PROTEUS       Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu.

Think on thy Proteus when thou haply seest

Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel.

Wish me partaker in thy happiness

When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger–

If ever danger do environ thee–

Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers;

For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.       (1.1.11-18)

Proteus sounds entirely like a lover in his response—and rather as if he’s farewelling his own lover, rather than his friend. Wilt thou be gone? (So says Juliet in the dawn scene.) Are you really going, are you really leaving me? Do you have to go? (It could, of course, be delivered with irony, a note of self-mockery.) Sweet Valentine—ah, that’s the other guy’s name—or is it an endearment, you are my valentine?—adieu. A sentimental leave-taking, a very long way from cheers, seeya, later, mate. Think on thy Proteus when thou haply seest some rare note-worthy object in thy travel. Think of me, your friend, your Proteus (a reminder of his name as much as an intensifier of the men’s intimacy) when you happen to see, by chance, something amazing, truly memorable, a wonder. See it and think of me; send me a postcard to that effect: I saw this and thought of you… (That rare note-worthy object, that marvel, that wonder, might well be a Girl, is what’s being set up here.) And so wish me partaker in thy happiness when thou dost meet good hap. When it’s going well, when you’re having a lovely time, think about how much you’d like me to be there, sharing it with you. Wish you were here! And in thy danger—if ever danger do environ thee—does the thought strike them both for the first time? that it might not all be plain sailing, that there will be bad times as well as good in (checks notes) *Milan*, it’s not as if Valentine is going far. (Although it is an acknowledgement of the dangers of any kind of travel in the period, sickness, accidents, BRIGANDS.) If you’re ever in danger, though, commend thy grievance to my holy prayers. Ask me to pray for you, in your distress. (How? By letter? Or telepathy?) For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine. I’ll pray for you. I’ll always be here for you. Another reinforcement of the name, and a reminder that Valentine is the patron saint of lovers too, perhaps. It’s a highly sentimental introduction to these characters, the intensity of their friendship; even if there’s a note of self-mockery here, the very fact that it’s a kind of in-joke, this loverly language, establishes the intimacy between Proteus and Valentine.