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Unless I prove false traitor to myself.

Yet I will woo for him: but yet so coldly,
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed.
Enter SILVIA, attended.

Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you be my mean
To bring me where to speak with madam Silvia.
Sil. What would you with her, if that I be she?
Jul. If you be she, I do entreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am sent on.
Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.
Sil. O!-he sends you for a picture?
Jul. Ay, madam.

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought
Go, give your master this: tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber than this shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.-
Pardon me, madam; I have unadvised
Delivered you a paper that I should not;
This is the letter to your ladyship.

Sil. I pray thee let me look on that again.
Jul. It may not be; good madam, pardon me.
Sil. There, hold.

I will not look upon your master's lines:

I know they are stuffed with protestations,

And full of new-found oaths; which he will break
As easily as I do tear his paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.
Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it me,

For, I have heard him say a thousand times,

His Julia gave it him at his departure:

Though his false finger hath profaned the ring,
Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What say'st thou?

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much.

Sil. Dost thou know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself: To think upon her woes, I do protest,

That I have wept a hundred several times.

Sil. Belike, she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her.

Jul. I think she doth, and that's her cause of sorrow.
Sil. Is she not passing fair?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is:
When she did think my master loved her well,
She, in my judgment, was as fair as you;
But since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,
The air hath starved the roses in her cheeks,
And pinched the lily-tincture of her face,
That now she is become as black as I.
Sil. How tall was she?

Jul. About my stature: for, at Pentecost,
When all our pageants of delight were played,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimmed in madam Julia's gown,
Which served me as fit, by all men's judgment,
As if the garment had been made for me;
Therefore, I know she is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a good,1
For I did play a lamentable part:
Madam, 'twas Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight;
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow!

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!

Alas, poor lady! desolate and left!

I weep myself, to think upon thy words.

Here, youth, there is my purse; I give thee this

For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her. Farewell.

1 i. e. in good earnest, tout de bon.

[Exit SILVIA.

Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er

her.

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful.
I hope my master's suit will be but cold,
Since she respects my mistress' love so much.
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: Let me see; I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers:
And yet the painter flattered her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow :
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a colored periwig.

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Her eyes are gray as glass; and so are mine:
Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high.
What should it be, that he respects in her,
But I can make respective1 in myself,
If this fond love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form,

Thou shalt be worshipped, kissed, loved, and adored;
And, were there sense in his idolatry,

My substance should be statue in thy stead.
I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That used me so; or else by Jove I vow,

I should have scratched out your unseeing eyes,

To make my master out of love with thee.

1 Regardful. V. Merchant of Venice, Act V. Sc. I.

[Exit.

2 The word statue was formerly used to express a portrait, and sometimes a statue was called a picture.

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Egl. The sun begins to gild the western sky;
And now it is about the very hour

That Silvia, at friar Patrick's cell, should meet me.
She will not fail; for lovers break not hours,
Unless it be to come before their time;
So much they spur their expedition.

Enter SILVIA.

See where she comes; Lady, a happy evening!
Sil. Amen, amen! go on, good Eglamour!
Out at the postern by the abbey wall;

I fear I am attended by some spies.

Egl. Fear not: the forest is not three leagues off:

If we recover that, we are sure enough.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same.

A Room in the Duke's

Palace.

Enter THURIO, PROTEUS, and JULIA.

Thu. Sir Proteus, what says Silvia to my suit?
Pro. O, sir, I find her milder than she was;
And yet she takes exceptions at your person.
Thu. What, that my leg is too long?

Pro. No; that it is too little.

Thu. I'll wear a boot, to make it somewhat rounder. Pro. But love will not be spurred to what it loathes. Thu. What says she to my face?

Pro. She says it is a fair one.

Thu. Nay, then the wanton lies; my face is black. Pro. But pearls are fair; and the old saying is, Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes.

Jul. Tis true: such pearls as put out ladies' eyes; For I had rather wink than look on them.

Thu How likes she my discourse?
Pro. I. when you talk of war.

[Aside.

Thu. But weil when I discourse of love and peace? Jul. But better indeed, when you hold your peace.

Thu. What says she to my valor?

[Aside.

Pro. O. sir, she makes no doubt of that.

Jul. She needs not, when she knows it cowardice.

[Aside.

Thu. What says she to my birth?

Pro. That you are well derived.

Jul. True, from a gentleman to a fool.

[Aside.

Thu. Considers she my possessions?

Pro. O. ay; and pities them.

Thu. Wherefore?

Jul. That such an ass should owe them. [Aside.

Pro. That they are out by lease.

Jul. Here comes the duke.

Enter DUKE.

Duke. How now, Sir Proteus? how now, Thurio? Which of you saw Sir Eglamour of late?

Thu. Not I.

Pro. Nor I.

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Duke. Why, then she's fled unto that peasant Val

entine;

And Eglamour is in her company.

'Tis true; for friar Laurence met them both,
As he in penance wandered through the forest;
Him he knew well, and guessed that it was she:
But, being masked, he was not sure of it:

1 i. e. possess them, own them.

2 By Thurio's possessions he himself understands his lands. But Proteus chooses to take the word likewise in a figurative sense, as signifying his mental endowments, and when he says they are out by lease, he means, that they are no longer enjoyed by their master (who is a fool), but are leased out to another.

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