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Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed
32
The two Gentlemen of Verona.
Pro. And that (my Lord) I shall be loath to doe:
1485'Tis an ill office for a Gentleman,
Especially against his very friend.
Du. Where your good word cannot aduantage him,
Your slander neuer can endamage him;
Therefore the office is indifferent,
1490Being intreated to it by your friend.
Pro. You haue preuail'd (my Lord) if I can doe it
By ought that I can speake in his dispraise,
She shall not long continue loue to him:
But say this weede her loue from Valentine,
1495It followes not that she will loue sir Thurio.
Th. Therefore, as you vnwinde her loue from him;
Least it should rauell, and be good to none,
You must prouide to bottome it on me:
Which must be done, by praising me as much
1500As you, in worth dispraise, sir Valentine.
Du. And Protheus, we dare trust you in this kinde,
Because we know (on Valentines report)
You are already loues firme votary,
And cannot soone reuolt, and change your minde.
1505Vpon this warrant, shall you haue accesse,
Where you, with Siluia, may conferre at large.
For she is lumpish, heauy, mellancholly,
And (for your friends sake) will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her, by your perswasion,
1510To hate yong Valentine, and loue my friend.
Pro. As much as I can doe, I will effect:
But you sir Thurio, are not sharpe enough:
You must lay Lime, to tangle her desires
By walefull Sonnets, whose composed Rimes
1515Should be full fraught with seruiceable vowes.
Du. I, much is the force of heauen-bred Poesie.
Pro. Say that vpon the altar of her beauty
You sacrifice your teares, your sighes, your heart:
Write till your inke be dry: and with your teares
1520Moist it againe: and frame some feeling line,
That may discouer such integrity:
For Orpheus Lute, was strung with Poets sinewes,
Whose golden touch could soften steele and stones;
Make Tygers tame, and huge Leuiathans
1525Forsake vnsounded deepes, to dance on Sands.
After your dire-lamenting Elegies,
Visit by night your Ladies chamber-window
With some sweet Consort; To their Instruments
Tune a deploring dumpe: the nights dead silence
1530Will well become such sweet complaining grieuance:
This, or else nothing, will inherit her.
Du. This discipline, showes thou hast bin in loue.
Th. And thy aduice, this night, ile put in practise:
Therefore, sweet Protheus, my direction-giuer,
1535Let vs into the City presently
To sort some Gentlemen, well skil'd in Musicke.
I haue a Sonnet, that will serue the turne
To giue the on-set to thy good aduise.
Du. About it Gentlemen.
1540Pro. We'll wait vpon your Grace, till after Supper,
And afterward determine our proceedings.
Du. Euen now about it, I will pardon you.
Exeunt.


Actus Quartus. Scœna Prima.


Enter Valentine, Speed, and certaine Out-lawes.
15451. Out-l. Fellowes, stand fast: I see a passenger.
2. Out. If there be ten, shrinke not, but down with 'em.
3. Out. Stand sir, and throw vs that you haue about 'ye.
If not: we'll make you sit, and rifle you.
Sp. Sir we are vndone; these are the Villaines
1550That all the Trauailers doe feare so much.
Val. My friends.
1. Out. That's not so, sir: we are your enemies.
2. Out. Peace: we'll heare him.
3. Out. I by my beard will we: for he is a proper man.
1555Val. Then know that I haue little wealth to loose;
A man I am, cross'd with aduersitie:
My riches, are these poore habiliments,
Of which, if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I haue.
15602. Out. Whether trauell you?
Val. To Verona.
1. Out. Whence came you?
Val. From Millaine.
3. Out. Haue you long soiourn'd there?
1565 Val. Some sixteene moneths, and longer might haue
If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
1. Out. What, were you banish'd thence?
Val. I was.
2. Out. For what offence?
1570Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse;
I kil'd a man, whose death I much repent,
But yet I slew him manfully, in fight,
Without false vantage, or base treachery.
1. Out. Why nere repent it, if it were done so;
1575But were you banisht for so small a fault?
Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doome.
2. Out. Haue you the Tongues?
Val. My youthfull trauaile, therein made me happy,
Or else I often had beene often miserable.
15803. Out. By the bare scalpe of Robin Hoods fat Fryer,
This fellow were a King, for our wilde faction.
1. Out. We'll haue him: Sirs, a word.
Sp. Master, be one of them:
It's an honourable kinde of theeuery.
1585Val. Peace villaine.
2. Out. Tell vs this: haue you any thing to take to?
Val. Nothing but my fortune.
3. Out. Know then, that some of vs are Gentlemen,
Such as the fury of vngouern'd youth
1590Thrust from the company of awfull men.
My selfe was from Verona banished,
For practising to steale away a Lady,
And heire and Neece, alide vnto the Duke.
2. Out. And I from Mantua, for a Gentleman,
1595Who, in my moode, I stab'd vnto the heart.
1. Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose: for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawlesse liues;
And partly seeing you are beautifide
1600With goodly shape; and by your owne report,
A Linguist, and a man of such perfection,
As we doe in our quality much want.
2. Out. Indeede because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, aboue the rest, we parley to you:
1605Are you content to be our Generall?
To make a vertue of necessity,
And liue as we doe in this wildernesse?
3. Out. What saist thou? wilt thou be of our consort?
Say I, and be the captaine of vs all:
1610We'll doe thee homage, and be rul'd by thee,
Loue thee, as our Commander, and our King.
1. Out.