Duke

Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you,

Now Valentine is banished from her sight.

Thurio

Since his exile she hath despised me most,

Forsworn my company and railed at me,

That I am desperate of obtaining her.

Duke

This weak impress of love is as a figure

Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat

Dissolves to water and doth lose his form.

A little time will melt her frozen thoughts

And worthless Valentine shall be forgot. Enter PROTEUS.

How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman

According to our proclamation gone?

Proteus

Gone, my good lord.

Duke

My daughter takes his going grievously.

Proteus

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

Duke

So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.

Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee —

For thou hast shown some sign of good desert —

Makes me the better to confer with thee.

Proteus

Longer than I prove loyal to your grace

Let me not live to look upon your grace.

Duke

Thou know'st how willingly I would effect

The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter.

Proteus

I do, my lord.

Duke

And also, I think, thou art not ignorant

How she opposes her against my will.

Proteus

She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.

Duke

Ay, and perversely she persevers so.

What might we do to make the girl forget

The love of Valentine and love Sir Thurio?

Proteus

The best way is to slander Valentine

With falsehood, cowardice and poor descent,

Three things that women highly hold in hate.

Duke

Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.

Proteus

Ay, if his enemy deliver it:

Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken

By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.

Duke

Then you must undertake to slander him.

Proteus

And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:

'Tis an ill office for a gentleman,

Especially against his very friend.

Duke

Where your good word cannot advantage him,

Your slander never can endamage him;

Therefore the office is indifferent,

Being entreated to it by your friend.

Proteus

You have prevailed, my lord: if I can do it

By aught 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.

Thurio

Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,

Lest it should ravel and be good to none,

You must provide to bottom it on me;

Which must be done by praising me as much

As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.

Duke

And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,

Because we know, on Valentine's report,

You are already Love's firm votary

And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.

Upon this warrant shall you have access

Where you with Silvia may confer at large;

For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,

And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;

Where you may temper her by your persuasion

To hate young Valentine and love my friend.

Proteus

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,

Duke

Ay,

Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.

Proteus

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 consort; 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.

Duke

This discipline shows thou hast been in love.

Thurio

And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.

Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,

Let us into the city presently

To sort some gentlemen well skilled in music.

I have a sonnet that will serve the turn

To give the onset to thy good advice.

Duke

About it, gentlemen!

Proteus

We'll wait upon your grace till after supper,

And afterward determine our proceedings.

Duke

Even now about it! I will pardon you. Exeunt.