LUCETTA All these are servants to deceitful men.
JULIA Base men, that use them to so base effect.
But truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth.
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
LUCETTA Pray God he prove so when you come to him. (2.7.72-79)
Lucetta—the realist, the cynic, the grown-up—is trying to manage Julia’s expectations: all these, oaths, promises, tears, are servants to deceitful men. They use them, summon them at will, turn them on and off like a tap, simply to get what they want. Men lie and cheat and dissemble. Or (to be more charitable) Not All Men, but Deceitful Men, at least. Cads and bounders. That’s how Julia takes it, Not All Men, or at least Not Proteus, but rather base men, low types—proper bastards!—that use them to so base effect. Only nasty (perhaps common) men would dissemble like that, and Proteus isn’t a nasty man! He’s the perfect gentleman, the very opposite of base! For truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth. He was born under an honest planet! He’s incapable of deceit! (Shakespeare files away this little conjunction and it reappears a good decade later in the mouth of Edmund, the bastard of King Lear, repudiating astrology.) His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles—he always means what he says, and keeps his promises; if he says he’ll do a thing, then he’ll do it. His love is sincere, every protestation truly meant, deeply felt, and his thoughts immaculate; he’s pure in his intentions and his imaginings as well as in his deeds. If he weeps, then his tears are pure messengers sent from his heart, not dissembling, crocodile tears calculated to solicit sympathy or indulgence, because his heart is as far from fraud as heaven from earth. He’s simply incapable of deceit, or betrayal. It’s unthinkable. Well, pray God he prove so when you come to him, is all that Lucetta can summon in response to this passionate statement of faith. All we can do is hope that this is indeed the case—but Lucetta clearly has her doubts, although whether they’re general and born of bitter experience (Proteus is a man and Not All Men, but, still…) or specific (she knows or suspects something that Julia doesn’t) is a question for the actor.