Two Gentlemen of Verona — Act 3, Scene 2

DUKE

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

THURIO

Since his exile she hath despised me most,Forsworn my company and rail'd at me,That I am desperate of obtaining her.

DUKE

This weak impress of love is as a figureTrenched in ice, which with an hour's heatDissolves to water and doth lose his form.A little time will melt her frozen thoughtsAnd worthless Valentine shall be forgot.

DUKE

How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countrymanAccording to our proclamation gone?

PROTEUS

Gone, my good lord.

DUKE

My daughter takes his going grievously.

PROTEUS

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

DUKE

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

PROTEUS

Longer than I prove loyal to your graceLet me not live to look upon your grace.

DUKE

Thou know'st how willingly I would effectThe match between Sir Thurio and my daughter.

PROTEUS

I do, my lord.

DUKE

And also, I think, thou art not ignorantHow she opposes her against my will

PROTEUS

She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

DUKE

Ay, and perversely she persevers so.What might we do to make the girl forgetThe love of Valentine and love Sir Thurio?

PROTEUS

The best way is to slander ValentineWith falsehood, cowardice and poor descent,Three things that women highly hold in hate.

DUKE

Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.

PROTEUS

Ay, if his enemy deliver it:Therefore it must with circumstance be spokenBy one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

DUKE

Then you must undertake to slander him.

PROTEUS

And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:'Tis an ill office for a gentleman,Especially against his very friend.

DUKE

Where your good word cannot advantage him,Your slander never can endamage him;Therefore the office is indifferent,Being entreated to it by your friend.

PROTEUS

You have prevail'd, my lord; if I can do itBy ought that I can speak in his dispraise,She shall not long continue love to him.But say this weed her love from Valentine,It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.

THURIO

Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,Lest it should ravel and be good to none,You must provide to bottom it on me;Which must be done by praising me as muchAs you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

DUKE

And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,Because we know, on Valentine's report,You are already Love's firm votaryAnd cannot soon revolt and change your mind.Upon this warrant shall you have accessWhere you with Silvia may confer at large;For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;Where you may temper her by your persuasionTo hate young Valentine and love my friend.

PROTEUS

As much as I can do, I will effect:But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;You must lay lime to tangle her desiresBy wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymesShould be full-fraught with serviceable vows.

DUKE

Ay,Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

PROTEUS

Say that upon the altar of her beautyYou sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart:Write till your ink be dry, and with your tearsMoist it again, and frame some feeling lineThat may discover such integrity:For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,Make tigers tame and huge leviathansForsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.After your dire-lamenting elegies,Visit by night your lady's chamber-windowWith some sweet concert; to their instrumentsTune a deploring dump: the night's dead silenceWill well become such sweet-complaining grievance.This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

DUKE

This discipline shows thou hast been in love.

THURIO

And thy advice this night I'll put in practise.Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,Let us into the city presentlyTo sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music.I have a sonnet that will serve the turnTo give the onset to thy good advice.

DUKE

About it, gentlemen!

PROTEUS

We'll wait upon your grace till after supper,And afterward determine our proceedings.

DUKE

Even now about it! I will pardon you.