Two Gentlemen of Verona The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] · William Shakespeare
SCENE VI. _The same. The DUKE'S palace._
_Enter PROTEUS._ _Pro._ 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; 5 Love bade me swear, and Love bids me forswear. O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinn'd, Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it! At first I did adore a twinkling star, But now I worship a celestial sun. 10 Unheedful vows may needfully 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 15 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; 20 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!-- 25 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. 30 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. 35 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 40 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! [_Exit._ Notes: II, 6. SCENE VI.] SCENE IX. Pope. Enter PROTEUS.] Enter PROTHEUS solus. Ff. 1, 2: _forsworn; ... forsworn;_] Theobald. _forsworn? ... forsworn?_ Ff. 7: _sweet-suggesting_] _sweet suggestion,_ Pope. _if thou hast_] _if I have_ Warburton. 16: _soul-confirming_] _soul-confirmed_ Pope. 21: _thus_] _this_ Theobald. _by_] F1. _but_ F2 F3 F4. 24: _most_] _more_ Steevens. _in_] _to_ Collier MS. 35: _counsel_] _counsaile_ F1 F2. _councel_ F3. _council_ F4. 37: _pretended_] _intended_ Johnson conj. 43: _this_] F1. _his_ F2 F3 F4.
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