Without some treachery used to Valentine.
This night he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel his competitor : 3

Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising and pretended 4 flight;
Who, all enraged, will banish Valentine,
For Thurio he intends shall wed his daughter :
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross,
By some sly trick, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift !5

SCENE VII.

[Exit.

Verona. A Room in JULIA's House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me; And, even in kind love, I do cónjure1 thee, Who art the table2 wherein all my thoughts

3 Competitor in its old sense of associate or partner. So in Antony and Cleopatra, v. I: "That thou, my brother, my competitor in top of all design, my mate in empire, friend and companion in the front of war."-In counsel is in secret. Often so.

4 Here pretended means intended, as the word was very often used in Shakespeare's time. So in Macbeth, ii. 2: "Alas the day! what good could they pretend?" And in the same scene we have pretence used for purpose or intention: “Against the undivulged pretence I fight of treasonous malice."

5 Drift here is course of action, device, or stratagem. So, again, in iv. 2, of this play: "I will so plead, that you shall say my cunning drift excels." 1 In Shakespeare's time the two ways of pronouncing this word, conjure and conjure, had not become appropriated to different senses. Here conjure has the sense of earnestly entreat. Elsewhere the Poet has conjure in the sense of practising magic.

2 Table for case or book of tablets, such as were carried in the pocket to note down memoranda. So in Hamlet, i. 5: "From the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond recórds." And again: "My tables meet it is I set it down, that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain."

Are visibly charácter'd and engraved,-
To lesson me; and tell me some good mean,
How, with my honour, I may undertake
A journey to my loving Proteus.

Luc. Alas, the way is wearisome and long!
Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms 3 with his feeble steps;
Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly,
And when the flight is made to one so dear,
Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear till Proteus make return.

Jul. O, know'st thou not, his looks are my soul's food? Pity the dearth that I have pinèd in,

By longing for that food so long a time.

Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,

But qualify the fire's1 éxtreme rage,

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.

Jul. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns:

The current that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But, when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays,

3 Alluding to the pilgrimages formerly made by religious devotees, often to Rome, Compostella, and Jerusalem, but oftener still to "the House of our Lady at Loretto." In that age, when there were few roads and many robbers, to go afoot and alone through all the pains and perils of a pilgrimage from England to either of those shrines, was deemed proof that the person was in earnest.

4 Fire again as a dissyllable. See page 168, note 3.

With willing sport, to the wide ocean.

Then let me go, and hinder not my course :
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,
A blessed soul doth in Elysium.

Luc. But in what habit will you go along?
Jul. Not like a woman; for I would prevent
The loose encounters of lascivious men :
Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds

As may beseem some well-reputed page.

Luc. Why, then your ladyship must cut your hair.
Jul. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings

With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots :

To be fantastic may become a youth

Of greater time than I shall show to be.

Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches? Jul. That fits as well as Tell me, good my lord, What compass will you wear your farthingale ?5 Why, even what fashion thou best likest, Lucetta. Luc. You must needs have them with a codpiece,6 Jul. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-favour’d. Luc. A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin, Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.

Jul. Lucetta, as thou lovest me, let me have What thou think'st meet, and is most mannerly. But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me

5 The farthingale, Mr. Fairholt tells us, was originally a broad roll, which made the person full about the hips. It came to be applied to the gown so widened.-WHITE.

6 Codpiece was the coarse name formerly given to a certain part of a man's nether garment. The name seems to have passed out of use long ago; the thing, unsightly as it was, continued in use till a recent period.

For undertaking so unstaid a journey?

I fear me, it will make me scandalized.

Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and go not.
Jul. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go.
If Proteus like your journey when you come,
No matter who's displeased when you are gone:
I fear me, he will scarce be pleased withal.
Jul. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
And instances o' the infinite of love,7
Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men.
Jul. Base men, that use them to so base effect!
But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth:
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears pure messengers sent from his heart;

His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.

Luc. Pray Heaven he prove so, when you come to him! Jul. Now, as thou lovest me, do him not that wrong, To bear a hard opinion of his truth:

Only deserve my love by loving him ;

And presently go with me to my chamber,
To take a note of what I stand in need of,
To furnish me upon my longing journey.8
All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,

7 Infinite for infinity. So, in Much Ado, ii. 3, we have, "It is past the infinite of thought." And in Chaucer: "Although the life of it be stretched with infinite of time."

8 "My longing journey," if such be the right text, seems to mean "the journey that I long to be making." Or it may mean "the journey that I shall make with continual longing to be at the end of it." See Critical Notes. Dispose, in the next line, is for disposal. Repeatedly so. See page 80, note 4.

My goods, my lands, my reputation ;
Only, in lieu therof,9 dispatch me hence.
Come, answer not, but to it presently;
I am impatient of my tarriance.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Milan. An Ante-room in the DUKE's Palace.

Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS.

Duke. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;

We have some secrets to confer about.

[Exit THURIO.

Now, tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me?

Pro. My gracious lord, that which I would discover

The law of friendship bids me to conceal;

But, when I call to mind your gracious favours
Done to me, undeserving as I am,

My duty pricks me on to utter that

Which else no worldly good should draw from me.
Know, worthy Prince, Sir Valentine, my friend,
This night intends to steal away your daughter;
Myself am one made privy to the plot.
I know you have determined to bestow her
On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates;
And, should she thus be stol'n away from you,

9 The phrase "in lieu of" formerly meant in return for, or in consideration of. So in Hooker's Eccle. Pol., i. xi. 5: "But be it that God of His great liberality had determined in lieu of man's endeavours to bestow the same." And in Spenser's dedication of his Four Hymns: “Beseeching you to accept this my humble service in lieu of the great graces and honourable favours which ye daily show unto me."