The Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.2

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The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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ACT IV 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:
	But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,	5
	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,
	She bids me think how I have been forsworn	10
	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,
	The more it grows and fawneth on her still.	15
	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
	Will creep in service where it cannot go.	20
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	I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen,	25
	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	Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where	30
	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	Hark, hark!	35
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?
	Holy, fair and wise is she;	40
	The heaven such grace did lend her,
	That she might admired be.
	Is she kind as she is fair?
	For beauty lives with kindness.
	Love doth to her eyes repair,	45
	To help him of his blindness,
	And, being help'd, inhabits there.
	Then to Silvia let us sing,
	That Silvia is excelling;
	She excels each mortal thing	50
	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	You mistake; the musician likes me not.	55
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
	heart-strings.	60
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	Hark, what fine change is in the music!	65
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
	Often resort unto this gentlewoman?	70
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
	master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady.	75
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	At Saint Gregory's well.	80
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	One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,	85
	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	That I may compass yours.	90
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,
	To be seduced by thy flattery,	95
	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
	That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,	100
	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	[Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak it;	105
	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
	To wrong him with thy importunacy?	110
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	Go to thy lady's grave and call hers thence,	115
	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,
	The picture that is hanging in your chamber;	120
	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	[Aside] If 'twere a substance, you would, sure,	125
	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
	To worship shadows and adore false shapes,	130
	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	Host, will you go?	135
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	Not so; but it hath been the longest night	140
	That e'er I watch'd and the most heaviest.
[Exeunt]

Next: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 4, Scene 3
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Explanatory notes for Act 4, Scene 2
From The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society.

12. sudden quips:- Quips, meaning bitter retorts, or sharp sarcasms, thus occurs in Much Ado About Nothing, II. iii. 241-243: "Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?"

75. out of all nick:- That is, beyond all reckoning. Accounts were formerly kept by cutting nicks or notches in a tally-stick. Thus in A Woman Never Vexed, 1532: " I have carried these tallies at my girdle seven years together; for I did ever love to deal honestly in the nick." The time is not very remote when such tallies were finally disused in the English Exchequer; being laid aside, no doubt, because the accounts grew to be out of all nick.

83. Saint Gregory's well:- This was probably one of the "holy wells" to which popular belief attributed supernatural virtues, and which were visited something as our fashionable watering-places are, but usually, no doubt, with different feelings. The town in which is Saint Winifred's well, in North Wales, is called Holywell. The well is still inclosed by the Gothic temple erected by the mother of Henry VII.

136. halidom:- Nares says that this word is properly derived from holy and dom, like kingdom, making the oath mean something like by my faith. Some complete it thus: "By my faith as a Christian."

141. most heaviest: - The double superlative, as well as the double comparative, was often used in Shakespeare's time.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society, 1901. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/two_4_2.html >.

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