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The match between sir Thurio and my daughter.

Pro. I do, my lord.

Duke. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant How she opposes her against my will.

Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. Duke. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. What might we do, to make the girl forget The love of Valentine, and love sir Thurio ? Pro. The best way is to slander Valentine With falshood, cowardice, and poor descent; Three things that women highly hold in hate. Duke. Ay, but she'll think, that it is spoke in hate.

Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it:

Therefore it must, with circumstance,1 be spoken
By one, whom she esteemeth as his friend.

Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him. Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do: 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman ;

Especially, against his very friend.

Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage

him,

Your slander never can endamage him

Therefore the office is indifferent,

Being entreated to it by your friend.

;

Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,

1 With the addition of such incidental particulars, as may induce belief.

She shall not long continue love to him.
But say, this weed her love from Valentine,
It follows not that she will love sir Thurio.

Thu. Therefore as you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel, and be good to none,

You must provide to bottom it on me : 1

Which must be done, by praising me as much

As

you in worth dispraise sir Valentine.

Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind;

Because we know, on Valentine's report,

You are already love's firm votary,

And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant shall you have access,
Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her, by your persuasion,
To hate young Valentine, and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect :-
But you, sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
You must lay lime,3 to tangle her desires,
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
Should be full fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke. Ay,

1 As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound on a central body, is a bottom of thread.

2 Mould her, like wax, to whatever shape you please. 3 Birdlime.

Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

Pro. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart: Write, till your ink be dry; and with your tears Moist it again; and frame some feeling line, That may discover such integrity :— 1

For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans

Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
After your dire-lamenting elegies,

Visit by night your lady's chamber-window

With some sweet concert: to their instruments Tune a deploring dump; 2 the night's dead silence Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance. This, or else nothing, will inherit her.3

Duke. This discipline shows thou hast been in love.

Thu. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice :

Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently

To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music :
I have a sonnet, that will serve the turn,

To give the onset to thy good advice.
Duke. About it, gentlemen.

Such a union of feeling and expression.

2 Mournful elegy.

4 Choose out.

3 Will obtain possession of her.

Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, till after

supper;

And afterward determine our proceedings.

Duke. Even now about it; I will pardon you.1

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

A forest, near Mantua.

Enter certain OUTLAWS.

1 Out. Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger. 2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with

'em.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have

about you;

If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you.

Speed. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains That all the travellers do fear so much.

Val. My friends,

1 Out. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies. 2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him.

3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we; for he is a proper 2 man.

Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;

I will excuse you from waiting.

2 Well-looking.

A man I am, cross'd with adversity:

My riches are these poor habiliments,

Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have. 2 Out. Whither travel you?

Val. To Verona.

1 Out. Whence came you?

Val. From Milan.

3 Out. Have you long sojourned there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have stay'd,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

2 Out. What, were you banish'd thence?

Val. I was.

2 Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse : I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent; But yet I slew him manfully in fight,

Without false vantage, or base treachery.

1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so. But were you banish'd for so small a fault?

Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues? 1

Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy ; Or else I often had been miserable.

3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,2

Languages.

2 Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen.

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