: Act 1, Scene 1 Translation

    A side-by-side translation of Act 1, Scene 1 of from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

      Original Text

     Translated Text
      Source: Folger Shakespeare Library

    VALENTINE
    Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus.
    Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
    Were ’t not affection chains thy tender days
    To the sweet glances of thy honored love,
    I rather would entreat thy company 5
    To see the wonders of the world abroad
    Than, living dully sluggardized at home,
    Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.
    But since thou lov’st, love still and thrive therein,
    Even as I would when I to love begin. 10

    PROTEUS
    Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu.
    Think on thy Proteus when thou haply seest
    Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel.
    Wish me partaker in thy happiness
    When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger, 15
    If ever danger do environ thee,
    Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
    For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.

    VALENTINE
    And on a love-book pray for my success?

    PROTEUS
    Upon some book I love I’ll pray for thee. 20

    VALENTINE
    That’s on some shallow story of deep love,
    How young Leander crossed the Hellespont.

    PROTEUS
    That’s a deep story of a deeper love,
    For he was more than over shoes in love.

    VALENTINE
    ’Tis true, for you are over boots in love, 25
    And yet you never swam the Hellespont.

    PROTEUS
    Over the boots? Nay, give me not the boots.

    VALENTINE
    No, I will not, for it boots thee not.

    PROTEUS What?

    VALENTINE
    To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans, 30
    Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading
    moment’s mirth
    With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights;
    If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
    If lost, why then a grievous labor won; 35
    How ever, but a folly bought with wit,
    Or else a wit by folly vanquishèd.

    PROTEUS
    So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.

    VALENTINE
    So, by your circumstance, I fear you’ll prove.

    PROTEUS
    ’Tis love you cavil at; I am not Love. 40

    VALENTINE
    Love is your master, for he masters you;
    And he that is so yokèd by a fool
    Methinks should not be chronicled for wise.

    PROTEUS
    Yet writers say: as in the sweetest bud
    The eating canker dwells, so eating love 45
    Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

    VALENTINE
    And writers say: as the most forward bud
    Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
    Even so by love the young and tender wit
    Is turned to folly, blasting in the bud, 50
    Losing his verdure, even in the prime,
    And all the fair effects of future hopes.
    But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee
    That art a votary to fond desire?
    Once more adieu. My father at the road 55
    Expects my coming, there to see me shipped.

    PROTEUS
    And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.

    VALENTINE
    Sweet Proteus, no. Now let us take our leave.
    To Milan let me hear from thee by letters
    Of thy success in love, and what news else 60
    Betideth here in absence of thy friend.
    And I likewise will visit thee with mine.

    PROTEUS
    All happiness bechance to thee in Milan.

    VALENTINE
    As much to you at home. And so farewell.

    He exits.

    PROTEUS
    He after honor hunts, I after love. 65
    He leaves his friends, to dignify them more;
    I leave myself, my friends, and all, for love.
    Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me,
    Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
    War with good counsel, set the world at nought; 70
    Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.

    The play opens with two BFFs, Valentine and Proteus, in the middle of a long and emotional goodbye. 

    Valentine is taking a gap year to travel, and he wants Proteus to throw some jeans and sneakers into a backpack and join him. But Proteus in in love and wants to stay near his girl. 

    In between bouts of dramatic sighing, Proteus begs Valentine to think of him while he's on his adventure and promises to pray for Valentine while he's away.

    Then Valentine gets snarky. He says Proteus's love is shallow—nothing Proteus would swim across a strait for. (The Hellespont, by the way, is a Turkish strait now known as The Dardenelles, and it plays a prominent role in the story of Hero and Leander. Spoiler alert: Leander drowns in it.)

    Cynical Valentine continues to berate his pal for loving a woman and insists that love turns men into slaves and fools.

    Finally, Valentine says he's got to run or else he'll miss his boat.

    Valentine and Proteus finally say goodbye and promise to write.

    Left alone, Proteus whines that his love for Julia (we now have a name for our mystery girl) has caused him to neglect his homework, argue with his friends, and generally waste his time moping around. Ah, love. 

    Enter Speed.

    SPEED
    Sir Proteus, ’save you. Saw you my master?

    PROTEUS
    But now he parted hence to embark for Milan.

    SPEED
    Twenty to one, then, he is shipped already,
    And I have played the sheep in losing him. 75

    PROTEUS
    Indeed a sheep doth very often stray,
    An if the shepherd be awhile away.

    SPEED You conclude that my master is a shepherd,
    then, and I a sheep?

    PROTEUS I do. 80

    SPEED Why, then my horns are his horns, whether I
    wake or sleep.

    PROTEUS A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep.

    SPEED This proves me still a sheep.

    PROTEUS True, and thy master a shepherd. 85

    SPEED Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance.

    PROTEUS It shall go hard but I’ll prove it by another.

    SPEED The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the
    sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my
    master seeks not me. Therefore I am no sheep. 90

    PROTEUS The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the
    shepherd for food follows not the sheep. Thou for
    wages followest thy master; thy master for wages
    follows not thee. Therefore thou art a sheep.

    SPEED Such another proof will make me cry “baa.” 95

    PROTEUS But dost thou hear? Gav’st thou my letter to
    Julia?

    SPEED Ay, sir. I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a
    laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a
    lost mutton, nothing for my labor. 100

    PROTEUS Here’s too small a pasture for such store of
    muttons.

    SPEED If the ground be overcharged, you were best
    stick her.

    PROTEUS Nay, in that you are astray; ’twere best pound 105
    you.

    SPEED Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for
    carrying your letter.

    PROTEUS You mistake; I mean the pound, a pinfold.

    SPEED
    From a pound to a pin? Fold it over and over, 110
    ’Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your
    lover.

    PROTEUS But what said she?

    SPEED, nodding Ay.

    PROTEUS Nod—“Ay.” Why, that’s “noddy.” 115

    SPEED You mistook, sir. I say she did nod, and you ask
    me if she did nod, and I say “ay.”

    PROTEUS And that set together is “noddy.”

    SPEED Now you have taken the pains to set it together,
    take it for your pains. 120

    PROTEUS No, no, you shall have it for bearing the letter.

    SPEED Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you.

    PROTEUS Why, sir, how do you bear with me?

    SPEED Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly, having nothing
    but the word “noddy” for my pains. 125

    PROTEUS Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.

    SPEED And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.

    PROTEUS Come, come, open the matter in brief. What
    said she?

    SPEED Open your purse, that the money and the matter 130
    may be both at once delivered.

    PROTEUS, giving money Well, sir, here is for your
    pains. What said she?

    SPEED, looking at the money Truly, sir, I think you’ll
    hardly win her. 135

    PROTEUS Why? Couldst thou perceive so much from
    her?

    SPEED Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her, no,
    not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter.
    And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I 140
    fear she’ll prove as hard to you in telling your mind.
    Give her no token but stones, for she’s as hard as
    steel.

    PROTEUS What said she? Nothing?

    SPEED No, not so much as “Take this for thy pains.” 145
    To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have
    testerned me. In requital whereof, henceforth
    carry your letters yourself. And so, sir, I’ll commend
    you to my master.

    PROTEUS
    Go, go, begone, to save your ship from wrack, 150
    Which cannot perish having thee aboard,
    Being destined to a drier death on shore.

    Speed exits.

    I must go send some better messenger.
    I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
    Receiving them from such a worthless post. 155

    He exits.

    Valentine's servant, Speed, shows up, wondering if Proteus has seen his master.

    Proteus brings Speed up to speed on Valentine's departure and then the two engage in a silly conversation that basically boils down to "You're a sheep." "No I'm not—you're a sheep."

    Proteus wants to know if Speed delivered his love letter to the luscious Julia and then Speed tells a dirty joke that involves, you guessed it, sheep.

    After an amusing and slightly exasperating comic routine, Speed shakes down Proteus for some money and finally says that, yes, he delivered the letter to Julia.

    Proteus is bummed to hear that Julia didn't get all excited when Speed delivered the letter and he reasons that she must have been put off by the annoying messenger (that would be Speed).

    He decides he'll find a new messenger to deliver his love notes to Julia.

       Cite This Page

      Tired of ads?

      Join today and never see them again.
      Get Started