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Enter Proteus, with Julia dressed as a page-boy
PROTEUS (to Julia)
Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well,
And will employ thee in some service presently.
JULIA
In what you please. I’ll do what I can.
PROTEUS
I hope thou wilt.—How now, you whoreson peasant,
Where have you been these two days loitering?
LANCE Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.
PROTEUS And what says she to my little jewel?
LANCE Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you currish thanks is good enough for such a present.
PROTEUS But she received my dog?
LANCE No indeed did she not. Here have I brought him back again.
PROTEUS What, didst thou offer her this from me?
LANCE Ay, sir. The other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman boys in the market place, and then I offered her mine own, who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater.
PROTEUS
Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again,
Or ne‘er return again into my sight.
Away, I say. Stay’st thou to vex me here?
Exit Lance with Crab
A slave, that still on end turns me to shame.
Sebastian, I have entertained thee
Partly that I have need of such a youth
That can with some discretion do my business,
For ’tis no trusting to yon foolish lout,
But chiefly for thy face and thy behaviour,
Which, if my augury deceive me not,
Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth.
Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go presently, and take this ring with thee.
Deliver it to Madam Silvia.
She loved me well delivered it to me.
JULIA
It seems you loved not her, to leave her token.
She is dead belike?
PROTEUS Not so. I think she lives.
JULIA
Alas.
Proteus Why dost thou cry ‘Alas’?
JULIA
I ca
PROTEUS
Wherefore shouldst thou pity her?
JULIA
Because methinks that she loved you as well
As you do love your lady Silvia.
She dreams on him that has forgot her love;
You dote on her that cares not for your love.
‘Tis pity love should be so contrary,
And thinking on it makes me cry ‘Alas’.
PROTEUS
Well, give her that ring, and therewithal
This letter. (Pointing) That’s her chamber. Tell my
lady
I claim the promise for her heavenly picture.
Your message done, hie home unto my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me sad and solitary.
Exit
JULIA
How many women would do such a message?
Alas, poor Proteus, thou hast entertained
A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs.
Alas, poor fool, why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he despiseth me.
Because I love him, I must pity him.
This ring I gave him when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will.
And now am I, unhappy messenger,
To plead for that which I would not obtain;
To carry that which I would have refused;
To praise his faith, which I would have dispraised.
I am my master’s true-confirmèd love,
But ca
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed.
Enter Silvia
Gentlewoman, good day. I pray you be my mean
To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia.
SILVIA
What would you with her, if that I be she?
JULIA
If you be she, I do entreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am sent on.
SILVIA
From whom?
JULIA
From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.
SILVIA O, he sends you for a picture?
JULIA Ay, madam.
SILVIA Ursula, bring my picture there.
[An attendant brings a picture]
Go, give your master this. Tell him from me
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber than this shadow.
JULIA
Madam, please you peruse this letter.
She gives Silvia a letter
Pardon me, madam, I have unadvised
Delivered you a paper that I should not.
She takes back the letter and gives Silvia another letter
This is the letter to your ladyship.
SILVIA
I pray thee, let me look on that again.
JULIA
It may not be. Good madam, pardon me.
SILVIA
There, hold. I will not look upon your master’s lines.
I know they are stuffed with protestations,
And full of new-found oaths, which he will break
As easily as I do tear his paper.
She tears the letter
JULIA
Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.
She offers Silvia a ring
SILVIA
The more shame for him, that he sends it me;
For I have heard him say a thousand times
His Julia gave it him at his departure.
Though his false finger have profaned the ring,
Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.
JULIA She thanks you.
SILVIA What sayst thou?
JULIA
I thank you, madam, that you tender her.
Poor gentlewoman, my master wrongs her much.
SILVIA
Dost thou know her?
JULIA
Almost as well as I do know myself.
To think upon her woes I do protest
That I have wept a hundred several times.
SILVIA
Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her?
JULIA
I think she doth; and that’s her cause of sorrow.
SILVIA Is she not passing fair?
JULIA
She hath been fairer, madam, than she is.
When she did think my master loved her well
She, in my judgement, was as fair as you.
But since she did neglect her looking-glass,