Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale ;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon:
She is my essence; and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.

8

Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE.

Pro. Run, boy; run, run, and seek him out.
Laun. So-ho! so-ho!

Pro. What seest thou?

Laun. Him we go to find: there's not a hair' on's head, but 'tis a Valentine.

Pro. Valentine ?

Val. No.

Pro. Who then? his spirit?

Val. Neither.

Pro. What then?

Val. Nothing.

Laun. Can nothing speak? master, shall I strike? Pro. Whom wouldst thou strike?

Laun. Nothing.

Pro. Villain, forbear!

Laun. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing: I pray you,― Pro. Sirrah, I say, forbear. Friend Valentine, a word.

Val. My ears are stopp'd, and cannot hear good

news,

So much of bad already hath possess'd them.

8 That is, by flying, or in flying. It is a Gallicism.

9 Launce is still quibbling: he is running down the hare he started when he first entered.

Pro. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine, For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad.

Val. Is Silvia dead?

Pro. No, Valentine.

Val. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia! Hath she forsworn me?

Val. No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me !

What is your news?

Laun. Sir, there is a proclamation that you are vanish'd.

Pro. That thou art banish'd-O! that is the

From hence, from Silvia, and from me, thy friend.
Val. O! I have fed upon this woe already,

And now excess of it will make me surfeit.
Doth Silvia know that I am banished?

Pro. Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom,
(Which, unrevers'd, stands in effectual force,)
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears:
Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd;
With them, upon her knees, her humble self;
Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became

them,

As if but now they waxed pale for woe:
But neither bended knees, pure hands held up,
Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears,
Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire;
But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die.
Besides, her intercession chaf'd him so,
When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
That to close prison he commanded her,
With many bitter threats of 'biding there.

Val. No more; unless the next word that thou
speak'st

Have some malignant power upon my life:
If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear,
As ending anthem of my endless dolour.

Pro. Cease to lament for that thou canst not help,
And study help for that which thou lament'st.
Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
Here if thou stay, thou canst not see thy love;
Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life.

Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that,
And manage it against despairing thoughts.
Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.1o
The time now serves not to expostulate :
Come, I'll convey thee through the city gate;
And, ere I part with thee, confer at large
Of all that may concern thy love affairs:
As thou lov'st Silvia, though not for thyself,
Regard thy danger and along with me.

Val. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy, Bid him make haste, and meet me at the north gate. Pro. Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! hapless Valentine!

[Exeunt VAL. and PRO.

Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave : but that's all one, if he be but one knave." He lives

10 So in Hamlet: "These to her excellent white bosom." To understand this mode of addressing letters, it should be known that women anciently had a pocket in the forepart of their stays, in which they carried not only love letters and love tokens, but even their money. In many parts of England rustic damsels still continue the practice. A very old lady informed Mr. Steevens, that when it was the fashion to wear very prominent stays it was the custom for stratagem or gallantry to drop its literary favours within the front of them.

11 But one knave, according to Dr. Johnson, here means, but

not now, that knows me to be in love: yet I am in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman, I will not tell myself; and yet 'tis a milk-maid yet 'tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips; 12 yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's maid, and serves for wages. She hath more quali- · ties than a water spaniel, bare Christian. Here is the a paper] of her conditions.

13

fetch and carry."

which is much in a cate-log [Pulling out

66

Imprimis, She can Why, a horse can do no more :

nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore is she better than a jade.

66

Item, She can milk;" look you, a sweet virtue in a maid with clean hands.

Enter SPEED.

Speed. How now, signior Launce? what news with your mastership?

Laun. With my master's ship? why, it is at sea. Speed. Well, your old vice still; mistake the word: What news then in your paper ?

Laun. The blackest news that ever thou heard'st.
Speed. Why, man, how black?

Laun. Why, as black as ink.
Speed. Let me read them.

Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head! thou can'st not read.

once a knave, as opposed to twice a knave, or a double knave. But it seems more likely that Launce is simply engaged in his usual occupation of punning; his sense being, "if he be but one knave, that's all one.

H.

12 Gossips not only signify those who answer for a child in baptism, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. The quibble is evident.

13 Bare has two senses, mere and naked. Launce, quibbling on, uses it in both senses, and opposes the naked person to the water-spaniel thickly covered with hair.

Speed. Thou liest! I can.

Laun. I will try thee. got thee?

Tell me this: Who be

Speed. Marry, the son of my grandfather.

Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the son of thy grandmother. This proves that thou canst not read.

Speed. Come, fool, come: try me in thy paper. Laun. There; and saint Nicholas 11 be thy speed! Speed. "Item, She can milk."

Laun. Ay, that she can.

Speed. “Item, She brews good ale."

Laun. And therefore comes the proverb, Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale.

Speed. "Item, She can sew."

Laun. That's as much as to say, Can she so?

Speed. "Item, She can knit."

Laun. What need a man care for a stock with a wench, when she can knit him a stock.15

Speed. "Item, She can wash and scour."

Laun. A special virtue; for then she need not be wash'd and scour'd.

14 St. Nicholas had many weighty cares, but was best known as the patron-saint of scholars, in which office he is here invoked. He is said to have gained this honour by restoring to life three scholars, whom a wicked host had murdered while on their way to school. By the statutes of St. Paul's School, London, the scholars are required to attend divine service in the cathedral on the anniversary of St. Nicholas. The parish clerks of London, probably because scholars were called clerks, formed themselves into a guild, with this saint for their patron. In King Henry IV. thieves are called St. Nicholas' clerks; whether from the similarity of the names Nicholas and Old Nick, or from some similarity of conduct in thieves and scholars in the old days of learned beggary, doth not fully appear. St. Nicholas was also the patronsaint of Holland and Russia; and Mr. Verplanck says, "he has long been known in Holland and New York as the special friend of children."

H.