There shall he practise tilts and tournaments,

Hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen,

And be in eye of every exercise

Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

ANTONIO

I like thy counsel. Well hast thou advised,

And that thou mayst perceive how well I like it,

The execution of it shall make known.

Even with the speediest expedition

I will dispatch him to the Emperor’s court.

PANTHINO

Tomorrow, may it please you, Don Alfonso,

With other gentlemen of good esteem,

Are journeying to salute the Emperor

And to commend their service to his will.

ANTONIO

Good company. With them shall Proteus go.

Enter Proteus with a letter. He does not see Antonio and Panthino

And in good time. Now will we break with him.

PROTEUS Sweet love, sweet lines, sweet life!

Here is her hand, the agent of her heart.

Here is her oath for love, her honour’s pawn.

O that our fathers would applaud our loves

To seal our happiness with their consents.

O heavenly Julia!

ANTONIO

How now, what letter are you reading there?

PROTEUS

May’t please your lordship, ‘tis a word or two

Of commendations sent from Valentine,

Delivered by a friend that came from him.

ANTONIO

Lend me the letter. Let me see what news.

PROTEUS

There is no news, my lord, but that he writes

How happily he lives, how well beloved

And daily gracèd by the Emperor,

Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.

ANTONIO

And how stand you affected to his wish?

PROTEUS

As one relying on your lordship’s will,

And not depending on his friendly wish.

ANTONIO

My will is something sorted with his wish.

Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed,

For what I will, I will, and there an end.

I am resolved that thou shalt spend some time

With Valentinus in the Emperor’s court.

What maintenance he from his friends receives,

Like exhibition thou shalt have from me.

Tomorrow be in readiness to go.

Excuse it not, for I am peremptory.

PROTEUS

My lord, I cannot be so soon provided.

Please you deliberate a day or two.

ANTONIO

Look what thou want’st shall be sent after thee.

No more of stay. Tomorrow thou must go.

Come on, Panthino. You shall be employed

To hasten on his expedition.

Exeunt Antonio and Panthino

PROTEUS

Thus have I shunned the fire for fear of burning

And drenched me in the sea where I am drowned.

I feared to show my father Julia’s letter

Lest he should take exceptions to my love,

And with the vantage of mine own excuse

Hath he excepted most against my love.

O, how this spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day,

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,

And by and by a cloud takes all away.

Enter Panthino

PANTHINO

Sir Proteus, your father calls for you.

He is in haste, therefore I pray you go.

PROTEUS

Why, this it is. My heart accords thereto,

And yet a thousand times it answers ‘No’.

Exeunt

2.1 Enter Valentine and Speed

SPEED (offering Valentine a glove)

Sir, your glove.

VALENTINE

Not mine. My gloves are on.

SPEED

Why then, this may be yours, for this is but one.

VALENTINE

Ha, let me see. Ay, give it me, it’s mine—

Sweet ornament, that decks a thing divine.

Ah, Silvia, Silvia!

SPEED Madam Silvia, Madam Silvia!

VALENTINE How now, sirrah?

SPEED She is not within hearing, sir.

VALENTINE Why, sir, who bade you call her?

SPEED Your worship, sir, or else I mistook.

VALENTINE Well, you’ll still be too forward.

SPEED And yet I was last chidden for being too slow.

VALENTINE Go to, sir. Tell me, do you know Madam Silvia?

SPEED She that your worship loves?

VALENTINE Why, how know you that I am in love?

SPEED Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreath your arms, like a malcontent; to relish a love-song, like a robin redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a schoolboy that had lost his ABC; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam; to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions. When you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money. And now you are metamorphosed with a mistress, that when I look on you I can hardly think you my master.

VALENTINE Are all these things perceived in me?

SPEED They are all perceived without ye.

VALENTINE Without me? They cannot.

SPEED Without you? Nay, that’s certain, for without you were so simple, none else would. But you are so without these follies that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal, that not an eye that sees you but is a physician to comment on your malady.

VALENTINE But tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia?

SPEED She that you gaze on so as she sits at supper?

VALENTINE Hast thou observed that? Even she I mean.

SPEED Why sir, I know her not.

VALENTINE Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet know’st her not?

SPEED Is she not hard-favoured, sir?

VALENTINE Not so fair, boy, as well favoured.

SPEED Sir, I know that well enough.

VALENTINE What dost thou know?

SPEED That she is not so fair as of you well favoured.

VALENTINE I mean that her beauty is exquisite but her favour infinite.

SPEED That’s because the one is painted and the other out of all count.

VALENTINE How painted? And how out of count?

SPEED Marry, sir, so painted to make her fair that no man counts of her beauty.

VALENTINE How esteem’st thou me? I account of her beauty.

SPEED You never saw her since she was deformed.

VALENTINE How long hath she been deformed?

SPEED Ever since you loved her.

VALENTINE I have loved her ever since I saw her, and still I see her beautiful.