Act 3, Scene 2

The same. A room in the DUKE'S palace.

[Enter DUKE and THURIO.]
Duke of Milan
1374 Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you
1375 Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight.
Thurio
1376 Since his exile she hath despis'd me most,
1377 Forsworn my company and rail'd at me,
1378 That I am desperate of obtaining her.
Duke of Milan
1379 This weak impress of love is as a figure
1380 Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat
1381 Dissolves to water and doth lose his form.
1382 A little time will melt her frozen thoughts,
1383 And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.
[Enter PROTEUS.]
Duke of Milan
1384 How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman,
1385 According to our proclamation, gone?
Proteus
1386 Gone, my good lord.
Duke of Milan
1387 My daughter takes his going grievously.
Proteus
1388 A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke of Milan
1389 So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so.
1390 Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee,—
1391 For thou hast shown some sign of good desert,—
1392 Makes me the better to confer with thee.
Proteus
1393 Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace
1394 Let me not live to look upon your Grace.
Duke of Milan
1395 Thou know'st how willingly I would effect
1396 The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter.
Proteus
1397 I do, my lord.
Duke of Milan
1398 And also, I think, thou art not ignorant
1399 How she opposes her against my will.
Proteus
1400 She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.
Duke of Milan
1401 Ay, and perversely she persevers so.
1402 What might we do to make the girl forget
1403 The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?
Proteus
1404 The best way is to slander Valentine
1405 With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent,
1406 Three things that women highly hold in hate.
Duke of Milan
1407 Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.
Proteus
1408 Ay, if his enemy deliver it;
1409 Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken
1410 By one whom she esteemeth as his friend.
Duke of Milan
1411 Then you must undertake to slander him.
Proteus
1412 And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do:
1413 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman,
1414 Especially against his very friend.
Duke of Milan
1415 Where your good word cannot advantage him,
1416 Your slander never can endamage him;
1417 Therefore the office is indifferent,
1418 Being entreated to it by your friend.
Proteus
1419 You have prevail'd, my lord; if I can do it
1420 By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
1421 She shall not long continue love to him.
1422 But say this weed her love from Valentine,
1423 It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.
Thurio
1424 Therefore, as you unwind her love from him,
1425 Lest it should ravel and be good to none,
1426 You must provide to bottom it on me;
1427 Which must be done by praising me as much
1428 As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.
Duke of Milan
1429 And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind,
1430 Because we know, on Valentine's report,
1431 You are already Love's firm votary
1432 And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
1433 Upon this warrant shall you have access
1434 Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
1435 For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
1436 And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
1437 Where you may temper her by your persuasion
1438 To hate young Valentine and love my friend.
Proteus
1439 As much as I can do I will effect.
1440 But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
1441 You must lay lime to tangle her desires
1442 By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
1443 Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke of Milan
1444 Ay,
1445 Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.
Proteus
1446 Say that upon the altar of her beauty
1447 You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart.
1448 Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
1449 Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
1450 That may discover such integrity:
1451 For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,
1452 Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
1453 Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans
1454 Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
1455 After your dire-lamenting elegies,
1456 Visit by night your lady's chamber-window
1457 With some sweet consort: to their instruments
1458 Tune a deploring dump; the night's dead silence
1459 Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance.
1460 This, or else nothing, will inherit her.
Duke of Milan
1461 This discipline shows thou hast been in love.
Thurio
1462 And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.
1463 Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
1464 Let us into the city presently
1465 To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music.
1466 I have a sonnet that will serve the turn
1467 To give the onset to thy good advice.
Duke of Milan
1468 About it, gentlemen!
Proteus
1469 We'll wait upon your Grace till after-supper,
1470 And afterward determine our proceedings.
Duke of Milan
1471 Even now about it! I will pardon you.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1379rhetorical device
“weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice”
The Duke uses a simile: a faint impression of love is like a shape carved into ice, which an hour's warmth melts away. 'Impress' means an imprinted mark or stamp; 'trenched' means cut or carved. The image argues that Silvia's feeling for Valentine is shallow and will dissolve with time.
TLN 1404cultural context
“slander Valentine With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent”
Proteus proposes to win Silvia for Thurio by spreading three specific lies about Valentine: that he is dishonest, cowardly, and of low birth. These three — truth, courage, and noble lineage — were the core virtues an Elizabethan gentleman was expected to possess. Attacking all three at once was the most complete way to destroy a rival's reputation.
TLN 1422archaic vocab
“weed her love from Valentine”
'Weed' here is a verb meaning to pull up and remove, as a gardener removes weeds. Proteus is saying that slander will uproot Silvia's love for Valentine — but that does not mean love will then grow toward Thurio in its place.
TLN 1424archaic vocab
“as you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me”
Thurio extends Proteus's 'weed' idea with a thread-and-spool metaphor. 'Ravel' means to tangle into a useless knot; 'bottom' here is a verb meaning to wind thread around a spool or 'bottom' (a bobbin). Thurio wants Silvia's affections redirected onto himself once they are unwound from Valentine, or they will simply knot up and be worthless to anyone.
TLN 1431archaic vocab
“Love's firm votary And cannot soon revolt and change your mind”
A 'votary' is a person bound by a vow — originally a religious vow of devotion, but extended to any solemn commitment. The Duke trusts Proteus to assist Thurio precisely because Valentine has reported Proteus as steadfastly devoted to his own lover (Julia). The dramatic irony is sharp: the audience knows Proteus has already betrayed Julia and is now scheming against Valentine to pursue Silvia.
TLN 1441cultural context
“lay lime to tangle her desires”
'Birdlime' was a sticky paste smeared on branches to trap small birds; they landed and their feet stuck fast. 'Lay lime' means to set this trap. Proteus advises Thurio to use flattering sonnets the way a bird-catcher sets birdlime — to catch Silvia's feelings before she can fly away.
TLN 1442cultural context
“wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows”
Proteus outlines standard Petrarchan courtship practice: write verse full of sighing devotion, perform nightly serenades at the lady's window, and cast yourself as a worshipper at the altar of her beauty. 'Wailful' means sorrowful, lamenting; 'full-fraught' means loaded to capacity; 'serviceable vows' means pledges of service. All of these are recognized conventions of the love-sonnet tradition descending from Petrarch.
historical Petrarch and the Petrarchan lover
TLN 1451classical allusion
“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”
Orpheus was the greatest musician of Greek myth, whose lyre could charm animals, stones, and rivers into stillness. Here 'poets' sinews' — the strings of his lute — stand for the force of verse; 'leviathans' are great whales, drawn from the Bible (Job 41) but used here as a general word for sea-monsters. The claim is that love-poetry has Orphic power: it can tame the wild and draw up the deep.
TLN 1457archaic vocab
“sweet consort: to their instruments Tune a deploring dump”
A 'consort' is a group of musicians playing together (a small ensemble); a 'dump' was a slow, mournful musical piece or song — the Elizabethan equivalent of a dirge or lament. Proteus instructs Thurio to hire a consort and have them play a sad tune below Silvia's window as part of the nocturnal serenade — standard practice in Italian Renaissance courting as Shakespeare's audience knew it.