Page 1913 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

No more, gentlemen, no more! Here comes my [45] father.

DUKE

Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset.
Sir Valentine, your father is in good health.
What say you to a letter from your friends
Of much good news?

VALENT INE

My lord, I will be thankful [50]
To any happy messenger from thence.

DUKE

Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?

VALENT INE

Ay, my good lord, I knew the gentleman
To be of worth, and worthy estimation,
And not without desert so well reputed. [55]

DUKE

Hath he not a son?

VALENT INE

Ay, my good lord, a son that well deserves
The honour and regard of such a father.

DUKE

You know him well?

VALENT INE

I knew him as myself; for from our infancy [60]
We have conversed and spent our hours together;
And though myself have been an idle truant,
Omitting the sweet benefit of time
To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection,
Yet hath Sir Proteus - for that’s his name - [65]
Made use and fair advantage of his days:
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellowed, but his judgement ripe;