Act III, Scene 2

The same. The DUKE’s palace.

[Enter DUKE and THURIO]

• Duke of Milan. Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you,
  Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight.

• Thurio. Since his exile she hath despised me most,
  Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, 1455
  That I am desperate of obtaining her.

• Duke of Milan. 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 1460
  And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.
  [Enter PROTEUS]
  How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman
  According to our proclamation gone?

• Proteus. Gone, my good lord. 1465

• Duke of Milan. My daughter takes his going grievously.

• Proteus. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.

• Duke of Milan. 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— 1470
  Makes me the better to confer with thee.

• Proteus. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace
  Let me not live to look upon your grace.

• Duke of Milan. Thou know'st how willingly I would effect
  The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter. 1475

• Proteus. I do, my lord.

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

• Proteus. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

• Duke of Milan. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. 1480
  What might we do to make the girl forget
  The love of Valentine and love Sir Thurio?

• Proteus. The best way is to slander Valentine
  With falsehood, cowardice and poor descent,
  Three things that women highly hold in hate. 1485

• Duke of Milan. Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.

• Proteus. Ay, if his enemy deliver it:
  Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken
  By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

• Duke of Milan. Then you must undertake to slander him. 1490

• Proteus. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:
  'Tis an ill office for a gentleman,
  Especially against his very friend.

• Duke of Milan. Where your good word cannot advantage him,
  Your slander never can endamage him; 1495
  Therefore the office is indifferent,
  Being entreated to it by your friend.

• Proteus. You have prevail'd, my lord; if I can do it
  By ought that I can speak in his dispraise,
  She shall not long continue love to him. 1500
  But say this weed her love from Valentine,
  It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.

• Thurio. 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; 1505
  Which must be done by praising me as much
  As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

• Duke of Milan. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,
  Because we know, on Valentine's report,
  You are already Love's firm votary 1510
  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; 1515
  Where you may temper her by your persuasion
  To hate young Valentine and love my friend.

• Proteus. 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 1520
  By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
  Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.

• Duke of Milan. Ay,
  Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

• Proteus. Say that upon the altar of her beauty 1525
  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, 1530
  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 1535
  With some sweet concert; to their instruments
  Tune a deploring dump: the night's dead silence
  Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance.
  This, or else nothing, will inherit her.

• Duke of Milan. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. 1540

• Thurio. And thy advice this night I'll put in practise.
  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 1545
  To give the onset to thy good advice.

• Duke of Milan. About it, gentlemen!

• Proteus. We'll wait upon your grace till after supper,
  And afterward determine our proceedings.

• Duke of Milan. Even now about it! I will pardon you. 1550

[Exeunt]