Enter Proteus alone. PROTEUS
To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn.
To love fair Sylvia, shall I be forsworn.
To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn.
And ev’n that power which gave me first my oath
Provokes me to this threefold perjury. 5
Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear.
O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinned,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.
At first I did adore a twinkling star,
But now I worship a celestial sun; 10
Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken,
And he wants wit that wants resolvèd will
To learn his wit t’ exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue, to call her bad
Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferred 15
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do.
But there I leave to love where I should love.
Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose;
If I keep them, I needs must lose myself; 20
If I lose them, thus find I by their loss:
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Sylvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend,
For love is still most precious in itself,
And Sylvia—witness heaven that made her fair— 25
Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.
I will forget that Julia is alive,
Rememb’ring that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I’ll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Sylvia as a sweeter friend. 30
I cannot now prove constant to myself
Without some treachery used to Valentine.
This night he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Sylvia’s chamber window,
Myself in counsel his competitor. 35
Now presently I’ll give her father notice
Of their disguising and pretended flight,
Who, all enraged, will banish Valentine,
For Thurio he intends shall wed his daughter.
But Valentine being gone, I’ll quickly cross 40
By some sly trick blunt Thurio’s dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift. He exits. | Proteus delivers a big speech that basically boils down to him deciding to do what's best for him. He starts by acknowledging that if he leaves Julia and wrongs Valentine by loving Sylvia, then he's a jerk. So far, so good. But then, he suggests that "Love" is the culprit here for tempting him to betray his girl and his best pal. (Funny how that works out so Proteus isn't responsible for any of his actions, isn't it?) He goes on to say, that while Julia is like a star, Sylvia is the sun—the biggest and best star of all. So...the only way Proteus can be true to himself is by betraying Valentine and Julia. To make it easier on himself, he decides that Valentine is his enemy and Julia is dead to him. There. That was easy. Finally, Proteus resolves to get Valentine in big time trouble with the Duke of Milan. Proteus will tattle to the Duke that Valentine plans to elope with Sylvia. The Duke, of course, will be enraged since he's got plans for his daughter to marry Thurio. |