Enter VALENTINE VALENTINE How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune my distresses and record my woes.
O thou that dost inhabit in my breast, Leave not the mansion so long tenantless, Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall And leave no memory of what it was!
Repair me with thy presence, Silvia;
Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain!
What halloing and what stir is this to-day?
These are my mates, that make their wills their law, Have some unhappy passenger in chase.
They love me well; yet I have much to do To keep them from uncivil outrages.
Withdraw thee, Valentine: who's this comes here?
Enter PROTEUS, SILVIA, and JULIA PROTEUS Madam, this service I have done for you, Though you respect not aught your servant doth, To hazard life and rescue you from him That would have forced your honour and your love;
Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look;
A smaller boon than this I cannot beg And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give. VALENTINE [Aside] How like a dream is this I see and hear!
Love, lend me patience to forbear awhile. SILVIA O miserable, unhappy that I am! PROTEUS Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came;
But by my coming I have made you happy. SILVIA By thy approach thou makest me most unhappy. JULIA [Aside] And me, when he approacheth to your presence. SILVIA Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the beast, Rather than have false Proteus rescue me.
O, Heaven be judge how I love Valentine, Whose life's as tender to me as my soul!
And full as much, for more there cannot be, I do detest false perjured Proteus.
Therefore be gone; solicit me no more. PROTEUS What dangerous action, stood it next to death, Would I not undergo for one calm look!
O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved, When women cannot love where they're beloved! SILVIA When Proteus cannot love where he's beloved.
Read over Julia's heart, thy first best love, For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths Descended into perjury, to love me.
Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two;
And that's far worse than none; better have none Than plural faith which is too much by one:
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend! PROTEUS In love Who respects friend? SILVIA All men but Proteus. PROTEUS Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words Can no way change you to a milder form, I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms' end, And love you 'gainst the nature of love,--force ye. SILVIA O heaven! PROTEUS I'll force thee yield to my desire. VALENTINE Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch, Thou friend of an ill fashion! PROTEUS Valentine! VALENTINE Thou common friend, that's without faith or love, For such is a friend now; treacherous man!
Thou hast beguiled my hopes; nought but mine eye Could have persuaded me: now I dare not say I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove me.
Who should be trusted, when one's own right hand Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus, I am sorry I must never trust thee more, But count the world a stranger for thy sake.
The private wound is deepest: O time most accurst, 'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst! PROTEUS My shame and guilt confounds me.
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow Be a sufficient ransom for offence, I tender 't here; I do as truly suffer As e'er I did commit. VALENTINE Then I am paid;
And once again I do receive thee honest.
Who by repentance is not satisfied Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleased.
By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased:
And, that my love may appear plain and free, All that was mine in Silvia I give thee. JULIA O me unhappy!
