The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Уильям Шекспир

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       We have some secrets to confer about.

       [Exit THURIO.]

       Now tell me, Proteus, what’s your will with me?

       PROTEUS.

       My gracious lord, that which I would discover

       The law of friendship bids me to conceal;

       But, when I call to mind your gracious favours

       Done to me, undeserving as I am,

       My duty pricks me on to utter that

       Which else no worldly good should draw from me.

       Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, my friend,

       This night intends to steal away your daughter;

       Myself am one made privy to the plot.

       I know you have determin’d to bestow her

       On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates;

       And should she thus be stol’n away from you,

       It would be much vexation to your age.

       Thus, for my duty’s sake, I rather chose

       To cross my friend in his intended drift

       Than, by concealing it, heap on your head

       A pack of sorrows which would press you down,

       Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.

       DUKE.

       Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest care,

       Which to requite, command me while I live.

       This love of theirs myself have often seen,

       Haply when they have judg’d me fast asleep,

       And oftentimes have purpos’d to forbid

       Sir Valentine her company and my court;

       But, fearing lest my jealous aim might err

       And so, unworthily, disgrace the man,—

       A rashness that I ever yet have shunn’d,—

       I gave him gentle looks, thereby to find

       That which thyself hast now disclos’d to me.

       And, that thou mayst perceive my fear of this,

       Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested,

       I nightly lodge her in an upper tower,

       The key whereof myself have ever kept;

       And thence she cannot be convey’d away.

       PROTEUS.

       Know, noble lord, they have devis’d a mean

       How he her chamber window will ascend

       And with a corded ladder fetch her down;

       For which the youthful lover now is gone,

       And this way comes he with it presently;

       Where, if it please you, you may intercept him.

       But, good my lord, do it so cunningly

       That my discovery be not aimed at;

       For love of you, not hate unto my friend,

       Hath made me publisher of this pretence.

       DUKE.

       Upon mine honour, he shall never know

       That I had any light from thee of this.

       PROTEUS.

       Adieu, my lord; Sir Valentine is coming.

       [Exit.]

       [Enter VALENTINE]

       DUKE.

       Sir Valentine, whither away so fast?

       VALENTINE.

       Please it your Grace, there is a messenger

       That stays to bear my letters to my friends,

       And I am going to deliver them.

       DUKE.

       Be they of much import?

       VALENTINE.

       The tenour of them doth but signify

       My health and happy being at your court.

       DUKE.

       Nay then, no matter; stay with me awhile;

       I am to break with thee of some affairs

       That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret.

       ‘Tis not unknown to thee that I have sought

       To match my friend Sir Thurio to my daughter.

       VALENTINE.

       I know it well, my lord; and, sure, the match

       Were rich and honourable; besides, the gentleman

       Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities

       Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter.

       Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?

       DUKE.

       No, trust me; she is peevish, sullen, froward,

       Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty;

       Neither regarding that she is my child

       Nor fearing me as if I were her father;

       And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers,

       Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her;

       And, where I thought the remnant of mine age

       Should have been cherish’d by her childlike duty,

       I now am full resolv’d to take a wife

       And turn her out to who will take her in.

       Then let her beauty be her wedding-dower;

       For me and my possessions she esteems not.

       VALENTINE.

       What would your Grace have me to do СКАЧАТЬ