knew his you pure heart's truth, Pro. One, lady, if Pro. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant. Pro. That I may compass yours. Sil. You have your wish; my will is even this,— That presently you hie you home to bed. Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man! That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows? Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady; Jul. "T were false, if I should speak it; For I am sure she is not buried. [Aside. 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 importunacy? 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 hers thence; Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre 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: [Aside For, since the substance of your perfect self And make it but a shadow, as I am. sure, de Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, sir; Pro. As wretches have o'er-night, That wait for execution in the morn. [Aside. [Exeunt PROTEUS; and SILVIA, from above. Jul. Host, will you go? Host. By my halidom, I was fast asleep. Jul. Pray you, where lies sir Proteus? Host. Marry, at my house: Trust me, I think, 't is almost day. 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; [Exeunt. There's some great matter she 'd employ me in.- SILVIA appears above, at her window. Sil. Who calls? 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,b Halidom-holiness. b Impose-command. I am thus early come, to know what service Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman, Nor how my father would enforce me marry To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode; As full of sorrows as the sea of sands, Egl. Madam, I pity much your grievances; Recking as little what betideth me As much I wish all good befortune you. Sil. This evening coming. Egl. Where shall I meet you? Sil. At friar Patrick's cell, Good morrow, gentle lady. Sil. Good morrow, kind sir Eglamour. SCENE IV.-The same. Enter LAUNCE, with his dog. [Exeunt. 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 saved 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, 't is a foul thing when a cur cannot keep 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 hanged for 't; sure as I live he had suffered for 't: you shall judge. He thrusts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemanlike 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 a 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; "'t was I did the thing you wot of." He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters Keep-restrain. a VOL. I. F would do this for their 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 killed, otherwise he had suffered for 't thou think'st not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you served 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 farthingale? 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 [TO LAUNCE. Where have you been these two days loitering? Laun. Marry, sir, I carried mistress Silvia the dog you bade me. peasant; Pro. And what says she to my little jewel? Laun. Marry, she says, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currish thanks is good enough for such a pre sent. Pro. But she received my dog? Laun. No, indeed, did she not: here have I brought nim back again. Pro. What, didst thou offer her this from me? Laun. Ay, sir; the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place: and then I offered her mine own; who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater. Pro. Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again, Away, I say: Stay'st thou to vex me here? [Exit LAUNCE. Still an end-almost perpetually. |