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ACT IV

Sc. II

JUL. He plays false, father.

HOST. How? out of tune on the strings?

JUL. Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very heart-strings.

HOST. You have a quick ear.

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JUL. Ay, I would I were deaf; it makes me have a slow heart.

HOST. I perceive you delight not in music.

JUL. Not a whit—when it jars so.

HOST. Hark, what fine change is in the music!

JUL. Ay, that change is the spite.

HOST. You would have them always play but one thing?
JUL. I would always have one play but one thing. But,
Host, doth this Sir Proteus that we talk on often resort
unto this gentlewoman?

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HOST. I tell you what Launce his man told me: he loved her out of all nick.1

JUL. Where is Launce?

HOST. Gone to seek his dog: which to-morrow, by his
master's command, he must carry for a present to his
lady.

JUL. Peace! stand aside: the company parts.
PRO. Sir Thurio, fear not you: I will so plead,
That you shall say my cunning drift excels.
THU. Where meet we?

PRO. At Saint Gregory's Well.

THU. Farewell.

80

[Exeunt THURIO and Musicians.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.

PRO. Madam, good even to your Ladyship.
SIL. I thank you for your music, gentlemen.

Who is that that spake

PRO. One, Lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,

You'ld quickly learn to know him by his voice.
SIL. Sir Proteus, as I take it.

PRO. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
SIL. What is your will?

PRO.

SIL. You have your

That I may compass2 yours. wish; my ; my will is even this:

That presently you hie you home to bed.

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Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!
Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless,1
To be seduced by thy flattery,

That hast deceiv'd 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 ;
And by and by intend to chide myself

Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.

PRO. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.

JUL. "Twere false, if I should speak it;

For I am sure she is not buried.

SIL. Say that she be. Yet Valentine thy friend
Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,

I am betroth'd. And art thou not asham'd
To wrong him with thy importúnacy?
PRO. I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
SIL. And so suppose am I; for in his grave
Assure thyself my love is buried.

PRO. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
SIL. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence,
Or, at the least, in her's sepúlchre thine.
JUL. He heard not that.

PRO. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,

Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
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.

JUL. If 'twere a substance, you would, sure,

deceive it,

And make it but a shadow, as I am.

SIL. I am very loth to be your idol, Sir;

But, since your falsehood shall become you well
To worship shadows and adore false shapes,
Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it:
And so, good rest.

poor in imaginings.

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JUL. Not so; but it hath been the longest night
That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest.

SCENE III. The Same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

EGL. This is the hour that Madam Silvia

Entreated me to call and know her mind:

140

[exeunt.

There's some great matter she 'ld employ me in.-
Madam, Madam!

SIL. Who calls?

SILVIA appears above.

EGL. Your servant and your friend:

One that attends your Ladyship's command.

SIL. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good-morrow.
EGL. As many, worthy Lady, to yourself.

According to your Ladyship's impose,1

1

I am thus early come to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.
SIL. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman

(Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not),
Valiant, wise, remorseful,2 well accomplish'd:
Thou art not ignorant what dear good-will
I bear unto the banish'd Valentine
Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhors.
Thyself hast lov'd; and I have heard thee say
No grief did ever come so near thy heart
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

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To Mantua, where I hear he makes abode;
And, for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do desire thy worthy company,
Upon whose faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour;
But think upon my grief-a lady's grief-
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,

Which Heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues.
I do desire thee, even from a heart

As full of sorrows as the sea of sands,

To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.
EGL. Madam, I pity much your grievances;
Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give consent to go along with you;
Recking as little what betideth me
As much I wish all good befortune you.
When will you go?

SIL.

This evening coming.

EGL. Where shall I meet you?

SIL.

Where I intend holy confession.

At Friar Patrick's cell,

EGL. I will not fail your Ladyship. Good-morrow,
Gentle lady.

SIL.

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40

Good-morrow, kind Sir Eglamour. [exeunt.

SCENE IV. The Same.

Enter LAUNCE, with his Dog.

LAUNCE. When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I sav'd from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would say precisely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was sent to deliver him as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber but he steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis

ACT IV

Sc. III

ACT IV
Sc. IV

a foul thing when a cur cannot keep1 himself in all
companies! I would have, as one should say, one that
takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were,
a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than
he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily
he had been hang'd for 't; sure as I live, he had suffer'd
for't you shall judge. He thrusts me himself into
the company of three or four gentleman-like dogs, under
the Duke's table: he had not been there (bless the
mark!) a pissing while but all the chamber smelt him.
Out with the dog, says one; What cur is that? says
another; Whip him out, says the third; Hang him
up,
says the Duke.
I, having been acquainted with the
smell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the
fellow that whips the dogs: Friend, quoth I, you
mean to whip the dog? Ay, marry, do I, quoth he.
You do him the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the
thing you wot of. He makes me no more ado, but
whips me out of the chamber. How many masters
would do this for his servant? Nay, I'll be sworn,
I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen,
otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the
pillory for geese he hath kill'd, otherwise he had suffered
for 't. Thou think'st not of this now! Nay, I re-
member the trick you serv'd me when I took my leave
of Madam Silvia. Did not I bid thee still mark me,
and do as I do? when didst thou see me heave up my
leg, and make water against a gentlewoman's farthin-
gale? didst thou ever see me do such a trick?

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

PRO. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well,

And will employ thee in some service presently.
JUL. In what you please: I'll do what I can.

PRO. I hope thou wilt. How now, you whoreson

peasant!

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[to LAUNCE.

Where have you been these two days loitering? LAUNCE. Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you

bade me.

PRO. And what says she to my little jewel?

1 hold his water.

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