SCENE VI.3

The fame. An Apartment in the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

PRO. To leave my Julia, fhall I be forfworn; To love fair Silvia, fhall I be forsworn ;

To wrong my friend, I fhall be much forfworn;
And even that power, which gave me firft my oath,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.

Love bade me fwear, and love bids me forfwear:
O fweet-fuggefting love, if thou haft finn'd,
Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!
At first I did adore a twinkling star,

But now I worship a celeftial fun.

Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
And he wants wit, that wants refolved will
To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.-
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whofe fovereignty fo oft thou haft preferr'd
With twenty-thoufand foul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do ;

But there I leave to love, where I fhould love.
Julia I lofe, and Valentine I lofe:

3 It is to be obferved, that, in the folio edition there are no dire&ious concerning the fcenes; they have been added by the later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that can give more confiftency or regularity to the drama by fuch alterations. I make this remark in this place, because I know not whether the following foliloquy of Proteus is fo proper in the ftreet. JOHNSON. The reader will perceive that the fcenery has been changed, though Dr. Johnson's obfervation is continued. STEEVENS.

40 fweet-fuggefting love, ] To fuggeft is to tempt, in our author's language. So again:

Knowing that tender youth is foon fuggefted."

The fenfe is, O tempting love, if thou hast influenced me to fin, teach me to excufe it. JOHNSON.

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
If I lose them, thus find I by their lofs,
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend;
For love is still more precious in itself:
And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair!
Shews Julia but a fwarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,
Rememb'ring that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a fweeter friend.
I cannot now prove conftant to myself,
Without fome treachery us'd to Valentine:-
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celeftial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor:

Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their difguifing, and pretended flight;"

in counfel, his competitor: ] Myself, who am his competi

tor or rival, being admitted to his counfel. JOHNSON. Competitor is confederate, affiftant, partner.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"It is not Cæfar's natural vice, to hate
"One great competitor!"

STEEVENS.

and he is speaking of Lepidus, one of the triumvirate. Steevens is right in affering, that competitor, in this place, means confederate, or partner. The word is ufed in the fame fenfe in Twelfth Night, where the Clown feeing Maria and Sir Toby approach, who were joined in the plot againft Malvolio, fays, "The competitors enter." And again, in King Richard III. the meffenger fays,

The Guildfords are in arms,

"And every hour more competitors
"Flock to the rebels."

So alfo, in Love's Labour's Loft:

6

flight.

แ

"The king and his competitors in oath."

M. MASON.

- pretended flight;] Pretended flight is propofed or intended So, in Macbeth:

-What good could they pretend ?'

Who, all enrag'd, will banifh Valentine;
For, Thurio, he intends, fhall wed his daughter:
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly crofs,
By fome fly trick, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, '
As thou haft lent me wit to plot this drift!" [Exit.

9 C E N E VII.

Verona. A Room in Julia's Houfe.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

JUL. Counfel, Lucetta; gentle girl, affift me!
And, even in kind love, I do conjure thee,-
Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are vifibly character'd and engrav’d,-
To leffon me; and tell me fome good mean,
How, with my honour, I may undertake
A journey to my loving Proteus.

Luc. Alas! the way is wearifome and long.
JUL. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To meafure kingdoms with his feeble fteps;
Much lefs fhall fhe, that hath love's wings to fly;
And when the flight is made to one fo dear,
Of fuch divine perfection as fir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Proteus make return.

Mr. M. Mafon jufly obferves, that the verb prétendre in French, has the fame fignification. STEEVens.

Again, in Dr. A. Borde's Introduction of Knowledge, 1542, fig. H 3, "I pretend to return and come round about thorow other regy ons in Europ." REED.

7 this drift!] Ifufpe& that the author concluded the A&t with this couplet, and that the next fcene thould begin the third a&t; but the change, as it will add nothing to the probability of the action, is of no great importance. JOHNSON.

JUL. O, know'st thou not, his looks are my foul's

food?

Pity the dearth that I have pined in,

By longing for that food fo long a time.
Didft thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou would't as foon go kindle fire with fnow,
As feek to quench the fire of love with words.

Luc. I do not feek to quench your love's hot fire; But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

Left it fhould burn above the bounds of reafon. JUL. The more thou dam' it up, the more it burns;

The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'ft, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair courfe is not hindered,

He makes fweet mufick with the enamel'd ftones,
Giving a gentle kifs to every fedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;
And fo by many winding nooks he flrays,
With willing fport, to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my courfe:
I'll be as patient as a gentle ftream,
And make a paftime of each weary fiep,
Till the laft ftep have brought me to my love;
And there I'll reft, as, after much turmoil,
A bieffed foul doth in Elyfium.

Luc. But in what habit will you go along?
JUL. Not like a woman; for I would prevent
The loose encounters of lafcivious men:
Gentle Lucetta, fit me with fuch weeds
As may befeem fome well-reputed page.

Luc. Why then your ladyfhip muft cut your hair. JUL. No, girl; I'll knit it up in filken firings, With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots: To be fantaflic may become a youth Of greater time than I fhall fhow to be.

Luc. What fafhion, madam, fhall I make your breeches?

JUL. That fits as well, as-" tell me, good my lord,

"What compafs will you wear your farthingale?" Why, even that fafhion thou beft lik'ft Lucetta. Luc. You must needs have them with a cod-piece, madam.

JUL. Out, out, Lucetta!9 that will be ill-favour'd,
Luc. A round hofe, madam, now's not worth a

pin,

Unless you have a cod-piece to flick pins on.

JUL. Lucetta, as thou lov'ft me, let me havė What thou think'ft meet, and is moft mannerly: But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me, For undertaking fo unftaid a journey?

I fear me, it will make me fcandaliz'd.

Luc. If you think fo, then flay at home, and go

not.

8 with a cod-piece, &c.] Whoever wifhes to be acquainted with this particular, relative to drefs, may confult Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, in which fuch matters are very amply difcuffed. It is mentioned, however, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, 1598:

"Tyro's round breeches have a cliffe behind;

"And that fame perking longitude before,

"Which for a pin-cafe antique plowmen wore."

Ocular inftruction may be had from the armour fhown as John of Gaunt's in the Tower of London. The fame fashion appears to have been no lefs offenfive in France. See Montaigne, Chap. XXII. The custom of flicking pins in this oftentatious piece of indecency, was continued by the illiberal warders of the Tower, till forbidden by authority. STEEVENS.

9 Out, out, Lucetta! &c.]

Dr. Percy obferves, that this interjedion is ftill ufed in the North. It feems to have the famo meaning as apage, Lat. STEEVENS.

So, in Every Man out of his Humour, A& II. fé. vi:
"Out, out! unworthy to speak where he breatheth."

REED.