William Shakespeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 3 Scene 2

                         SCENE II. The same. The DUKE's palace.       Enter DUKE and THURIO DUKE       Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you,       Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight. THURIO       Since his exile she hath despised me most,       Forsworn my company and rail'd 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 prevail'd, my lord; if I can do it       By ought 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 concert; 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 practise.       Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,       Let us into the city presently       To sort some gentlemen well skill'd 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