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
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Survives; to whom (thyself art witness)
I am betroth’d; and art thou not asham’d
To wrong him with thy importunacy?
PROTEUS I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
SILVIA And so suppose am I; for in his grave,
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Assure thyself, my love is buried.
PROTEUS Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
SILVIA Go to thy lady’s grave and call hers thence,
Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.
JULIA [aside] He heard not that.
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PROTEUS Madam: if your heart be so obdurate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture that is hanging in your chamber:
To that I’ll speak, to that I’ll sigh and weep;
For since the substance of your perfect self
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Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
And to your shadow will I make true love.
JULIA [aside]
If ’twere a substance, you would sure deceive it,
And make it but a shadow, as I am.
SILVIA I am very loath to be your idol, sir;
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But, since your falsehood shall become you well
To worship shadows, and adore false shapes,
Send to me in the morning, and I’ll send it.
And so, good rest.
PROTEUS As wretches have o’ernight
That wait for execution in the morn.
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Exeunt Proteus and Silvia.
JULIA Host, will you go?
HOST By my halidom, I was fast asleep.
JULIA Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus?
HOST Marry, at my house. Trust me, I think ’tis almost
day.
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JULIA Not so; but it hath been the longest night
That e’er I watch’d, and the most heaviest. Exeunt.
4.3 Enter EGLAMOUR.
EGLAMOUR This is the hour that Madam Silvia
Entreated me to call, and know her mind:
There’s some great matter she’d employ me in.
Madam, madam!
Enter SILVIA, above.
SILVIA Who calls?
EGLAMOUR Your servant, and your friend;
One that attends your ladyship’s command.
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SILVIA Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow.
EGLAMOUR As many, worthy lady, to yourself.
According to your ladyship’s impose,
I am thus early come, to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.
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SILVIA O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman
(Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not)
Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish’d.
Thou art not ignorant what dear good will
I bear unto the banish’d Valentine;
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Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhorr’d.
Thyself hast lov’d, and I have heard thee say
No grief did ever come so near thy heart
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
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Upon whose grave thou vow’dst pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour: I would to Valentine,
To Mantua, where I hear he makes abode;
And for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do desire thy worthy company,
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Upon whose faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father’s anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady’s grief,
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
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Which heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues.
I do desire thee, even from a heart
As full of sorrows as the sea of sands,
To bear me company, and go with me;
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
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That I may venture to depart alone.
EGLAMOUR Madam, I pity much your grievances,
Which, since I know they virtuously are plac’d,
I give consent to go along with you,
Recking as little what betideth me,
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As much I wish all good befortune you.
When will you go?
SILVIA This evening coming.
EGLAMOUR Where shall I meet you?
SILVIA At Friar Patrick’s cell,
Where I intend holy confession.
EGLAMOUR I will not fail your ladyship. Good morrow,
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gentle lady.
SILVIA Good morrow, kind Sir Eglamour. Exeunt.
4.4 Enter LAUNCE with his dog.
LAUNCE When a man’s servant shall play the cur with
him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a
puppy; one that I saved from drowning, when three
or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it. I
have taught him, even as one would say precisely
5
‘Thus I would teach a dog’. I was sent to deliver him
as a present to Mistress Silvia, from my master; and
I came no sooner into the dining-chamber, but he
steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon’s leg. O,
’tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself in all
10
companies: I would have (as one should say) one that
takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a
dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to
take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had
been hanged for’t; sure as I live he had suffered for’t.
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You shall judge: he thrusts me himself into the
company of three or four gentleman-like dogs, under
the Duke’s table; he had not been there (bless the
mark) a pissing while, but all the chamber smelt him.
‘Out with the dog’, says one; ‘What cur is that?’ says
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another; ‘Whip him out’, says the third; ‘Hang him
up’, says the Duke. I, having been acquainted with the
smell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the
fellow that whips the dogs: ‘Friend’, quoth I, ‘you
mean to whip the dog?’ ‘Ay, marry do I’, quoth he.
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‘You do him the more wrong,’ quoth I; ‘’twas I did the
thing you wot of.’ He makes me no more ado, but
whips me out of the chamber. How many masters
would do this for his servant? Nay, I’ll be sworn I have
sat in the stocks, for puddings he hath stolen,
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otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the
pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had
suffered for’t. Thou think’st not of this now. Nay, I
remember the trick you served me, when I took my
leave of Madam Silvia: did not I bid thee still mark me,
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and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave up my
leg, and make water against a gentlewoman’s
farthingale? Didst thou ever see me do such a trick?
Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.
PROTEUS Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well,
And will employ thee in some service presently.
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JULIA In what you please; I’ll do what I can.
PROTEUS I hope thou wilt.
[to Launce] How
now, you whoreson peasant,
Where have you been these two days loitering?
LAUNCE Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog
you bade me.
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PROTEUS And what says she to my little jewel?
LAUNCE Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells
you currish thanks is good enough for such a present.
PROTEUS But she received my dog?
LAUNCE No, indeed did she not: here have I brought
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him back again.
PROTEUS What, didst thou offer her this from me?
LAUNCE Ay, sir, the other squirrel was stolen from me
by the hangman boys in the market-place, and then I
offered her mine own, who is a dog as big as ten of
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yours, and therefore the gift the greater.
PROTEUS Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again,
Or ne’er return again into my sight.
Away, I say: stayest thou to vex me here?
A slave, that still an end turns me to shame!
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Exit Launce.
SEBASTIAN, I have entertained thee,
Partly that I have need of such a youth,
That can with some discretion do my business:
For ’tis no trusting to yond foolish lout;
But chiefly for thy face, and thy behaviour,
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Which (if my augury deceive me not)
Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth.
Therefore, know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go presently, and take this ring with thee,
Deliver it to Madam Silvia;
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She lov’d me well deliver’d it to me.
[He gives her a ring.]
JULIA It seems you lov’d not her, to leave her token:
She is dead belike?
PROTEUS Not so: I think she lives.
JULIA Alas!
PROTEUS Why dost thou cry ‘Alas’?
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JULIA I cannot choose but pity her.
PROTEUS Wherefore shouldst thou pity her?
JULIA Because methinks that she lov’d you as well
As you do love your lady Silvia:
She dreams on him that has forgot her love,
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You dote on her that cares not for your love.
’Tis pity love should be so contrary;
And thinking on it makes me cry ‘Alas’.
PROTEUS Well; give her that ring, and therewithal
This letter. [He gives her a letter.] That’s her chamber. Tell my lady,
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I claim the promise for her heavenly picture.
Your message done, hie home unto my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me sad, and solitary. Exit.
JULIA How many women would do such a message?
Alas, poor Proteus, thou hast entertain’d
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A fox, to be the shepherd of thy lambs.
Alas, poor fool, why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he despiseth me,
Because I love him, I must pity him.
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This ring I gave him, when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will;
And now am I (unhappy messenger)
To plead for that which I would not obtain;
To carry that which I would have refus’d;
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To praise his faith which I would have disprais’d.
I am my master’s true confirmed love,
But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly,
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As (heaven it knows) I would not have him speed.
Enter SILVIA.
Gentlewoman, good day. I pray you be my mean
To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia.
SILVIA What would you with her, if that I be she?
JULIA If you be she, I do entreat your patience
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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 [calling] Ursula, bring my picture there.
[The picture is brought.]
Go, give your master this. Tell him from me,
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One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber than this shadow.
JULIA Madam, please you peruse this letter.
[She gives her a letter.]
Pardon me, madam, I have unadvis’d
Deliver’d you a paper that I should not;
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This is the letter to your ladyship.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 543
