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. (1.3.45-54)
Proteus has a LETTER—and it’s almost immediately apparent, by the way he’s behaving, that it’s from Julia: sweet love, sweet lines, sweet life! he’s ecstatic, swooning in a welter of alliteration at the mere sight of her handwriting. Time has passed since the previous scene, it appears, long enough for Julia to write to Proteus (and for Valentine to be established in Milan)—but in terms of the stage time, it feels immediate and precipitate, too. The letter stands for Julia herself, her feelings, her intentions, and even her body: here is her hand, the agent of her heart. He means handwriting, but—as so often with this conceit in early modern contexts—it’s as if she’s reaching out to touch him, even to take and hold his hand in a contract or betrothal, because here is her oath for love, her honour’s pawn. She feels the same way! She’s swearing that she will be his! She’s pledging her honour! It’s a deal!
BUT: O that our fathers would applaud our loves to seal our happiness with their consents! Is there a problem? Is there Family Opposition? (Obviously unclear at this stage; it’s difficult to read this without prior knowledge of R&J. But, especially if Proteus and Julia are being played very young, it’s also in keeping with their idealised, romantic vision of what it might mean to be in love, giving an added piquancy and danger, the spice of risk, if their fathers are even thought to be opposed, to this or indeed any relationship.) The question of consent in marriage was a live one; as in Romeo and Juliet—where it’s much more extreme—conflict could emerge when the couple freely consented to the marriage but their parents opposed it, because parental consent wasn’t usually necessary (provided the couple weren’t minors)—the couple would then potentially be falling into sin by being disobedient and so not honouring their parents, even as their projected marriage was entirely lawful.
O heavenly Julia! Proteus rhapsodises to himself, not yet catching sight of his father and his father’s friend. But Dad interrupts: how now? what’s going on? what letter are you reading there? (Another letter that, like Proteus’s own to Julia, isn’t read aloud.) And Proteus is immediately smooth, and also a liar; no consternation or prevarication at all, it seems, before he replies—very politely—that may’t please your lordship, ’tis a word of two of commendations sent from Valentine, delivered by a friend that came from him. Just a note from my mate Valentine, by hand from one of our mutuals. That’s all. Nothing to see here. Totally normal.