Which must be done, by praising me as much

As

you in worth dispraise sir Valentine.

Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind; Because we know, on Valentine's report,

You are already love's firm votary,

my

friend.

:

And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant shall you have access,
Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her, by your persuasion,
To hate young Valentine, and love
Proteus. As much as I can do, I will effect:-
But you, sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
You must lay lime,5 to tangle her desires,
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
Should be full fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke. Ay, much the force of heaven-bred poesy.
Proteus. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty
You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart:
Write till your ink be dry; and with your tears
Moist it again; and frame some feeling line,
That may discover such integrity :—

For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans

Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
After your dire lamenting elegies,

Visit by night your lady's chamber-window
With some sweet concert: to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump; the night's dead silence
Will well become such sweet complaining grievance.
This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

Duke. This discipline shows thou hast been in love.
Thurio. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.
Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently

To sort' some gentlemen well skill'd in musick:

5 Birdlime.

6 Mournful elegy.

Choose out.

I have a sonnet, that will serve the turn,
To give the onset to thy good advice.

Duke. About it, gentlemen.

Proteus. We'll wait upon your grace till after supper:

And afterward determine our proceedings.

Duke. Even now about it: I will pardon you.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-A Forest near MANTUA.

Enter certain OUTLAWS.

1 Outlaw. Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger. 2 Outlaw. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 Outlaw. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you;

If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you.

Speed. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains That all the travellers do fear so much.

Valentine. My friends

1 Outlaw. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies.

2 Outlaw. Peace; we'll hear him.

3 Outlaw. Ay, by my beard, will we;

For he's a propers man.

Valentine. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;

A man I am, cross'd with adversity:

My riches are these poor habiliments,

Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have. 2 Outlaw. Whither travel you?

Valentine. To Verona.

1 Outlaw. Whence came you?
Valentine. From Milan.

8 Well looking.

3 Outlaw. Have you long sojourn'd there?

Valentine. Some sixteen months; and longer might

have staid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Outlaw. What, were you banish'd thence? Valentine. I was.

2 Outlaw. For what offence?

Valentine. For that which now torments me to rehearse:

I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage, or base treachery.

1 Outlaw. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so; But were you banish'd for so small a fault?

Valentine. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 Outlaw. Have you the tongues ?9

Valentine. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or else I often had been miserable.

3 Outlaw. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction.

1 Outlaw. We'll have him: sirs, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them;

It is an honourable kind of thievery.

Valentine. Peace, villain!

2 Outlaw. Tell us this: Have you any thing to take to? Valentine. Nothing, but my fortune.

3 Outlaw. Know then, that some of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungoverned youth

Thrust from the company of awful1 men.

1 Outlaw. But to the purpose, you are beautified With goodly shape; and by your own report

A linguist; and a man of such perfection,

As we do in our quality much want;—

2 Outlaw. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:

Are you content to be our general?

To make a virtue of necessity,

And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

3 Outlaw. What say'st thou wilt thou be of our consort?

Say, ay, and be the captain of us all:

We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee,

Love thee as our commander, and our king.

1 Outlaw. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest. 2 Outlaw. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

Valentine. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided that you do no outrages

On silly women, or poor passengers.

3 Outlaw. No, we detest such vile base practices. Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews, And shew thee all the treasure we have got; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-MILAN. Court of the Palace.
Enter PROTEUS.

friend:

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, To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. When I protest true loyalty to her, She twits me with my falsehood to my When to her beauty I commend my vows, She bids me think, how I have been forsworn In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov'd: And, notwithstanding all her sudden quips,2 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. But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window, And give some evening musick to her ear.

2 Passionate reproaches.

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.

Thurio. Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here. Proteus. Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence. Thurio. Whom? Silvia?

Proteus. Ay, Silvia,-for your sake.

Thurio. I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it lustily a while.

Enter HOST, at a distance; 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 you shall hear musick, and see the gentleman that you ask'd for.

Julia. But shall I hear him speak?

Host. Ay, that you shall.

Julia. That will be musick.

Host. Hark! hark!

Julia. Is he among these?

Host. Ay: but peace, let's hear 'em.

SONG.

Who is Silvia? What is she?

[Musick plays.

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she;

The heavens 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,

To help him of his blindness;
And, being help'd, inhabits there.