Sil. There, hold.

I will not look upon your master's lines:

I know, they are stuff'd with protestations,

And full of new-found oaths; which he will break,
As easily as I do tear his paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.

Sil. The more shame for him, that he sends it me; For I have heard him say a thousand times, His Julia gave it him at his departure: Though his false finger hath profan'd the ring, Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What say'st thou?

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much. Sil. Dost thou know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself: To think upon her woes, I do protest,

That I have wept an hundred several times.

Sil. Belike, she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her.
Jul. I think she doth, and that 's her cause of sorrow.
Sil. Is she not passing fair?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is:
When she did think my master lov'd her well,
She, in my judgment, was as fair as you;
But since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,
The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks,
And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,5
That now she is become as black as I.
Sil. How tall was she?6

Jul. About my stature: for, at Pentecost,

And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,] The colour of a part pinched, is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly said to pinch, when it produces the same visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the cold is said to pinch. Johnson.

Cleopatra says of herself:

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think on me,

"That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches, black." Steevens. 6 Sil. How tall was she?] We should read-" How tall is she?" For that is evidently the question, which Silvia means to ask.

Ritson.

When all our pageants of delight were play'd,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown;
Which served me as fit, by all men's judgment
As if the garment had been made for me:
Therefore, I know she is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a-good,7
For I did play a lamentable part:
Madam, 'twas Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight;8
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow!

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!-
Alas, poor lady! desolate and left!—

I weep myself, to think upon thy words.

Here, youth, there is my purse; I give thee this

For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her. Farewel.

[Exit SIL. Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you know her. A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful.

I hope my master's suit will be but cold,

Since she respects my mistress' love so much.9

7

-weep a-good,] i. e. in good earnest.

Tout de bon. Fr.

So, in Turberville's translation of Ovid's epistle from Ariadne to Theseus:

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beating of my breast a-good." Steevens.

So, in Marlowe's Few of Malta, 1633:

8

"And therewithal their knees have rankled so,
“That I have laugh'd a-good.” Malone.

-'twas Ariadne, passioning, &c.] To passion is used as a verb, by writers contemporary with Shakspeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the same expression: "what, art thou passioning over the picture of Cleanthes?"

Again, in Eliosto Libidinoso, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606: "if thou gaze on a picture, thou must, with Pigmalion, be passionate."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III, c. 12:

"Some argument of matter passioned." Steevens.

'twas Ariadne, passioning-] On her being deserted by Theseus in the night, and left on the island of Naxos. Malone.

9 my mistress' love so much.] She had in her preceding speech called Julia her mistress; but it is odd enough that she

Alas, how love can trifle with itself!

Here is her picture: Let me see; I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers:
And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow:
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.1

Her eyes are grey as glass;2 and so are mine:

should thus describe herself, when she is alone. Sir T. Hanmer reads-" his mistress ;" but without necessity. Our author knew that his audience considered the disguised Julia, in the present scene, as a page to Proteus, and this, I believe, and the love of antithesis, produced the expression. Malone.

1 I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.] It should be remember. ed, that false hair was worn by the ladies, long before wigs were in fashion. These false coverings, however, were called periwigs. So, in Northward Hoe, 1607: "There is a new trade come up for cast gentlewomen, of perriwig-making: let your wife set up in the Strand."-" Perwickes, however, are mentioned by Churchyard, in one of his earliest poems. Steevens.

See Much Ado about Nothing, Act II, sc. iii: “ -and her hair shall be of what colour it please God." And The Merchant of Venice, Act III, sc. ii:

"So are crisped snaky golden locks," &c.

Again, in The Honestie of this Age, proving by good Circumstance, that the World was never honest till now, by Barnabe Rich, quarto, 1615: "My lady holdeth on her way, perhaps to the tire-maker's shop, where she shaketh her crownes, to bestow upon some newfashioned attire ;-upon such artificial deformed periwigs, that they were fitter to furnish a theatre, or for her that in a stage play should represent some hag of hell, than to be used by a Christian woman." Again, ibid: "These attire-makers, within these forty years were not known by that name; and but now very lately, they kept their lowzie commodity of periwigs, and their monstrous attires, closed in boxes,-and those women that used to weare them would not buy them but in secret. But now they are not ashamed to set them forth upon their stalls,-such monstrous mop-powles of haire, so proportioned and deformed, that but within these twenty or thirty years would have drawne the passers-by to stand and gaze, and to wonder at them."

Malone. 2 Her eyes are grey as glass;] So Chaucer, in the character of his Prioress:

"Ful semely hire wimple y-pinched was;
"Hire nose tretis; hire eyen grey as glas." Theobald.

Ay, but her forehead 's low,3 and mine 's as high.
What should it be, that he respects in her,
But I can make respective in myself,

If this fond love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow; come, and take this shadow up,
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form,

Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, lov'd, and ador'd;
And, were there sense in his idolatry,

My substance should be statue in thy stead."

3

her forehead's low,] A high forehead was, in our author's time, accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So, in The History of Guy of Warwick, "Felice his lady" is said to "have the same high forehead as Venus." Johnson.

4 · respective —] i. e. respectable. Steevens.

5 My substance should be statue in thy stead.] It would be easy to read, with no more roughness than is found in many lines of Shakspeare:

should be a statue in thy stead."

The sense, as Mr. Edwards observes, is, " He should have my substance as a statue instead of thee [the picture] who art a senseless form." This word, however, is used without the article a, in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence:

66 it was your beauty,

"That turn'd me statue."

وو

And again, in Lord Surrey's translation of the 4th Eneid: "And Trojan statue throw into the flame."

Again, in Dryden's Don Sebastian:

try the virtue of that Gorgon face, "To stare me into statue." Steevens.

Steevens has clearly proved that this passage requires no amendment; but it appears from hence, and a passage in Massinger, that the word statue was formerly used to express a portrait. Julia is here addressing herself to a picture; and in the City Madam, the young ladies are supposed to take leave of the statues of their lovers, as they style them, though Sir John, at the beginning of the scene, calls them pictures, and describes them afterwards as nothing but superficies, colours, and no substance.

M. Mason.

statue-] Statue here, I think, should be written statua, and pronounced as it generally, if not always, was in our author's time, a word of three syllables. It being the first time this word occurs, I take the opportunity of observing that alterations have been often improperly made in the text of Shakspeare, by supposing statue to be intended by him for a dissyllable. Thus, in King Richard III. Act III, sc. vii:

"But like dumb statues or breathing stones."

Mr. Rowe has unnecessarily changed breathing to unbreathing, for a supposed defect in the metre, to an actual violation of the

sense.

I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That us'd me so; or else, by Jove I vow,
I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes,"
To make my master out of love with thee.

Again, in Julius Cæsar, Act II, sc. ii:

"She dreamt to-night she saw my statue."

[Exit.

Here, to fill up the line, Mr. Capell adds the name of Decius; and the last editor, deserting his usual caution, has improperly changed the regulation of the whole passage.

Again, in the same play, Act III, sc. ii:

"Even at the base of Pompey's statue."

In this line, however, the true mode of pronouncing the word is suggested by the last editor, who quotes a very sufficient authority for his conjecture. From authors of the times, it would not be difficult to fill whole pages with instances to prove that statue was at that period a trisyllable. Many authors spell it in that manner. On so clear a point the first proof, which occurs, is enough. Take the following from Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 4to. 1633: "It is not possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar, no nor of the kings or great personages of much later years," &c. p. 88. Again: " without which the history of the world seemeth to be as the Statua of Polyphemus with his eye out," &c. Reed.

It may be observed, on this occasion, that some Latin words, which were admitted into the English language, still retained their Roman pronunciation. Thus heroe and heroes are constantly used for trisyllables; as in the following instances, by Chapman: "His speare fixt by him as he slept, the great end in the

ground,

"The point, that brisled the darke earth, cast a reflection round

"Like pallid lightnings throwne by Jove. Thus his Heroe lay,

"And under him a big oxe hide.” 10th Iliad.

Again, in the same book:

6

"This said, he on his shoulders cast a yellow lion's hide,

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Big, and reacht earth; then took his speare; and Nestor's will applide,

"Rais'd the Heroes, brought them both. All met, the round they went."

Steevens.

your unseeing eyes,] So, in Macbeth:

"Thou hast no speculation in those eyes -." Steevens.