Enter Proteus, with Julia dressed as a page-boy

PROTEUS (to Julia)

Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well,

And will employ thee in some service presently.

JULIA

In what you please. I’ll do what I can.

PROTEUS

I hope thou wilt.—How now, you whoreson peasant,

Where have you been these two days loitering?

LANCE Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.

PROTEUS And what says she to my little jewel?

LANCE Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you currish thanks is good enough for such a present.

PROTEUS But she received my dog?

LANCE No indeed did she not. Here have I brought him back again.

PROTEUS What, didst thou offer her this from me?

LANCE Ay, sir. The other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman boys in the market place, and then I offered her mine own, who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater.

PROTEUS

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 Lance with Crab

A slave, that still on 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 yon foolish lout,

But chiefly for thy face and thy behaviour,

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 delivered it to me.

JULIA

It seems you loved not her, to leave her token.

She is dead belike?

PROTEUS Not so. I think she lives.

JULIA

Alas.

Proteus Why dost thou cry ‘Alas’?

JULIA

I cannot choose but pity her.

PROTEUS

Wherefore shouldst thou pity her?

JULIA

Because methinks that she loved you as well

As you do love your lady Silvia.

She dreams on him that has forgot her love;

You dote on her that cares not for your love.

‘Tis pity love should be so contrary,

And thinking on it makes me cry ‘Alas’.

PROTEUS

Well, give her that ring, and therewithal

This letter. (Pointing) 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.

Exit

JULIA

How many women would do such a message?

Alas, poor Proteus, thou hast entertained

A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs.

Alas, poor fool, why do I pity him

That with his very heart despiseth me?

Because he loves her, he despiseth me.

Because I love him, I must pity him.

This ring I gave him when he parted from me,

To bind him to remember my good will.

And now am I, unhappy messenger,

To plead for that which I would not obtain;

To carry that which I would have refused;

To praise his faith, which I would have dispraised.

I am my master’s true-confirmèd love,

But cannot be true servant to my master

Unless I prove false traitor to myself.

Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly

As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed.

Enter Silvia

Gentlewoman, good day. I pray you be my mean

To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia.

SILVIA

What would you with her, if that I be she?

JULIA

If you be she, I do entreat your patience

To hear me speak the message I am sent on.

SILVIA

From whom?

JULIA

From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.

SILVIA O, he sends you for a picture?

JULIA Ay, madam.

SILVIA Ursula, bring my picture there.

[An attendant brings a picture]

Go, give your master this. Tell him from me

One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,

Would better fit his chamber than this shadow.

JULIA

Madam, please you peruse this letter.

She gives Silvia a letter

Pardon me, madam, I have unadvised

Delivered you a paper that I should not.

She takes back the letter and gives Silvia another letter

This is the letter to your ladyship.

SILVIA

I pray thee, let me look on that again.

JULIA

It may not be. Good madam, pardon me.

SILVIA

There, hold. I will not look upon your master’s lines.

I know they are stuffed with protestations,

And full of new-found oaths, which he will break

As easily as I do tear his paper.

She tears the letter

JULIA

Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.

She offers Silvia a ring

SILVIA

The more shame for him, that he sends it me;

For I have heard him say a thousand times

His Julia gave it him at his departure.

Though his false finger have profaned the ring,

Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

JULIA She thanks you.

SILVIA What sayst thou?

JULIA

I thank you, madam, that you tender her.

Poor gentlewoman, my master wrongs her much.

SILVIA

Dost thou know her?

JULIA

Almost as well as I do know myself.

To think upon her woes I do protest

That I have wept a hundred several times.

SILVIA

Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her?

JULIA

I think she doth; and that’s her cause of sorrow.

SILVIA Is she not passing fair?

JULIA

She hath been fairer, madam, than she is.

When she did think my master loved her well

She, in my judgement, was as fair as you.

But since she did neglect her looking-glass,