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: I claim her not, and therefore she is thine. And leave her on such slight conditions.- I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake, withal, Are men endued with worthy qualities; Duke. Thou hast prevailed; I pardon them and thee: Dispose of them, as thou knowest their deserts. 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 fortunéd.Come, Proteus; 't is 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. [Exeunt. NOTES. "Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits." A similar play upon the word " "It is for homely features to keep home; "Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness." Act I., Scene 1. Idleness is said to be shapeless, as preventing the formation of manners and character. -"Give me not the boots."-Act I., Scene 1. Probably an allusion to the instrument of torture so called; or the phrase may refer to a custom prevalent in Warwickshire and other counties, of instituting mock trials at periods of rejoicing, in which the instrument of punishment was a pair of boots. The expression occurs in other plays of the period. "However, but a folly bought with wit, Or else a wit by folly vanquished."-Act I., Scene 1. "However" is here used in the sense of "either :" either you will purchase your folly by parting with your wit, or else your wit will be vanquished by the folly of your de meanour. "PRO. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. VAL. So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove." Act I., Scene 1. The word "circumstance" is here used, first, as the result of what has preceded; and secondly, with reference to the predicament in which Valentine supposes his friend to stand. "As in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells.”—Act I., Scene 1. Shakspere has on various occasions used this beautiful image. In the seventieth sonnet, for instance, we have, "For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love." "To Milan, let me hear from thee by letters." Act I., Scene 1. That is, by letters addressed to Milan. "Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought." Act I., Scene 1. Indulging in musing, or reverie, has made my intellect dull or inapprehensive. "Enter SPEED."-Act I., Scene 1. Pope, in his edition, stigmatises this scene as composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, and 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 no small portion of 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. "I have played the sheep, in losing him."-Act I., Scene 1. "Ship" and "sheep" are still pronounced alike in some English counties. "A laced mutton."-Act I., Scene 1. A cant term for a courtesan. The expression is common in old plays. But the indifference with which Proteus hears it applied to Julia, can only be accounted for (if commentators are bound to account for every anomaly in their author's text) on the supposition that, as he has condescended to enter into this quibbling contest with a servant, he must allow for the ignorance and coarseness of his antagonist. "In that you are astray."-Act I., Scene 1. "Nod, I; why, that's noddy.-Act I., Scene 1 The particle "aye" was formerly indicated by the simple letter I. "Telling your mind."-Act I., Scene 1. I fear she'll prove as hard to you when you are telling your mind. "You have testerned me."-Act I., Scene 1. "Testern" was the old term for sixpence. The word (which is now out of polite use) is at present pronounced "tester." "Of all the fair resort of gentlemen That every day with parle encounter me."-Act I., Scene 2. With words, or speech.-The whole character of Julia in this play is in the best style of Shakspere'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."-Act I., Scene 2. Give my judgment, or opinion. "Fire that's closest kept, burns most of all."-Act I., Scene 2. Such words as "fire," "hour," &c., are often used by Shakspere and his contemporaries as if they contained two syllables; "monstrous," ," "country," &c., as if consisting of three; and "remembrance," "assembly," &c., as if consisting of four. This pronunciation is often necessary to preserve the metre, and was the general practice in the poet's time. "Kill your stomach on your meat."-Act I., Scene 2. Stomach is here used figuratively for pride or obstinacy. -"Your ladyship can set."-Act I., Scene 2. Compose music. "Too harsh a descant."-Act I., Scene 2. The "descant" formerly signified a variation of the original air; the "mean," a tenor. -“I bid the base for Proteus."-Act I., Scene 2. A quibble on the game of prison base or bars. -"For catching cold.—Act I., Scene 2. "You have a month's mind to them."-Act I., Scene 2. This phrase alludes to a custom in the Roman Catholic church, of saying prayers during a specified period for the repose of the soul of a deceased person. It came gradually to signify an expression of desire. "What sad talk was that?"-Act I., Scene 3. "Sad" is here, and in many places in old writers, used in the sense of serious. -"In good time."-Act I., Scene 3. This phrase is equivalent to the French term apropos, now naturalised in England. "Like a beggar at Hallowmas."-Act II., Scene 1. About the beginning of winter. Formerly, on All Saints Day, it was customary for poor people in Staffordshire to beg money for what was termed "souling." This, no doubt, was a remnant of the practice of praying for departed souls. "To walk like one of the lions."-Act II., Scene 1. Ritson supposes that Shakspere, in using the phrase "the lions," was thinking of the lions in the Tower; but it seems that the expression was in general use at the period. "Without you were so simple, none else would." Act II., Scene 1. None else would be so simple. "Going ungartered."—Act II., Scene 1. This is one of the tokens of love enumerated by Rosalind in "As You LIKE IT," Act III. "O excellent motion !"-Act II., Scene 1. A puppet-show was formerly called "a motion," probably from the moving of the figures. "Like a wood woman."—Act II., Scene 3. "Wood," in this sense, is generally spelled "wode." It signifies crazy, or distracted. "Launce, away, away, aboard."-Act II., Scene 3. The poetical or geographical license here taken by the author, in sending Proteus to Milan by water, we must digest as we may; thanking our propitious stars that we live in an age of dictionaries and compendiums. It is plain that Shakspere's information was extensive for a man not regularly educated; but he must have had an instinct of knowledge equal to his instinctive dramatic faculty, had he not occasionally stumbled in that most useful, but most unpoetic employment, "hunting for facts." "Know you Don Antonio?" Act II., Scene 4. The author here, from lapse of memory, applies a Spanish title to an Italian signior. "No woe to his correction.”—Act II., Scene 4. No woe compared to the smart or correction he inflicts. This is an old idiom. -"Waxen image 'gainst a fire.-Act II., Scene 4. This alludes to the custom attributed to supposed witches, of making waxen images of those whom they wished to destroy; as the image melted before the fire, the original was supposed to melt too. "'T is but her picture I have yet beheld.”—Act II., Scene 4. Her mere person, which gives but a faint idea of her mental perfections. "How say'st thou ?"-Act II., Scene 5. What sayest thou to this? It is much to be doubted whether women are more susceptible than men on this point. If they are, it is probably because they consider a gift as a proof of sincerity; as an evidence that they are thought of in their absence. "What lets."-Act III., Scene 1. Hinders, or prevents. So in "HAMLET:"—“I'll make a ghost of him that 'lets' me." "For they are sent by me."-Act III., Scene 1. "For that," or "because" they are sent by me. "Merops' son."-Act III., Scene 1. The meaning is, "Thou art comparatively a low-born wretch; not the genuine son of Apollo." "I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom."-Act III., Scene 1. "By" flying, or "in" flying. If I stay, I may suffer death; if I depart, I destroy myself. "Milk-white bosom of thy love."-Act III., Scene 1. This alludes to a practice formerly in general use, of women having a pocket in the fore part of their stays; the forerunner of the modern reticule. The allusions to this practice are frequent. "That's all one, if he be but one knave."-Act III., Scene 1. This passage has a a good deal puzzled the commentators. It seems merely a trifling jingle on the word "one," without any specific meaning.-In reference to trifles like these, Malone observes that, "In Shakspere's time, and long before, it was customary, in almost every play, to introduce a jester, who, with no great propriety, was denominated a clown, whose merriment made a principal part of the entertainment of the lower ranks, and, I believe, of the higher orders also. When no clown or jester was introduced in a comedy, the servants of the principal personages sustained his part; and the dialogue attached to them was written with a particular view to supply that deficiency, and to amuse the audience by the promptness of their pleasantry, and the liveliness of their conceits. Such is the province assigned to those characters in Lilly's comedies, which were performed with great success and admiration for several years before Shakspere's time; and such are some of the lower characters in this drama, the "COMEDY OF ERRORS," "LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST," and some others." These remarks may serve as a general note of introduction to the comic characters of Shakspere; and even when we meet, in his graver scenes, with occasional specimens of the trivialities adverted to, let us not hastily conclude that his defects are no less singular and surprising than his excellences; since we have only to turn to the sermons of Donne, his eloquent and earnest contemporary, to find how thoroughly a passion for quibbling and conceits had infected every branch of literature in the splendid era which they both so greatly contributed to adorn. "She hath had gossips.”—Act III., Scene 1. "Gossips" was a term applicable, in a particular manner, to godmothers, or to those females who visited a woman in her lying-in. "It was the son of thy grandmother."-Act III., Scene 1. An insinuation that the legitimacy of a child can be certainly known to its mother only. "St. Nicholas be thy speed."-Act III., Scene 1. St. Nicholas presided over clerks or learned persons. He was exalted to this honour, according to the legend, for having miraculously restored the lives of three young scholars who had been murdered. By the statutes of St. Paul's School, the scholars are required to attend divine service at the cathedral, on the anniversary of St. Nicholas. "The cover of the salt hides the salt."-Act III., Scene 1. The ancient salt-cellar was generally a large piece of plate, with a cover. There was but one on the table; and the mark of gentility was, to sit above the salt. "My daughter takes his going grievously.”—Act III., Scene 2. On this passage Malone has a note, which is curious and valuable, inasmuch as it shews that some attention was paid to the editing of the first folio. He says: "So [grievously] some copies of the first folio, 1623, the only authentic copy of this play; others, of which mine is one, have 'heavily.' Those copies which have 'grievously,' have also, in one of Launce's speeches in the preceding scene, 'in that last article;' instead of which, in the copies that read 'heavily,' we find, in that article.' Both these corrections appear to have been made while the sheet was working off at the press." "You must provide to bottom it on me." Act III., Scene 2. The reference is to what is called a bottom, or ball, of thread. The following lines, from Grange's "GARDEN" (1557), will throw light upon the passage: "A bottom for your silk, it seems, My letters are become, Which oft, with winding off and on, Are wasted whole and some." "Tune a deploring dump."-Act III., Scene 2. The term "dump" is now used only in a ludicrous sense; but there were formerly regular serious pieces of music so called, some of which are still preserved. "Have you the tongues?"-Act IV., Scene 1. Do you speak various languages? -"Awful men."-Act IV., Scene 1. "Awful" is here, and in various other places, used in the sense of "lawful." "As we do in our quality much want."-Act IV., Scene 1. In our kind or profession. So in the "TEMPEST:"-"Task Ariel and all his quality." "On silly women or poor passengers."-Act IV., Scene 1. This was one of the rules of Robin Hood's fraternity, and, no doubt, contributed to their popularity. -"Beauty lives with kindness."-Act IV., Scene 2. Beauty without kindness neither possesses happiness nor imparts it. "Out of all nick."—Act IV., Scene 2. Beyond all reckoning. Alehouse reckonings were formerly kept upon nicked or notched tallies, as well as more important accounts. In the old play of "A WOMAN NEVER VEXED," an innkeeper says, "I have carried The tallies at my girdle seven years together, For I did ever love to deal honestly in the nick." It is within these few years only, that this comparatively troublesome and inefficient method of reckoning was discontinued at the public exchequer. "Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.” Act IV., Scene 3. This alludes to a practice common in former ages, for widows and widowers (and probably also betrothed lovers) to make vows of chastity in honour of their deceased wives or husbands. In "DUGDALE'S ANTIQUITIES OF WARWICKSHIRE," says Steevens, there is the form of a commission, by the bishop of the diocese, for taking a vow of chastity by a widow. It seems that, besides observing the vow, the widow was for life to wear a veil and a mourning habit. The last distinction we may suppose to have been also made in respect of male votaries. "A dog at all things."-Act IV., Scene 4. Equivalent to the phrase, common among the populace, "If you are a man, act like a man." "Fellow that whips the dogs."-Act IV., Scene 4. This was part of the office of an usher of the table. An extract from "STUBBS' ANATOMIE OF ABUSES," 1595, will explain this allusion:-" When they use to ride abroad, they have masks or visors made of velvet, wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look; so that if a man that knew not their guise before should chance to meet one of them, he would think he met a monster or a devil; for face he can shew [see] none, but two broad holes against their with eyes, glasses in them." "Since she respects my mistress' lore so much." Act IV., Scene 4. This is a lapse of memory in the author, unless we suppose Julia to be so wrapped in the scene, that, for the moment, she thinks herself the youth she represents. The following line has, probably, reference to this meaning. On recovering her recollection, we may suppose her to say, "Alas! how love can trifle with itself!" "Such a coloured periwig."-Act IV., Scene 4. It seems, from various contemporary authorities, that false hair was much worn in Shakspere's time: the custom, however, had newly arisen. In "NORTHWARD HOE," 1607, we find this passage: "There is a new trade come up for cast gentlewomen, of periwig-making. Let your wife set up in the Strand." There is a fine satirical allusion to the practice in question in the "MERCHANT OF VENICE:" "So are those crisped, snaky, golden locks, To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them in the sepulchre." "That they are out by lease."-Act V., Scene 2. Proteus here, perhaps, intends to speak figuratively of Thurio's mental possessions, and to imply that he is no longer master of them. "O! thou that dost inhabit in my breast, Act V., Scene 4. The witty and acute Steevens (albeit, in common with other recent commentators, we shall have frequent occasion to reject his wanton tamperings with the metre of Shakspere) has the good taste to say, with reference to this portion of Valentine's beautiful soliloquy, "It is hardly possible to point out four lines in any of the plays of Shakspere more remarkable for ease and elegance.". Indeed, the merits of the more poetical parts of this dramatic romance (for such, perhaps, is its most fitting designation) have been universally acknowledged. Even Johnson, whose criticism seems generally written on the see-saw system of giving an equal amount of praise and blame to Shakspere's productions, says of this play, that "few have more lines or passages which, singly considered, are eminently beautiful.” The remarks of Schlegel are characteristic of his wise and genial spirit: "The Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA' paints the irresolution of love, and its infidelity towards friendship, in a pleasant but, in some degree, superficial manner; we might almost say, with the levity of mind which a passion suddenly entertained, and as suddenly given up, presupposes. The faithless lover is at last forgiven, without much difficulty, by his first mistress, on account of his ambiguous repentance. For the more serious part,-the premeditated flight of the daughter of a prince; the captivity of her father along with herself by a band of robbers, of which one of the two gentlemen (the faithful and banished friend) has been compulsively elected captain;-for all this, a peaceful solution is soon found. It is as if the course of the world was obliged to accommodate itself to a transient, youthful caprice, called love." "All that was mine in Silvia I give thee."-Act V., Scene 4. This sudden renunciation of his mistress by Valentine is certainly startling, and perhaps unnatural. But we are to consider, that his mind is in the first glow of returning kindness towards his old and dearest friend, whose penitence touches him, and whose happiness he believes to require the sacrifice. Such romantic generosity is not uncommon in fiction, and probably not altogether unknown in actual life. One of Goldsmith's best serious essays, called "ALCANDER AND SEPTIMIUS," is founded on a similar incident: whether derived from fact, we are not prepared to say. The editor of a contemporary edition of Shakspere offers the very ingenious suggestion, that these two remarkable lines should be given to Silvia, and addressed to Valentine; but, on a general view of his character, we have no doubt of the genuineness of the present reading. -"Gave aim to all your oaths."-Act V., Scene 4. Was the object to which all your oaths were directed. "Cleft the root."-Act V., Scene 4. The allusion is to cleaving the pin, or nail, in archery. "If shame live in a disguise of love.-Act V., Scene 4. If there be any disgrace in assuming a disguise from a motive of love. "The measure of my wrath."-Act V., Scene 4. of "Thou art a gentleman, and well derived."-Act V., Scene 1. This is an instance, founded on observation, how far prejudice alters our view even of the simplest and most apparent facts. The Duke has more than once, in his anger, spoken of Valentine as one of mean birth, and even calls him peasant. But now, being inclined to favour him, he finds, on the sudden, that he is "a gentleman, and well derived." "Include all jars."-Act V., Scene 4. Shut in, or enclose, all jars. In Cowdrey's "ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF HARD ENGLISH WORDS," (1604), we find, "To include: to shut in, to containe within." "Triumphs."-Act V., Scene 4. This term was applied, in Shakspere's day, to shows or processions of a serious nature. |