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Speeches (Lines) for Proteus
in "Two Gentlemen of Verona"

Total: 147

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,1,12

Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu!
Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest
Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel:
Wish me partaker in thy happiness
When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger,
If ever danger do environ thee,
Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.

2

I,1,21

Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee.

3

I,1,24

That's a deep story of a deeper love:
For he was more than over shoes in love.

4

I,1,28

Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.

5

I,1,30

What?

6

I,1,38

So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.

7

I,1,40

'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.

8

I,1,44

Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

9

I,1,57

And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.

10

I,1,63

All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!

11

I,1,66

He after honour hunts, I after love:
He leaves his friends to dignify them more,
I leave myself, my friends and all, for love.
Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me,
Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
War with good counsel, set the world at nought;
Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.

12

I,1,75

But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan.

13

I,1,78

Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray,
An if the shepherd be a while away.

14

I,1,82

I do.

15

I,1,84

A silly answer and fitting well a sheep.

16

I,1,86

True; and thy master a shepherd.

17

I,1,88

It shall go hard but I'll prove it by another.

18

I,1,92

The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the
shepherd for food follows not the sheep: thou for
wages followest thy master; thy master for wages
follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep.

19

I,1,97

But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia?

20

I,1,101

Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.

21

I,1,103

Nay: in that you are astray, 'twere best pound you.

22

I,1,106

You mistake; I mean the pound,—a pinfold.

23

I,1,110

But what said she?

24

I,1,112

Nod—Ay—why, that's noddy.

25

I,1,115

And that set together is noddy.

26

I,1,118

No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter.

27

I,1,120

Why sir, how do you bear with me?

28

I,1,123

Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.

29

I,1,125

Come come, open the matter in brief: what said she?

30

I,1,128

Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she?

31

I,1,130

Why, couldst thou perceive so much from her?

32

I,1,137

What said she? nothing?

33

I,1,142

Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck,
Which cannot perish having thee aboard,
Being destined to a drier death on shore.
[Exit SPEED]
I must go send some better messenger:
I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
Receiving them from such a worthless post.

34

I,3,349

Sweet love! sweet lines! sweet life!
Here is her hand, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn.
O, that our fathers would applaud our loves,
To seal our happiness with their consents!
O heavenly Julia!

35

I,3,356

May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two
Of commendations sent from Valentine,
Deliver'd by a friend that came from him.

36

I,3,360

There is no news, my lord, but that he writes
How happily he lives, how well beloved
And daily graced by the emperor;
Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.

37

I,3,365

As one relying on your lordship's will
And not depending on his friendly wish.

38

I,3,376

My lord, I cannot be so soon provided:
Please you, deliberate a day or two.

39

I,3,383

Thus have I shunn'd the fire for fear of burning,
And drench'd me in the sea, where I am drown'd.
I fear'd to show my father Julia's letter,
Lest he should take exceptions to my love;
And with the vantage of mine own excuse
Hath he excepted most against my love.
O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!

40

I,3,396

Why, this it is: my heart accords thereto,
And yet a thousand times it answers 'no.'

41

II,2,566

Have patience, gentle Julia.

42

II,2,568

When possibly I can, I will return.

43

II,2,572

Why then, we'll make exchange; here, take you this.

44

II,2,574

Here is my hand for my true constancy;
And when that hour o'erslips me in the day
Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake,
The next ensuing hour some foul mischance
Torment me for my love's forgetfulness!
My father stays my coming; answer not;
The tide is now: nay, not thy tide of tears;
That tide will stay me longer than I should.
Julia, farewell!
[Exit JULIA]
What, gone without a word?
Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak;
For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.

45

II,2,589

Go; I come, I come.
Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb.

46

II,4,760

Not so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
To have a look of such a worthy mistress.

47

II,4,764

My duty will I boast of; nothing else.

48

II,4,767

I'll die on him that says so but yourself.

49

II,4,769

That you are worthless.

50

II,4,776

We'll both attend upon your ladyship.

51

II,4,779

Your friends are well and have them much commended.

52

II,4,781

I left them all in health.

53

II,4,783

My tales of love were wont to weary you;
I know you joy not in a love discourse.

54

II,4,800

Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol that you worship so?

55

II,4,803

No; but she is an earthly paragon.

56

II,4,805

I will not flatter her.

57

II,4,807

When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills,
And I must minister the like to you.

58

II,4,812

Except my mistress.

59

II,4,815

Have I not reason to prefer mine own?

60

II,4,823

Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?

61

II,4,827

Then let her alone.

62

II,4,838

But she loves you?

63

II,4,847

Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
I must unto the road, to disembark
Some necessaries that I needs must use,
And then I'll presently attend you.

64

II,4,852

I will.
[Exit VALENTINE]
Even as one heat another heat expels,
Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine, or Valentine's praise,
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me reasonless to reason thus?
She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image, 'gainst a fire,
Bears no impression of the thing it was.
Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold,
And that I love him not as I was wont.
O, but I love his lady too too much,
And that's the reason I love him so little.
How shall I dote on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her!
'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled my reason's light;
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason but I shall be blind.
If I can cheque my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

65

II,6,931

To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;
To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn;
To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
And even that power which gave me first my oath
Provokes me to this threefold perjury;
Love bade me swear and Love bids me forswear.
O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinned,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!
At first I did adore a twinkling star,
But now I worship a celestial sun.
Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken,
And he wants wit that wants resolved will
To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;
But there I leave to love where I should love.
Julia I lose and Valentine I lose:
If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
If I lose them, thus find I by their loss
For Valentine myself, for Julia Silvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend,
For love is still most precious in itself;
And Silvia—witness Heaven, that made her fair!—
Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.
I will forget that Julia is alive,
Remembering that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.
I cannot now prove constant to myself,
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.
Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising and pretended 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!

66

III,1,1072

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,
It would be much vexation to your age.
Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose
To cross my friend in his intended drift
Than, by concealing it, heap on your head
A pack of sorrows which would press you down,
Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.

67

III,1,1106

Know, noble lord, they have devised a mean
How he her chamber-window will ascend
And with a corded ladder fetch her down;
For which the youthful lover now is gone
And this way comes he with it presently;
Where, if it please you, you may intercept him.
But, good my Lord, do it so cunningly
That my discovery be not aimed at;
For love of you, not hate unto my friend,
Hath made me publisher of this pretence.

68

III,1,1118

Adieu, my Lord; Sir Valentine is coming.

69

III,1,1262

Run, boy, run, run, and seek him out.

70

III,1,1264

What seest thou?

71

III,1,1267

Valentine?

72

III,1,1269

Who then? his spirit?

73

III,1,1271

What then?

74

III,1,1274

Who wouldst thou strike?

75

III,1,1276

Villain, forbear.

76

III,1,1278

Sirrah, I say, forbear. Friend Valentine, a word.

77

III,1,1281

Then in dumb silence will I bury mine,
For they are harsh, untuneable and bad.

78

III,1,1284

No, Valentine.

79

III,1,1287

No, Valentine.

80

III,1,1291

That thou art banished—O, that's the news!—
From hence, from Silvia and from me thy friend.

81

III,1,1296

Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom—
Which, unreversed, stands in effectual force—
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears:
Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd;
With them, upon her knees, her humble self;
Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them
As if but now they waxed pale for woe:
But neither bended knees, pure hands held up,
Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears,
Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire;
But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die.
Besides, her intercession chafed him so,
When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
That to close prison he commanded her,
With many bitter threats of biding there.

82

III,1,1315

Cease to lament for that thou canst not help,
And study help for that which thou lament'st.
Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
Here if thou stay, thou canst not see thy love;
Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life.
Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that
And manage it against despairing thoughts.
Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.
The time now serves not to expostulate:
Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate;
And, ere I part with thee, confer at large
Of all that may concern thy love-affairs.
As thou lovest Silvia, though not for thyself,
Regard thy danger, and along with me!

83

III,1,1333

Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine.

84

III,2,1465

Gone, my good lord.

85

III,2,1467

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

86

III,2,1472

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

87

III,2,1476

I do, my lord.

88

III,2,1479

She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

89

III,2,1483

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

90

III,2,1487

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

91

III,2,1491

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

92

III,2,1498

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.
But say this weed her love from Valentine,
It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.

93

III,2,1518

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

94

III,2,1525

Say that upon the altar of her beauty
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,
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
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.

95

III,2,1548

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

96

IV,2,1631

Already have I been false to Valentine
And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,
I have access my own love to prefer:
But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
When I protest true loyalty to her,
She twits me with my falsehood to my friend;
When to her beauty I commend my vows,
She bids me think how I have been forsworn
In breaking faith with Julia whom I loved:
And notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
The least whereof would quell a lover's hope,
Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows and fawneth on her still.
But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window,
And give some evening music to her ear.

97

IV,2,1650

Ay, gentle Thurio: for you know that love
Will creep in service where it cannot go.

98

IV,2,1653

Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence.

99

IV,2,1655

Ay, Silvia; for your sake.

100

IV,2,1711

Sir Thurio, fear not you: I will so plead
That you shall say my cunning drift excels.

101

IV,2,1714

At Saint Gregory's well.

102

IV,2,1718

Madam, good even to your ladyship.

103

IV,2,1721

One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,
You would quickly learn to know him by his voice.

104

IV,2,1724

Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.

105

IV,2,1726

That I may compass yours.

106

IV,2,1739

I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.

107

IV,2,1747

I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.

108

IV,2,1750

Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.

109

IV,2,1754

Madam, if your heart be so obdurate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:
For since the substance of your perfect self
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;
And to your shadow will I make true love.

110

IV,2,1769

As wretches have o'ernight
That wait for execution in the morn.

111

IV,4,1874

Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well
And will employ thee in some service presently.

112

IV,4,1877

I hope thou wilt.
[To LAUNCE]
How now, you whoreson peasant!
Where have you been these two days loitering?

113

IV,4,1882

And what says she to my little jewel?

114

IV,4,1885

But she received my dog?

115

IV,4,1888

What, didst thou offer her this from me?

116

IV,4,1893

Go get thee hence, and find my dog again,
Or ne'er return again into my sight.
Away, I say! stay'st thou to vex me here?
[Exit LAUNCE]
A slave, that still an end turns me to shame!
Sebastian, I have entertained thee,
Partly that I have need of such a youth
That can with some discretion do my business,
For 'tis no trusting to yond foolish lout,
But chiefly for thy face and thy behavior,
Which, if my augury deceive me not,
Witness good bringing up, fortune and truth:
Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go presently and take this ring with thee,
Deliver it to Madam Silvia:
She loved me well deliver'd it to me.

117

IV,4,1911

Not so; I think she lives.

118

IV,4,1913

Why dost thou cry 'alas'?

119

IV,4,1916

Wherefore shouldst thou pity her?

120

IV,4,1923

Well, give her that ring and therewithal
This letter. That's her chamber. Tell my lady
I claim the promise for her heavenly picture.
Your message done, hie home unto my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me, sad and solitary.

121

V,2,2066

O, sir, I find her milder than she was;
And yet she takes exceptions at your person.

122

V,2,2069

No; that it is too little.

123

V,2,2074

She says it is a fair one.

124

V,2,2076

But pearls are fair; and the old saying is,
Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes.

125

V,2,2082

Ill, when you talk of war.

126

V,2,2086

O, sir, she makes no doubt of that.

127

V,2,2089

That you are well derived.

128

V,2,2092

O, ay; and pities them.

129

V,2,2095

That they are out by lease.

130

V,2,2101

Nor I.

131

V,2,2103

Neither.

132

V,2,2125

And I will follow, more for Silvia's love
Than hate of Eglamour that goes with her.

133

V,4,2168

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.

134

V,4,2178

Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came;
But by my coming I have made you happy.

135

V,4,2190

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!

136

V,4,2203

In love
Who respects friend?

137

V,4,2206

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.

138

V,4,2211

I'll force thee yield to my desire.

139

V,4,2214

Valentine!

140

V,4,2226

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.

141

V,4,2240

Look to the boy.

142

V,4,2245

Where is that ring, boy?

143

V,4,2247

How! let me see:
Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.

144

V,4,2251

But how camest thou by this ring? At my depart
I gave this unto Julia.

145

V,4,2255

How! Julia!

146

V,4,2265

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 the 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?

147

V,4,2275

Bear witness, Heaven, I have my wish for ever.

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