Pro. What dangerous action, stood it next to death,
Would I not undergo for one calm look?

O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved,3
When women cannot love where they're beloved!

Sil. When Proteus cannot love where he's beloved.
Read over Julia's heart, thy first-best love,

For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith
Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury, to love me.4

Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two,
And that's far worse than none; better have none
Than plural faith, which is too much by one:
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

Pro.

Who respects friend?

Sil.

In love

All men but Proteus.

Pro. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words
Can no way change you to a milder form,

I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms' end,
And love you 'gainst love's nature,

Sil. O Heaven!

Pro.

I will force ye.

I'll force thee yield to my desire.

Val. [Coming forward.] Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil

touch,

Thou friend of an ill fashion!

Pro.

Valentine!

Val. Thou common friend, that's without faith or love, For such a friend is now; - thou treacherous man! Thou hast beguiled my hopes; nought but mine eye Could have persuaded me: I dare not say

I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove me.

8 Approved is made good, or proved true. The old sense of the word,

which occurs very often so in Shakespeare.

4 That is," in loving me." See page 207, note 12.

Who should be trusted, when one's own right hand

Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,

I'm sorry I must never trust thee more,

But count the world a stranger for thy sake.

The private wound is deep'st: O time most curst,
'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!
Pro. My shame and guilt confound me. —
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow

Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I tender't here; I do as truly suffer

As e'er I did commit.

And once again I do receive thee honest.

Who by repentance is not satisfied

Is nor of Heaven nor Earth; for these are pleased;

By penitence th' Eternal's wrath's appeased:

And, that my love may appear plain and free,

All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.5

Jul. O me unhappy!

Pro. Look to the boy.

[Faints.

Val. Why, boy! why, wag! how now! what's the matter? look up; speak.

Jul. O good sir, my master charged me to deliver a ring to Madam Silvia; which, out of my neglect, was never done. Pro. Where is that ring, boy?

5 A strange dramatic freak! almost transporting us at once into the theatrical world, or rather no-world, of Beaumont and Fletcher. Some editors have tried very hard to make the passage look reasonable; but there is an extravagance about it that will not yield to editorial skill. Dyce no doubt takes the right view of it: "This act of friendship' on the part of Valentine is indeed ridiculously 'over-strained'; nor would Shakespeare probably, if the play had been written in his maturer years, have made Valentine give way to such a sudden flight of heroism'; but The Two Gentlemen of Verona was undoubtedly an early production of the Poet; and in stories popular during his youth he may have found similar instances of romantic generosity."

Jul.

Here 'tis; this is it. [Gives a ring.

Pro. How! let me see :

Why, 'tis the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook :

This is the ring you sent to Silvia. [Shows another ring.

Pro. But how camest thou by this ring?

At my depart I gave this unto Julia.

Jul. And Julia herself did give it me;

And Julia herself hath brought it hither.

Pro. How! Julia!

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,

And entertain'd 'em deeply in her heart :

How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root !7

O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!

Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me
Such an immodest raiment, if shame live
In a disguise of love: 8

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

Pro. Than men their minds ! 'tis true. O Heaven, were

man

But constant, he were perfect! that one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all sins :

Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.

What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy

More fresh in Julia's with a constant eye?

Val. Come, come, a hand from either: Let me be bless'd to make this happy close; 'Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.

6 "Cry you mercy" is exactly the same in sense as "ask your pardon." Often used so by the Poet.

The allusion to archery is continued. To cleave the pin was in archery to hit the mark in the centre, or what is here called the root. So, two lines before, that which gave aim was the mark at which the shafts were aimed.

8 The meaning appears to be, "If it is any shame to wear a disguise in such a cause."

Pro. Bear witness, Heaven, I have my wish for ever.
Jul. And I mine.

Enter Outlaws, with the DUKE and THURIO,

Outlaws. A prize, a prize, a prize!

Val. Forbear, forbear, I say! it is my lord the Duke. Your Grace is welcome to a man disgraced,

Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.

Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure of my wrath:
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Milano shall not hold thee. Here she stands :
Take but possession of her with a touch;
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.
Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:

I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

Duke. The more degenerate and base art thou,
To make such means for her as thou hast done,
And leave her on such slight conditions.-
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,

I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an empress' love:
Know, then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home 10 again.
Plead a new state in thy unrivall'd merit,

To which I thus subscribe,-Sir Valentine,

9 To make means for a thing is to use means or take pains in order to gain it.

10 To repeal one home is elliptical language, meaning to repeal one's sentence of exile, and let him come home.

Thou art a gentleman, and well derived;

Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved her.

Val. I thank your Grace; the gift hath made me happy.

I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake,

To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

Duke. I grant it, for thine own, whate'er it be.

Val. These banish'd men, that I have kept 11 withal,

Are men endued with worthy qualities:

Forgive them what they have committed here,

And let them be recall'd from their exile:

They are reformèd, civil, full of good,

And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

Duke. Thou hast prevail'd; I pardon them and thee: Dispose of them as thou know'st their deserts. — Come, let us go: we will include 12 all jars With triumphs, 13 mirth, and rare solemnity.

Val. And, as we walk along, I dare be bold

With our discourse to make your Grace to smile.
What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes.

Val. I warrant you, my lord, more grace than boy.

Duke. What mean you by that saying?

Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass along,

That you will wonder what hath fortunéd. —
Come, Proteus; 'tis your penance, but to hear
The story of your loves discoveréd :

That done, our day of marriage shall be yours;
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

[Exeunt.

11 The Poet repeatedly uses kept in the sense of dwelt or lived. So in The Merchant, iii. 3: "It is the most impenetrable cur that ever kept with men."

12 Include in the sense of conclude or put an end to. So the Latin poets, and also the later prose writers, sometimes use the verb includo.

13 Triumphs here means pageants, such as masques and shows. The word was often used thus.