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The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act V, Scene 4

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Act V, Scene 4

The frontiers of Mantua. Another part of the forest between Milan and Verona.

  1. Enter Valentine.

Valentine

1 - 18
  1. How use doth breed a habit in a man!
  2. This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
  3. I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:
  4. Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
  5. And to the nightingale’s complaining notes
  6. Tune my distresses and record my woes.
  7. O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
  8. Leave not the mansion so long tenantless,
  9. Lest growing ruinous, the building fall
  10. And leave no memory of what it was!
  11. Repair me with thy presence, Silvia;
  12. Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain.
  13. Shouts within.
  14. What hallowing and what stir is this today?
  15. These are my mates, that make their wills their law,
  16. Have some unhappy passenger in chase.
  17. They love me well; yet I have much to do
  18. To keep them from uncivil outrages.
  19. Withdraw thee, Valentine: who’s this comes here?
  1. Steps aside.
  1. Enter Proteus, Silvia, Julia disguised as Sebastian.

Proteus

19 - 25
  1. Madam, this service I have done for you
  2. (Though you respect not aught your servant doth)
  3. To hazard life, and rescue you from him
  4. That would have forc’d your honor and your love.
  5. Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look:
  6. A smaller boon than this I cannot beg,
  7. And less than this, I am sure you cannot give.

Valentine

26 - 27
  1. Aside.
  2. How like a dream is this! I see, and hear:
  3. Love, lend me patience to forbear a while.

Silvia

28
  1. O miserable, unhappy that I am!

Proteus

29 - 30
  1. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came;
  2. But by my coming I have made you happy.

Silvia

31
  1. By thy approach thou mak’st me most unhappy.

Julia

32
  1. Aside.
  2. And me, when he approacheth to your presence.

Silvia

33 - 40
  1. Had I been seized by a hungry lion,
  2. I would have been a breakfast to the beast
  3. Rather than have false Proteus rescue me.
  4. O heaven be judge how I love Valentine,
  5. Whose life’s as tender to me as my soul!
  6. And full as much (for more there cannot be)
  7. I do detest false perjur’d Proteus.
  8. Therefore be gone, solicit me no more.

Proteus

41 - 44
  1. What dangerous action, stood it next to death,
  2. Would I not undergo for one calm look?
  3. O, ’tis the curse in love, and still approv’d,
  4. When women cannot love where they’re belov’d!

Silvia

45 - 53
  1. When Proteus cannot love where he’s belov’d!
  2. Read over Julia’s heart (thy first best love),
  3. For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith
  4. Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
  5. Descended into perjury, to love me.
  6. Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou’dst two,
  7. And that’s far worse than none: better have none
  8. Than plural faith, which is too much by one.
  9. Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

Proteus

54 - 55
  1.                                      In love
  2. Who respects friend?

Silvia

56
  1.                      All men but Proteus.

Proteus

57 - 60
  1. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words
  2. Can no way change you to a milder form,
  3. I’ll woo you like a soldier, at arm’s end,
  4. And love you ’gainst the nature of loveforce ye.

Silvia

61
  1. O heaven!

Proteus

62
  1.           I’ll force thee yield to my desire.

Valentine

63 - 64
  1. Coming forward.
  2. Ruffian! Let go that rude uncivil touch,
  3. Thou friend of an ill fashion!

Proteus

65
  1.                                Valentine!

Valentine

66 - 76
  1. Thou common friend, that’s without faith or love,
  2. For such is a friend now! Treacherous man,
  3. Thou hast beguil’d my hopes! Nought but mine eye
  4. Could have persuaded me; now I dare not say
  5. I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove me.
  6. Who should be trusted, when one’s right hand
  7. Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,
  8. I am sorry I must never trust thee more,
  9. But count the world a stranger for thy sake.
  10. The private wound is deepest: O time most accurst!
  11. ’Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

Proteus

77 - 81
  1. My shame and guilt confounds me.
  2. Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty sorrow
  3. Be a sufficient ransom for offense,
  4. I tender’t here: I do as truly suffer
  5. As e’er I did commit.

Valentine

82 - 88
  1.                       Then I am paid;
  2. And once again I do receive thee honest.
  3. Who by repentance is not satisfied
  4. Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleas’d;
  5. By penitence th’ Eternal’s wrath’s appeas’d:
  6. And that my love may appear plain and free,
  7. All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.

Julia

89
  1. O me unhappy!
  1. Swoons.

Proteus

90
  1. Look to the boy.

Valentine

91 - 92
  1. Why, boy! Why, wag! How now? What’s the matter? Look up;
  2. speak.

Julia

93 - 94
  1. O good sir, my master charg’d me to deliver a ring to Madam
  2. Silvia, which (out of my neglect) was never done.

Proteus

95
  1. Where is that ring, boy?

Julia

96
  1.                          Here ’tis; this is it.
  1. Shows a ring.

Proteus

97 - 98
  1. How? Let me see.
  2. Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Julia

99 - 100
  1. O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook;
  2. This is the ring you sent to Silvia.
  1. Shows another ring.

Proteus

101 - 102
  1. But how cam’st thou by this ring? At my depart
  2. I gave this unto Julia.

Julia

103 - 104
  1. And Julia herself did give it me,
  2. And Julia herself hath brought it hither.

Proteus

105
  1. How? Julia?

Julia

106 - 114
  1. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,
  2. And entertain’d ’em deeply in her heart.
  3. How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?
  4. O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!
  5. Be thou asham’d that I have took upon me
  6. Such an immodest raimentif shame live
  7. In a disguise of love!
  8. It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
  9. Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

Proteus

115 - 120
  1. Than men their minds? ’Tis true. O heaven, were man
  2. But constant, he were perfect; that one error
  3. Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th’ sins:
  4. Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.
  5. What is in Silvia’s face, but I may spy
  6. More fresh in Julia’s with a constant eye?

Valentine

121 - 123
  1. Come, come, a hand from either.
  2. Let me be blest to make this happy close;
  3. ’Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.

Proteus

124
  1. Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish forever.

Julia

125
  1. And I mine.
  1. Enter Duke, Thurio, Outlaws.

All Outlaws

126
  1. A prize, a prize, a prize!

Valentine

127 - 129
  1. Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the Duke.
  2. Your Grace is welcome to a man disgrac’d,
  3. Banished Valentine.

Duke of Milan

130
  1.                     Sir Valentine!

Thurio

131
  1. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia’s mine.

Valentine

132 - 137
  1. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
  2. Come not within the measure of my wrath.
  3. Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
  4. Milan shall not hold thee. Here she stands,
  5. Take but possession of her with a touch:
  6. I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.

Thurio

138 - 141
  1. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
  2. I hold him but a fool that will endanger
  3. His body for a girl that loves him not.
  4. I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

Duke of Milan

142 - 153
  1. The more degenerate and base art thou
  2. To make such means for her as thou hast done,
  3. And leave her on such slight conditions.
  4. Now, by the honor of my ancestry,
  5. I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
  6. And think thee worthy of an empress’ love.
  7. Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
  8. Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
  9. Plead a new state in thy unrivall’d merit,
  10. To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine,
  11. Thou art a gentleman and well deriv’d,
  12. Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv’d her.

Valentine

154 - 156
  1. I thank your Grace; the gift hath made me happy.
  2. I now beseech you (for your daughter’s sake)
  3. To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

Duke of Milan

157
  1. I grant it (for thine own) what e’er it be.

Valentine

158 - 163
  1. These banish’d men, that I have kept withal,
  2. Are men endu’d with worthy qualities.
  3. Forgive them what they have committed here,
  4. And let them be recall’d from their exile;
  5. They are reformed, civil, full of good,
  6. And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

Duke of Milan

164 - 167
  1. Thou hast prevail’d, I pardon them and thee;
  2. Dispose of them as thou know’st their deserts.
  3. Come, let us go, we will include all jars
  4. With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.

Valentine

168 - 170
  1. And as we walk along, I dare be bold
  2. With our discourse to make your Grace to smile.
  3. What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke of Milan

171
  1. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes.

Valentine

172
  1. I warrant you, my lordmore grace than boy.

Duke of Milan

173
  1. What mean you by that saying?

Valentine

174 - 179
  1. Please you, I’ll tell you as we pass along,
  2. That you will wonder what hath fortuned.
  3. Come, Proteus, ’tis your penance but to hear
  4. The story of your loves discovered;
  5. That done, our day of marriage shall be yours,
  6. One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.
  1. Exeunt.
finis
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