The Two Gentlemen of Verona (14 page)

FIRST OUTLAW
    Come, come, be patient:

We must bring you to our captain.

SILVIA
    A thousand
more mischances
³
than this one

Have learned me how to
brook
⁴
this patiently.

SECOND OUTLAW
    Come, bring her away.

FIRST OUTLAW
    Where is the gentleman that was with her?

THIRD OUTLAW
    Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us.

But
Moyses and Valerius
⁸
follow him.

Go thou with her to the west end of the wood,

There is our captain: we’ll follow him that’s fled.

The thicket is
beset
¹¹
, he cannot scape.

FIRST OUTLAW
    Come, I must bring you to our captain’s cave.

Fear not: he bears an honourable mind,

And will not use a woman lawlessly.

SILVIA
    O Valentine, this I endure for thee!

VALENTINE
    How
use
¹
doth breed a habit in a man!

This shadowy
desert
²
, unfrequented woods,

I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:

Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,

And to the nightingale’s
complaining
⁵
notes

Tune my distresses and
record
⁶
my woes.

O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,

Leave not the
mansion
⁸
so long tenantless,

Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall

And leave no memory of what it was.

Repair
¹¹
me with thy presence, Silvia:

Thou gentle
nymph
¹²
, cherish thy forlorn swain.

What
hallowing
¹³
and what stir is this today?

These are my mates, that make their wills their law,

Have
¹⁵
some unhappy passenger in chase.

They love me well: yet I have much to do

To keep them
from
¹⁷
uncivil outrages.

Withdraw thee, Valentine: who’s this comes here?

PROTEUS
    Madam, this service I have done for you—

Though you
respect
not
aught
²⁰
your servant doth—

To hazard life and rescue you from
him
²¹

That would have
forced your honour and your love.
²²

Vouchsafe
me for my
meed
but one
fair
²³
look:

A smaller
boon
²⁴
than this I cannot beg,

And less than this I am sure you cannot give.

VALENTINE
    How like a dream is this? I see and hear:

Love, lend me patience to forbear awhile.

SILVIA
    O miserable, unhappy that I am!

PROTEUS
    Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came:

But by my coming I have made you happy.

SILVIA
    By thy
approach
³¹
thou mak’st me most unhappy.

JULIA
    And me, when he approacheth to your presence.

SILVIA
    Had I been seizèd by a hungry lion,

I would have been a breakfast to the beast

Rather than have false Proteus rescue me.

O, heaven, be judge how I love Valentine,

Whose life’s as
tender
³⁷
to me as my soul!

And
full
³⁸
as much, for more there cannot be,

I do detest false perjured Proteus.

Therefore be gone,
solicit
⁴⁰
me no more.

PROTEUS
    What dangerous
action
⁴¹
, stood it next to death,

Would I not undergo for one calm look:

O, ’tis the curse in love, and
still approved,
⁴³

When women cannot love where they’re beloved.

SILVIA
    When Proteus cannot love where he’s beloved.

Read over Julia’s heart, thy first best love,

For whose dear sake thou didst then
rend
thy
faith
⁴⁷

Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths

Descended into perjury, to love me.

Thou hast no faith left now, unless
thou’dst two,
⁵⁰

And that’s far worse than none: better have none

Than plural faith, which is too much by one.

Thou
counterfeit to thy true friend!
⁵³

PROTEUS
    In love

Who
respects
⁵⁵
friend?

SILVIA
    All men but Proteus.

PROTEUS
    Nay, if the gentle
spirit
of
moving
⁵⁷
words

Can no way change you to a milder
form,
⁵⁸

I’ll woo you like a soldier,
at arms
⁵⁹
’ end,

And love you ’gainst the nature of love: force ye.

SILVIA
    O heaven!

PROTEUS
    I’ll force thee yield to my desire.

VALENTINE
    Ruffian, let go that rude
uncivil
⁶³
touch,

Thou friend of an
ill fashion!
⁶⁴

PROTEUS
    Valentine!

VALENTINE
    Thou
common
⁶⁶
friend, that’s without faith or love,

For such is a friend now. Treacherous man,

Thou hast
beguiled
⁶⁸
my hopes; nought but mine eye

Could have persuaded me. Now I dare not say

I have one friend alive: thou wouldst disprove me.

Who should be trusted, when one’s
right hand
⁷¹

Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,

I am sorry I must never trust thee more,

But
count
⁷⁴
the world a stranger for thy sake.

The
private
⁷⁵
wound is deepest. O time most accurst,

’Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

PROTEUS
    My shame and guilt
confounds
⁷⁷
me.

Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow

Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I
tender’t
⁸⁰
here. I do as truly suffer

As e’er I did
commit.
⁸¹

VALENTINE
    Then I am paid:

And once again I do
receive thee
⁸³
honest.

Who
⁸⁴
by repentance is not satisfied

Is
nor
of heaven nor earth, for
these
⁸⁵
are pleased:

By
penitence
th’Eternal’s
⁸⁶
wrath’s appeased.

And that my
love
may appear plain and
free,
⁸⁷

All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.

JULIA
    O, me unhappy!

PROTEUS
    Look to the boy.

VALENTINE
    Why, boy! Why,
wag!
⁹¹
How now? What’s the matter?

Look up: speak.

JULIA
    O, good sir, my master
charged
⁹³
me to deliver a ring

to Madam Silvia, which, out of my neglect, was never done.

PROTEUS
    Where is that ring, boy?

JULIA
    Here ’tis: this is it.

PROTEUS
    How? Let me see. Why, this is the ring I

gave to Julia.

JULIA
    O,
cry you mercy
⁹⁹
, sir, I have mistook:

This is the ring you sent to Silvia.

PROTEUS
    But how cam’st thou by this ring? At my
depart
¹⁰¹
I

gave this unto Julia.

JULIA
    And Julia herself did give it me,

And Julia herself hath brought it hither.

PROTEUS
    How? Julia?

JULIA
    Behold her that
gave aim
¹⁰⁶
to all thy oaths,

And
entertained
¹⁰⁷
’em deeply in her heart.

How oft hast thou with perjury
cleft the root!
¹⁰⁸

O Proteus, let this
habit
¹⁰⁹
make thee blush.

Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me

Such an immodest
raiment
,
if shame live
¹¹¹

In a disguise of love!

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
¹¹³

Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

PROTEUS
    Than men their minds? ’Tis true. O heaven, were man

But constant, he were perfect. That one error

Fills him with faults, makes him run through all th’sins:

Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.
¹¹⁸

What is in Silvia’s face but I may spy

More fresh in Julia’s, with a constant eye?

VALENTINE
    Come, come, a hand from either.

Let me be blest to make this happy close:

’Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.

PROTEUS
    Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish forever.

JULIA
    And I mine.

OUTLAWS
    A prize, a prize, a prize!

VALENTINE
    Forbear, forbear, I say! It is my lord the Duke.

Your grace is welcome to a man
disgraced,
¹²⁸

Banished Valentine.

DUKE
    Sir Valentine?

TURIO
    Yonder is Silvia, and Silvia’s mine.

VALENTINE
    Turio,
give
¹³²
back, or else embrace thy death:

Come not within the
measure
¹³³
of my wrath.

Do not name Silvia thine: if once again,

Verona shall not
hold
¹³⁵
thee. Here she stands,

Take but possession of her with a touch:

I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.

TURIO
    Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I.

I hold him but a fool that will endanger

His body for a girl that loves him not:

I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

DUKE
    The more degenerate and base art thou

To make such
means
¹⁴³
for her as thou hast done,

And leave her on such
slight conditions.
¹⁴⁴

Now, by the honour of my ancestry,

I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an empress’ love:

Know then, I here forget all former griefs,

Cancel all grudge,
repeal
¹⁴⁹
thee home again,

Plead a new state in thy unrivalled merit,
¹⁵⁰

To which I thus
subscribe:
¹⁵¹
Sir Valentine,

Thou art a gentleman and well derived,

Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved her.

VALENTINE
    I thank your grace: the gift hath made me happy.

I now beseech you, for your daughter’s sake,

To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

DUKE
    I grant it, for thine own, whate’er it be.

VALENTINE
    These banished men that I have
kept withal
¹⁵⁸

Are men endued with worthy qualities:

Forgive them what they have committed here

And let them be recalled from their exile:

They are reformèd, civil, full of good,

And fit for great
employment
¹⁶³
, worthy lord.

DUKE
    Thou hast prevailed: I pardon them and thee.

Dispose of
them
as thou know’st their deserts.
¹⁶⁵

Come, let us go: we will
include all jars
¹⁶⁶

With
triumphs
, mirth and
rare solemnity.
¹⁶⁷

VALENTINE
    And as we walk along, I dare be bold

With our discourse to make your grace to smile.

What think you of this page, my lord?

DUKE
    I think the boy hath
grace
¹⁷¹
in him: he blushes.

VALENTINE
    I warrant you, my lord, more
grace
¹⁷²
than boy.

DUKE
    What mean you by that saying?

VALENTINE
    Please you, I’ll tell you as we pass along,

That you will wonder what hath
fortunèd.
¹⁷⁵

Come Proteus, ’tis your penance but to hear

The story of your loves discoverèd.

That done, our day of marriage shall be yours,

One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.