Pro. Gone, my good lord. Duke. My daughter takes his going heavily. Pra. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace, Duke. And, Protheus, we dare trust you in this And cannot foon revolt and change your mind. Duke. And alfo, I do think, thou art not ignorant You must lay lime 3, to tangle her defires, Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. Pro. The best way is, to flander Valentine Duke. Then you must undertake to flander him. [him, Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage Being intreated to it by your friend. By wailful fonnets, whofe composed rhimes Duke. Ay, much is the force of heaven-bred poefy. For Orpheus' lute was ftrung with poets' finews ; Vifit by night your lady's chamber-window Duke. This difcipline fhews thou hast been in Pra. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, Therefore, fweet Protheus, my direction-giver, 1 Very is immediate. 2 The meaning of this allufion is, As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The women's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of thread. 3 That is, birdlime. 4 A dump was the ancient term for a mournful gy. To inherit, is here ufed for to obtain poffeffion of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. That is, to chufe out. 7 That is, I will excufe you from waiting. My riches are these poor habiliments, Val. To Verona. 1 Out. Whence came you? Val. From Milan. 3 Out. Have you long fojourn'd there? Val. Some fixteen months; and longer might have ftaid, If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. 1 Out. What, were you banith'd thence ? Val. I was. 2 Out. For what offence? Val. For that which now torments me to rehearíe. Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine, 1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done fo: But were you banish'd for fo small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of fuch a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues? Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or elfe I often had been miferable. 3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat It is a kind of honourable thievery. 1 [to 2 Out. Tell us this; have you any thing to take Fal. Nothing but my fortune. 3 Out. Know then, that fome of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth I Thruft from the company of awful 1 men: For practifing to fteal away a lady, An heir, and niece ally'd unto the duke. 2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, Iftabb'd unto the heart, 1 Out. And I, for fuch like petty crimes as thefe. 2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, And live, as we do, in the wilderness? 3 Out. What fay'ft thou wilt thou be of our Say, ay, and be the captain of us all : 1 Out. But if thou fcom our courtesy, thou dy ft. have offer'd. Val. I take your offer, and will live with you; 1 Reverend, worshipful, fuch as magistrates. hafty paffionate reproaches and fcoffs. Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that Tha. Ay, but I hope, fir, that you love not here. Pro. Ay, Silvia, for your fake. Thu. Ithank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it luftily a while. Enter Hoff, at a difiance; and Julia in boy's cloaths. Hoft. Now, my young guest! methinks you're allycholly; I pray you, why is it? Jul. Marry, mine hott, because I cannot be merry. Hoft. Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where you shall hear music, and fee the gen tleman that you afk'd for. Jul. But fhall I hear him speak? Jul. That will be mufic. Hoft. Hark! bark! Jul. Is he among these? Hoft. Ay: but peace, let's hear 'em. Who is Silvia? what is fhe, That all our fains commend her? The heavens fuch grace did lend her, 2 Quality is nature relatively confidered. 3 That is, is the kind, as he is fair? For beauty lives with kindness: To help him of his blindness ; That Silvia is excelling ; Hoft. How now? are you fadder than you were How do you, man? the music likes you not. Haft. How, out of tune on the strings? Jul. Not fo; but yet fo falfe, that he grieves my very heart-strings. Hoft. You have a quick ear. Ful. Ay, I would I were deaf! it makes me have a flow heart. Hoft. I perceive, you delight not in music. Hoft. Hark, what fine change is in the mufic! But, hoft, doth this fir Protheus, that we talk on, Often refort unto this gentlewoman? For me, by this pale queen of night, Ifwear, Pro. I grant, fweet love, that I did love a lady : But the is dead. Jul. [Ahide.] 'Twere false, if I should speak it ; For, I am fure, the is not buried. Sil. Say, that the be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives; to whom, thyfelf art witness, I am betroth'd; and art thou not asham'd To wrong him with thy importunacy? Pro. I likewife hear, that Valentine is dead. Sil. And fo, fuppofe, am I; for in his grave, Affure thyfelf, my love is buried. Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. Sil. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence; Or, at the leaft, in her's fepulchre thine. Jul. [Afide.] He heard not that. Pro. Madam, if that your heart be fo obdurate, Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love, The picture that is hanging in your chamber; To that I'll fpeak, to that I'll figh and weep; For, fince the fubstance of your perfect self Is elfe dévoted, I am but a fhadow: And to your fhadow will I make true love. Jul. [Afide.] If 'twere a substance, you would, fure, deceive it, And make it but a fhadow, as I am. Sil. I am very loath to be your idol, fir; Hoft. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me, To worship shadows, and adore false shapes, he lov'd her out of all nick '. Jul. Where is Launce? Hofl. Gone to feek his dog; which, to-morrow, by his mafter's command, he muft carry for a prefent to his lady. Jul. Peace! ftand afide, the company parts. Pro. Sir Thurio, fear not you; I will fo plead, That you shall fay, my cunning drift excels. Thu. Where meet we? Pro. At Saint Gregory's well. Thu. Farewell. [Exeunt Thurio and musick. Silvia appears above, at her window. Pro. Madam, good even to your ladyship. Sil. I thank you for your mufic, gentlemen: Who is that, that spake? [truth, Pro. One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's You'd quickly learn to know him by his voice. Sil. Sir Protheus, as I take it. Send to me in the morning, and I'll fend it: Pro. As wretches have o'er-night, [Exeunt Protheus and Silvia. Jul. Hoft, will you go? Hoft. By my hailidom, I was faft afleep. Jul. Pray you, where lies fir Protheus? Hoft. Marry, at my house: Truft me, I think 'tis almoft day. Jul. Not fo; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest. Pro. Sir Protheus, gentle lady, and your fervant. There's fome great matter fhe'd employ me in. Sil. What is your will? Pro. That I may compafs yours. Sil. You have your with; my will is even this,— That haft deceived fo many with thy vows? Madam, madam ! Silvia, above at her window. Sil. Who calls? Egl. Your fervant, and your friend; One that attends your ladyship's command. Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good-morrow, Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself. According to your ladyfhip's impose 2, I am thus early come to know what fervice Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckonings are kept upon nicked or notched flicks or tallies? Inpofe is injunction, command. It is your pleafure to command me in. Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman, thrufts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemen-like dogs under the duke's table : he had not been there (blefs the mark) a piling while, but all the chamber fmelt him. Out with the dog, fays one; What cur is that? fays another; Whip him out, fays the third; Hang him up, fays the duke: I, having been acquainted with the fmell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs7: Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? y, marry, do I, quoth he. You do bim the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many mafters To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode; would do this for their fervant? nay, I'll be fworn And, for the ways are dangerous to pass, I have fat in the ftocks for puddings he hath ftolen, I do defire thy worthy company, otherwife he had been executed: I have ftood on Upon whofe faith and honour I repofe. the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, otherwife he Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour, had fuffer'd for 't: thou think'it not of this now! But think upon my grief, a lady's grief; -Nay, I remember the trick you ferv'd me, when And on the juftice of my flying hence, I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid To keep me from a most unholy match, [plagues. thee ftill mark me, and do as I do? When did'st Which heaven, and fortune, ftill reward with thou fee me heave up my leg, and make water I do defire thee, even from a heart Egl. Madam, I pity much your 3 grievances; 4 Recking as little what betideth me, As much I with all good befortune you. Sil. This evening coming. Egl. Where fhall I meet you? Sil. At friar Patrick's cell, Where I intend holy confeffion. Egl. I will not fail your ladyship: Sil. Good-morrow, kind fr Eglamour. [Exeunt. against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didit thou ever fee me do fuch a trick? Enter Protheus and fulia. Pro. Sebaftian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in fome service presently. Jul. In what you please; —I'll do, fir, what I can. Pro. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whorefon peafant, [To Launce. Where have you been thefe two days loitering? Laun. Marry, fir, I carry'd miftrefs Silvia the dog you bade me. Pro. And what fays fhe to my little jewel? Laun. Marry, the fays, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currifh thanks is good enough for such a prefent. Pro. But fhe receiv'd my dog? Laun. No, indeed, the did not: here I have brought him back again. Pro. What, didit thou offer her this from me? When a man's fervant fhall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I fav'd from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would fay precifely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was fent to deliver him, as a prefent to miftrefs Silvia, from my mafter; and I came no fooner into the dining chamber, but he fteps me to her trencher,| and feals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep 5 himself in all companies! I would have, as one fhould fay, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hang'd for 't; fure as I Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth: live, he had fuffer'd for't: you fhall judge. He Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee. Laun. Ay, fir; the other squirrel was ftol'n from me by the hangman's boy in the market-place: and then I offer'd her mine own; who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater. Pro. Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again, Sebaftian, I have entertained thee, 3 Sorrows. widows to make. To reck is to care 7 This appears to 1 Remorseful is pitiful. 2 It was common in former ages for widowers and vows of chaitity in honour of their deceafed wives or husbands. for. 5 That is, reftrain himself. 6 A proverbial expreffion of thofe times. have been part of the office of an ufher of the table. 8 That is, in the end, at the conclufion of every bufinefs he undertakes. Go ! Go prefently, and take this ring with thee, Deliver it to madam Silvia: She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me. I will not look upon your master's lines: I know, they are stuff'd with protestations, ful. It feems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: As eafily as I do tear this paper. She's dead, belike. Pro. Not fo; I think the lives. Jul. Alas! Pro. Why doft thou cry, alas ? Fal. I cannot chufe but pity her. Pro. Wherefore should'st thou pity her? Jul. Because, methinks, that she lov'd you as well As you do love your lady Silvia; She dreams on him, that has forgot her love: Pro. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal This letter; that's her chamber.-Tell my lady, I claim the promise for her heavenly picture. Your meffage done, hie home unto my chamber, Where thou shalt find me fad and folitary. [Exit Protheus. That with his very heart defpifeth me? Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean Jal. From my mafter, fir Protheus, madam. Jal. Ay, madam. Sil. Urfula, bring my picture there. [Picture brought. Go, give your mafter this: tell him from me, One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget, Would better fit his chamber, than this fhadow. Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter. Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again. Jul. Madam, he fends your ladyfhip this ring. Sil. The more fhame for him, that he fends it me; For, I have heard him say a thousand times, His Julia gave it him at his departure: Though his falie finger hath profan'd the ring, Mine fhall not do his Julia fo much wrong. Jal. She thanks you. Sil. What fay'it thou? Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my maiter wrongs her much. Sil. Doft thou know her? Jul. Almoft as well as I do know myself: Sil. Belike, the thinks that Protheus hath for- ful. She hath been fairer, madam, than fhe is: Jul. About my ftature: for at Pentecoft, Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth:- I weep myfelf, to think upon thy words. Here, youth, there is my purfe; I give thee this. For thy fweet miftrefs' fake, because thou lov❜ft her. Farewell. [Exit Silvia. ful. And the hall thank you for 't, if e'er you know her. A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful. I That is, in good carnet. |