William Shakespeare

“ SPEED.
It stands under thee indeed.
LANCE.
Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.
SPEED.
But tell me true, will’t be a match?
LANCE.
Ask my dog. If he say “Ay”, it will; if he say “No”, it will; if he shake his tail and say nothing, it will.
SPEED.
The conclusion is, then, that it will.
LANCE.
Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable.
SPEED.
’Tis well that I get it so. But, Lance, how sayst thou that my master is become a notable lover?
LANCE.
I never knew him otherwise.
SPEED.
Than how?
LANCE.
A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be. ”

“ Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment’s mirth
With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights.
If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
If lost, why then a grievous labour won;
However, but a folly bought with wit,
Or else a wit by folly vanquished.
PROTEUS.
So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
VALENTINE.
So, by your circumstance, I fear you’ll prove.
PROTEUS.
’Tis love you cavil at. I am not Love.
VALENTINE.
Love is your master, for he masters you;
And he that is so yoked by a fool
Methinks should not be chronicled for wise. ”

“ First Outlaw We'll have him. Sirs, a word.
SPEED Master, be one of them; it's an honourable kind of thievery.
VALENTINE Peace, villain!
Second Outlaw Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
VALENTINE Nothing but my fortune.
Third Outlaw Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
Second Outlaw And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart. ”

“ To be fantastic may become a youth
Of greater time than I shall show to be.
LUCETTA What fashion, madam shall I make your breeches?
JULIA That fits as well as 'Tell me, good my lord,
What compass will you wear your farthingale?'
Why even what fashion thou best likest, Lucetta.
LUCETTA You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam.
JULIA Out, out, Lucetta! that would be ill-favour'd.
LUCETTA A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin,
Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.
JULIA Lucetta, as thou lovest me, let me have
What thou thinkest meet and is most mannerly. ”

“ SILVIA Had I been seized 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 to me as my soul!
And full as much, for more there cannot be,
I do detest false perjured Proteus.
Therefore be gone; solicit me no more.
PROTEUS What dangerous action, stood it next to death,
Would I not undergo for one calm look!
O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved,
When women cannot love where they're beloved!
SILVIA When Proteus cannot love where he's beloved. ”

“ PROTEUS All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!
VALENTINE As much to you at home! and so, farewell.
Exit
PROTEUS He after honour hunts, I after love:
He leaves his friends to dignify them more,
I leave myself, my friends and all, for love.
Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me,
Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
War with good counsel, set the world at nought;
Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.
Enter SPEED
SPEED Sir Proteus, save you! Saw you my master?
PROTEUS But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan. ”

“ JULIA.
Say, say, who gave it thee?
LUCETTA.
Sir Valentine’s page, and sent, I think, from Proteus.
He would have given it you, but I, being in the way,
Did in your name receive it. Pardon the fault, I pray.
JULIA.
Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker!
Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines?
To whisper and conspire against my youth?
Now trust me, ’tis an office of great worth,
And you an officer fit for the place.
There, take the paper; see it be returned,
Or else return no more into my sight.
LUCETTA.
To plead for love deserves more fee than hate. ”

“ THURIO Madam, my lord your father would speak with you.
SILVIA I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio,
Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome:
I'll leave you to confer of home affairs;
When you have done, we look to hear from you.
PROTEUS We'll both attend upon your ladyship.
Exeunt SILVIA and THURIO
VALENTINE Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?
PROTEUS Your friends are well and have them much commended.
VALENTINE And how do yours?
PROTEUS I left them all in health.
VALENTINE How does your lady? and how thrives your love? ”

“ PROTEUS I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.
JULIA [Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak it;
For I am sure she is not buried.
SILVIA Say that she be; yet Valentine thy friend
Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,
I am betroth'd: and art thou not ashamed
To wrong him with thy importunacy?
PROTEUS I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
SILVIA And so suppose am I; for in his grave
Assure thyself my love is buried.
PROTEUS Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. ”

“ SILVIA O heaven!
PROTEUS I'll force thee yield to my desire.
VALENTINE Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch,
Thou friend of an ill fashion!
PROTEUS Valentine!
VALENTINE Thou common friend, that's without faith or love,
For such is a friend now; treacherous man!
Thou hast beguiled 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 own right hand
Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,
I am sorry I must never trust thee more,
But count the world a stranger for thy sake. ”

“ But if thou linger in my territories
Longer than swiftest expedition
Will give thee time to leave our royal court,
By heaven, my wrath shall far exceed the love
I ever bore my daughter or thyself.
Begone, I will not hear thy vain excuse,
But, as thou lov’st thy life, make speed from hence.
[Exit.]
VALENTINE.
And why not death, rather than living torment?
To die is to be banished from myself,
And Silvia is myself; banished from her
Is self from self—a deadly banishment.
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? ”

“ 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,
Are men endued with worthy qualities.
Forgive them what they have committed here,
And let them be recalled from their exile.
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord. ”

“ Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon;
She is my essence, and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster'd, illumined, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death:
But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.
Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE
PROTEUS Run, boy, run, run, and seek him out.
LAUNCE Soho, soho!
PROTEUS What seest thou?
LAUNCE Him we go to find: there's not a hair on's head
but 'tis a Valentine. ”

“ How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root!
O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush.
Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me
Such an immodest raiment, if shame live
In a disguise of love.
It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
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.
What is in Silvia’s face but I may spy
More fresh in Julia’s with a constant eye? ”

“ PROTEUS The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the
shepherd for food follows not the sheep: thou for
wages followest thy master; thy master for wages
follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep.
SPEED Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.'
PROTEUS But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia?
SPEED Ay sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her,
a laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a
lost mutton, nothing for my labour.
PROTEUS Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.
SPEED If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her. ”

“ JULIA.
A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
Much less shall she that hath Love’s wings to fly,
And when the flight is made to one so dear,
Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.
LUCETTA.
Better forbear till Proteus make return.
JULIA.
O, know’st thou not his looks are my soul’s food?
Pity the dearth that I have pined in
By longing for that food so long a time.
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love
Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words. ”

“ And he wants wit that wants resolved will
To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;
But there I leave to love where I should love.
Julia I lose and Valentine I lose:
If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
If I lose them, thus find I by their loss
For Valentine myself, for Julia Silvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend,
For love is still most precious in itself ”

“ I’ll prove it: the cover of the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt; the hair that covers the wit is more than the wit, for the greater hides the less. What’s next?
SPEED.
And more faults than hairs.
LANCE.
That’s monstrous! O, that that were out!
SPEED.
And more wealth than faults.
LANCE.
Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I’ll have her; an if it be a match, as nothing is impossible—
SPEED.
What then?
LANCE.
Why, then will I tell thee that thy master stays for thee at the North Gate.
SPEED.
For me?
LANCE.
For thee? Ay, who art thou? ”

“ First Outlaw Where is the gentleman that was with her?
Third Outlaw Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us,
But Moyses and Valerius 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; 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!
Exeunt
SCENE IV. Another part of the forest.
Enter VALENTINE VALENTINE How use doth breed a habit in a man! ”