DUKE  Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.

Sir Valentine, your father is in good health,

What say you to a letter from your friends

Of much good news?

VALENTINE    My lord, I will be thankful

To any happy messenger from thence.

DUKE Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?

VALENTINE Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman

To be of worth and worthy estimation,

And not without desert so well reputed.

DUKE Hath he not a son?

VALENTINE Ay, my good lord, a son that well deserves

The honour and regard of such a father.   (2.4.41-52)

Enter Duke, his first appearance in the play. An indulgent father? Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. You’ve got your hands full here! They’ve got you under siege! Sir Valentine, your father is in good health, what say you to a letter from your friends of much good news? (The fact that he apparently ignores Thurio, and even that he favours Valentine, might be made obvious; it’s all about Valentine.) A roundabout way of announcing that a messenger has arrived from Verona with a letter for Valentine, and that the headline news, the most crucial piece of information, has already been delivered orally: that there’s no crisis, that Valentine’s father is well. But there’s a letter to come, full of news.

Valentine’s courteous, smooth—and back in blank verse. My lord, I will be thankful to any happy messenger from thence. It’ll be great to have news from home, and to greet whomever it is that’s brought the letter! The Duke’s holding off saying who this might be; his questions might be genuine requests for information, but he might, like his daughter, be playing games: know ye Don Antonio, your countryman? Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman to be of worth and worthy estimation, and not without desert so well reputed. This is partly about delaying the reveal that it’s Proteus who’s come to Milan, bringing the letter, but also allowing Valentine to emphasise his own reputation and status: yes, of course I know the man to whom you’re referring, an absolute gentleman, good chap, pillar of society. Hath he not a son? Valentine might be slightly mystified here as to why all this is relevant, or he might just plough on, answering the questions from the man whom he hopes might be his future father-in-law, if he plays his cards right: ay, my good lord, a son that well deserves the honour and regard of such a father. His son’s a top bloke too!