The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act 2, Scene 7

    comedy

    Verona. JULIA'S house.

    Scene Summary

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    Julia decides she cannot stay in Verona while Proteus is in Milan. She asks Lucetta to help her disguise herself as a boy so she can travel there and find him. Lucetta is sceptical and asks sharp questions, but Julia is resolute. She is completely certain of Proteus's faithfulness. The irony is painful because the audience has just watched Act 2 Scene 6. Julia's journey is already a journey toward a truth she doesn't know yet.

    Enter JULIA and LUCETTA
    JULIA
    Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me;
    And even in kind love I do conjure thee,
    Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
    Are visibly character'd and engraved,
    To lesson me and tell me some good mean
    How, with my honour, I may undertake
    A journey to my loving Proteus.
    LUCETTA
    Alas, the way is wearisome and long!
    JULIA
    A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
    To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
    Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly,
    And when the flight is made to one so dear,
    Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.
    LUCETTA
    Better forbear till Proteus make return.
    JULIA
    O, know'st thou not his looks are my soul's food?
    Pity the dearth that I have pined in,
    By longing for that food so long a time.
    Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
    Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
    As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
    LUCETTA
    I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,
    But qualify the fire's extreme rage,
    Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
    JULIA
    The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns.
    The current that with gentle murmur glides,
    Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
    But when his fair course is not hindered,
    He makes sweet music with the enamell'ed stones,
    Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
    He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
    And so by many winding nooks he strays
    With willing sport to the wild ocean.
    Then let me go and hinder not my course
    I'll be as patient as a gentle stream
    And make a pastime of each weary step,
    Till the last step have brought me to my love;
    And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil
    A blessed soul doth in Elysium.
    LUCETTA
    But in what habit will you go along?
    JULIA
    Not like a woman; for I would prevent
    The loose encounters of lascivious men:
    Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds
    As may beseem some well-reputed page.
    LUCETTA
    Why, then, your ladyship must cut your hair.
    JULIA
    No, girl, I'll knit it up in silken strings
    With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots.
    To be fantastic may become a youth
    Of greater time than I shall show to be.
    LUCETTA
    What fashion, madam shall I make your breeches?
    JULIA
    That fits as well as 'Tell me, good my lord,
    What compass will you wear your farthingale?'
    Why even what fashion thou best likest, Lucetta.
    LUCETTA
    You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam.
    JULIA
    Out, out, Lucetta! that would be ill-favour'd.
    LUCETTA
    A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin,
    Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.
    JULIA
    Lucetta, as thou lovest me, let me have
    What thou thinkest meet and is most mannerly.
    But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me
    For undertaking so unstaid a journey?
    I fear me, it will make me scandalized.
    LUCETTA
    If you think so, then stay at home and go not.
    JULIA
    Nay, that I will not.
    LUCETTA
    Then never dream on infamy, but go.
    If Proteus like your journey when you come,
    No matter who's displeased when you are gone:
    I fear me, he will scarce be pleased withal.
    JULIA
    That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
    A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears
    And instances of infinite of love
    Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.
    LUCETTA
    All these are servants to deceitful men.
    JULIA
    Base men, that use them to so base effect!
    But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth
    His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
    His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
    His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
    His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
    LUCETTA
    Pray heaven he prove so, when you come to him!
    JULIA
    Now, as thou lovest me, do him not that wrong
    To bear a hard opinion of his truth:
    Only deserve my love by loving him;
    And presently go with me to my chamber,
    To take a note of what I stand in need of,
    To furnish me upon my longing journey.
    All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
    My goods, my lands, my reputation;
    Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
    Come, answer not, but to it presently!
    I am impatient of my tarriance.
    Exeunt