SPEED            ‘Inprimis. She can milk.’ LANCE            Ay, that she can. SPEED ‘Item. She brews good ale.’ LANCE And thereof comes the proverb, ‘God’s blessing of your heart, you brew good ale.’ SPEED ‘Item. She can sew.’ LANCE That’s as much as to say, ‘Can she so?’ SPEED ‘Item. She can knit.’ LANCE What need a man […]

SPEED            Let me read them. LANCE                        Fie on thee, jolt-head. Thou canst not read. SPEED Thou liest. I can. LANCE I will try thee. Tell me this: who begot thee? SPEED Marry, the son of my grandfather. LANCE O, illiterate loiterer, it was the son of thy grandmother. This proves that thou canst not […]

LANCE                        Here is the catalogue of her conditions. ‘Inprimis. She can fetch and carry.’ Why, a horse can do no more – nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry – therefore is she better than a jade. ‘Item. She can milk.’ Look you, a sweet virtue in a maid with clean hands. [Enter Speed] SPEED            How now, […]

LANCE            He lives not now that knows me to be in love – yet I am in love, but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me, nor who ’tis I love – and yet ’tis a woman, but what woman, I will not tell myself. And yet –’tis a milkmaid. – Yet, ’tis not a […]

VALENTINE    I pray thee, Lance, and if thou seest my boy Bid him make haste and meet me at the North Gate. PROTEUS       Go sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. VALENTINE    O, my dear Silvia! Hapless Valentine! [Exeunt Valentine and Proteus] LANCE            I am but a fool, look you, and yet I have the wit […]

PROTEUS       Hope is a lover’s staff; walk hence with that And manage it against despairing thoughts. Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence, Which, being writ to me, shall be delivered Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love. The time now serves not to expostulate. Come, I’ll convey thee through the city […]

VALENTINE    No more, unless the next word that thou speak’st Have some malignant power upon my life. If so, I pray thee breathe it in mine ear, As ending anthem of my endless dolour. PROTEUS       Cease to lament for that thou canst not help, And study help for that which thou lament’st. Time is the […]

PROTEUS       Those at her father’s churlish feet she tendered, With them upon her knees, her humble self, Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them As if but now they waxed pale, for woe. But neither bended knees, pure hands held up, Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire But […]

LANCE                        Sir, there is a proclamation, that you are vanished. PROTEUS       That thou art banished. O, that’s the news From hence, from Silvia, and from me, thy friend. VALENTINE    O, I have fed upon this woe already, And now excess of it will make me surfeit. Doth Silvia know that I am banished? PROTEUS […]

VALENTINE My ears are stopped, and cannot hear good news, So much of bad already hath possessed them. PROTEUS       Then in dumb silence will I bury mine, For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad. VALENTINE Is Silvia dead? PROTEUS No, Valentine. VALENTINE No Valentine indeed, for sacred Silvia. Hath she forsworn me? PROTEUS No, Valentine. […]