VALENTINE, SCANDAL.
SCANDAL
Pox on him, I'll be gone.
VALENTINE
No, prithee stay: Tattle and you should never be asunder; you
are light and shadow, and show one another; he is perfectly thy
reverse both in humour and understanding; and as you set up for
defamation, he is a mender of reputations.
SCANDAL
A mender of reputations! Ay, just as he is a keeper of
secrets, another virtue that he sets up for in the same manner. For
the rogue will speak aloud in the posture of a whisper, and deny a
woman's name while he gives you the marks of her person. He will
forswear receiving a letter from her, and at the same time show you
her hand in the superscription: and yet perhaps he has
counterfeited the hand too, and sworn to a truth; but he hopes not
to be believed, and refuses the reputation of a lady's favour, as a
Doctor says no to a Bishopric only that it may be granted him. In
short, he is public professor of secrecy, and makes proclamation
that he holds private intelligence.--He's here.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and mother Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon.
