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The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Act 4, scene 1
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The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Act 4, scene 1Act 4, scene 1
Scene 1
Synopsis:
Valentine and Speed are captured by outlaws. Valentine agrees to become their captain.
Enter certain Outlaws.FIRST OUTLAW
1549 Fellows, stand fast. I see a passenger.
SECOND OUTLAW
1550 If there be ten, shrink not, but down with ’em.
⌜Enter⌝ Valentine ⌜and⌝ Speed.
THIRD OUTLAW
1551 Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you.
1552 If not, we’ll make you sit, and rifle you.
SPEED, ⌜to Valentine⌝
1553 5 Sir, we are undone; these are the villains
1554 That all the travelers do fear so much.
VALENTINE 1555 My friends—
FIRST OUTLAW
1556 That’s not so, sir. We are your enemies.
SECOND OUTLAW 1557 Peace. We’ll hear him.
THIRD OUTLAW
1558 10 Ay, by my beard, will we, for he is a proper man.
VALENTINE
1559 Then know that I have little wealth to lose.
1560 A man I am crossed with adversity;
1561 My riches are these poor habiliments,
1562 Of which, if you should here disfurnish me,
1563 15 You take the sum and substance that I have.
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SECOND OUTLAW
1564
Whither travel you?VALENTINE 1565 To Verona.
FIRST OUTLAW 1566 Whence came you?
VALENTINE 1567 From Milan.
THIRD OUTLAW 1568 20Have you long sojourned there?
VALENTINE
1569 Some sixteen months, and longer might have stayed
1570 If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
FIRST OUTLAW 1571 What, were you banished thence?
VALENTINE 1572 I was.
SECOND OUTLAW 1573 25For what offense?
VALENTINE
1574 For that which now torments me to rehearse;
1575 I killed a man, whose death I much repent,
1576 But yet I slew him manfully in fight
1577 Without false vantage or base treachery.
FIRST OUTLAW
1578 30 Why, ne’er repent it if it were done so;
1579 But were you banished for so small a fault?
VALENTINE
1580 I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
SECOND OUTLAW 1581 Have you the tongues?
VALENTINE
1582 My youthful travel therein made me happy,
1583 35 Or else I often had been miserable.
THIRD OUTLAW
1584 By the bare scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar,
1585 This fellow were a king for our wild faction.
FIRST OUTLAW 1586 We’ll have him.—Sirs, a word.
⌜The Outlaws step aside to talk.⌝
SPEED 1587 Master, be one of them. It’s an honorable kind
1588 40 of thievery.
VALENTINE 1589 Peace, villain.
SECOND OUTLAW, ⌜advancing⌝
1590 Tell us this: have you anything to take to?
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131
VALENTINE
1591
Nothing but my fortune.THIRD OUTLAW
1592 Know then that some of us are gentlemen,
1593 45 Such as the fury of ungoverned youth
1594 Thrust from the company of awful men.
1595 Myself was from Verona banishèd
1596 For practicing to steal away a lady,
1597 ⌜An⌝ heir and ⌜near⌝ allied unto the Duke.
SECOND OUTLAW
1598 50 And I from Mantua, for a gentleman
1599 Who, in my mood, I stabbed unto the heart.
FIRST OUTLAW
1600 And I for such like petty crimes as these.
1601 But to the purpose: for we cite our faults
1602 That they may hold excused our lawless lives,
1603 55 And partly seeing you are beautified
1604 With goodly shape, and by your own report
1605 A linguist, and a man of such perfection
1606 As we do in our quality much want—
SECOND OUTLAW
1607 Indeed because you are a banished man,
1608 60 Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you.
1609 Are you content to be our general,
1610 To make a virtue of necessity
1611 And live as we do in this wilderness?
THIRD OUTLAW
1612 What sayst thou? Wilt thou be of our consort?
1613 65 Say ay, and be the captain of us all;
1614 We’ll do thee homage and be ruled by thee,
1615 Love thee as our commander and our king.
FIRST OUTLAW
1616 But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.
SECOND OUTLAW
1617 Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offered.
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VALENTINE 1618 70 I take your offer and will live with you,
1619 Provided that you do no outrages
1620 On silly women or poor passengers.
THIRD OUTLAW
1621 No, we detest such vile base practices.
1622 Come, go with us; we’ll bring thee to our crews
1623 75 And show thee all the treasure we have got,
1624 Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.
They exit.