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  • Title: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Modern)
  • Editor: Melissa Walter

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    Not Peer Reviewed

    Two Gentlemen of Verona (Modern)

    Enter Valentine, Silvia, Turio [and] Speed.
    655Silvia
    Servant?
    Valentine
    Mistress.
    Speed
    Master, Sir Turio frowns on you.
    Valentine
    Ay, boy, it's for love.
    Speed
    Not of you.
    660Valentine
    Of my mistress, then.
    Speed
    'Twere good you knocked him.
    [Exit Speed.]
    Silvia
    Servant, you are sad.
    Valentine
    Indeed, madam, I seem so.
    Turio
    Seem you that you are not?
    665Valentine
    Haply I do.
    Turio
    So do counterfeits.
    Valentine
    So do you.
    Turio
    What seem I that I am not?
    Valentine
    Wise.
    670Turio
    What instance of the contrary?
    Valentine
    Your folly.
    Turio
    And how quote you my folly?
    Valentine
    I quote it in your jerkin.
    Turio
    My jerkin is a doublet.
    675Valentine
    Well then, I'll double your folly.
    Turio
    How?
    Silvia
    What, angry, Sir Turio? Do you change color?
    Valentine
    Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.
    Turio
    That hath more mind to feed on your blood 680than live in your air.
    Valentine
    You have said, sir.
    Turio
    Ay, sir, and done, too, for this time.
    Valentine
    I know it well, sir. You always end ere you begin.
    Silvia
    A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off
    685Valentine
    'Tis indeed, madam. We thank the giver.
    Silvia
    Who is that, servant?
    Valentine
    Your self, sweet lady, for you gave the fire.
    Sir Turio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks
    And spends what he borrows kindly in your company.
    690Turio
    Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.
    Valentine
    I know it well, sir. You have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers, for it appears by their bare liveries 695that they live by your bare words.
    Silvia
    No more, gentlemen, no more. Here comes my father.
    [Enter Duke.]
    Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
    Sir Valentine, your father is in good health.
    700What say you to a letter from your friends
    Of much good news?
    Valentine
    My lord, I will be thankful
    To any happy messenger from thence.
    Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?
    705Valentine
    Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman
    To be of worth, and worthy estimation,
    And not without desert so well reputed.
    Hath he not a son?
    Valentine
    Ay, my good lord, a son that well deserves
    710The honor and regard of such a father.
    You know him well?
    Valentine
    I knew him as my self, for from our infancy
    We have conversed and spent our hours together,
    And though my self have been an idle truant,
    715Omitting the sweet benefit of time
    To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection,
    Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name,
    Made use and fair advantage of his days:
    His years but young, but his experience old;
    720His head un-mellowed, but his judgment ripe;
    And in a word, for far behind his worth
    Come all the praises that I now bestow,
    He is complete in feature, and in mind,
    With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
    Beshrew me sir, but if he make this good
    He is as worthy for an empress's love,
    As meet to be an emperor's counselor:
    Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me
    With commendation from great potentates,
    730And here he means to spend his time a while.
    I think 'tis no unwelcome news to you.
    Valentine
    Should I have wished a thing, it had been he.
    Welcome him, then, according to his worth.
    Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Turio;
    735For Valentine, I need not cite him to it.
    I will send him hither to you presently.
    [Exit Duke.]
    Valentine
    This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
    Had come along with me, but that his mistress
    Did hold his eyes locked in her crystal looks.
    740Silvia
    Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
    Upon some other pawn for fealty.
    Valentine
    Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still.
    Silvia
    Nay, then, he should be blind, and being blind
    How could he see his way to seek out you?
    745Valentine
    Why lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes.
    Turio
    They say that Love hath not an eye at all.
    Valentine
    To see such lovers, Turio, as your self.
    Upon a homely object, Love can wink.
    [Enter Proteus.]
    Silvia
    Have done, have done. Here comes the gentleman.
    750Valentine
    Welcome, dear Proteus. Mistress, I beseech you,
    Confirm his welcome with some special favor.
    Silvia
    His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
    If this be he you oft have wished to hear from.
    Valentine
    Mistress, it is. Sweet Lady, entertain him
    755To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
    Silvia
    Too low a mistress for so high a servant.
    Proteus
    Not so, sweet lady, but too mean a servant
    To have a look of such a worthy mistress.
    Valentine
    Leave off discourse of disability:
    760Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant.
    Proteus
    My duty will I boast of, nothing else.
    Silvia
    And duty never yet did want his meed.
    Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.
    Proteus
    I'll die on him that says so but your self.
    765Silvia
    That you are welcome?
    Proteus
    That you are worthless.
    [Enter a messenger to Turio.]
    Madam, my lord your father would speak with you.
    [Exit messenger.]
    Silvia
    I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Turio,
    Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome.
    770I'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.
    [Exit Silvia and Turio.]
    Valentine
    Now tell me: how do all from whence you came?
    Proteus
    Your friends are well, and have thee much commended.
    775Valentine
    And how do yours?
    Proteus
    I left them all in health.
    Valentine
    How does your lady? And how thrives your love?
    Proteus
    My tales of love were wont to weary you,
    I know you joy not in a love-discourse.
    780Valentine
    Ay, Proteus, but that life is altered now,
    I have done penance for contemning Love,
    Whose high imperious thoughts have punished me
    With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
    With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs,
    785For in revenge of my contempt of love,
    Love hath chased sleep from my enthrallè eyes,
    And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
    O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord,
    And hath so humbled me, as I confess
    790There is no woe to his correction,
    Nor to his service, no such joy on earth.
    Now, no discourse, except it be of love.
    Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep,
    Upon the very naked name of love.
    795Proteus
    Enough, I read your fortune in your eye.
    Was this the idol that you worship so?
    Valentine
    Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
    Proteus
    No, but she is an earthly paragon.
    Valentine
    Call her divine.
    800Proteus
    I will not flatter her.
    Valentine
    Oh flatter me! For Love delights in praises.
    Proteus
    When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
    And I must minister the like to you.
    Valentine
    Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
    805Yet let her be a principality,
    Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
    Proteus
    Except my mistress.
    Valentine
    Sweet, except not any,
    Except thou wilt except against my love.
    810Proteus
    Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
    Valentine
    And I will help thee to prefer her too.
    She shall be dignified with this high honor:
    To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth
    Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
    815And of so great a favor growing proud,
    Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower
    And make rough winter everlastingly.
    Proteus
    Why Valentine, what bragadism is this?
    Valentine
    Pardon me, Proteus. All I can is nothing
    820To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing.
    She is alone.
    Proteus
    Then let her alone.
    Valentine
    Not for the world. Why, man, she is mine own,
    And I as rich in having such a jewel
    825As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
    The water, nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
    Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
    Because thou seest me dote upon my love.
    My foolish rival, that her father likes
    830Only for his possessions are so huge,
    Is gone with her along, and I must after,
    For Love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.
    Proteus
    But she loves you?
    Valentine
    Ay, and we are betrothed; nay more, our marriage hour,
    835With all the cunning manner of our flight
    Determined of: how I must climb her window,
    The ladder made of cords, and all the means
    Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
    Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
    840In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
    Proteus
    Go on before; I shall enquire you forth.
    I must unto the road to disembark
    Some necessaries that I needs must use,
    And then I'll presently attend you.
    845Valentine
    Will you make haste?
    Exit [Valentine].
    Proteus
    I will.
    Even as one heat another heat expels,
    Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
    So the remembrance of my former love
    850Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
    Is it mine, or Valentine's praise,
    Her true perfection, or my false transgression
    That makes me reasonless to reason thus?
    She is fair, and so is Julia that I love -
    855That I did love, for now my love is thawed,
    Which like a waxen image 'gainst a fire
    Bears no impression of the thing it was.
    Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
    And that I love him not as I was wont:
    860Oh, but I love his lady too too much,
    And that's the reason I love him so little.
    How shall I dote on her with more advice,
    That thus without advice begin to love her?
    'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
    865And that hath dazzled my reason's light.
    But when I look on her perfections,
    There is no reason, but I shall be blind.
    If I can check my erring love, I will,
    If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.
    870 [Exit.]