
and be ruled by thee,
Love thee as our commander and our king.
FIRST OUTLAW
But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.
SECOND OUTLAW
Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offered.
VALENTINE
I take your offer and will live with you,
Provided that you do no
outrages
71
On
silly
72
women or poor passengers.
THIRD OUTLAW
No, we detest such vile base practices.
Come, go with us: we’ll bring thee to our
crews,
74
And show thee all the treasure we have got,
Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy
dispose.
76
Exeunt
running scene 14
Enter Proteus
PROTEUS
Already have I been false to Valentine,
And now I must be as unjust to Turio:
Under the
colour
of
commending
3
him,
I have access my own love to prefer.
But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts;
When I
protest
7
true loyalty to her,
She
twits
8
me with my falsehood to my friend;
When to her beauty I
commend
9
my vows,
She bids me think how I have been forsworn
In breaking faith with Julia, whom I loved;
And notwithstanding all her sudden
quips,
12
The least whereof would quell a lover’s hope,
Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
[
Enter Turio and Musicians
]
But here comes Turio; now must we to her window,
And give some evening music to her ear.
TURIO
How now, Sir Proteus, are you
crept
18
before us?
PROTEUS
Ay, gentle Turio, for you know that love
Will
creep
in service where it cannot
go.
20
TURIO
Ay, but I hope, sir, that you
love not here.
21
PROTEUS
Sir, but I do: or else I would be hence.
TURIO
Who, Silvia?
PROTEUS
Ay, Silvia: for your sake.
TURIO
I thank you for your own.
25
Now, gentlemen,
Let’s tune, and to it
lustily
26
awhile.
[
Enter, at a distance, the
Host
, and Julia in boy’s clothes
]
They talk apart
HOST
Now, my young guest, methinks you’re
allicholly
27
; I
pray you, why is it?
JULIA
Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.
HOST
Come, we’ll have you merry: I’ll bring you where
you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked
for.
JULIA
But shall I hear him speak?
HOST
Ay, that you shall.
Music plays
JULIA
That will be music.
HOST
Hark, hark!
JULIA
Is he among these?
HOST
Ay: but peace, let’s hear ’em.
[
PROTEUS or A MUSICIAN sings the
]
song
Who is Silvia? What is she?
That all our
swains
40
commend her?
Holy, fair and wise is she:
The heaven such
grace
42
did lend her,
That she might
admirèd
43
be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness:
Love doth to her eyes
repair,
46
To help him
of
47
his blindness,
And, being helped, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling.
To her let us garlands bring.
HOST
How now? Are you sadder than you were before?
How
do
you, man? The music
likes
55
you not.
JULIA
You mistake: the musician
likes me not.
56
HOST
Why, my pretty youth?
JULIA
He
plays false
,
father.
58
HOST
How, out of tune on the strings?
JULIA
Not so: but yet so false that he grieves my very
heart-strings.
HOST
You have a
quick
62
ear.
JULIA
Ay, I would I were deaf: it makes me have a
slow
63
heart.
HOST
I perceive you delight not in music.
JULIA
Not a whit, when it
jars
66
so.
HOST
Hark what fine
change
67
is in the music.
JULIA
Ay, that change is the
spite.
68
HOST
You would have them always play
but one thing?
69
JULIA
I would always have
one play but one thing.
70
But, host, doth this Sir Proteus that we talk on
Often resort unto this gentlewoman?
HOST
I tell you what Lance his man told me: he loved her
JULIA
Where is Lance?
HOST
Gone to seek his dog, which tomorrow, by his
master’s command, he must carry for a present to his lady.
JULIA
Peace, stand aside: the company parts.
Julia and the Host stand aside
PROTEUS
Sir Turio, fear not you: I will so plead
That you shall say my cunning drift excels.
TURIO
Where meet we?
PROTEUS
At
Saint Gregory’s well.
82
TURIO
Farewell.
[
Exeunt Turio and Musicians
]
[
Enter Silvia above, at her window
]
PROTEUS
Madam, good even to your ladyship.
SILVIA
I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
Who is that that spake?
PROTEUS
One, lady, if you knew his pure heart’s truth,
You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.
SILVIA
Sir Proteus, as I take it.
PROTEUS
Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
SILVIA
What’s your
will?
91
PROTEUS
That I may
compass yours.
92
SILVIA
You have your wish: my will is even this,
That presently you
hie
94
you home to bed.
Thou
subtle,
95
perjured, false, disloyal man:
Think’st thou I am so shallow, so
conceitless,
96
To be seduced by thy flattery,
That hast deceived so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make
thy love
99
amends.
For me — by this
pale queen of night
100
I swear—
I am so far from granting thy request
That I despise thee for thy
wrongful suit,
102
And
by and by
103
intend to chide myself,
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
PROTEUS
I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady:
But she is dead.