Act 3, Scene 1

Milan. An anteroom in the DUKE'S palace.

[Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS.]
Duke of Milan
1010 Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;
1011 We have some secrets to confer about.
[Exit THURIO.]
Duke of Milan
1012 Now tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me?
Proteus
1013 My gracious lord, that which I would discover
1014 The law of friendship bids me to conceal;
1015 But, when I call to mind your gracious favours
1016 Done to me, undeserving as I am,
1017 My duty pricks me on to utter that
1018 Which else no worldly good should draw from me.
1019 Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, my friend,
1020 This night intends to steal away your daughter;
1021 Myself am one made privy to the plot.
1022 I know you have determin'd to bestow her
1023 On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates;
1024 And should she thus be stol'n away from you,
1025 It would be much vexation to your age.
1026 Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose
1027 To cross my friend in his intended drift
1028 Than, by concealing it, heap on your head
1029 A pack of sorrows which would press you down,
1030 Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.
Duke of Milan
1031 Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest care,
1032 Which to requite, command me while I live.
1033 This love of theirs myself have often seen,
1034 Haply when they have judg'd me fast asleep,
1035 And oftentimes have purpos'd to forbid
1036 Sir Valentine her company and my court;
1037 But, fearing lest my jealous aim might err
1038 And so, unworthily, disgrace the man,—
1039 A rashness that I ever yet have shunn'd,—
1040 I gave him gentle looks, thereby to find
1041 That which thyself hast now disclos'd to me.
1042 And, that thou mayst perceive my fear of this,
1043 Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested,
1044 I nightly lodge her in an upper tower,
1045 The key whereof myself have ever kept;
1046 And thence she cannot be convey'd away.
Proteus
1047 Know, noble lord, they have devis'd a mean
1048 How he her chamber window will ascend
1049 And with a corded ladder fetch her down;
1050 For which the youthful lover now is gone,
1051 And this way comes he with it presently;
1052 Where, if it please you, you may intercept him.
1053 But, good my lord, do it so cunningly
1054 That my discovery be not aimed at;
1055 For love of you, not hate unto my friend,
1056 Hath made me publisher of this pretence.
Duke of Milan
1057 Upon mine honour, he shall never know
1058 That I had any light from thee of this.
Proteus
1059 Adieu, my lord; Sir Valentine is coming.
[Exit.]
[Enter VALENTINE]
Duke of Milan
1060 Sir Valentine, whither away so fast?
Valentine
1061 Please it your Grace, there is a messenger
1062 That stays to bear my letters to my friends,
1063 And I am going to deliver them.
Duke of Milan
1064 Be they of much import?
Valentine
1065 The tenour of them doth but signify
1066 My health and happy being at your court.
Duke of Milan
1067 Nay then, no matter; stay with me awhile;
1068 I am to break with thee of some affairs
1069 That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret.
1070 'Tis not unknown to thee that I have sought
1071 To match my friend Sir Thurio to my daughter.
Valentine
1072 I know it well, my lord; and, sure, the match
1073 Were rich and honourable; besides, the gentleman
1074 Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities
1075 Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter.
1076 Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?
Duke of Milan
1077 No, trust me; she is peevish, sullen, froward,
1078 Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty;
1079 Neither regarding that she is my child
1080 Nor fearing me as if I were her father;
1081 And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers,
1082 Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her;
1083 And, where I thought the remnant of mine age
1084 Should have been cherish'd by her childlike duty,
1085 I now am full resolv'd to take a wife
1086 And turn her out to who will take her in.
1087 Then let her beauty be her wedding-dower;
1088 For me and my possessions she esteems not.
Valentine
1089 What would your Grace have me to do in this?
Duke of Milan
1090 There is a lady of Verona here,
1091 Whom I affect; but she is nice, and coy,
1092 And nought esteems my aged eloquence.
1093 Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor,
1094 For long agone I have forgot to court;
1095 Besides, the fashion of the time is chang'd,
1096 How and which way I may bestow myself
1097 To be regarded in her sun-bright eye.
Valentine
1098 Win her with gifts, if she respect not words:
1099 Dumb jewels often in their silent kind
1100 More than quick words do move a woman's mind.
Duke of Milan
1101 But she did scorn a present that I sent her.
Valentine
1102 A woman sometime scorns what best contents her.
1103 Send her another; never give her o'er,
1104 For scorn at first makes after-love the more.
1105 If she do frown, 'tis not in hate of you,
1106 But rather to beget more love in you;
1107 If she do chide, 'tis not to have you gone;
1108 For why, the fools are mad if left alone.
1109 Take no repulse, whatever she doth say;
1110 For 'Get you gone' she doth not mean 'Away!'
1111 Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces;
1112 Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces.
1113 That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
1114 If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
Duke of Milan
1115 But she I mean is promis'd by her friends
1116 Unto a youthful gentleman of worth;
1117 And kept severely from resort of men,
1118 That no man hath access by day to her.
Valentine
1119 Why then I would resort to her by night.
Duke of Milan
1120 Ay, but the doors be lock'd and keys kept safe,
1121 That no man hath recourse to her by night.
Valentine
1122 What lets but one may enter at her window?
Duke of Milan
1123 Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground,
1124 And built so shelving that one cannot climb it
1125 Without apparent hazard of his life.
Valentine
1126 Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords,
1127 To cast up with a pair of anchoring hooks,
1128 Would serve to scale another Hero's tow'r,
1129 So bold Leander would adventure it.
Duke of Milan
1130 Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood,
1131 Advise me where I may have such a ladder.
Valentine
1132 When would you use it? Pray, sir, tell me that.
Duke of Milan
1133 This very night; for Love is like a child,
1134 That longs for everything that he can come by.
Valentine
1135 By seven o'clock I'll get you such a ladder.
Duke of Milan
1136 But, hark thee; I will go to her alone;
1137 How shall I best convey the ladder thither?
Valentine
1138 It will be light, my lord, that you may bear it
1139 Under a cloak that is of any length.
Duke of Milan
1140 A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn?
Valentine
1141 Ay, my good lord.
Duke of Milan
1142 Then let me see thy cloak.
1143 I'll get me one of such another length.
Valentine
1144 Why, any cloak will serve the turn, my lord.
Duke of Milan
1145 How shall I fashion me to wear a cloak?
1146 I pray thee, let me feel thy cloak upon me.
[Pulls open VALENTINE'S cloak.]
Duke of Milan
1147 What letter is this same? What's here?—'To Silvia'!
1148 And here an engine fit for my proceeding!
1149 I'll be so bold to break the seal for once.
Duke of Milan
1150 'My thoughts do harbour with my Silvia nightly,
1151 And slaves they are to me, that send them flying.
1152 O! could their master come and go as lightly,
1153 Himself would lodge where, senseless, they are lying!
1154 My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them,
1155 While I, their king, that thither them importune,
1156 Do curse the grace that with such grace hath blest them,
1157 Because myself do want my servants' fortune.
1158 I curse myself, for they are sent by me,
1159 That they should harbour where their lord should be.'
Duke of Milan
1160 What's here?
1161 'Silvia, this night I will enfranchise thee.'
Duke of Milan
1162 'Tis so; and here's the ladder for the purpose.
1163 Why, Phaethon—for thou art Merops' son—
1164 Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car,
1165 And with thy daring folly burn the world?
1166 Wilt thou reach stars because they shine on thee?
1167 Go, base intruder! over-weening slave!
1168 Bestow thy fawning smiles on equal mates,
1169 And think my patience, more than thy desert,
1170 Is privilege for thy departure hence.
1171 Thank me for this more than for all the favours
1172 Which, all too much, I have bestow'd on thee.
1173 But if thou linger in my territories
1174 Longer than swiftest expedition
1175 Will give thee time to leave our royal court,
1176 By heaven! my wrath shall far exceed the love
1177 I ever bore my daughter or thyself.
1178 Be gone! I will not hear thy vain excuse;
1179 But, as thou lov'st thy life, make speed from hence.
[Exit.]
Valentine
1180 And why not death rather than living torment?
1181 To die is to be banish'd from myself,
1182 And Silvia is myself; banish'd from her
1183 Is self from self,—a deadly banishment!
1184 What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
1185 What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
1186 Unless it be to think that she is by,
1187 And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
1188 Except I be by Silvia in the night,
1189 There is no music in the nightingale;
1190 Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
1191 There is no day for me to look upon.
1192 She is my essence, and I leave to be
1193 If I be not by her fair influence
1194 Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.
1195 I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
1196 Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
1197 But fly I hence, I fly away from life.
[Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE.]
Proteus
1198 Run, boy; run, run, seek him out.
Launce
1199 Soho! soho!
Proteus
1200 What seest thou?
Launce
1201 Him we go to find: there's not a hair on 's head but 'tis a
1202 Valentine.
Proteus
1203 Valentine?
Valentine
1204 No.
Proteus
1205 Who then? his spirit?
Valentine
1206 Neither.
Proteus
1207 What then?
Valentine
1208 Nothing.
Launce
1209 Can nothing speak? Master, shall I strike?
Proteus
1210 Who wouldst thou strike?
Launce
1211 Nothing.
Proteus
1212 Villain, forbear.
Launce
1213 Why, sir, I'll strike nothing. I pray you,—
Proteus
1214 Sirrah, I say, forbear.—Friend Valentine, a word.
Valentine
1215 My ears are stopp'd and cannot hear good news,
1216 So much of bad already hath possess'd them.
Proteus
1217 Then in dumb silence will I bury mine,
1218 For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad.
Valentine
1219 Is Silvia dead?
Proteus
1220 No, Valentine.
Valentine
1221 No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia.
1222 Hath she forsworn me?
Proteus
1223 No, Valentine.
Valentine
1224 No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me.
1225 What is your news?
Launce
1226 Sir, there is a proclamation that you are vanished.
Proteus
1227 That thou art banished, O, that's the news,
1228 From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend.
Valentine
1229 O, I have fed upon this woe already,
1230 And now excess of it will make me surfeit.
1231 Doth Silvia know that I am banished?
Proteus
1232 Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom—
1233 Which, unrevers'd, stands in effectual force—
1234 A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears;
1235 Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd;
1236 With them, upon her knees, her humble self,
1237 Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them
1238 As if but now they waxed pale for woe:
1239 But neither bended knees, pure hands held up,
1240 Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears,
1241 Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire;
1242 But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die.
1243 Besides, her intercession chaf'd him so,
1244 When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
1245 That to close prison he commanded her,
1246 With many bitter threats of biding there.
Valentine
1247 No more; unless the next word that thou speak'st
1248 Have some malignant power upon my life:
1249 If so, I pray thee breathe it in mine ear,
1250 As ending anthem of my endless dolour.
Proteus
1251 Cease to lament for that thou canst not help,
1252 And study help for that which thou lament'st.
1253 Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
1254 Here if thou stay thou canst not see thy love;
1255 Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life.
1256 Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that
1257 And manage it against despairing thoughts.
1258 Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence,
1259 Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
1260 Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.
1261 The time now serves not to expostulate:
1262 Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate;
1263 And, ere I part with thee, confer at large
1264 Of all that may concern thy love-affairs.
1265 As thou lov'st Silvia, though not for thyself,
1266 Regard thy danger, and along with me!
Valentine
1267 I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy,
1268 Bid him make haste and meet me at the North-gate.
Proteus
1269 Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine.
Valentine
1270 O my dear Silvia! Hapless Valentine!
[Exeunt VALENTINE and PROTEUS.]
Launce
1271 I am but a fool, look you, and yet I have the wit to think
1272 my master is a kind of a knave; but that's all one if he be but
1273 one knave. He lives not now that knows me to be in love; yet I am
1274 in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor
1275 who 'tis I love; and yet 'tis a woman; but what woman I will not
1276 tell myself; and yet 'tis a milkmaid; yet 'tis not a maid, for
1277 she hath had gossips; yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's
1278 maid and serves for wages. She hath more qualities than a
1279 water-spaniel—which is much in a bare Christian.
[Pulling out a paper.]
Launce
1280 Here is the catelog of her condition. 'Inprimis: She
1281 can fetch and carry.' Why, a horse can do no more: nay, a horse
1282 cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore is she better than a
1283 jade. 'Item: She can milk.' Look you, a sweet virtue in a maid
1284 with clean hands.
[Enter SPEED.]
Speed
1285 How now, Signior Launce! What news with your mastership?
Launce
1286 With my master's ship? Why, it is at sea.
Speed
1287 Well, your old vice still: mistake the word. What news,
1288 then, in your paper?
Launce
1289 The blackest news that ever thou heardest.
Speed
1290 Why, man? how black?
Launce
1291 Why, as black as ink.
Speed
1292 Let me read them.
Launce
1293 Fie on thee, jolthead! thou canst not read.
Speed
1294 Thou liest; I can.
Launce
1295 I will try thee. Tell me this: who begot thee?
Speed
1296 Marry, the son of my grandfather.
Launce
1297 O, illiterate loiterer! It was the son of thy grandmother.
1298 This proves that thou canst not read.
Speed
1299 Come, fool, come; try me in thy paper.
Launce
1300 There; and Saint Nicholas be thy speed!
Speed
1301 'Inprimis, She can milk.'
Launce
1302 Ay, that she can.
Speed
1303 'Item, She brews good ale.'
Launce
1304 And thereof comes the proverb, 'Blessing of your heart, you
1305 brew good ale.'
Speed
1306 'Item, She can sew.'
Launce
1307 That's as much as to say 'Can she so?'
Speed
1308 'Item, She can knit.'
Launce
1309 What need a man care for a stock with a wench, when she can
1310 knit him a stock?
Speed
1311 'Item, She can wash and scour.'
Launce
1312 A special virtue; for then she need not be washed and scoured.
Speed
1313 'Item, She can spin.'
Launce
1314 Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for
1315 her living.
Speed
1316 'Item, She hath many nameless virtues.'
Launce
1317 That's as much as to say, bastard virtues; that indeed
1318 know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.
Speed
1319 'Here follow her vices.'
Launce
1320 Close at the heels of her virtues.
Speed
1321 'Item, She is not to be kissed fasting, in respect of her
1322 breath.'
Launce
1323 Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast.
1324 Read on.
Speed
1325 'Item, She hath a sweet mouth.'
Launce
1326 That makes amends for her sour breath.
Speed
1327 'Item, She doth talk in her sleep.'
Launce
1328 It's no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk.
Speed
1329 'Item, She is slow in words.'
Launce
1330 O villain, that set this down among her vices! To be slow
1331 in words is a woman's only virtue. I pray thee, out with't; and
1332 place it for her chief virtue.
Speed
1333 'Item, She is proud.'
Launce
1334 Out with that too: it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en
1335 from her.
Speed
1336 'Item, She hath no teeth.'
Launce
1337 I care not for that neither, because I love crusts.
Speed
1338 'Item, She is curst.'
Launce
1339 Well; the best is, she hath no teeth to bite.
Speed
1340 'Item, She will often praise her liquor.'
Launce
1341 If her liquor be good, she shall: if she will not, I will;
1342 for good things should be praised.
Speed
1343 'Item, She is too liberal.'
Launce
1344 Of her tongue she cannot, for that's writ down she is slow
1345 of; of her purse she shall not, for that I'll keep shut. Now of
1346 another thing she may, and that cannot I help. Well, proceed.
Speed
1347 'Item, She hath more hair than wit, and more faults
1348 than hairs, and more wealth than faults.'
Launce
1349 Stop there; I'll have her; she was mine, and not mine,
1350 twice or thrice in that last article. Rehearse that once more.
Speed
1351 'Item, She hath more hair than wit'—
Launce
1352 More hair than wit it may be; I'll prove it: the cover of
1353 the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt;
1354 the hair that covers the wit is more than the wit, for the
1355 greater hides the less. What's next?
Speed
1356 'And more faults than hairs.'—
Launce
1357 That's monstrous! O, that that were out!
Speed
1358 'And more wealth than faults.'
Launce
1359 Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I'll have
1360 her; an if it be a match, as nothing is impossible,—
Speed
1361 What then?
Launce
1362 Why, then will I tell thee,—that thy master stays for thee
1363 at the North-gate.
Speed
1364 For me?
Launce
1365 For thee! ay, who art thou? He hath stay'd for a better man
1366 than thee.
Speed
1367 And must I go to him?
Launce
1368 Thou must run to him, for thou hast stayed so long that
1369 going will scarce serve the turn.
Speed
1370 Why didst not tell me sooner? Pox of your love letters!
[Exit.]
Launce
1371 Now will he be swing'd for reading my letter. An unmannerly
1372 slave that will thrust himself into secrets! I'll after, to
1373 rejoice in the boy's correction.
[Exit.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1014cultural context
“The law of friendship bids me to conceal”
Proteus invokes the Renaissance code of male friendship, which treated a friend's secrets as inviolable. His phrasing 'the law of friendship' frames betraying Valentine as a conflict of duties rather than mere treachery. The irony is sharp: he is about to break the very law he names.
historical Renaissance friendship and the friend-versus-love ideal
TLN 1017archaic vocab
“My duty pricks me on to utter”
'Pricks me on' means 'spurs or goads me forward,' like a rider pricking a horse with spurs. It has no obscene meaning here; it is ordinary Elizabethan idiom for an inner impulse that drives one to act.
TLN 1024cultural context
“should she thus be stol'n away from you”
Elopement against a father's will was a serious legal and social offence in Elizabethan England. A daughter was her father's property until marriage, and eloping with a man he had not approved could expose both the man and the daughter to legal penalties, including suits for abduction. The Duke's alarm is not just parental feeling but a matter of authority and honour.
TLN 1030archaic vocab
“Being unprevented, to your timeless grave”
'Timeless' here means 'untimely' or 'premature,' not 'eternal.' Proteus is saying the grief would press the Duke down to a premature grave — death before his natural time. The modern sense of 'timeless' as 'ageless' did not exist in Shakespeare's usage.
TLN 1043archaic vocab
“tender youth is soon suggested”
'Suggested' means 'tempted' or 'led astray by suggestion,' a sense now obsolete. The Duke is saying that young people are easily seduced into rash acts. The word carried the sense of a tempter whispering in the ear, often with a moral or even diabolic resonance.
TLN 1054archaic vocab
“my discovery be not aimed at”
'Discovery' here means 'disclosure' or 'act of revealing information' — not a journey of exploration. 'Aimed at' means 'guessed' or 'suspected.' Proteus is asking the Duke to make sure no one figures out that he, Proteus, was the informer.
TLN 1056archaic vocab
“made me publisher of this pretence”
'Publisher' means 'one who makes something publicly known,' not a printer of books. 'Pretence' means 'plan' or 'scheme' — not a false claim. The line means: love for you, not hatred of my friend, is what made me reveal this plot.
TLN 1065archaic vocab
“The tenour of them doth but signify”
'Tenour' (now spelled 'tenor') means 'general drift' or 'purport' of a document — its chief meaning or direction. Valentine is stalling, telling the Duke his letters say nothing more than 'I am well and happy here at your court.'
TLN 1068archaic vocab
“I am to break with thee of some affairs”
'Break with' means 'open a subject to,' 'broach a matter with' — to initiate a private conversation about something. The phrase has nothing to do with ending a relationship; it means the Duke wants to raise a delicate topic with Valentine.
TLN 1077archaic vocab
“peevish, sullen, froward”
All three words describe a difficult, unruly temperament. 'Peevish' meant 'foolish, perverse, obstinate' (not merely 'irritable' as today). 'Sullen' meant 'gloomy and stubborn, refusing to cooperate.' 'Froward' (the opposite of 'toward,' or compliant) meant 'obstinately contrary, refusing to obey.' The Duke is complaining that Silvia is flatly disobedient.
TLN 1091archaic vocab
“she is nice, and coy”
Both words describe sexual and social unavailability rather than timidity. 'Nice' in this period meant 'fastidious, reserved, reluctant to grant favours.' 'Coy' meant 'disdainfully distant, making a show of not being interested.' The Duke is saying the Veronese lady plays hard to get.
TLN 1099rhetorical device
“Dumb jewels often in their silent kind”
Valentine gives the Duke a set of Petrarchan paradoxes about courtship: gifts (which cannot speak) persuade a woman better than words, and a woman who seems to reject a suitor is secretly encouraging him. The entire speech is a rehearsal of the conventional Petrarchan wisdom that a cold mistress's refusals are invitations.
historical Petrarch and the Petrarchan lover
TLN 1108archaic vocab
“the fools are mad if left alone”
'Fools' here means 'lovers' — a common Elizabethan usage in which the word slides between 'foolish person' and 'one made foolish by love.' Valentine is saying that women who appear to rebuff their suitors will go out of their wits if actually left alone by them.
TLN 1112archaic vocab
“Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces”
'Black' meant 'dark-complexioned' or 'dark-haired' — not beautiful by the conventional fair-skinned Elizabethan standard of beauty. Valentine is advising the Duke to flatter his lady regardless of her looks: even if she is dark (hence conventionally plain), tell her she has an angel's face. It is cynical courtship advice, not a racial comment.
TLN 1122archaic vocab
“What lets but one may enter at her window”
'Lets' means 'prevents' or 'hinders' — exactly the opposite of its modern sense in phrases like 'let me in.' 'What lets but...' is an idiom meaning 'What is there to stop someone from...?' The word-shift is a common comprehension trap for modern readers.
TLN 1128classical allusion
“would serve to scale another Hero's tow'r, So bold Leander would adventure it”
Leander was a young man who swam the Hellespont each night to reach his beloved Hero, a priestess of Venus who lived in a tower across the water. Valentine compares his own plan — climbing to Silvia's tower by a rope ladder — to Leander's nightly swim, calling a ladder even better than braving the sea. The story was the classical byword for a daring lover going to extreme lengths for love.
classical Hero and Leander
TLN 1133cultural context
“Love is like a child, That longs for everything that he can come by”
The Duke's comparison of Love to a greedy child is a folksy proverb rather than a high classical allusion. It works as a signal of the Duke's character: he frames his supposedly lovesick urgency ('this very night') in homely terms that make it seem natural, while the audience knows he is still laying his trap for Valentine.
TLN 1147stage direction note
“What letter is this same? What's here?—'To Silvia'”
The Duke has been pretending he wants to consult Valentine about courting a lady, engineering a pretext to search his cloak. Pulling it open reveals both a love-letter addressed to Silvia and the hidden rope-ladder — the exact evidence he needs. The exposure of the letter and the ladder in a single action is a comic-plot device, but here it accelerates Valentine's ruin.
TLN 1163classical allusion
“Phaethon—for thou art Merops' son—Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car”
Phaethon was the son of the mortal Merops (not the sun-god Phoebus/Apollo), who presumed to drive the chariot of the sun and scorched the earth — and was struck dead by Jove's thunderbolt for the reckless overreaching. The Duke calls Valentine a Phaethon: a low-born man (Merops' son, not the sun-god's) who has dared to aspire to something dazzlingly beyond his station. 'The heavenly car' is the sun-chariot.
classical Phaethon and the chariot of the sun
TLN 1167archaic vocab
“base intruder! over-weening slave”
'Base' means 'of low social rank,' not morally bad. 'Over-weening' means 'arrogant, presumptuous, with an inflated opinion of oneself' — from Old English wenen (to believe or expect). 'Slave' is a term of contempt for a man with no right to what he reaches for. The Duke is furious that a man of inferior birth presumes to marry his daughter.
TLN 1181rhetorical device
“To die is to be banish'd from myself”
Valentine's banishment soliloquy (TLN 1180-1197) is built on antithesis and paradox: banishment from Silvia is death, because she is his 'self'; day and night have no meaning without her presence; fleeing to preserve his life means leaving life itself behind. The speech is an early example of a device Shakespeare perfects in Romeo and Juliet — the lover who equates the beloved with existence itself.
TLN 1199cultural context
“Soho! soho!”
'Soho' (also written 'So-ho') was a hunting cry — a hue-and-cry shout used when a quarry had been sighted, calling the rest of the hunting party to that spot. Launce calls it out as if Valentine were a hare he has spotted and pointed out to the huntsmen. The irony is that Valentine is indeed being hunted (by the Duke).
TLN 1226wordplay
“there is a proclamation that you are vanished”
Launce blunders the word 'banished' (exiled by formal decree) into 'vanished' (disappeared). The malapropism is deliberate wordplay for laughs: 'vanished' suggests Valentine has simply ceased to exist, which is exactly what he thinks has happened to him emotionally. Proteus immediately corrects Launce: 'banished,' not 'vanished.'
TLN 1250archaic vocab
“As ending anthem of my endless dolour”
'Anthem' originally meant any sacred choral piece, especially a funeral or valedictory song — the 'ending anthem' is the final piece sung at a service, here imagined as Valentine's requiem. 'Dolour' is grief or pain (French douleur; Latin dolor). Valentine imagines that one more piece of bad news, breathed in his ear like a closing funeral hymn, would be enough to kill him.
TLN 1256rhetorical device
“Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that”
Proteus's counsel-speech is built around a single metaphor: hope is the walking-staff, the pilgrim's support, that a lover carries into exile. The metaphor wryly reduces romantic constancy to practical traveller's equipment. Proteus gives this advice while himself planning to use Valentine's absence to pursue Silvia — one of the play's many ironies, since he is the last person Valentine should trust.
TLN 1272wordplay
“my master is a kind of a knave; but that's all one if he be but one knave”
Launce turns 'kind of a knave' (meaning 'a sort of rogue') into a punning self-contradiction: if Proteus is 'one' knave rather than several, the 'kind' is small comfort. The clown's logic is deliberately nonsensical: a knave is a knave however singular. Launce's deadpan solo commentary on his master's villainy is one of the play's few moments of honest moral reckoning, disguised as low comedy.
TLN 1277wordplay
“she hath had gossips; yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's maid”
Launce plays on two meanings of 'maid': (1) a virgin, and (2) a female servant. His milkmaid is not a virgin (she 'hath had gossips' — godparents at a christening, meaning she has had a baby), but she is technically a 'maid' in the sense of a woman employed as a servant. The pun lets Launce simultaneously acknowledge and dismiss the awkward fact of her past.
TLN 1280archaic vocab
“Here is the catelog of her condition. 'Inprimis”
'Catelog' is an early spelling of 'catalogue.' 'Inprimis' is a Latin legal term — in primis — meaning 'first of all,' used to head the first item in an inventory or legal document. Launce is reading a list of his beloved's qualities as if it were a legal deposition, a deliberate comic application of formal legal language to the absurd business of evaluating a milkmaid.
TLN 1282archaic vocab
“therefore is she better than a jade”
A 'jade' was a worn-out, worthless old horse — not a precious stone. Launce's logic: a horse can carry but cannot fetch, but his beloved can both carry and fetch, making her superior to a mere 'jade.' The comparison of a woman to a workhorse, treated as a mark of praise, is the play's running joke about Launce's earthy standard of courtship.
TLN 1300cultural context
“Saint Nicholas be thy speed”
Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars and of thieves — a useful double identity for a scene about reading. 'Be thy speed' means 'be your good fortune' or 'help you.' Launce is mockingly blessing Speed's attempt at reading by invoking the scholar-saint, while also glancing at the thievish sense: Speed is about to 'steal' Launce's private document.
TLN 1309wordplay
“what need a man care for a stock with a wench, when she can knit him a stock”
Launce puns on two meanings of 'stock': (1) financial stock or capital — i.e. a dowry or a wife's wealth, and (2) a stocking. He argues that a man need not worry about a woman's financial 'stock' if she can knit him actual stockings. The joke deflates the normal Elizabethan concern with a wife's portion by substituting literal knitwear for abstract wealth.
TLN 1317wordplay
“bastard virtues; that indeed know not their fathers”
The list says she has 'nameless virtues' — qualities too vague to be catalogued. Launce reasons: a nameless thing is like a bastard (an illegitimate child) who has no acknowledged father and so no surname. The pun turns abstract moral vagueness into a joke about illegitimate children, via the Elizabethan practice by which legitimate children took their father's name while bastards often had none.
TLN 1334biblical allusion
“it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en from her”
Launce argues that female pride is inherited from Eve — the first woman in the Bible, who by disobeying God brought sin and death into the world, and whose transgression was often attributed to pride and ambition. Therefore, Launce reasons, pride cannot be counted as a vice in any woman: it is her birthright from the mother of humanity and cannot be removed from the list of vices.
TLN 1347rhetorical device
“she hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults”
Speed's three-part chain builds by degrees: more hair than brains, more faults than hairs on her head (so: countless faults), but more wealth than faults. The chain is a rhetorical figure called sorites or 'chain syllogism.' Launce then works backward through each link — it is a comic parody of scholastic logical disputation applied to a milkmaid's romantic suitability.
TLN 1370archaic vocab
“Pox of your love letters”
'Pox' was a common mild oath, short for the plague or for syphilis — both understood as curses. 'A pox of...' or 'pox on...' was the Elizabethan equivalent of a modern expletive dismissing something as a nuisance. Speed is exasperated that Launce withheld the news about Valentine's waiting at the North-gate until the last possible moment.