log out

The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act III, Scene 2

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Act III, Scene 2

Milan. A room in the Duke’s palace.

  1. Enter Duke, Thurio.

Duke of Milan

1 - 2
  1. Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you
  2. Now Valentine is banish’d from her sight.

Thurio

3 - 5
  1. Since his exile she hath despis’d me most,
  2. Forsworn my company, and rail’d at me,
  3. That I am desperate of obtaining her.

Duke of Milan

6 - 12
  1. This weak impress of love is as a figure
  2. Trenched in ice, which with an hour’s heat
  3. Dissolves to water, and doth lose his form.
  4. A little time will melt her frozen thoughts,
  5. And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.
  6. Enter Proteus.
  7. How now, Sir Proteus? Is your countryman,
  8. According to our proclamation, gone?

Proteus

13
  1. Gone, my good lord.

Duke of Milan

14
  1. My daughter takes his going grievously.

Proteus

15
  1. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.

Duke of Milan

16 - 19
  1. So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.
  2. Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee
  3. (For thou hast shown some sign of good desert)
  4. Makes me the better to confer with thee.

Proteus

20 - 21
  1. Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace
  2. Let me not live to look upon your Grace.

Duke of Milan

22 - 23
  1. Thou know’st how willingly I would effect
  2. The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter?

Proteus

24
  1. I do, my lord.

Duke of Milan

25 - 26
  1. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant
  2. How she opposes her against my will?

Proteus

27
  1. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

Duke of Milan

28 - 30
  1. Ay, and perversely she persevers so.
  2. What might we do to make the girl forget
  3. The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?

Proteus

31 - 33
  1. The best way is to slander Valentine
  2. With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent,
  3. Three things that women highly hold in hate.

Duke of Milan

34
  1. Ay, but she’ll think that it is spoke in hate.

Proteus

35 - 37
  1. Ay, if his enemy deliver it;
  2. Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken
  3. By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

Duke of Milan

38
  1. Then you must undertake to slander him.

Proteus

39 - 41
  1. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:
  2. ’Tis an ill office for a gentleman,
  3. Especially against his very friend.

Duke of Milan

42 - 45
  1. Where your good word cannot advantage him,
  2. Your slander never can endamage him;
  3. Therefore the office is indifferent,
  4. Being entreated to it by your friend.

Proteus

46 - 50
  1. You have prevail’d, my lord; if I can do it
  2. By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
  3. She shall not long continue love to him.
  4. But say this weed her love from Valentine,
  5. It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.

Thurio

51 - 55
  1. Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,
  2. Lest it should ravel and be good to none,
  3. You must provide to bottom it on me;
  4. Which must be done by praising me as much
  5. As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

Duke of Milan

56 - 65
  1. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,
  2. Because we know (on Valentine’s report)
  3. You are already Love’s firm votary,
  4. And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
  5. Upon this warrant shall you have access
  6. Where you with Silvia may confer at large
  7. For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
  8. And (for your friend’s sake) will be glad of you
  9. Where you may temper her by your persuasion
  10. To hate young Valentine and love my friend.

Proteus

66 - 70
  1. As much as I can do, I will effect.
  2. But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
  3. You must lay lime to tangle her desires
  4. By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
  5. Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.

Duke of Milan

71
  1. Ay, much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

Proteus

72 - 86
  1. Say that upon the altar of her beauty
  2. You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart;
  3. Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
  4. Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
  5. That may discover such integrity:
  6. For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews,
  7. Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
  8. Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans
  9. Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
  10. After your dire-lamenting elegies,
  11. Visit by night your lady’s chamber-window
  12. With some sweet consort; to their instruments
  13. Tune a deploring dumpthe night’s dead silence
  14. Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance.
  15. This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

Duke of Milan

87
  1. This discipline shows thou hast been in love.

Thurio

88 - 93
  1. And thy advice this night I’ll put in practice:
  2. Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
  3. Let us into the city presently
  4. To sort some gentlemen well skill’d in music.
  5. I have a sonnet that will serve the turn
  6. To give the onset to thy good advice.

Duke of Milan

94
  1. About it, gentlemen!

Proteus

95 - 96
  1. We’ll wait upon your Grace till after supper,
  2. And afterward determine our proceedings.

Duke of Milan

97
  1. Even now about it! I will pardon you.
  1. Exeunt.
© 2021 Unotate.comcontactprivacy policyCreative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.comAll illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons