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VALENTINE.

No, believe me.

SPEED.

No believing you indeed, sir. But did you perceive her earnest?

VALENTINE.

She gave me none except an angry word.

SPEED.

Why, she hath given you a letter.

VALENTINE.

That's the letter I writ to her friend.

SPEED.

And that letter hath she deliver'd, and there an end.

VALENTINE.

I would it were no worse.

SPEED.

I'll warrant you 'tis as well.

'For often have you writ to her; and she, in modesty,

Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply;

Or fearing else some messenger that might her mind discover,

Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.'

All this I speak in print, for in print I found it. Why muse you,

sir? 'Tis dinner time.

VALENTINE.

I have din'd.

SPEED.

Ay, but hearken, sir; though the chameleon Love can feed on

the air, I am one that am nourish'd by my victuals, and would

fain have meat. O, be not like your mistress! Be moved, be moved.

Exeunt

SCENE 2. Verona. JULIA'S house

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA

PROTEUS.

Have patience, gentle Julia.

JULIA.

I must, where is no remedy.

PROTEUS.

When possibly I can, I will return.

JULIA.

If you turn not, you will return the sooner.

Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.

[Giving a ring]

PROTEUS.

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

JULIA.

And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.

PROTEUS.

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.

Enter PANTHINO

PANTHINO.

Sir Proteus, you are stay'd for.

PROTEUS.

Go; I come, I come.

Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb. Exeunt

SCENE 3. Verona. 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 receiv'd 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. 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, left shoe is my mother; nay, that cannot be so

neither; yes, it is so, it is so, it hath the worser sole.

This

shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father. A

vengeance on 't! There 'tis. Now, sir, this staff is my sister,

for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand;

this hat is Nan our maid; I am the dog; no, the dog is himself,

and I am the dog- O, the dog is me, and I am myself; ay, so, so.

Now come I to my father: 'Father, your blessing.' Now should not

the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father;

well, he weeps on. Now come I to my mother. O that she could

speak now like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her- why there

'tis;

here's my mother's breath up and down. Now come I to my sister;

mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a

tear, nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.

Enter PANTHINO

PANTHINO.

Launce, away, away, aboard! Thy master is shipp'd, and

thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter? Why weep'st

thou, man? Away, ass! You'll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.

LAUNCE.

It is no matter if the tied