yet I was last chidden for being too slow.
Go to, sir: tell me, do you know Madam Silvia?
She that your worship loves?
Why, how know you that I am in love?
Marry, by these special marks: first, you have
learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe your arms,
like a malecontent; to relish a love-song, like a
robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had
the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had
lost his A B C; to weep, like a young wench that had
buried her grandam; to fast, like one that takes
diet; to watch like one that fears robbing; to
speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were
wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you
walked, to walk like one of the lions; when you
fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you
looked sadly, it was for want of money: and now you
are metamorphosed with a mistress, that, when I look
on you, I can hardly think you my master.
Are all these things perceived in me?
They are all perceived without ye.
Without me? they cannot.
Without you? nay, that's certain, for, without you
were so simple, none else would: but you are so
without these follies, that these follies are within
you and shine through you like the water in an
urinal, that not an eye that sees you but is a
physician to comment on your malady.
But tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia?
She that you gaze on so as she sits at supper?
Hast thou observed that? even she, I mean.
Why, sir, I know her not.
Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet
knowest her not?
Is she not hard-favoured, sir?
Not so fair, boy, as well-favoured.
Sir, I know that well enough.
What dost thou know?
That she is not so fair as, of you, well-favoured.
I mean that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour infinite.
That's because the one is painted and the other out
of all count.
How painted? and how out of count?
Marry, sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no
man counts of her beauty.
How esteemest thou me? I account of her beauty.
You never saw her since she was deformed.
How long hath she been deformed?
Ever since you loved her.
I have loved her ever since I saw her; and still I
see her beautiful.
If you love her, you cannot see her.
Why?
Because Love is blind. O