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VAL. No, madam; so it stead you, I will write, Please you command, a thousand times as much: And yet,

SIL. A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel; And yet I will not name it;-and yet I care

not;And yet-take this again;-and yet I thank you; Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more.

SPEED. And yet-you will; and yet another yet. [Aside. VAL. What means your ladyship? do you not like it?

SIL. Yes, yes; the lines are very quaintly writ:" But since unwillingly, take them again; Nay, take them.

VAL. Madam, they are for you.

SIL. Ay, ay, you writ them, sir, at my request; But I will none of them; they are for you: I would have had them writ more movingly. VAL. Please you, I'll write your ladyship

another.

SIL. And when it's writ, for my sake read it

over:

And if it please you, so; if not, why, so.

VAL. If it please me, madam! what then?
SIL. Why, if it please you, take it for your
labour.

And so good morrow, servant. [Exit SILVIA.
SPEED. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,
As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on
a steeple !

My master sues to her; and she hath taught her suitor,

He being her pupil, to become her tutor.

O excellent device! was there ever heard a better, That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter?

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SPEED. No believing you, indeed, sir: but did you perceive her earnest ?

VAL. She gave me none, except an angry word. SPEED. Why, she hath given you a letter.

VAL. That's the letter I writ to her friend. SPEED. And that letter hath she delivered, and there an end.

VAL. I would it were no worse.

SPEED. I'll warrant you 't is as well.

For often have you writ to her, and she, in modesty,

Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply;

Or fearing else some messenger, that might her mind discover,

Herself hath taught her love himself, to write unto her lover.

All this I speak in print," for in print I found it. Why muse you, sir? 'tis dinner-time.

VAL. I have dined.

SPEED. Ay, but hearken, sir; though the cameleon Love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished by my victuals, and would fain have meat. O, be not like your mistress; be moved, be moved. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Verona. A Room in Julia's House.

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

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JUL. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss. (3) PRO. Here is my hand for my true constancy; And when that hour o'erslips me in the day, Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake, The next ensuing hour some foul mischance Torment me for my love's forgetfulness! My father stays my coming; answer not; The tide is now: nay, not thy tide of tears; That tide will stay me longer than I should; [Exit JULIA. Julia, farewell.-What! gone without a word?

c The cameleon Love can feed on the air.] "Oh Palmerin, Palmerin, how cheaply dost thou furnish out thy table of love! Canst feed upon a thought! live upon hopes! feast upon a look! fatten upon a smile! and surfeit and die upon a kiss! What a Cameleon lover is a Platonick!"-The World in the Moon, 1697. d If you turn not,-] If you remain constant to your love.

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Enter LAUNCE, leading a Dog.

LAUN. Nay, 't will be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault: I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with sir Proteus to the imperial's court. I think Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble-stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept. to have seen our parting; why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it: This shoe is my father ;-no, this left shoe is my father; no, no, this left shoe is my mother ;-nay, that cannot be so neither:-yes, it is so, it is so; it hath the worser sole. This shoe, with the hole in it, is my mother, and this my father. A vengeance on 't! there 't is : now, sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog:-no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog,-O, the dog is me, and I am myself; Now come I to my father; Father, your blessing; now should not the shoe speak a father; word for weeping; now should I kiss my well, he weeps on:-now come I to my mother, (0, that shoe could speak now, like a wood woman ;^)—well, I kiss her;-why, there 't is ; here's my mother's breath up and down ; now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes: now the dog all this while sheds not a tear, nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.

ay, so, so.

woman.

.b

Like a wood woman;] The folio, 1623, reads-"like a would Wood Theobald suggested the reading in the text. means mad, crazed, wild. The alteration of she to shoe in the same line was proposed by Blackstone, and after "now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping," seems a legitimate correction.

Up and down;] An expression of the time, implying exactly, as we say for all the world," or "all the world over." It occurs

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SPEED. Master, sir Thurio frowns on you.
VAL. Ay, boy, it's for love.
SPEED. Not of you.

VAL. Of my mistress then.
SPEED. 'T were good you knocked him.
SIL. Servant, you are sad.
VAL. Indeed, madam, I seem so.
THU. Seem you that
you are not?
VAL. Haply I do.

THU. So do counterfeits.
VAL. So do you.

THU. What seem I that I am not?
VAL. Wise.

again in "Much Ado about Nothing," Act II. Sc. 1:"Here's his dry hand up and down."

e If the tied were lost;] A similar quibble is quoted by Steevens from Chapman's "Andromeda." It is found also as early as Heywood's "Epigrams."

"The tyde taryeth no man, but here to scan

Thou art tyed so that thou taryest every man."

THU. What instance of the contrary?

VAL. Your folly.

a

THU. And how quote you my folly?
VAL. I quote it in your jerkin.
THU. My jerkin is a doublet.

VAL. Well, then, I'll double your folly.
THU. How?

SIL. What, angry, sir Thurio? do you change colour?

VAL. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of cameleon.

THU. That hath more mind to feed on your blood, than live in your air.

VAL. You have said, sir.

THU. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. VAL. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.

SIL. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

VAL. "T is indeed, madam; we thank the giver. SIL. Who is that, servant?

VAL. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire: Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks, and spends what he borrows, kindly, in your company.

THU. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.

VAL. I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers; for it appears, by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words. SIL. No more, gentlemen, no more; here comes my father.

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infancy

We have convers'd 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,
Made use and fair advantage of his days;
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word, (for far behind his worth
Come all the praises that I now bestow,)
He is complete in feature and in mind,
With all good grace, to grace a gentleman.
DUKE. Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this
good,

He is as worthy for an empress' love,
As meet to be an emperor's counsellor.
Well, sir; this gentleman is come to me,
With commendation from great potentates;
And here he means to spend his time awhile:
I think 't is no unwelcome news to you.

VAL. Should I have wish'd a thing, it had
been he.

DUKE. Welcome him then according to his
worth;

Silvia, I speak to you: and you, sir Thurio:—
For Valentine, I need not 'cite him to it:
I will send him hither to you presently.

[Exit DUKE

VAL. This is the gentleman I told your ladyship, Had come along with me, but that his mistress Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks. SIL. Belike, that now she hath enfranchis'd them,

Upon some other pawn for fealty.

VAL. Nay, sure I think she holds them prisoners still.

SIL. Nay, then he should be blind; and, being blind,

How could he see his way to seek out you?

VAL. Why, lady, love hath twenty pair of eyes. THU. They say that love hath not an eye at allVAL. To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself; Upon a homely object love can wink.

Enter PROTEUS.

SIL. Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman.

VAL. Welcome, dear Proteus !-Mistress, I beseech you,

Confirm his welcome with some special favour.

(*) First folio, knew.

The punctuation I have adopted in this passage, though at variance with that of all the Editors, is fully authorized by the following one in "Henry VIII.," Act III. Sc. 2:—

"She is a gallant creature, and complete
In mind and feature.”

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with you.

a

your

SIL. I wait upon his pleasure. [Exit SERVANT.
Come, sir Thurio,

Go with me :-once more, new servant, welcome :
I'll leave you to confer of home affairs;
When you have done, we look to hear from you.
PRO. We'll both attend upon your ladyship.

[Exeunt SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. VAL. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came?

PRO. Your friends are well, and have them much commended.

VAL. And how do yours?
PRO.
I left them all in health.
VAL. How does your lady? and how thrives

your love?

PRO. My tales of love were wont to weary you; I know you joy not in a love-discourse.

VAL. Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now: I have done penance for contemning love; Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me With bitter fasts, with penitential groans, With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs; For, in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthrall'd eyes, And made them watchers of mine own heart's

sorrow.

O, gentle Proteus, Love 's a mighty lord;

The first folio assigns this to Thurio.

Whose high imperious thoughts-] Dr. Johnson proposed to read "Those high imperious thoughts;" conceiving the sense to be, "I have contemned love, and am punished." The misprint, if there is any, I rather take to be in the word thoughts, which our author has never elsewhere adopted to express behests, dictates, commands, &c.

* There is no woe to his correction,-] No sorrow equal to the punishment he inflicts. A very common idiom of the time.

"There is no comfort in the world,

To women that are kind."-Cupid's Whirligig. An analogous ellipsis occurs in the very next line

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VAL. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?
PRO. No; but she is an earthly paragon.
VAL. Call her divine.

PRO.
I will not flatter her.
VAL. O, flatter me, for love delights in praises.
PRO. When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills;
And I must minister the like to you.

VAL. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

d

Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
PRO. Except my mistress.
VAL.

Sweet, except not any;
Except thou wilt except against my love.
PRO. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
VAL. And I will help thee to prefer her too:
She shall be dignified with this high honour:
To bear my lady's train; lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss,
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower,
And make rough winter everlastingly.

PRO. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this? VAL. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can is nothing To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; She is alone.

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Nor to his service no such joy on earth,"

i. e. "Nor, compared to his service," &c.

d Yet let her be a principality.-] If not a divinity, admit she is celestial. "The first he calleth Seraphim, the second, Cherubim, the third, thrones, the fourth, denominations, the fifth, virtues, the sixth, powers, the seventh, principalities, the eighth, archangels, the ninth and inferior sort, he calleth angels."-Scor's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 500.

e The summer-swelling flower,-] Mr. Collier's old corrector changes this fine epithet to summer-smelling. Steevens also says, "I once thought that our poet had written summer-smelling; but the epithet which stands in the text, I have since met with in the translation of Lucan by Sir Arthur Gorges, 1614, b. viii. p. 354."

With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determin'd of: how I must climb her window;
The ladder made of cords; and all the means
Plotted and 'greed on, for my happiness.
Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
PRO. Go on before; I shall inquire you forth:
I must unto the road, to disembark
Some necessaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.
VAL. Will you make haste?
PRO. I will.-

Even as one heat another heat expels,

[Exit VAL.

Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it her mien," or Valentinus' praise,
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus?
She is fair; and so is Julia, that I love ;-
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,(4)
Bears no impression of the thing it was..
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold;
And that I love him not, as I was wont:
O! but I love his lady too-too much;
And that's the reason I love him so little.
How shall I dote on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her!
"T is but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled my reason's light;
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason but I shall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;

If not, to compass her I'll use my skill. [Exit.

SCENE V.-The same. A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

SPEED. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan.*

LAUN. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always-that a man is never undone till he be hanged; nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say, Welcome.

SPEED. Come on, you madcap, I'll to the ale

(*) First folio, Padua.

Unto the road,-] Roadstead, haven. Place where vessels ride at anchor.

b Is it her mien,-] The original has

"It is mine or Valentine's praise."

Steevens proposed

"It is mine eye, or Valentine's praise."

The reading of the text was suggested to Malone by the Rev. Mr. Blakeway, and has since been generally adopted. It is certainly ingenious; but I believe we have not yet got what the poet

wrote.

I love his lady too-too much ;] In this case I adopt the reading introduced by Halliwell, who has shown that too-too is " a

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LAUN. No, neither.

SPEED. What, are they broken?

LAUN. No, they are both as whole as a fish. SPEED. Why then, how stands the matter with them?

LAUN. Marry, thus; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her.

SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.

LAUN. What a block art thou, that thou canst not! My staff understands me.

SPEED. What thou say'st?

LAUN. Ay, and what I do, too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me. SPEED. It stands under thee, indeed. LAUN. Why, stand under and understand is all

one.

SPEED. But tell me true, will 't be a match? LAUN. Ask my dog: if he say ay, it will; if he say no, it will; if he shake his tail, and say nothing, it will.

SPEED. The conclusion is then, that it will. LAUN. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable.

SPEED. T is well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou, that my master has become a notable lover?

LAUN. I never knew him otherwise.

SPEED. Than how?

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genuine compound Archaism, used both as an adjective and an adverb, meaning excessive or excessively."

d'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,-] He has seen but her exterior yet, and that has dazzled his "reason's light;" when he looks upon her intellectual endowments, they will blind him quite. So in "Cymbeline," Act I. Sc. 7:

"All of her that is out of door, most rich!
If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare,
She is alone the Arabian bird:-&c."

e Dazzled-] This word must be read here as a trisyllable dazzeled; so in the quotation Malone adduces from Drayton:"A diadem once dazzling the eye, The day too darke to see affinitie."

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