CW: racism

PROTEUS       I cannot leave to love, and yet I do.

But there I leave to love where I should love.

Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose.

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself.

If I lose them, thus find I by their loss

For Valentine, myself, for Julia, Silvia.

I to myself am dearer than a friend,

For love is still most precious in itself,

And Silvia – witness heaven that made her fair! –

Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.            (2.6.17-26)

Proteus, still digging. I cannot leave to love, and yet I do: I can’t stop loving—and yet I do, it seems that it’s possible after all, because there, in that particular instance, I leave to love where I should love; I have to stop loving Valentine too, my dear old friend. So in at least some instances I’m demonstrating that it’s possible to cease and desist from the deepest, most heartfelt love—but not from the kind of love I have for Silvia! And in so doing, Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose. Both those people who have been so dear to me—gone. Because if I keep them, I needs must lose myself; if I cling on to my relationships with them, I’ll be being false to myself, abandoning myself. Whereas if I cast them off, end my relationships with them, if I lose them, thus find I by their loss—in their place—I get for Valentine, myself—as my friend he’s been my other self, so, it’s as good as, and I get myself back, totally in control, totally self-sufficient, full of integrity. And in place of Julia, I get Silvia! (Silvia has apparently no more choice in this matter than Julia does.) I to myself am dearer than a friend—you’ve got to love yourself first! it’s all about self-love, self-care—for love is still more precious in itself; love’s the most important thing, more important than friendship. (Proteus just failed Homosociality 101, spectacularly, although he may do better on the resit…) And after all—have you seen Silvia? She’s worth it and, more importantly, I’m worth it! Witness heaven that made her fair—the gods can only agree!—she makes Julia look like a swarthy Ethiope in comparison. The casual racism is typical, activated by the comparison with fair, connoting whiteness as well as beauty, although most (not all) of the point here is the imagined diametric opposition between Black and white. Romeo and Juliet is marginally more subtle in its comparison of swans and crows, doves and ravens.

Can Proteus go any lower? Can his syntax get any knottier, his reasoning any more contorted? The scene’s not over yet…