The Shakespeare Story-Book. Уильям Шекспир

will be so light, my lord, that you can easily carry it under your cloak,” said Valentine.

      “Will a cloak as long as yours serve the purpose?”

      “Why, any cloak will serve, my lord.”

      “How shall I wear it?” said the Duke. “Pray let me feel your cloak upon me.”

      Valentine could scarcely refuse, and the next moment the Duke had drawn forth from the cloak not only a letter addressed to Silvia, saying that Valentine would set her free that night, but also the ladder of ropes that was to be used for that purpose.

      Then the Duke’s anger blazed forth.

      “Go, base intruder! Overweening slave!” he exclaimed; and in words of the most contemptuous wrath he ordered Valentine to leave his Court and his territories, and never to be seen in them again on pain of death.

      False to his Friend

      The Duke of Milan had scarcely left Valentine, and the latter was still dazed by the calamity which had befallen him, when Proteus brought him word that the proclamation for his banishment had been made public.

      Silvia, however, was still true to him. With sobs and tears, she implored pardon for him on her knees, but her father was relentless. If Valentine were found again in his dominions he should be put to death. Moreover, he was so enraged at his daughter’s daring to plead for her young lover that he commanded she should be kept in close prison.

      The crafty Proteus counselled Valentine to depart at once, bidding him not to lose hope, pretending the greatest sympathy with his love affairs, and promising that if he sent letters they should be safely conveyed to Silvia. Having thus hurried Valentine away with the utmost despatch, Proteus returned to the Duke of Milan, to let him know that his orders had been obeyed.

      “My daughter is in great grief about his going,” said the Duke.

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

      “So I believe, but Sir Thurio here does not think so,” said the Duke, and he then went on to consult Proteus as to the best way of winning Silvia’s affections from the absent Valentine, in order that she might transfer them to Sir Thurio.

      It was agreed among them that the best plan would be for Proteus to speak all he could in dispraise of Valentine, while at the same time he was to speak in praise of Sir Thurio. For this purpose Proteus was to be allowed free access to Silvia, who, for his friend’s sake, would be glad to see him.

      Proteus agreed to this, but said that Thurio himself must do something to win the lady’s favour. He suggested that he should try to please her with poetry and music, and that he should bring musicians, and sing a serenade by night under her chamber window. Thurio said he would put the plan in practice that very night; he knew some gentlemen well skilled in music, and he had a song written that would be just suitable. As for the Duke, he was delighted with the suggestion, and bade them set to work at once to carry it into effect.

      Meanwhile, in Verona, Julia was sorrowing for the absence of Proteus, and at last her longing to see him again grew so keen that she determined to follow him to Milan. Her waiting-maid, Lucetta, who had plenty of shrewd common-sense, tried to persuade her not to go, but Julia would listen to no reason.

      “I feel as if I were dying with starvation until I see him again,” she said. “If you only knew what it is to love anyone, you would know how utterly useless it is to try to argue about it in words.”

      As a young and beautiful lady travelling alone would be likely to attract a good deal of notice, for safety’s sake Julia decided to adopt the dress of a page, and she bade Lucetta procure for her all that was necessary to play the part properly. In vain Lucetta tried to warn her that perhaps Proteus would not be pleased to see her. Many men were fickle and changeable, she said; they often pretended much more affection than they really felt.

      Julia indignantly replied that some men might, but not her Proteus. Her trust in his fidelity was not to be shaken.

      “His words are bonds, his oaths cannot be broken, his love is sincere, his thoughts are stainless, his tears are pure messengers straight from heaven, his heart is as free from fraud as heaven from earth!” she cried.

      “Pray heaven he prove so when you come to him!” said the shrewd waiting-woman.

      So the faithful, loving Julia set out on her journey to Milan. Alas, poor lady, she little knew what a sorry welcome was awaiting her!

      “Alas, poor Lady, desolate and left!”

      Proteus soon found that his scheme for winning Silvia met with small success. He had already been false to Valentine, and now he intended to be false to Sir Thurio; but his treachery was likely to be of little avail. Silvia was far too good and true to be corrupted by his worthless gifts. When he protested his loyalty to her, she twitted him with his falsehood to his absent friend; when he praised her beauty, she bade him remember how he had been forsworn in breaking faith with Julia, whom he loved. But, notwithstanding all her rebuffs and rebukes, the more she spurned Proteus the greater grew his admiration for her; and though he knew well how basely he was acting both to Valentine and Julia, he had not enough strength of mind to turn aside from the temptation.

      That night, in accordance with what they had arranged, Sir Thurio brought a band of musicians, and they sang a charming serenade outside the Duke of Milan’s palace, under Silvia’s chamber. This is the pretty song they sang:

      “Who is Silvia? What is she,

      That all our swains commend her?

      Holy, fair and wise is she;

      The heaven such grace did lend her,

      That she might admired be.

      “Is she kind as she is fair?

      For beauty lives with kindness.

      Love doth to her eyes repair,

      To help him of his blindness.

      And, being help’d, inhabits there.

      “Then to Silvia let us sing,

      That Silvia is excelling;

      She excels each mortal thing

      Upon the dull earth dwelling:

      To her, garlands let us bring.”

      Unknown to Proteus, there was another listener, of whom he little recked.

      Julia, on arriving at Milan, had made inquiries for her faithless lover, and the landlord of the house where she lodged had brought her to this spot to see the man for whom she had been inquiring. Now, in her page’s costume, she was a witness of her lover’s inconstancy. Proteus had sworn a thousand vows of love to her, and yet here he was plainly playing court to another lady! Poor Julia! Sweet as the music was, it had little charm for her; she heard only the jarring discord of her lover’s false words.

      “Doth this Sir Proteus that we speak of often come to visit this gentlewoman?” she asked her host.

      “I tell you what Launce, his man, told me – he loves her beyond all measure,” replied the host.

      “Peace, stand aside, they are going,” said Julia, stepping further back into the shadow; and she heard Proteus say:

      “Sir Thurio, do not fear; I will plead your cause so well that you will own my cunning wit is matchless.”

      “Where do we meet?” asked Sir Thurio, as he prepared to depart with the musicians.

      “At St. Gregory’s Well.”

      “Farewell!”

      And Proteus was left alone as Silvia appeared on the balcony of her window above.

      “Madam, good even to your ladyship,” said Proteus.

      “I thank you for your music, gentlemen. Who was that who spoke?”

      “One, lady, whom – if you knew his true heart – you would quickly learn to know by his voice.”

      “Sir