Sil. A thousand more mischances than this one Have learn'd me how to brook this patiently. 2 Out. Come, bring her away.

1 Out. Where is the gentleman that was with her? 3 Out. Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us; But Moyses, and Valerius, follow him.

Go thou with her to the west end of the wood; There is our captain. We'll follow him that's fled: The thicket is beset; he cannot 'scape.

1 Out. Come, I must bring you to our captain's

cave.

Fear not; he bears an honourable mind,
And will not use a woman lawlessly.

Sil. O Valentine! this I endure for thee. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Another Part of the Forest.
Enter VALENTINE.

Val. How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
And to the nightingale's complaining notes
Tune my distresses, and record my woes.
O! thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the mansion so long tenantless,
Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall,
And leave no memory of what it was!
Repair me with thy presence, Silvia!
Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain!-
What halloing, and what stir, is this to-day?
These are my mates, that make their wills their law,
Have some unhappy passenger in chace.
They love me well; yet I have much to do,
To keep them from uncivil outrages.
Withdraw thee, Valentine: who's this comes here?
[Steps aside.

Enter PROTEUS, SILVIA, and Julia. Pro. Madam, this service I have done for you, (Though you respect not aught your servant doth,) To hazard life, and rescue you from him, That would have forc'd your honour and your love. Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look; A smaller boon than this I cannot beg, And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give.

Sil. O, miserable! unhappy that I am! Pro. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came; But by my coming I have made you happy. Sil. By thy approach thou mak'st me most unhappy.

Jul. [Aside.] And me, when he approacheth to your presence.

Sil. Had I been seized by a hungry lion,
I would have been a breakfast to the beast,
Rather than have false Proteus rescue me.
O, heaven! be judge, how I love Valentine,
Whose life's as tender to me as my soul;
And full as much (for more there cannot be)
I do detest false, perjur'd Proteus:
Therefore be gone: solicit me no more.

Pro. What dangerous action, stood it next to death,

Would I not undergo for one calm look.
O! 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd,
When women cannot love, where they're belov'd.
Sil. When Proteus cannot love, where he's be-
lov'd.

Read over Julia's heart, thy first best love,
For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith
Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury to love me.

Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two,
And that's far worse than none: better have none
Than plural faith, which is too much by one.
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

In love

All men but Proteus.

Pro. Who respects friend? Sil. Pro. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words Can no way change you to a milder form, I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms' end, And love you 'gainst the nature of love: force you. Sil. O heaven!

Pro.

I'll force thee yield to my desire.
Enter VALENTINE.

Val. Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch; Thou friend of an ill fashion!

Pro. Valentine!

Val. Thou common friend, that's without faith or love;

(For such is a friend now,) treacherous man!
Thou hast beguil'd my hopes: nought but mine eye
Could have persuaded me.
Now I dare not say,

I have one friend alive: thou would'st disprove me.
Who should be trusted now, when one's right hand
Is perjur'd to the bosom? Proteus,

I am sorry I must never trust thee more,
But count the world a stranger for thy sake.

The private wound is deepest. O time most accurst!

'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst!
Pro. My shame and guilt confound me.—
Forgive me, Valentine. If hearty sorrow
Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I tender 't here: I do as truly suffer,

As e'er I did commit.

Val.
Then, I am paid;
And once again I do receive thee honest.
Who by repentance is not satisfied,

Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd.
By penitence th' Eternal's wrath's appeas'd:
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.
Jul. O me unhappy!

Pro. Look to the boy.

Val. Why, boy! why, wag! how now! what's the matter? look up; speak.

Jul. O good sir! my master charg'd me to deliver a ring to madam Silvia, which, out of my neglect, was never done.

Pro. Where is that ring, boy?

Jul. Here 'tis this is it. [Gives a ring. Pro. How! let me see. Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O! cry you mercy, sir: I have mistook: This is the ring you sent to Silvia.

[Shows another ring. Pro. But, how cam'st thou by this ring? At my depart I gave this unto Julia. Jul. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. Pro. How? Julia!

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, And entertain'd them deeply in her heart: How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root! O Proteus! let this habit make thee blush: Be thou asham'd, that I have took upon me Such an immodest raiment; if shame live In a disguise of love.

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their shapes, than men their minds.

Pro. Than men their minds: 'tis true. O heaven!

were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all

the sins:

Inconstancy falls off, ere it begins.
What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's, with a constant eye?
Val. Come, come, a hand from either.

Let me be blest to make this happy close:
"Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.
5

Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.
Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death.
Come not within the measure of my wrath:
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Verona shall not hold thee. Here she stands:
Take but possession of her with a touch.
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.
Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, 1.
I hold him but a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:

I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.
Duke. The more degenerate and base art thou,
To make such means for her as thou hast done,
And leave her on such slight conditions.
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,

I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an empress' love.
Know then, I here forget all former griefs.
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
Plead a new state in thy unrivall'd merit,
To which I thus subscribe.-Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd:
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv'd her.
Val. I thank your grace; the gift hath made me
happy.

I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake,
To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

Duke. I grant it for thine own, whate'er it be. Val. These banish'd men, that I have kept withal,

Are men endued with worthy qualities:
Forgive them what they have committed here,
And let them be recall'd from their exile.
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.
Duke. Thou hast prevail'd; I pardon them, and

thee:

Dispose of them, as thou know'st their deserts.
Come; let us go: we will include all jars
With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.

Val. And as we walk along, I dare be bold With our discourse to make your grace to smile. What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him: he blushes.

Val. I warrant you, my lord, more grace than boy.

Duke. What mean you by that saying?

Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass along, That you will wonder what hath fortuned.Come, Proteus; 'tis your penance, but to hear The story of your loves discovered:

That done, our day of marriage shall be yours;
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

333

[Exeunt.

weth SHAPELESS idleness"-"Idleness' is said to beshapeless,' as preventing the formation of manners and character."-WARBURTON.

"-nay, give me not the BOOTS"-A proverbial expression, frequently met with in the old dramatists, signifying, "don't make a laughing-stock of me." Collier, and the later antiquarians, deny that it has any connection with the Scottish punishment of "the boots," to which the older editors supposed it to refer. It is more probably derived from an old custom of rustic merriment at harvest-home feasts.

"However, but a folly bought with wit"-In whatsoever way, "haply won," or "lost."

"as in the sweetest bud

The eating canker dwells," etc. "Shakespeare has elsewhere used this beautiful image. In the Seventieth Sonnet,' for instance, we haveFor canker vice the sweetest buds doth love.

In KING JOHN,

Now will canker sorrow eat my bud.

In HAMLET,

The canker galls the infants of the spring.

The peculiar canker which our Poet, a close observer of nature, must have noted, is described in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. And in the First Part of HENRY VI.,

Hath not thy rose a canker?

The instrument by which the canker was produced is

described in-

The bud bit with an envious wormof ROMEO AND JULIET; and in-

-concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Fed on her damask cheek,

in TWELFTH NIGHT.

"Shakespeare found the canker-worm in the Old Testament, (Joel i. 4.) The Geneva Bible, 1561, has, That which is left of the palmer-worm hath the grasshopper eaten, and the residue of the grasshopper hath the canker-worm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm hath the caterpillar eaten.'"-KNIGHT.

"To Milan let me hear from thee by letters." This is merely an inversion of "Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan." The first folio reads "To Milan," which the second folio needlessly changes to "At Milan," etc.

"Enter SPEED"-Pope, in his edition, stigmatizes this scene as "composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the gross taste of the age. Populo ut placerent." He felt inclined to omit it altogether, under the notion that it had been foisted in by the actors. But so greatly does public taste alter with time, that Pope's own verse would be omitted or thrust to the bottom of the page, if what is now deemed coarseness or comparative want of merit were to regulate the canon of authenticity. We think, with Johnson, that there is no proof of any interpolation.

"And I have play'd the SHEEP"-A joke upon the resemblance in sound between the words "ship" and

“—a LACED mutton"-A phrase which Cotgrave's old "French and English Dictionary," and many passages which the labour of his commentators have collected from the old dramatists, clearly show to have been a slang phrase of the day, to express a courtezan. But as this seems to some of the editors too coarse an epithet for Proteus to allow to be applied, even playfully, to his "ladye love," Knight rejects the slang meaning, and intimates, on the authority of Horne Tooke's definition of lace, "to catch, to hold," that the phrase here means "a caught sheep." Proteus, however, is not drawn as a person of any very peculiar delicacy, and the use of the words is too familiar to be explained away.

"-did she nod"-These words, with the stagedirection, were supplied by Theobald. They are not in the old copies; but it is clear from what Speed afterwards says, that Proteus had asked the question. In Speed's answer, the old spelling of I for aye is retained, as the play on the word is lost in modern spelling.

that's NODDY"—"Noddy' was a game at cards, and to call a person a 'Noddy' was to call him a fool. 'Noddy' was the Knave or Fool in a pack of cards. The practice of calling the Knave Nod,' or 'Noddy,' is not yet entirely discontinued."-REED, and COLLIER.

in telling YOUR mind"-The second folio, followed by Stevens, and others, has "her mind." This edition retains the original reading, as meaning, (says Malone,) "She being so hard to me who was the bearer of your mind, I fear she will prove no less so to you in telling your mind in person."

"That every day with PARLE encounter me"-i. e. With words or speech. The editor of the "Illustrated" SHAKESPEARE well remarks-" The whole character of Julia in this play is in the best style of Shakespeare's domestic heroines: she is a delightful compound of delicate ardour, and romantic, undoubting devotion; and bears much the same relation to her knowing and worldly, (yet not ill-natured,) serving-maid Lucetta, that Desdemona exhibits in comparison with Iago's better (though ambiguous) half. Julia's portion of their dialogue in the second act is exquisite."

"CENSURE thus on lovely gentlemen"-Pass my opinion upon. This word was commonly used, until modern times, without any reference to the opinion being unfavourable. Isaac Walton even uses it where the censure, (i. e. the opinion,) is that of the highest praise.

"Fire that's closest kept burns most of all." Such words as "fire," " hour," etc., are often used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as if they contained two syllables; "monstrous," "country," etc., as if consisting of three; and "remembrance," " assembly," etc., as if consisting of four. This pronunciation is often necessary to preserve the metre, and was a frequent practice in the Poet's time, when the present mode was struggling with the relics of the older orthoepy.

"a goodly BROKER"-The title of "broker" has risen in the world. Although originally meaning one who transacts any sort of business on another's account,

Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey”— "The economy of bees was known to Shakespeare with an exactness which he could not have derived from books. The description in HENRY V., 'So work the honey-bees,' is a study for the naturalist as well as the poet. He had doubtless not only observed the lazy, yawning drone,' but the injurious wasps,' that plundered the stores which had been collected by those who Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds. These were the fearless robbers to which the pretty pouting Julia compares her fingers :

Injurious wasps, who feed on such sweet honey, And kill the bees that yield it with your stings. The metaphor is as accurate as it is beautiful."-KNIGHT. "And thus I SEARCH it"-To search a wound is to probe it, or, to tent it.

"a MONTH'S MIND to them"-A "month's mind" is equivalent to a great mind or strong inclination: "a month's mind" in its ritual sense, is a month's remembrance; and Nash, in his " Martin's Month's Mind," (1589,) applied it in that way: "it was a month's remembrance of Martin Mar-prelate." The "month's mind" was derived from times prior to the Reformation, when masses were said for a stated period in memory of the dead. Hence they were also called month's memories, and month's monuments. For the sake of the measure, we ought to read, "a moneth's mind to them," and so the word was often printed.

SCENE III.

"Some, to discover islands far away"-" In Shakespeare's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures:-such as the Fortescues, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chesters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our Poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it."-WARBURTON.

Some

"Attends the emperor in his royal court"--"Shakespeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan, in this play. Several of the first German emperors held their courts there occasionally, it being, at that time, their immediate property, and the chief town of their Italian dominions. of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the Poet fallen into any contradiction by giving a duke to Milan, at the same time that the emperor held his court there. The first dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not sovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their pleasure. Such was the Duke of Milan' mentioned in this play."-STEVENS.

M. Mason observes that-" During the wars in Italy, between Francis I. and Charles V., the latter frequently

resided at Milan."