The Two Gentlemen of Verona (13 page)

Gentlewoman, good day: I pray you, be my
mean
¹⁰⁴

To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia.

SILVIA
    What would you with her,
if that I be she?
¹⁰⁶

JULIA
    If you be she, I do entreat your patience

To hear me speak the message I am sent on.

SILVIA
    From whom?

JULIA
    From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.

SILVIA
    O, he sends you for a picture?

JULIA
    Ay, madam.

SILVIA
    Ursula, bring my picture there.

Go give your master this: tell him from me,

One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,

Would better
fit his chamber
¹¹⁶
than this shadow.

JULIA
    Madam, please you peruse this letter.

Pardon me, madam, I have
unadvised
¹¹⁸

Delivered you a paper that I should not:

This is the letter to your ladyship.

SILVIA
    I pray thee, let me look on that again.

JULIA
    It may not be: good madam, pardon me.

SILVIA
    There,
hold.
¹²³

I will not look upon your master’s lines:

I know they are stuffed with
protestations
¹²⁵

And full of
newfound
¹²⁶
oaths, which he will break

As easily as I do tear his paper.

JULIA
    Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.

SILVIA
    The more shame for him that he sends it me,

For I have heard him say a thousand times

His Julia gave it him at his departure.

Though his false finger have
profaned
¹³²
the ring,

Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

JULIA
    She thanks you.

SILVIA
    What say’st thou?

JULIA
    I thank you, madam, that you
tender
¹³⁶
her.

Poor gentlewoman, my master wrongs her much.

SILVIA
    Dost thou know her?

JULIA
    Almost as well as I do know myself.

To think upon her woes, I do protest

That I have wept a hundred several times.

SILVIA
    Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her?

JULIA
    I think she doth: and that’s her cause of sorrow.

SILVIA
    Is she not passing fair?

JULIA
    She hath been fairer, madam, than she is:

When she did think my master loved her well,

She, in my judgement, was as fair as you.

But since she did neglect her looking-glass

And threw her
sun-expelling mask
¹⁴⁹
away,

The air hath starved the roses in her cheeks

And
pinched the lily-tincture
¹⁵¹
of her face,

That now she is become
as black as I.
¹⁵²

SILVIA
    How tall was she?

JULIA
    About my
stature
: for at
Pentecost,
¹⁵⁴

When all our
pageants of delight
¹⁵⁵
were played,

Our youth got me to play the woman’s part,

And I was
trimmed
¹⁵⁷
in Madam Julia’s gown,

Which served me as fit, by all men’s judgements,

As if the garment had been made for me:

Therefore I know she is about my height.

And at that time I made her weep
a-good,
¹⁶¹

For I did play a lamentable part.

Madam, ’twas
Ariadne,
passioning
¹⁶³

For Theseus’ perjury and unjust flight,

Which I so
lively
¹⁶⁵
acted with my tears

That my poor mistress, movèd therewithal,

Wept bitterly: and would I might be dead

If I in thought felt not her very sorrow.

SILVIA
    She is
beholding
¹⁶⁹
to thee, gentle youth.

Alas, poor lady, desolate and left!

I weep myself to think upon thy words.

Here, youth, there is my purse: I give thee this

For thy sweet mistress’ sake, because thou lov’st her.

Farewell.

JULIA
    And she shall thank you for’t, if e’er you know her.

A virtuous gentlewoman,
mild
¹⁷⁶
and beautiful.

I hope my master’s
suit will be but cold,
¹⁷⁷

Since she respects
my mistress
¹⁷⁸
’ love so much.

Alas, how love can trifle with itself!

Here is her picture: let me see, I think

If I had such a
tire
¹⁸¹
, this face of mine

Were full as lovely as is this of hers.

And yet the painter flattered her a little,

Unless I flatter with myself too much.

Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow;

If that be all the difference in his love,

I’ll get me such a coloured
periwig.
¹⁸⁷

Her eyes are grey as glass, and so are mine:

Ay, but her forehead’s low, and mine’s
as high.
¹⁸⁹

What should it be that he
respects
¹⁹⁰
in her

But I can make
respective
¹⁹¹
in myself,

If this fond Love were not a blinded god?

Come,
shadow
, come, and
take this shadow up,
¹⁹³

For ’tis thy rival.—O thou
senseless form,
¹⁹⁴

Thou shalt be worshipped, kissed, loved and adored;

And were there sense in his idolatry,

My substance should be
statue
in thy
stead.
¹⁹⁷

I’ll
use
¹⁹⁸
thee kindly, for thy mistress’ sake

That used me so: or else, by
Jove
¹⁹⁹
I vow,

I should have scratched out your unseeing eyes

To make my master out of love with thee.

EGLAMOUR
    The sun begins to
gild
¹
the western sky,

And now it is about the very hour

That Silvia, at Friar Patrick’s cell, should meet me.

She will not fail; for lovers
break not hours,
⁴

Unless it be to come
before their time,
⁵

So much they spur their
expedition.
⁶

See where she comes.—

                                           Lady, a happy evening!

SILVIA
    
Amen, amen.
⁸
Go on, good Eglamour,

Out at the
postern
⁹
by the abbey-wall;

I fear I am
attended
¹⁰
by some spies.

EGLAMOUR
    Fear not. The forest is not
three leagues
¹¹
off:

If we
recover
that, we are
sure
¹²
enough.

TURIO
    Sir Proteus, what says Silvia to my suit?

PROTEUS
    O, sir, I find her
milder
²
than she was,

And yet she takes exceptions at your
person.
³

TURIO
    What? That my leg is too long?

PROTEUS
    No, that it is too
little.
⁵

TURIO
    I’ll wear a boot, to make it somewhat rounder.

JULIA
    But love will not be
spurred
⁷
to what it loathes.

TURIO
    What says she to my face?

PROTEUS
    She says it is a
fair
⁹
one.

TURIO
    Nay then, the
wanton
lies: my face is
black.
¹⁰

PROTEUS
    But pearls are fair; and the old saying is,

Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies’ eyes.

JULIA
    ’Tis true, such
pearls
as
put out
ladies’
eyes,
¹³

For I had rather wink than look on them.

TURIO
    How likes she my discourse?

PROTEUS
    
Ill, when you talk of war.
¹⁶

TURIO
    But well, when I discourse of love and peace.

JULIA
    But better indeed, when you
hold your peace.
¹⁸

TURIO
    What says she to my valour?

PROTEUS
    O, sir, she
makes
²⁰
no doubt of that.

JULIA
    She needs not, when she knows it cowardice.

TURIO
    What says she to my
birth?
²²

PROTEUS
    That you are well
derived.
²³

JULIA
    True: from a gentleman to a fool.

TURIO
    Considers she my possessions?

PROTEUS
    O ay, and
pities
²⁶
them.

TURIO
    Wherefore?

JULIA
    That such an ass should
owe
²⁸
them.

PROTEUS
    That they are
out by lease.
²⁹

JULIA
    Here comes the duke.

DUKE
    How now, Sir Proteus; how now, Turio.

Which of you saw Eglamour of late?

TURIO
    Not I.

PROTEUS
    Nor I.

DUKE
    Saw you my daughter?

PROTEUS
    Neither.

DUKE
    Why then,

She’s fled unto that peasant Valentine,

And Eglamour is in her company.

’Tis true, for
Friar Laurence
⁴⁰
met them both

As he, in penance, wandered through the forest.

Him
⁴²
he knew well, and guessed that it was she,

But,
being masked
⁴³
, he was not sure of it.

Besides, she did intend confession

At Patrick’s cell this
even
⁴⁵
, and there she was not.

These likelihoods confirm her flight from hence.

Therefore I pray you
stand
⁴⁷
not to discourse,

But
mount you
⁴⁸
presently and meet with me

Upon the rising of the mountain-foot

That leads toward Mantua, whither they are fled:

Dispatch
⁵¹
, sweet gentlemen, and follow me.

TURIO
    Why, this it is to be a peevish girl,

That
flies her fortune
⁵³
when it follows her.

I’ll after, more to be revenged on Eglamour

Than for the love of
reckless
⁵⁵
Silvia.

PROTEUS
    And I will follow, more for Silvia’s love

Than hate of Eglamour that goes with her.

JULIA
    And I will follow, more to cross that love

Than hate for Silvia, that is gone for love.