So bold Leander would adventure it.

DUKE. Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood, Advise me where I may have such a ladder.

VAL. When would you use it? pray, sir, tell me that. DUKE. This very night; for Love is like a child, That longs for every thing that he can come by. VAL. By seven o'clock I'll get you such a ladder. DUKE. But, hark thee; I will go to her alone: How shall I best convey the ladder thither?

VAL. It will be light, my lord, that you may bear it Under a cloak that is of any length.

DUKE. A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn?
VAL. Ay, my good lord.

DUKE.

Then let me see thy cloak:
I'll get me one of such another length.

VAL. Why, any cloak will serve the turn, my lord.
DUKE. How shall I fashion me to wear a cloak?

I pray thee, let me feel thy cloak upon me.

What letter is this same? What's here? To "Silvia"!
And here an engine fit for my proceeding.
I'll be so bold to break the seal for once.

"My thoughts do harbour with my Silvia nightly;
And slaves they are to me, that send them flying:
O, could their master come and go as lightly,

Himself would lodge where senseless they are lying!
My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them;

[Reads.

While I, their king, that thither them importune,
Do curse the grace that with such grace hath bless'd them,
Because myself do want my servants' fortune:

I curse myself, for they are sent by me,

That they should harbour where their lord would be."

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What's here?

"Silvia, this night I will enfranchise thee."

'Tis so; and here's the ladder for the purpose.
Why, Phaethon, for thou art Merops' son, -
Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car,
And with thy daring folly burn the world?
Wilt thou reach stars, because they shine on thee?
Go, base intruder! overweening slave!

Bestow thy fawning smiles on equal mates;
And think my patience, more than thy desert,
Is privilege for thy departure hence:

Thank me for this more than for all the favours,
Which all too much I have bestow'd on thee.
But if thou linger in my territories
Longer than swiftest expedition

Will give thee time to leave our royal court,
By heaven! my wrath shall far exceed the love

I ever bore my daughter or thyself.

Be gone! I will not hear thy vain excuse;

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But, as thou lovest thy life, make speed from hence. [Exit. VAL. And why not death rather than living torment? 170 To die is to be banish'd from myself;

And Silvia is myself: banish'd from her,

Is self from self: a deadly banishment!

153 Phaethon] See Ovid's Metamorphoses, II, 31 seq., for the story of Phaethon, and his doubts whether Merops, a mere mortal, were his father. A like mention of Phaethon "mistrusting silly Merops for his sire" figures in the pre-Shakespearean play of King John, 1591. 171-173 To die... banishment] Cf. Rom. and Jul., III, iii, 19-21, 40-43.

What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by,
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale ;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon:
She is my essence; and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster'd, illumined, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death :
But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.

Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE

PRO. Run, boy, run, run, and seek him out.

LAUNCE. Soho, soho!

PRO. What seest thou?

LAUNCE. Him we go to find: there's not a hair on 's

head but 't is a Valentine.

PRO. Valentine?

VAL. NO.

PRO. Who then? his spirit?

VAL. Neither.

PRO. What then?

VAL. Nothing.

182 leave to be] cease to be, die.

189 Soho] the cry raised by hunters of the hare, when the

found. Hence the quibble on hair in line 191.

quarry was

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190

LAUNCE. Can nothing speak? Master, shall I strike? PRO. Who wouldst thou strike?

LAUNCE. Nothing.

PRO. Villain, forbear.

LAUNCE. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing: I pray you,
PRO. Sirrah, I say, forbear.

word.

Friend Valentine, a

VAL. My ears are stopt, and cannot hear good news, So much of bad already hath possess'd them.

PRO. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine, For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad.

VAL. Is Silvia dead?

PRO. No, Valentine.

VAL. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia. Hath she forsworn me?

PRO. No, Valentine.

VAL. No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me. What is your news?

LAUNCE. Sir, there is a proclamation that you are

vanished.

PRO. That thou art banished O, that's the

news!

From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend.

VAL. O, I have fed upon this woe already,
And now excess of it will make me surfeit.
Doth Silvia know that I am banished?

PRO. Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom –
Which, unreversed, stands in effectual force-
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears :
Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd;

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With them, upon her knees, her humble self;
Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them
As if but now they waxed pale for woe:

But neither bended knees, pure hands held up,

Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears,
Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire;
But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die.
Besides, her intercession chafed him so,
When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
That to close prison he commanded her,
With many bitter threats of biding there.

VAL. No more; unless the next word that thou speak'st

Have some malignant power upon my life:

If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear,

As ending anthem of my endless dolour.

PRO. Cease to lament for that thou canst not help,
And study help for that which thou lament'st.
Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
Here if thou stay, thou canst not see thy love;
Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life.
Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that,
And manage it against despairing thoughts.
Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.
The time now serves not to expostulate:
Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate;
And, ere I part with thee, confer at large
Of all that may concern thy love-affairs.

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