Enter Proteus [and] Julia

PROTEUS       Have patience, gentle Julia.

JULIA  I must, where is no remedy.

PROTEUS When possibly I can, I will return.

JULIA If you turn not, you will return the sooner.

[She gives him a ring]

Keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake.

PROTEUS Why then, we’ll make exchange.

[He gives her a ring]

Here, take you this.

JULIA And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.          (2.2.1-7)

So: back to Verona, where Proteus has broken the news of his departure for Milan to Julia. She’s not happy, obviously; she might be in tears: have patience, gentle Julia, he says. Chin up! Grin and bear it! I must, where is no remedy, comes the response: well, what choice do I have? There’s nothing to be done. An attempt at making the best of things: when possibly I can, I will return. I’ll be back before you know it, just as soon as I can manage it. (Although possibly suggests that it might be out of his hands, a course of action not entirely up to him.) A wan bit of word-play from Julia: if you turn not—playing on return—you will return the sooner. In some ways, she’s also saying, just go, and don’t look back—let’s get it over with. And, perhaps inevitably, a ring: keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake. When this you see, remember me. It seems to occur to Proteus that, yeah, this would be the done thing, an exchange of tokens: why then, we’ll make exchange. Here, take you this. (No sense of an engagement, a betrothal—but an early modern audience would recognise that this exchange has at least something of a contractual force, that this couple have an understanding, even.) Julia matches and reinforces the exchange by closing the couplet, as much as by suggesting they embrace: and seal the bargain with a holy kiss; that language of sealing makes it more of a contract too. Whether they do kiss or not, whether she’s the more ardent, while Proteus is already (for all his previous protestations) already looking to a new life in Milan—that’s a choice that a production has to make.