Pro. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant. Sil. What is your will? Pro. That I may compass yours. Sil. You have your wish; my will is even this,- That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows? Jul. "Twere 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 Pro. I likewise hear, that Valentine is dead. 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 sepulchre thine. Jul. He heard not that. [Aside. Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdúrate, And to your shadow I will make true love. Jul. If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, de ceive it, And make it but a shadow, as I am. [Aside. Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, sir ; Pro. As wretches have o'er-night, That wait for execution in the morn. [Exeunt Proteus; and Silvia, from above. Jul. Host, will you go? Host. By my hallidom*, I was fast asleep. Host. Marry, at my house: Trust me, I think 'tis almost day. Jul. Not so; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest. SCENE III. [Exeunt. The same. Enter Eglamour. Egl. This is the hour that madam Silvia Entreated me to call, and know her mind; There's some great matter she'd employ me in.— Madam, madam ! Sil. Egl. Silvia appears above, at her window. Who calls? 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†, 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 ‡, well accomplish'd. * Holy dame, blessed lady. + Injunction, command. Pitiful. Thou art not ignorant, what dear good will To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode; Upon whose faith and honour I repose. 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. At friar Patrick's cell, Egl. Where shall I meet you? Good-morrow, gentle lady. Sil. Good-morrow, kind sir Eglamour. * Caring. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Enter Launce, with his dog. 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, 'tis 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 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 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 has killed, otherwise he had * Restrain. 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 will 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 present. Pro. But she received my dog? Laun. No, indeed, she did not: here have I brought him 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, Or ne'er return again into my sight. Away, I say: Stay'st thou to vex me here? Sebastian, I have entertained thee, But, chiefly, for thy face, and thy behaviour; * In the end. |