TPTT The Two Gentlemen of Verona: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. The frontiers of Mantua. A forest.
SCENE II. Milan. Outside the DUKE's palace, under SILVIA's chamber.
SCENE III. The same.
SCENE IV. The same.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. Milan. Outside the DUKE's palace, under SILVIA's chamber.
Enter PROTEUS
PROTEUS
      Already have I been false to Valentine
      And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
      Under the colour of commending him,
      I have access my own love to prefer:
5     But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
      To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
      When I protest true loyalty to her,
      She twits me with my falsehood to my friend;
      When to her beauty I commend my vows,
10    She bids me think how I have been forsworn
      In breaking faith with Julia whom I loved:
      And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
      The least whereof would quell a lover's hope,
      Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
15    The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
      But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window,
      And give some evening music to her ear.
Enter THURIO and Musicians
THURIO
      How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept before us?
PROTEUS
      Ay, gentle Thurio: for you know that love
20    Will creep in service where it cannot go.
THURIO
      Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here.
PROTEUS
      Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence.
THURIO
      Who? Silvia?
PROTEUS
      Ay, Silvia; for your sake.
THURIO
25    I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen,
      Let's tune, and to it lustily awhile.
Enter, at a distance, Host, and JULIA in boy's clothes
Host
      Now, my young guest, methinks you're allycholly: I
      pray you, why is it?
JULIA
      Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.
Host
30    Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where
      you shall hear music and see the gentleman that you asked for.
JULIA
      But shall I hear him speak?
Host
      Ay, that you shall.
JULIA
      That will be music.
Music plays
Host
35    Hark, hark!
JULIA
      Is he among these?
Host
      Ay: but, peace! let's hear 'em.

SONG.

      Who is Silvia? what is she,
      That all our swains commend her?
40    Holy, fair and wise is she;
      The heaven such grace did lend her,
      That she might admired be.
      Is she kind as she is fair?
      For beauty lives with kindness.
45    Love doth to her eyes repair,
      To help him of his blindness,
      And, being help'd, inhabits there.
      Then to Silvia let us sing,
      That Silvia is excelling;
50    She excels each mortal thing
      Upon the dull earth dwelling:
      To her let us garlands bring.
Host
      How now! are you sadder than you were before? How
      do you, man? the music likes you not.
JULIA
55    You mistake; the musician likes me not.
Host
      Why, my pretty youth?
JULIA
      He plays false, father.
Host
      How? out of tune on the strings?
JULIA
      Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very
60    heart-strings.
Host
      You have a quick ear.
JULIA
      Ay, I would I were deaf; it makes me have a slow heart.
Host
      I perceive you delight not in music.
JULIA
      Not a whit, when it jars so.
Host
65    Hark, what fine change is in the music!
JULIA
      Ay, that change is the spite.
Host
      You would have them always play but one thing?
JULIA
      I would always have one play but one thing.
      But, host, doth this Sir Proteus that we talk on
70    Often resort unto this gentlewoman?
Host
      I tell you what Launce, his man, told me: he loved
      her out of all nick.
JULIA
      Where is Launce?
Host
      Gone to seek his dog; which tomorrow, by his
75    master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady.
JULIA
      Peace! stand aside: the company parts.
PROTEUS
      Sir Thurio, fear not you: I will so plead
      That you shall say my cunning drift excels.
THURIO
      Where meet we?
PROTEUS
80    At Saint Gregory's well.
THURIO
      Farewell.
Exeunt THURIO and Musicians
Enter SILVIA above
PROTEUS
      Madam, good even to your ladyship.
SILVIA
      I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
      Who is that that spake?
PROTEUS
85    One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,
      You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.
SILVIA
      Sir Proteus, as I take it.
PROTEUS
      Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
SILVIA
      What's your will?
PROTEUS
90    That I may compass yours.
SILVIA
      You have your wish; my will is even this:
      That presently you hie you home to bed.
      Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal man!
      Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,
95    To be seduced by thy flattery,
      That hast deceived so many with thy vows?
      Return, return, and make thy love amends.
      For me, by this pale queen of night I swear,
      I am so far from granting thy request
100   That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
      And by and by intend to chide myself
      Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
PROTEUS
      I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
      But she is dead.
JULIA
105   (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
      Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,
      I am betroth'd: and art thou not ashamed
110   To wrong him with thy importunacy?
PROTEUS
      I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
SILVIA
      And so suppose am I; for in his grave
      Assure thyself my love is buried.
PROTEUS
      Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
SILVIA
115   Go to thy lady's grave and call hers thence,
      Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.
JULIA
      (Aside) He heard not that.
PROTEUS
      Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
      Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
120   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
      Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
      And to your shadow will I make true love.
JULIA
125   (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;
      But since your falsehood shall become you well
130   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.
Exeunt PROTEUS and SILVIA severally
JULIA
135   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.
JULIA
140   Not so; but it hath been the longest night
      That e'er I watch'd and the most heaviest.
Exeunt
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