The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Act V, Scene 4
The frontiers of Mantua. Another part of the forest between Milan and Verona.
Valentine rescuing Silvia from Proteus
Francis Wheatley, 1792
- Enter Valentine.
Valentine
1 - 18- 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.
- Shouts within.
- What hallowing and what stir is this today?
- 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?
- Steps aside.
- Enter Proteus, Silvia, Julia disguised as Sebastian.
Proteus
19 - 25- 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 forc’d your honor 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
26 - 27- Aside.
- How like a dream is this! I see, and hear:
- Love, lend me patience to forbear a while.
Silvia
28- O miserable, unhappy that I am!
Proteus
29 - 30- Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came;
- But by my coming I have made you happy.
Silvia
31- By thy approach thou mak’st me most unhappy.
Julia
32- Aside.
- And me, when he approacheth to your presence.
Silvia
33 - 40- 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 perjur’d Proteus.
- Therefore be gone, solicit me no more.
Proteus
41 - 44- What dangerous action, stood it next to death,
- Would I not undergo for one calm look?
- O, ’tis the curse in love, and still approv’d,
- When women cannot love where they’re belov’d!
Silvia
45 - 53- When Proteus cannot love where he’s belov’d!
- 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!
John Masey Wright, Robert Smirke, Thomas Stothard, circa 1800
Proteus
54 - 55- In love
- Who respects friend?
Silvia
56- All men but Proteus.
Proteus
57 - 60- 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 arm’s end,
- And love you ’gainst the nature of love—force ye.
Silvia
61- O heaven!
Proteus
62- I’ll force thee yield to my desire.
Valentine
63 - 64- Coming forward.
- Ruffian! Let go that rude uncivil touch,
- Thou friend of an ill fashion!
Proteus
65- Valentine!
Valentine
66 - 76- Thou common friend, that’s without faith or love,
- For such is a friend now! Treacherous man,
- Thou hast beguil’d 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 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
77 - 81- My shame and guilt confounds me.
- Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty sorrow
- Be a sufficient ransom for offense,
- I tender’t here: I do as truly suffer
- As e’er I did commit.
Valentine
82 - 88- 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 pleas’d;
- By penitence th’ Eternal’s wrath’s appeas’d:
- And that my love may appear plain and free,
- All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.
Julia
89- O me unhappy!
- Swoons.
Proteus
90- Look to the boy.
Valentine
91 - 92- Why, boy! Why, wag! How now? What’s the matter? Look up;
- speak.
Julia
93 - 94- O good sir, my master charg’d me to deliver a ring to Madam
- Silvia, which (out of my neglect) was never done.
Proteus
95- Where is that ring, boy?
Thou common friend, that’s without faith or love
Angelica Kauffmann, 1789
Julia
96- Here ’tis; this is it.
- Shows a ring.
Proteus
97 - 98- How? Let me see.
- Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.
Julia
99 - 100- O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook;
- This is the ring you sent to Silvia.
- Shows another ring.
Proteus
101 - 102- But how cam’st thou by this ring? At my depart
- I gave this unto Julia.
Julia
103 - 104- And Julia herself did give it me,
- And Julia herself hath brought it hither.
Proteus
105- How? Julia?
Julia
106 - 114- Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,
- And entertain’d ’em deeply in her heart.
- How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?
- O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!
- Be thou asham’d that I have took upon me
- Such an immodest raiment—if shame live
- In a disguise of love!
- It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
- Women to change their shapes than men their minds.
Proteus
115 - 120- Than men their minds? ’Tis true. O heaven, were man
- But constant, he were perfect; that one error
- Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th’ sins:
- Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.
- What is in Silvia’s face, but I may spy
- More fresh in Julia’s with a constant eye?
Valentine
121 - 123- Come, come, a hand from either.
- Let me be blest to make this happy close;
- ’Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.
Proteus
124- Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish forever.
Julia
125- And I mine.
- Enter Duke, Thurio, Outlaws.
All Outlaws
126- A prize, a prize, a prize!
Valentine
127 - 129- Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the Duke.
- Your Grace is welcome to a man disgrac’d,
- Banished Valentine.
Duke of Milan
130- Sir Valentine!
Thurio
131- Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia’s mine.
Valentine
132 - 137- Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
- Come not within the measure of my wrath.
- Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
- Milan shall not hold thee. Here she stands,
- Take but possession of her with a touch:
- I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.
Thurio
138 - 141- Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
- I hold him but a fool that will endanger
- His body for a girl that loves him not.
- I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.
Duke of Milan
142 - 153- The more degenerate and base art thou
- To make such means for her as thou hast done,
- And leave her on such slight conditions.
- Now, by the honor of my ancestry,
- I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
- And think thee worthy of an empress’ love.
- Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
- Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
- Plead a new state in thy unrivall’d merit,
- To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine,
- Thou art a gentleman and well deriv’d,
- Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv’d her.
Valentine Rescuing Sylvia From Proteus
William Holman Hunt, circa 1850
Valentine
154 - 156- I thank your Grace; the gift hath made me happy.
- I now beseech you (for your daughter’s sake)
- To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.
Duke of Milan
157- I grant it (for thine own) what e’er it be.
Valentine
158 - 163- These banish’d men, that I have kept withal,
- Are men endu’d with worthy qualities.
- Forgive them what they have committed here,
- And let them be recall’d from their exile;
- They are reformed, civil, full of good,
- And fit for great employment, worthy lord.
Duke of Milan
164 - 167- Thou hast prevail’d, I pardon them and thee;
- Dispose of them as thou know’st their deserts.
- Come, let us go, we will include all jars
- With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.
Valentine
168 - 170- And as we walk along, I dare be bold
- With our discourse to make your Grace to smile.
- What think you of this page, my lord?
Duke of Milan
171- I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes.
Valentine
172- I warrant you, my lord—more grace than boy.
Duke of Milan
173- What mean you by that saying?
Valentine
174 - 179- Please you, I’ll tell you as we pass along,
- That you will wonder what hath fortuned.
- Come, Proteus, ’tis your penance but to hear
- The story of your loves discovered;
- That done, our day of marriage shall be yours,
- One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.
- Exeunt.
