she is slow of: of her purse she shall not; for that I'll keep shut: now of another thing she may; and that cannot I help. Well, proceed.

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults.

Laun. Stop there; I'll have her: she was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that last article: Rehearse that

once more.

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit-
Laun. More hair than wit,-it may

be; I'll prove it; The cover of the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt; the hair that covers the wit, is more than the wit; for the greater hides the less. What's next? Speed. And more faults than hairs

Laun. That's monstrous: O, that that were out!
Speed. And more wealth than faults.

Laun. Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I'll have her: and if it be a match, as nothing is impossible,Speed. What then?

Laun. Why, then will I tell thee, that thy master stays for thee at the north gate.

Speed. For me?

Laun. For thee? ay; who art thou? he hath staid for a better man than thee.

Speed. And must I go to him?

Laun. Thou must run to him, for thou hast staid so long, that going will scarce serve the turn.

Speed. Why did'st not tell me sooner? 'pox of your love

letters?

[Exit. Laun. Now will he be swinged for reading my letter: An unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into secrets! I'll after, to rejoice in the boy's correction.

[Exit.

SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Duke's Palace.

Enter DUKE and THURIO; PROTEUS behind.

Duke.

Now Valentine is banished from her sight.
Sir Thurio, fear not, but that she will love you,
Thu. Since his exile she has despised me most,
Forsworn my company, and railed at me,

That I am

desperate of obtaining her.

Duke. This weak impress of love is as a figure
Trenched in ice; which with an hour's heat
Dissolves to water, and doth lose his form.
A little time will melt her frozen thoughts,

And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.-
How now, Sir Proteus? Is your countryman,
According to our proclamation, gone?
Pro. Gone, my good lord.

Duke. My daughter takes his going grievously.
Pro. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke. So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.-
Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee,
(For thou hast shown some sign of good desert,)
Makes me the better to confer with thee.

Pro. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace,
Let me not live to look upon your grace.

Duke. Thou know'st, how willingly I would effect 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 persévers 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 falsehood, 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, 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 prevailed, my lord: if I can do it,

By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,

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: 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, to tangle her desires,
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
Should be full fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke. Ay, 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;

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 consort: to their instruments

Tune a

Will well become such sweet complaining grievance. deploring dump; the night's dead silence This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

Thu.

Duke. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. 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 skilled in music:

I have

a

To give the onset to thy good advice.

sonnet, that will serve the turn,

Duke. About it, gentlemen.

Pro. We'll wait upon your grace till after supper: And afterward determine our proceedings.

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

[Exeunt.

K

1 Out.

2 Out.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. A Forest, near Mantua.

Enter certain Outlaws.

Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.
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's a proper man. Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;

A man I am, crossed 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.

3 Out. Have you long sojourned there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Out. What, were you banished thence?

Val. I was.

2 Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse: I killed 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 banished for so small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues?

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, This fellow were a king for our wild faction.

1 Out. We'll have him; sirs, a word.

Speed. Master, be one of them;

It is an honorable kind of thievery.
Val. Peace, villain!

2 Out. Tell us this: have you any thing to take to? Val. Nothing but my fortune.

3 Out. Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungoverned youth

Thrust from the company of awful men:
Myself was from Verona banished,

For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the Duke.

2. Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, I stabbed unto the heart.

1 Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose,
(for we cite our faults,

That they may hold excused our lawless lives,)
And, partly, seeing you are beautified

With goodly shape; and by your own report
A linguist, and a man of such perfection,
As we do in our quality much want;

2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banished man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
Are you content to be our general?

To make a virtue of necessity,

And live,

3 Out.

as we do, in this wilderness?

What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consórt? Say ay, and be the captain of us all; We'll do thee homage, and be ruled by thee, Love thee as our commander and our king.

1 Out.

2 Out.

But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offered. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided that you do no outrages

Val.

On silly women, or poor passengers.

3 Out. No, we detest such vile, base practices.

Come, go with us; we'll bring thee to our crews,
And show thee all the treasure we have got;

Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. Milan. Court of the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine,
And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,
I have access my own love to prefer;