Pan. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Al phonso, With other gentlemen of good esteem, 40 Are journeying to salute the emperor, And to commend their service to his will. Ant. Good company; with them shall Proteus go: And, in good time! now will we break with him. Enter Proteus. Pro. Sweet love! sweet lines! sweet life! 50 Ant. How now! what letter are you reading there? Pro. May 't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two Of commendations sent from Valentine, Deliver❜d by a friend that came from him. Ant. Lend me the letter; let me see what news. Pro. There is no news, my lord; but that he writes How happily he lives, how well beloved, And daily graced by the emperor; Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune. Ant. And how stand you affected to his wish? 60 Pro. As one relying on your lordship's will, And not depending on his friendly wish. 44. That is, break, or open, the matter to him;-one of many instances showing how much the use of prepositions has changed. To break with a person, now wears a very different meaning. Antonio's words, in good time, refer to Proteus, whom he just then sees coming.-H. N. H. Ant. My will is something sorted with his wish. Excuse it not, for I am peremptory. 70 Ant. Look, what thou want'st shall be sent after thee: No more of stay! to-morrow thou must go. [Exeunt Ant. and Pan. Pro. Thus have I shunn'd the fire for fear of burning, And drench'd me in the sea, where I am I fear'd to show my father Julia's letter, The uncertain glory of an April day, 80 87. It is curious to note with what accuracy as well as vividness the Poet here paints the manners of April. The play was written in his youth, when he was more at home with external nature than Re-enter Panthino. Pan. Sir Proteus, your father calls for you: He is in haste; therefore, I pray you, go. Pro. Why, this it is: my heart accords thereto, 90 And yet a thousand times it answers 'no.' [Exeunt. with man, his mind not having yet climbed the height of this latter argument. What a study is traced in the progress of his mind as the gay riches of vision gradually yielded to the sterner and solider riches of thought! the first, however, giving a promise of the last, and the last keeping up a remembrance of the first. The fine ecstasy with which, in his earlier plays, as in his poems, he dwells on the movements and aspects of nature has often sent our thoughts to a passage of Wordsworth, describing his youthful self: "For nature then To me was all in all. I cannot paint -H. N. H. ACT SECOND SCENE I Milan. The Duke's palace. Enter Valentine and Speed. Speed. Sir, your glove. Val. Not mine; my gloves are on. Speed. Why, then, this may be yours, for this is but one. Val. Ha! let me see: aye, give it me, it's mine: Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine! Speed. Madam Silvia! Madam Silvia! Val. How now, sirrah? Speed. She is not within hearing, sir. Val. Go to, sir: tell me, do you know Madam Speed. She that your worship loves? Val. Why, how know you that I am in love? 10 2. "On" and "one" were anciently pronounced alike, and frequently written so.-H. N. H. you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe your arms, like a male-content; to 20 relish a love-song, like a robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had lost his A B C; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam; to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions; when 30 you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money: and now you are metamorphosed with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master. Val. Are all these things perceived in me? Speed. They are all perceived without ye. Val. Without me? they cannot. Speed. Without you? nay, that's certain, for without you were so simple, none else 40 would: but you are so without these follies, that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal, that 27. "Hallowmas." The feast of All-hallows, or All Saints, at which time the poor in Staffordshire go from parish to parish a souling, as they call it; that is, begging and puling, (or singing small, as Bailey's Dictionary explains puling,) for soul-cakes, and singing what they call their souler's song. These terms point out the condition of this benevolence, which was, that the beggars should pray for the souls of the giver's departed friends.-H. N. H. 40. “none else would"; i. e. "no one else would perceive them.”— I. G. |