SCENE II—THE SAME THE DUKE'S PALACE Enter DUKE and THURIO DUKE. Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you, Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight. THU. Since his exile she hath despised me most, DUKE. This weak impress of love is as a figure Enter PROTEUS How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman, PRO. Gone, my good lord. DUKE. My daughter takes his going grievously. PRO. Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace Let me not live to look upon your Grace. DUKE. Thou know'st how willingly I would effect The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter. 10 20 PRO. I do, my lord. DUKE. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant How she opposes her against my will. PRO. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. DUKE. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. What might we do to make the girl forget The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio? PRO. The best way is to slander Valentine With falsehood, cowardice and poor descent, Three things that women highly hold in hate. DUKE. Ay, but she 'll think that it is spoke in hate. PRO. Ay, if his enemy deliver it : Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken By one whom she esteemeth as his friend. DUKE. Then you must undertake to slander him. PRO. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do: 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman, Especially against his very friend. DUKE. Where your good word cannot advantage him, Your slander never can endamage him; Therefore the office is indifferent, Being entreated to it by your friend. PRO. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it She shall not long continue love to him. THU. Therefore, as you unwind her love from him, You must provide to bottom it on me; mind. DUKE. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind, And, for PRO. As much as I can do, I will effect: Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy. PRO. 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; 53 bottom it on me] A bottom is a ball of thread round which the skeins are wound. Hence "to bottom it [i. e. her love] on me means to make me the ball or bottom round which to wind her love. Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. Visit by night your lady's chamber-window DUKE. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music. To give the onset to thy good advice. DUKE. About it, gentlemen! PRO. We'll wait upon your Grace till after supper, And afterward determine our proceedings. DUKE. Even now about it! I will pardon you. [Exeunt. 84 consort] "concert," a band of musicians. ELLOWS, STAND FAST; I see a passenger. SEC. OUT. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em. Enter VALENTINE and SPEED THIRD OUT. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: 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. VAL. My friends, FIRST OUT. That's not so, sir: we are your enemies. SEC. OUT. Peace! we 'll hear him. THIRD OUT. Ay, by my beard, will we, for he's a proper man. 10 |