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2 Out. Peace; we 'll hear him.

3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we;

For he's a proper man.2

Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose; A man I am, cross'd with adversity:

My riches are these poor habiliments,

Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have. 2 Out. Whither travel you?

Val. To Verona.

1 Out. Whence came you? Val. From Milan.

3 Out. Have you long sojourn'd there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have

staid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Out. What, were you banish'd thence?

Val. I was.

2 Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse: I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent; But yet I slew him manfully, in fight, Without false vantage, or base treachery.

1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so: But were you banish'd for so small a fault? Val. I was; and held me glad of such a doom, 1 Out. Have you the tongues?

Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or else, I often had been miserable.

3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,s

2 a proper man.] i. e. a well-looking man; he has the ap pearance of a gentleman. So, afterwards:

"And partly, seeing you are beautified

"With goodly shape-" Malone.

Again, in Othello:

3

"This Ludovico is a proper man." Steevens.

Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen.

So, in A mery Geste of Robin Hoode, &c. bl. 1. no date:
"These byshoppes and these archebyshoppes
"Ye shall them beate and bynde," &c.

Johnson.

But by Robin Hood's fat friar, I believe, Shakspeare means

This fellow were a king for our wild faction. 1 Out. We'll have him: sirs, a word. Speed.

Master, be one of them;

It is an honourable kind of thievery,

Val. Peace, villain!

2 Out. Tell us this: Have you any thing to take to? Val. Nothing, but my fortune.

3 Out. Know then, that some of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth

Thrust from the company of awful men:4

Friar Tuck, who was confessor and companion to this noted outlaw. So, in one of the old songs of Robin Hood:

"And of brave little John,

"Of Friar Tuck and Will Scarlett,
"Stokesly and Maid Marian.”

Again, in the 26th song of Drayton's Polyolbion:

"Of Tuck the merry friar, which many a sermon made,
"In praise of Robin Hoode, his out-lawes, and his trade."

Again, in Skelton's Play of Magnificence, f. 5, 6:

"Another bade shave halfe my berde,
"And boys to the pylery gan me plucke,
"And wolde have made me freer Tucke
"To preche oute of the pylery hole."

See figure III. in the plate at the end of the first part of King Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's observations on it. Steevens.

Dr. Johnson seems to have misunderstood this passage. The speaker does not swear by the scalp of some churchman, who had been plundered, but by the shaven crown of Robin Hood's chaplain." We will live and die together, (says a personage in Peele's Edward I. 1593) like Robin Hood, little John, friar Tucke, and Maide Marian." Malone.

4

awful men:] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates, and other principal members of civil communities. Johnson. Awful is used by Shakspeare, in another place, in the sense of lawful. Second part of K. Henry IV. Act IV. sc. ii:

"We come within our awful banks again." Tyrwhitt.

So, in King Henry V. 1600:

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creatures that by awe ordain

"An act of order to a peopled kingdom." Malone.

I believe we should read-lawful men-i. e, legales homines. So, in The Newe Boke of Justices, 1560: " commandinge him to the same to make an inquest and pannel of lawful men of his countie." For this remark I am indebted to Dr. Farmer.

Steevens.

Awful men means men well governed, observant of law and authority; full of, or subject to, awe. In the same kind of sense as we use fearful. Ritson.

T

Myself was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.5

2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart."

1 Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose,—(for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives,)
And, partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape; and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection,
As we do in our quality much want;—

2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
Are you content to be our general?

To make a virtue of necessity,

And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

5 An heir, and near allied unto the duke.] All the impressions, from the first downwards, read-An heir and niece, allied unto the duke. But our poet would never have expressed himself so stu. pidly, as to tell us, this lady was the duke's niece, and allied to him: for her alliance was certainly sufficiently included in the first term. Our author meant to say, she was an heiress, and near allied to the duke; an expression the most natural that can be for the purpose, and very frequently used by the stage-poets. Theobald.

A niece, or a nephew, did not always signify the daughter of a brother or sister, but any remote descendant. Of this use I have given instances, as to a nephew. See Othello, Act I. I have not, however, disturbed Theobald's emendation. Steevens.

Heir in our author's time (as it sometimes is now) was applied to females, as well as males. The old copy reads-And heir, The correction was made in the third folio. Malone.

6 Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.] Thus, Dryden; "Madness laughing in his ireful mood."

Again, Gray:

66

Moody madness, laughing, wild." Henley.Mood is anger or resentment. Malone.

71

- in our quality-] Our quality means our profession, calling, or condition of life. Thus, in Massinger's Roman Actor, Are, tinus says to Paris the tragedian:

"In thee, as being chief of thy profession,

"I do accuse the quality of treason:"

that is, the whole profession or fraternity, Hamlet, speaking of the young players, says,

"will they pur,

sue the quality no longer than they can sing ""&c. &c. M. Mason,

3 Out. What say'st thou wilt thou be of our consórt? Say, ay, and be the captain of us all:

We'll do thee homage, and be rul❜d by thee,
Love thee, as our commander, and our king.

1 Out. But, if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest. 2 Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer❜d. Val. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided that you do no outrages

On silly women, or poor passengers.

3 Out. No, we detest such vile base practices. Come, go with us, we 'll bring thee to our crews, And shew thee all the treasure we have got; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Milan. Court of the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine,
And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,
I have access, my own love to prefer;
But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
When I protest true loyalty to her,

She twits me with my falshood to my friend;
When to her beauty I commend my vows,
She bids me think, how I have been forsworn,
In breaking faith with Julia, whom I lov'd:
And, notwithstanding all her sudden quips,
The least whereof would quell a lover's hope,
Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows, and fawneth on her still.

8

But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window, And give some evening musick to her ear.

8

--

sudden quips,] That is, hasty passionate reproaches and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be sudden; that is, irascible and impetuous. Johnson.

The same expression is used by Dr. Wilson in his Arte of Rhetorique, 1553: "And make him at his wit's end through the sudden quip." Malone.

Enter THURIO, and Musicians.

Thu. How now, sir Proteus? are you crept before us? Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that love Will creep in service where it cannot go.9

Thu. Ay, but, I hope, sir, that you love not here.
Pro. Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence.
Thu. Whom? Silvia?

Pro. Ay, Silvia,-for your sake.

Thu. I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it lustily a while.

Enter Host, at a distance; and JULIA, in boy's clothes. Host. Now, my young guest, methinks you 're allycholly; I pray you, why is it?

Jul. Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry. Host. Come, we 'll have you merry: I'll bring you, where you shall hear musick, and see the gentleman, that you ask'd for.

9

Jul. But shall I hear him speak?
Host. Ay, that you shall.

Jul. That will be musick.

Host. Hark! hark!

Jul. Is he among these?

Host. Ay: but peace, let's hear 'em.

SONG..

Who is Silvia? what is she,

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she;

[Musick plays.

The heavens such grace did lend her,

That she might admired be.

Is she kind, as she is fair?

For beauty lives with kindness:1

Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness;

And, being help'd, inhabits there.

▪ you know, that love

Will creep in service where it cannot go.] Kindness will creep, where it cannot gang, is to be found in Kelly's Collection of Scottish Proverbs, p. 226. Reed.

1 - beauty lives with kindness:] Beauty, without kindness, dies unenjoyed, and undelighting. Johnson.

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