Then, to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing,
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

Host. How now? are you sadder than you were before? How do you, man? the musick likes you not.

Jul. You mistake; the musician likes me not.
Host, Why, my pretty youth?

Jul. He plays false, father.

Host, How? out of tune on the strings?

Jul. Not so; but yet so false, that he grieves my very heart-strings.

Host. You have a quick ear.

Jul. Ay, I would I were deaf! it makes me have a slow heart.

Host. I perceive you delight not in musick.

Jul. Not a whit, when it jars so.

Host. Hark, what fine change is in the musick!
Jul. Ay; that change is the spite.

Host. You would have them always play, but one thing? Jul. I would always have one play, but one thing. But, host, doth this sir Proteus, that we talk on, often resort unto this gentlewoman?

Host. I tell you, what Launce, his man, told me, he loved her out of all nick.2

Jul. Where is Launce?

Host. Gone to seek his dog, which, to-morrow, by his master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady. Jul. Peace! stand aside! the company parts.

Pro. Sir Thurio, fear not you! I will so plead, That you shall say, my cunning drift excels.

Thu. Where meet we?

2 out of all nick.] Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckonings are kept upon nicked or notched sticks or tallies.

Warburton.

"The tallies at my girdle seven years together, "For I did ever love to deal honestly in the nick." As it is an inn-keeper who employs the allusion, it is much in character. Steevens.

Pro. At saint Gregory's well.

Thu. Farewel.

[Exeunt THU. and Musicians.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.

Pro. Madam, good even to your ladyship.

Sil. I thank you for your musick, gentlemen: Who is that, that spake?

Pro. One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth,
You'd quickly learn to know him, by his voice.
Sil. Sir Proteus, as I take it.

Pro. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
Sil. What is your will?

Pro.

3

That I may compass yours.
Sil. You have your wish; my will is even this, 3-
That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!
Think'st thou, I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be seduced by thy flattery,

That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me, by this pale queen of night, I swear,
I am so far from granting thy request,
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit:
And, by and by, intend to chide myself,
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;

But she is dead.

Jul.

"Twere false, if I should speak it; For, I am sure, she is not buried.

[Aside.

Sil. Say, that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,

I am betroth'd: And art thou not asham'd

To wrong him with thy importúnacy.

Pro. I likewise hear, that Valentine is dead. Sil. And so, suppose, am I; for in his grave, Assure thyself, my love is buried.

Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. Sil. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence; Or, at the least, in her's sepulchre thine.

Jul. He heard not that.

[Aside.

3 You have your wish; my will is even this,] The word will is here ambiguous. He wishes to gain her will: she tells him, if he wants her will, he has it. Johnson.

Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdúrate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture, that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:
For, since the substance of your perfect self
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;

And to your shadow I will make true love.

Jul. If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, deceive it, And make it but a shadow, as I am.

Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, sir;

But, since your falshood shall become you well*
To worship shadows, and adore false shapes,
Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it:
And so, good rest.

Pro.

`[Aside.

As wretches have o'er-night,

That wait for execution in the morn.

[Exeunt PRO. and SIL. from above.

4 But, since your falshood shall become you well-] This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration:

"But since your 're false, it shall become you well." Johnson. There is no occasion for any alteration, if we only suppose, that it is understood here, as in several other places:

"But, since your falshood, shall become you well

"To worship shadows and adore false shapes,"

i. e. But, since your falshood, it shall become you well, &c. Or indeed, in this place, To worship shadows, &c. may be considered as the nominative case to shall become. Tyrwhitt.

"I am very loth (says Silvia) to be your idol; but since your falshood to your friend and mistress shall well become you, to worship shadows, and adore false shapes (i. e. will be properly employed in so doing,) send to me, and you shall have my picture." Ritson.

I once had a better opinion of the alteration, proposed by Dr. Johnson, than I have at present. I now believe the text is right, and that our author means, however licentious the expression,But, since your falshood well becomes, or is well suited to, the worshipping of shadows, and the adoring of false shapes, send to me in the morning for my picture, &c. Or, in other words, But, since the worshipping of shadows and the adoring of false shapes shall well become you, false as you are, send, &c. To worship shadows, &c. I consider as the objective case, as well as you. There are other instances in these plays of a double accusative, depending on the same verb. I have, therefore, followed the punctuation of the old copy, and not placed a comma after falshood, as in the modern editions. Since is, I think, here an adverb, not a preposition. Malone.

Jul. Host, will you go?

Host. By my hallidom, I was fast asleep.

Jul. Pray you, where lies sir Proteus?

Host. Marry, at my house: Trust me, I think, 'tis almost day.

Jul. Not so; but it hath been the longest night,

That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest.5 [Exeunt. SCENE III..

D. The same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

Egl. This is the hour, that madam Silvia Entreated me to call, and know her mind; There's some great matter she 'd employ me in.Madam, madam!

Sil. Egt.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.
Who calls?

Your servant, and your friend;

One, that attends your ladyship's command..

Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good-morrow.
Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself.
According to your ladyship's impose,

I am thus early come, to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not, I flatter, for, I swear, I do not,)
Valiant, wise, remorseful,' well accomplish'd.

5 most heaviest.] This use of the double superlative is frequent in our author. So, in King Lear, Act II. sc. iii:

6

"To take the basest and most poorest shape.'

99 Steevens.

- your ladyship's impose,] Impose is injunction, command. A task set at college, in consequence of a fault, is still called an imposition. Steevens.

7- - remorseful,] Remorseful is pitiful. So, in The Maids' Metamorphosis, by Lyly, 1600:

"Provokes my mind to take remorse of thee."

Again, in Chapman's translation of the 2d book of Homer's Iliad, 1598:

Descend on our long-toyled host with thy remorseful eye." Again, in the same translator's version of the 20th Iliad: he was none of those remorsefull men, "Gentle and affable; but fierce at all times, and mad then."

Steevens.

Thou art not ignorant, what dear good will
I bear unto the banish'd Valentine;

Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhorr❜d.
Thyself hast loved; and I have heard thee say,
No grief did ever come so near thy heart,
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode;
And, for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do desire thy worthy company,

Upon whose faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief;
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which heaven and fortune still reward with plagues..
I do desire thee, even from a heart

As full of sorrows, as the sea of sands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

Egl. Madam, I pity much your grievances;
Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give consent to go along with you;
Recking as little1 what betideth me,

8 Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.] It was common in former ages for widowers and widows to make vows of chastity, in honour of their deceased wives or husbands. In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, page 1013, there is the form of a commission by the bishop of the diocese for taking a vow of chastity, made by a widow. It seems that, besides observing the vow, the widow was, for life, to wear a veil and a mourning habit. Some such distinction we may suppose to have been made, in respect of male votarists; and therefore this circumstance might inform the players how Sir Eglamour should be drest; and will account for Silvia's having chosen him as a person in whom she could confide, without injury to her own character. Steevens.

9 grievances;] Sorrows, sorrowful affections. Johnson. 1 Recking as little-] To reck is to care for. So, in Hamlet: "And recks not his own rede."

Both Chaucer and Spenser use this word with the same signification. Steevens.