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VAL. O, flatter me; for love delights in praises.
PRO. When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills;
And I must minister the like to you.

VAL. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
Yet let her be a principality,

Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
PRO. Except my mistress.

VAL.

Sweet, except not any;
Except thou wilt except against my love.
PRO. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
VAL. And I will help thee to prefer her too:

She shall be dignified with this high honour,-
To bear my lady's train; lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss,
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower,
And make rough winter everlastingly.

PRO. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?
VAL. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing

To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing;
She is alone.

PRO. Then let her alone.

VAL. Not for the world: why, man, she is mine own;
And I as rich in having such a jewel

As 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,
Only for his possessions are so huge,
Is gone with her along; and I must after,
For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.

PRO. But she loves you?

VAL. Ay, and we are betroth'd: Nay, more, our marriage hour,
With all the cunning manner of our flight,

Determin'd 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,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
PRO. Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
I must unto the roada, to disembark

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Some necessaries that I needs must use;

And then I'll presently attend.

VAL. Will you make haste?

PRO. I will.

[Exit VAL..

Even as one heat another heat expels,

Or as one nail by strength drives out another,

So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.

Is it her miena or Valentinus' 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 ;-
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
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:
O! 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,
And 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.

c

SCENE V.-The same. A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

SPEED. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan.

[Exit.

LAUN. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always-that a man is never undone till he be hanged; nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say, welcome.

The folio of 1623 reads, "It is mine, or Valentine's praise." Warburton would read, “It is mine eye," &c. This reading Steevens adopts, making the sentence interrogative, "Is it mine eye?" The present reading is that of Malone, and it is supported by the circumstance that mien was, in Shakspere's time, spelt mine, according to its French etymology. Mr. Collier suggests that the true reading is “mine eyen.”

Picture. Her person, which I have seen, has shown me her "perfections" only as a picture. Dr. Johnson receives the expression in a literal sense, and complains that Shakspere has committed a blunder, when "he makes Proteus, after an interview with Silvia, say he has only seen her picture."

⚫ Dazzled is here used as a trisyllable.

SPEED. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the ale-house with you presently; where, for one shot of five-pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with madam Julia?

LAUN. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest.
SPEED. But shall she marry him?

LAUN. No.

SPEED. How, then? shall he marry her?

LAUN. No, neither.

SPEED. What, are they broken?

LAUN. No, they are both as whole as a fish.

SPEED. Why then, how stands the matter with them?

LAUN. Marry, thus; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her.

SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.

LAUN. What a block art thou, that thou canst not! My staff understands me. SPEED. What thou say'st?

LAUN. Ay, and what I do, too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me.

SPEED. It stands under thee, indeed.

LAUN. Why, stand under and understand is all one

SPEED. But tell me true, will 't be a match?

LAUN. 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.

LAUN. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable.

SPEED. "T is well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou, that my master

is become a notable lover?

LAUN. I never knew him otherwise.

SPEED. Than how?

LAUN. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.

SPEED. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistakest me.
LAUN. Why, fool, I meant not thee, I meant thy master.

SPEED. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover.

LAUN. Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself in love. If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, soa; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.

SPEED. Why?

LAUN. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to the aleb with a Christian: Wilt thou go?

SPEED. At thy service.

[Exeunt.

So. This is an insertion of the second folio. We adopt it upon the argument of Mr. Dyce. Ale-a rural festival, oftentimes connected with the holidays of the church, as a Whitsun-ale. Launce calls Speed a Jew because he will not go to the ale (the Church feast) with a Christian.

SCENE VI.-The same. A Room in the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

PRO. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;

To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn;

To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
And even that power, which gave me first my oath,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.

Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear:
O sweet-suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.
At first I did adore a twinkling star,
But now I worship a celestial sun.
Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
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:

And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair!
Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,

Rememb'ring that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.
I cannot now prove constant to myself,
Without some treachery used to Valentine:-
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor:
Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising, and pretended a flight;
Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine;
For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter:

a Pretended-intended.

But Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross,
By some sly trick, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,

As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!

SCENE VII.-Verona. A Room in Julia's House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

JUL. Counsel, Lucetta! gentle girl, assist me!
And, even in kind love, I do conjure thee,-
Who art the table 17 wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'd and engrav'd,—

To lesson me; and tell me some good mean,
How, with my honour, I may undertake
A journey to my loving Proteus.
Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long.
JUL. A true-devoted pilgrim 18 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.

Luo. Better forbear, till Proteus make return.
JUL. 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.
Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire;
But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
JUL. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns;
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones,

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays,

With willing sport, to the wild ocean.

Then let me go, and hinder not my course:

I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,

And make a pastime of each weary step,

Till the last step have brought me to my love;

[Exit.

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