Page 1932 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

What would your grace have me to do in this? [80]

DUKE

There is a lady of Verona here
Whom I affect; but she is nice, and coy,
And naught esteems my agèd eloquence.
Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor -
For long agone I have forgot to court; [85]
Besides, the fashion of the time is changed -
How and which way I may bestow myself
To be regarded in her sun-bright eye.

VALENT INE

Win her with gifts, if she respect not words;
Dumb jewels often in their silent kind [90]
More than quick words do move a woman’s mind.

DUKE

But she did scorn a present that I sent her -

VALENT INE

A woman sometime scorns what best contents her.
Send her another; never give her o’er;
For scorn at first makes after-love the more. [95]
If she do frown, ’tis not in hate of you,
But rather to beget more love in you;
If she do chide, ’tis not to have you gone,
For why, the fools are mad if left alone.
Take no repulse, whatever she doth say; [100]
For “Get you gone”, she doth not mean “Away!”.
Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces;
Though ne’er so black, say they have angels’ faces.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. [105]

DUKE

But she I mean is promised by her friends
Unto a youthful gentleman of worth;
And kept severely from resort of men,
That no man hath access by day to her.