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  • Title: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folio 1, 1623)

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folio 1, 1623)

    Scoena Sexta.
    Enter Protheus solus.
    930Pro. To leaue my Iulia; shall I be forsworne?
    To loue faire Siluia; shall I be forsworne?
    To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworne.
    And ev'n that Powre which gaue me first my oath
    Prouokes me to this three-fold periurie.
    935Loue bad mee sweare, and Loue bids me for-sweare;
    O sweet-suggesting Loue, if thou hast sin'd,
    Teach me (thy tempted subiect) to excuse it.
    At first I did adore a twinkling Starre,
    But now I worship a celestiall Sunne:
    940Vn-heedfull vowes may heedfully be broken,
    And he wants wit, that wants resolued will,
    To learne his wit, t'exchange the bad for better;
    Fie, fie, vnreuerend tongue, to call her bad,
    Whose soueraignty so oft thou hast preferd,
    945With twenty thousand soule-confirming oathes.
    I cannot leaue to loue; and yet I doe:
    But there I leaue to loue, where I should loue.
    Iulia I loose, and Valentine I loose,
    If I keepe them, I needs must loose my selfe:
    950If I loose them, thus finde I by their losse,
    For Valentine, my selfe: for Iulia, Siluia.
    I to my selfe am deerer then a friend,
    For Loue is still most precious in it selfe,
    And Siluia (witnesse heauen that made her faire)
    955Shewes Iulia but a swarthy Ethiope.
    I will forget that Iulia is aliue,
    Remembring that my Loue to her is dead.
    And Valentine Ile hold an Enemie,
    Ayming at Siluia as a sweeter friend.
    960I cannot now proue constant to my selfe,
    Without some treachery vs'd to Valentine.
    This night he meaneth with a Corded-ladder
    To climbe celestiall Siluia's chamber window,
    My selfe in counsaile his competitor.
    965Now presently Ile giue her father notice
    Of their disguising and pretended flight:
    Who (all inrag'd) will banish Valentine:
    For Thurio he intends shall wed his daughter,
    But Valentine being gon, Ile quickely crosse
    970By some slie tricke, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
    Loue lend me wings, to make my purpose swift
    As thou hast lent me wit, to plot this drift.
    Exit.
    C2 Scoena
    28 The two Gentlemen of Verona.
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