Faculty of English

Enter Speed and Lance [with his dog Crab] SPEED            Lance, by mine honesty, welcome to Padua. LANCE            Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I reckon this always, that a man is never undone till he be hanged, nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid and the hostess say […]

PROTEUS       Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold, And that I love him not as I was wont – O, but I love his lady too-too much, And that’s the reason I love him so little. How shall I dote on her with more advice, That thus without advice begin to love her? ’Tis but […]

PROTEUS       Even as one heat another heat expels, Or as one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten. Is it mine eyne, or Valentine his praise, Her true perfection, or my false transgression, That makes me reasonless, to reason thus? She is […]

VALENTINE    Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber, In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel. PROTEUS       Go on before. I shall inquire you forth. I must unto the road, to disembark Some necessaries that I needs must use, And then I’ll presently attend you. VALENTINE Will you make haste? PROTEUS I will. […]

VALENTINE    Forgive me that I do not dream on thee Because thou seest me dote upon my love. My foolish rival, that her father likes Only for his possessions are so huge, Is gone with her along, and I must after; For love, thou know’st, is full of jealousy. PROTEUS       But she loves you? VALENTINE […]

PROTEUS       Why, Valentine, what braggartism is this? VALENTINE    Pardon me, Proteus. All I can is nothing To her whose worth makes other worthies nothing. She is alone. PROTEUS Then let her alone. VALENTINE Not for the world. Why, man, she is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, […]

VALENTINE    Then speak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality, Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth. PROTEUS       Except my mistress. VALENTINE Sweet, except not any, Except thou wilt except against my love. PROTEUS Have I not reason to prefer mine own? VALENTINE And I will help thee […]

PROTEUS       Enough. I read your fortune in your eye. Was this the idol that you worship so? VALENTINE    Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint? PROTEUS No. But she is an earthly paragon. VALENTINE Call her divine. PROTEUS I will not flatter her. VALENTINE O flatter me, for love delights in praises. PROTEUS […]

VALENTINE   For in revenge of my contempt of love Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes, And made them watchers of mine own heart’s sorrow. O gentle Proteus, love’s a mighty lord, And hath so humbled me as I confess There is no woe to his correction, Nor to his service no such joy […]

VALENTINE    How does your lady? And how thrives your love? PROTEUS       My tales of love were wont to weary you. I know you joy not in a love-discourse. VALENTINE Ay, Proteus, but that life is altered now. I have done penance for contemning love, Whose high imperious thoughts have punished me With bitter fasts, with […]