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Verona. A Room in JULIA’S House. | |
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Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. | |
| Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me: | |
| And e’en in kind love I do conjure thee, | |
| Who art the table wherein all my thoughts | 5 |
| Are visibly character’d and engrav’d, | |
| To lesson me and tell me some good mean | |
| How, with my honour, I may undertake | |
| A journey to my loving Proteus. | |
| Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long. | 10 |
| Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary | |
| To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps; | |
| Much less shall she that hath Love’s wings to fly, | |
| And when the flight is made to one so dear, | |
| Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus. | 15 |
| Luc. Better forbear till Proteus make return. | |
| Jul. O! know’st thou not his looks are my soul’s food? | |
| Pity the dearth that I have pined in, | |
| By longing for that food so long a time. | |
| Didst thou but know the inly touch of love, | 20 |
| Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow | |
| As seek to quench the fire of love with words. | |
| Luc. I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire, | |
| But qualify the fire’s extreme rage, | |
| Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason. | 25 |
| Jul. The more thou damm’st it up, the more it burns. | |
| The current that with gentle murmur glides, | |
| Thou know’st, being stopp’d, impatiently doth rage; | |
| But when his fair course is not hindered, | |
| He makes sweet music with th’ enamell’d stones, | 30 |
| Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge | |
| He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; | |
| And so by many winding nooks he strays | |
| With willing sport, to the wild ocean. | |
| Then let me go and hinder not my course: | 35 |
| I’ll be as patient as a gentle stream | |
| And make a pastime of each weary step, | |
| Till the last step have brought me to my love; | |
| And there I’ll rest, as after much turmoil | |
| A blessed soul doth in Elysium. | 40 |
| Luc. But in what habit will you go along? | |
| Jul. Not like a woman; for I would prevent | |
| The loose encounters of lascivious men. | |
| Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds | |
| As may beseem some well-reputed page. | 45 |
| Luc. Why, then, your ladyship must cut your hair. | |
| Jul. No, girl; I’ll knit it up in silken strings | |
| With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots: | |
| To be fantastic may become a youth | |
| Of greater time than I shall show to be. | 50 |
| Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches? | |
| Jul. That fits as well as ‘Tell me, good my lord, | |
| What compass will you wear your farthingale?’ | |
| Why, even what fashion thou best lik’st, Lucetta. | |
| Luc. You must needs have them with a cod-piece, madam. | 55 |
| Jul. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-favour’d. | |
| Luc. A round hose, madam, now’s not worth a pin, | |
| Unless you have a cod-piece to stick pins on. | |
| Jul. Lucetta, as thou lov’st me, let me have | |
| What thou think’st meet and is most mannerly. | 60 |
| But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me | |
| For undertaking so unstaid a journey? | |
| I fear me, it will make me scandaliz’d. | |
| Luc. If you think so, then stay at home and go not. | |
| Jul. Nay, that I will not. | 65 |
| Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go. | |
| If Proteus like your journey when you come, | |
| No matter who’s displeas’d when you are gone. | |
| I fear me, he will scarce be pleas’d withal. | |
| Jul. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear: | 70 |
| A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears, | |
| And instances of infinite of love | |
| Warrant me welcome to my Proteus. | |
| Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men. | |
| Jul. Base men, that use them to so base effect; | 75 |
| But truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth: | |
| His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, | |
| His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate, | |
| His tears pure messengers sent from his heart, | |
| His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. | 80 |
| Luc. Pray heaven he prove so when you come to him! | |
| Jul. Now, as thou lov’st me, do him not that wrong | |
| To bear a hard opinion of his truth: | |
| Only deserve my love by loving him, | |
| And presently go with me to my chamber, | 85 |
| To take a note of what I stand in need of | |
| To furnish me upon my longing journey. | |
| All that is mine I leave at thy dispose, | |
| My goods, my lands, my reputation; | |
| Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence. | 90 |
| Come, answer not, but to it presently! | |
| I am impatient of my tarriance. [Exeunt. | |
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