What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak; For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it. Enter Panthino. Pan. Sir Proteus, you are stay'd for. Pro. Go; I come, I come. Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb. 20 [Exeunt. Scene III. The same. A street. Enter Launce, leading a dog. Launce. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives : my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear: ΙΟ he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father: no, this left shoe is my father: no, no, this left shoe is my mother: 20 nay, that cannot be so neither: yes, it is so, it is Enter Panthino. Pan. Launce, away, away, aboard! thy master is Launce. It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it Launce. Why, he that's tied here, Crab, my dog. in losing the flood, lose thy voyage, and, in 40 losing thy master, lose thy service, and, in Launce. For fear thou shouldst lose thy tongue. Pan. In thy tail! Launce. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service, and the tied! Why, 50 Pan. Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee. 60 Launce. Sir, call me what thou darest. Pan. Wilt thou go? Launce. Well, I will go. [Exeunt. Scene IV. Milan. The Duke's palace. Enter Silvia, Valentine, Thurio, and Speed. Sil. Servant! Val. Mistress? Speed. Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you. Val. Ay, boy, it's for love. Speed. Not of you. Val. Of my mistress, then. Speed. 'Twere good you knocked him. Val. Indeed, madam, I seem so. [Exit. ΙΟ Val. Your folly. Thu. And how quote you my folly? Val. I quote it in your jerkin. Thu. My jerkin is a doublet. Val. Well, then, I'll double your folly. Sil. What, angry, Sir Thurio! do you change colour? Val. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon. Thu. That hath more mind to feed on your blood Val. You have said, sir. 20 Thu. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. 30 Val. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin. Sil. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly Val. 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver. Val. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's Thu. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt. Val. I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of 40 words, and, I think, no other treasure to give Sil. No more, gentlemen, no more :-here comes my Enter Duke. Duke. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. Val. My lord, I will be thankful Duke. Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman ? To be of worth, and worthy estimation, Duke. Hath he not a son? Val. Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves Duke. You know him well? Val. I know him as myself; for from our infancy We have conversed and spent our hours together : To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection, And, in a word, for far behind his worth 50 60 70 |