Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which Ant. E. I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord, Dro. E. And I with him. Ant. E. Brought to this town by that most famous warrior, Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day? Ant. S. I, gentle mistress. Adr. And are not you my husband? Ant. E. No; I say nay to that. 371 Ant. S. And so do I ; yet did she call me so: And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here, Did call me brother. [To Luc.] What I told you then, I hope I shall have leisure to make good; Ang. That is the chain, sir, which you had of me. Ant. S. I think it be, sir; I deny it not. Ant. E. And you, sir, for this chain arrested me. 380 Ang. I think I did, sir; I deny it not, Adr. I sent you money, sir, to be your bail, By Dromio; but I think he brought it not. Dro. E. No, none by me. Ant. S. This purse of ducats I received Abb. Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains To go with us into the abbey here The duke, my husband and my children both, Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd? Dro. S. Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur. 410 Ant. S. He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio: Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon: Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him. [Exeunt Ant. S. and Ant. E. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house, That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner : She now shall be my sister, not my wife. Dro. E. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother: I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. 420 Dro. S. We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then lead thou first. Dro. E. Nay, then, thus: We came into the world like brother and brother; THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. 'WRITTEN ABOUT 1592-93.) INTRODUCTION. This play, though slightly worked out in parts, exhibits an advance on the preceding comedies. The Errors was a clever tangle of diverting incidents, with a few passages of lyric beauty, and one of almost tragic pathos; Love's Labour's Lost was a play of glittering and elaborate dialogue. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare struck into a new path, which he was to pursue with admirable results; it is his earliest comedy in which a romantic love-story is told in dramatic form. Here first he records the tender and passionate history of a woman's heart, and the adventures to which love may prompt her. Julia is the first of that charming group of children of Shakespeare's imagination which includes Viola, Portia, Rosalind, and Imogen-women who assume, under some constraint of fortune, the disguise of male attire, and who, while submitting to their transformation, forfeit none of the grace, the modesty, the sensitive delicacy, or the pretty wilfulness of their sex. Launce, accompanied by his immortal dog, leads the train of Shakespeare's humorous clowns: his rich, grotesque humanity is "worth all the light, fantastic interludes of Boyet and Adriano, Costard and Holofernes," worth all the "dancing doggerel or broad-witted prose of either Dromio." The characters of the play are clearly conceived, and contrasted with almost too obvious a design: the faithful Valentine is set over against the faithless Proteus; the bright and clever Sylvia is set over against the tender and ardent Julia; the clown Speed, notable as a verbal wit and quibbler, is set over against the humorous Launce. The general theme of the play may be defined as love and friendship, with their mutual relations. The date of the play cannot be definitely fixed; but its place among the comedies is probably after Love's Labour's Lost and before A Midsummer Night's Dream. The language and verse are characterized by an even sweetness; rhymed lines and doggerel verses are lessening in number; the blank verse is written with careful regularity. It is as if Shakespeare were giving up his early licences of versification, were aiming at a more refined style (which occasionally became a little tame), but being still a novice in the art of writing blank verse, were timid and failed to write it with the freedom and happy valiancy" which distinguish his later manner. The story of the play is identical in many particulars with The Story of the Shepherdess Felismena in the Spanish pastoral romance, Diana, by George of Montemayor; but though manuscript translations of the Diana existed at an earlier date, no translation was published before that of Yonge, in 1598. Valentine's consenting to become captain of the robbers' band has been compared with a somewhat similar incident in Sidney's Arcadia, but the coincidences are slight, and it may be doubted that Shakespeare had then any thought of the Arcadia. Pro. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel: Wish me partaker in thy happiness When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger, If ever danger do environ thee, Val. And on a love-book pray for my success? Pro. Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee. 20 Val. That's on some shallow story of deep love : How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont. Pro. That's a deep story of a deeper love : For he was more than over shoes in love. Val. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never swum the Hellespont. Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots. Val. No, I will not, for it boots thee not. Pro. What? Val. To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; Coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth 30 With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If lost, why then a grievous labor won; Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool." Val. So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove. Pro. 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love. Val. Love is your master, for he masters you: And he that is so yoked by a fool, 40 Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise. Pro. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Val. And writers say, as the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, 50 Pro. He after honor hunts, I after love : He leaves his friends to dignify them more I leave myself, my friends and all, for love. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me, Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought; Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought. Pro. But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan. Speed. Twenty to one then he is shipp'd already, And I have play'd the sheep in losing him. Speed. Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep. 80 Pro. A silly answer and fitting well a sheep. Speed. This proves me still a sheep. Pro. True; and thy master a shepherd. Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. [other. Pro. It shall go hard but I'll prove it by anSpeed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me: therefore I am no sheep. 91 Pro. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the shepherd for food follows not the sheep thou for wages followest thy master; thy master for wages follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep. Speed. Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.' Pro. But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia ? Speed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labor. Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons. Speed. If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her, Pro. Nay in that you are astray, 'twere best pound you. 110 Speed. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter. Pro. You mistake; mean the pound,— pinfold. Speed. From a pound to a pin ? fold it over and over, 'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover. Fro. But what said she? Speed. [First nodding] Ay. Pro. Nod-Ay-why, that's noddy. Speed. You mistook, sir; I say, she did nod and you ask me if she did nod; and I say, 'Ay.' 121 Pro. And that set together is noddy. Speed. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for your pains. Pro. No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter. Speed. Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you. Pro. Why, sir, how do you bear with me? Speed. Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly; having nothing but the word 'noddy' for my pains. Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit. Speed. And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse. Pro. Come, come, open the matter in brief what said she? Speed. Open your purse, that the money and the matter may be both at once delivered. Pro. Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she? 140 Speed. Truly, sir, I think you'll hardly win her. [from her? : Pro. Why, couldst thou perceive so much Speed. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter and being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind. Give her no token but stones; for she's as hard as steel. Pro. What said she? nothing? 150 Speed. No, not so much as Take this for thy pains. To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testerned me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself and so, sir, I'll commend you to my master. Pro. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck, Which cannot perish having thee aboard, SCENE II. The same. house. Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. Jul. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love? Luc. Ay, madam, so you stumble not unheedfully. Jul. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen That every day with parle encounter me, In thy opinion which is worthiest love? Luc. Please you repeat their names, I'll show my mind According to my shallow simple skill. Jul. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? Luc. As of a knight well-spoken, neat and fine; 10 But, were I you, he never should be mine. Jul. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio? away. Jul. Why he, of all the rest, hath never moved me. Luc. Yet he, of all the rest, I think, best loves ye. Jul. His little speaking shows his love but small. Luc. Fire that's closest kept burns most of all. 30 Jul. They do not love that do not show their love. Luc. O, they love least that let men know their love. Jul. I would I knew his mind. Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus. He would have given it you; but I, being in the way, Did in your name receive it: pardon the fault, I pray. 40 Jul. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker! Dare you presume to harbor wanton lines? To whisper and conspire against my youth? Luc. Madam, it will not lie where it concerns, Unless it have a false interpreter. Jul. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme. Luc. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune. Give me a note: your ladyship can set. 80 Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible. Best sing it to the tune of 'Light o' love.' Luc. Ay, and melodious were it, would I cannot reach so high. Jul. Let's see your song. How now, minion ! Luc. Keep tune there still, so you will sing it out: I'll kiss each several paper for amends. As in revenge of thy ingratitude, 110 I throw thy name against the bruising stones, Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain. And here is writ 'love-wounded Proteus.' Poor wounded name! my bosom as a bed Shall lodge thee till thy wound be thoroughly heal'd; And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss. But twice or thrice was 'Proteus' written down. Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away Till I have found each letter in the letter, Except mine own name: that some whirlwind bear 120 Unto a ragged fearful-hanging rock |