Duke. My daughter takes his going grievoufly *. Pro. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace, Duke. Thou know'ft, how willingly I would effect Duke. And alfo, I think, thou art not ignorant Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. Therefore it muft, with circumftance s, be spoken. Duke. Then you must undertake to flander him. Pro. And that, my lord, I fhall be loth to do: 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman; Efpecially, against his very friend". Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage him, Your flander never can endamage him; Therefore the office is indifferent, Being entreated to it by your friend. Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, -grievously. So fome copies of the first folio; others have, bea vily. The word therefore must have been corrected, while the fheet was working off at the prefs. The word laft, p. 155, 1. 23, was inferted in fome copies in the fame manner. MALONE. with circumftance,] With the addition of such incidental par ticulars as may induce belief. JOHNSON. 9-bis very friend.] Very is immediate. So, in Macheth: "And the very points they blow." STEEVENS. By aught that I can fpeak in his difpraife, I Thu. Therefore as you unwind her love from him, Left it should ravel, and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me : Which must be done, by praifing me as much As you in worth difpraife fir Valentine. Duke. And, Protheus, we dare truft you in this kind; Because we know, on Valentine's report, You are already love's firm votary, And cannot foon revolt and change your mind. may And, for your friend's fake, will be glad of you; Duke. Ay, Much is the force of heaven-bred poefy. 'That may discover such integrity 4 :— I as you unwind her love-] As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of tbread. JOHNSON. 2 you may temper ber] Mould her, you pleafe. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: pering between my finger and my thumb; him." MALONE. like wax, to whatever shape "I have him already temand fhortly will I feal with 3-lime] That is, birdlime. JOHNSON. 4 - - Such integrity :-] I fufpect that a line following this has been loft; the import of which perhaps was As her obdurate heart may penetrate. MALONE. For For Orpheus' lute was ftrung with poets' finews; Vifit by night your lady's chamber-window Duke. This difcipline thews thou haft been in love. To fort fome gentlemen well fkill'd in musick: To give the onfet to thy good advice. Duke. About it, gentlemen. Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, till after fupper; And afterward determine our proceedings. Duke. Even now about it; I will pardon you 9. 5 [Exeunt. with fome fweet concert :] The old copy has confort, which I once thought might have meant in our author's time a band or company of muficians. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Tyb. Mercutio, thou confort'ft with Romeo. "Mer. Confort! what, doit thou make us minfirels ?" The fubfequent words, " To their inftruments-," feem to favour this interpretation; but other inftances, that I have fince met with, in books of our author's age, have convinced me that confort was only the old fpelling of concert, and I have accordingly printed the latter word in the text. The epithet faveet, annexed to it, feems better adapted to the mufick itself than to the band. Confort, when accented on the first fyllable, (as here) had, I believe, the former meaning; when on the fecond, it fignified a company. So, in the next scene: "What fay it thou? Wilt thou be of our confort ?" MALONE. 6 Tune a deploring dump;] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy. STEEVENS. 7— - will inherit ber.] To inherit, is by our author, fometimes ufed, as in this inftance, for to obtain poffeffion of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. STEEVENS. To fort-] i. e. to choose out. So, in K. Rickard III: "Yet I will fort a pitchy hour for thee." STEEVENS. -I will pardon you.] I will excufe you from waiting. JOHNSON. ACT ACT IV. SCENE I. A Foreft near Mantua. Enter certain Out-laws. a Out. Fellows, ftand faft; I fee a paffenger. 2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em. 3 Enter VALENTINE and SPEEDS Out. Stand, fir, and throw us that you have about you; If not, we'll make you fit, and rifle you. Speed. Sir, we are undone! thefe are the villains That all the travellers do fear so much. Val. My friends, 1 Out. That's not fo, fir; we are your enemies. 2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him. 3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we; For he's a proper man1. Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lofe; A man I am, crofs'd with adverfity: My riches are thefe poor habiliments, Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the fum and fubftance that I have. 2 Out. Whither travel you? 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 staid, If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. 2 Out. What, were you banish'd thence? Val. I was. 2 Out. For what offence? Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse: I kill'd a man, whofe death I much repent; 1 — a proper man.] i. e. a rvell-looking man; he has the appears ance of a gentleman. So, afterwards: "And partly, feeing you are beautified "With goodly shape”. Again, in another play," thou waft the propereft man in Italy." MALONS. But But yet I flew him manfully in fight, 1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done fo: But were you banifh'd for fo fmall 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 fcalp of Robin Hood's fat friar3, This fellow were a king for our wild faction. 1 Out. We'll have him: firs, a word. Speed. Mafter, be one of them; It is an honourable kind of thievery. 2 Out. Tell us this; Have you any thing to take to ? Val. Nothing, but my fortune. 3 Out. Know then, that fome of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth Thruft from the company of awful men3: 2- Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. JOHNSON. By Robin Hood's fat friar, I believe, Shakspeare means Friar Tuck, who was confefior and companion to this noted outlaw. See figure III. in the plate at the end of the first part of K. Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS. Dr. Johnfon feems to have misunderstood this paffage. The speaker does not fwear by the scalp of fome churchman who had been plundered, but by the shaven crown of Robin Hood's chaplain. We will live and die together, (fays a perfonage in Peele's Edward I. 1593,) like Robin Hood, little John, friar Tucke, and Maide Marian." MALONE. - awful men:] Reverend, worshipful, fuch as magiftrates, and other principal members of civil communities. JOHNSON. 3 Awful is ufed by Shakspeare, in another place, in the fenfe of lawful. Second part of Henry IV. A&t IV. fc. ii. "We come within our awful banks again." TYR WHITT. So, in K. Henry V. 1600: "creatures that by arve ordain "An act of order to a peopled kingdom." MALONE. I think we should read lawful in oppofition to lawless men. cial proceedings the word has this fenfe. SIR J. HAWKINS. In judi I believe we should read lawful men; i. e. legales homines. So, in the Newe Boke of Juftices, 1560-commaundinge him to the fame to make an inquest and pannel of lawful men of his countie." remark I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS. For this Myfelf |