The Same. A Room in the DUKE’S Palace. | |
| |
| Enter DUKE and THURIO. | |
| Duke. Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you, | |
| Now Valentine is banish’d from her sight. | 4 |
| Thu. Since his exile she hath despis’d me most, | |
| Forsworn my company and rail’d at me, | |
| That I am desperate of obtaining her. | |
| Duke. This weak impress of love is as a figure | 8 |
| Trenched in ice, which with an hour’s heat | |
| Dissolves to water and doth lose his form. | |
| A little time will melt her frozen thoughts, | |
| And worthless Valentine shall be forgot. | 12 |
| |
| Enter PROTEUS. | |
| How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman | |
| According to our proclamation gone? | |
| Pro. Gone, my good lord. | 16 |
| Duke. My daughter takes his going grievously. | |
| Pro. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief. | |
| Duke. So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so. | |
| Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee,— | 20 |
| For thou hast shown some sign of good desert,— | |
| Makes me the better to confer with thee. | |
| Pro. Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace | |
| Let me not live to look upon your Grace. | 24 |
| Duke. Thou know’st how willingly I would effect | |
| The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter. | |
| Pro. I do, my lord. | |
| Duke. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant | 28 |
| How she opposes her against my will. | |
| Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. | |
| Duke. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. | |
| What might we do to make the girl forget | 32 |
| The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio? | |
| Pro. The best way is to slander Valentine | |
| With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent, | |
| Three things that women highly hold in hate. | 36 |
| Duke. Ay, but she’ll think that it is spoke in hate. | |
| Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it: | |
| Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken | |
| By one whom she esteemeth as his friend. | 40 |
| Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him. | |
| Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do: | |
| ’Tis an ill office for a gentleman, | |
| Especially against his very friend. | 44 |
| Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage him, | |
| Your slander never can endamage him: | |
| Therefore the office is indifferent, | |
| Being entreated to it by your friend. | 48 |
| Pro. You have prevail’d, my lord. If I can do it, | |
| By aught that I can speak in his dispraise, | |
| She shall not long continue love to him. | |
| But say this weed her love from Valentine, | 52 |
| It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio. | |
| Thu. Therefore, as you unwind her love from him, | |
| Lest it should ravel and be good to none, | |
| You must provide to bottom it on me; | 56 |
| Which must be done by praising me as much | |
| As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine. | |
| Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind, | |
| Because we know, on Valentine’s report, | 60 |
| You are already Love’s firm votary | |
| And cannot soon revolt and change your mind. | |
| Upon this warrant shall you have access | |
| Where you with Silvia may confer at large; | 64 |
| For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy, | |
| And, for your friend’s sake, will be glad of you; | |
| Where you may temper her, by your persuasion | |
| To hate young Valentine and love my friend. | 68 |
| Pro. As much as I can do I will effect. | |
| But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough; | |
| You must lay lime to tangle her desires | |
| By wailful sonnets, whose composed rimes | 72 |
| Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows. | |
| Duke. Ay, | |
| Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy. | |
| Pro. Say that upon the altar of her beauty | 76 |
| You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart. | |
| Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears | |
| Moist it again, and frame some feeling line | |
| That may discover such integrity: | 80 |
| For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews, | |
| Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, | |
| Make tigers tame and huge leviathans | |
| Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. | 84 |
| After your dire-lamenting elegies, | |
| Visit by night your lady’s chamber-window | |
| With some sweet consort: to their instruments | |
| Tune a deploring dump; the night’s dead silence | 88 |
| Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance. | |
| This, or else nothing, will inherit her. | |
| Duke. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. | |
| Thu. And thy advice this night I’ll put in practice. | 92 |
| Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver, | |
| Let us into the city presently | |
| To sort some gentlemen well skill’d in music. | |
| I have a sonnet that will serve the turn | 96 |
| To give the onset to thy good advice. | |
| Duke. About it, gentlemen! | |
| Pro. We’ll wait upon your grace till after-supper, | |
| And afterward determine our proceedings. | 100 |
| Duke. Even now about it! I will pardon you. [Exeunt. | |