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Than hate of Eglamour that goes with her. [Exit.

JUL. And I will follow, more to cross that love, Than hate for Silvia, that is gone for love. [Exit.

SCENE III.-Frontiers of Mantua. The Forest. Enter SILVIA and Outlaws.

1 OUT. Come, come;

Be patient, we must bring you to our captain.
SIL. A thousand more mischances than this one
Have learn'd me how to brook this patiently.
2 OUT. Come, bring her away.

1 OUT. Where is the gentleman that was with her?

3 OUT. Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us, But Moyses and Valerius follow him.

Go thou with her to the west end of the wood, There is our captain: we'll follow him that's fled, The thicket is beset, he cannot 'scape.

1 OUT. Come, I must bring you to our captain's

cave;

Fear not; he bears an honourable mind,
And will not use a woman lawlessly.

SIL. O Valentine, this I endure for thee.[Exeunt.

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DUKE. Why, then, she 's fled unto that peasant Valentine;

And Eglamour is in her company.

Tis true; for friar Lawrence met them both,
As he in penance wander'd through the forest:
Him he knew well, and guess'd that it was she;
But, being mask'd, he was not sure of it:
Besides, she did intend confession

At Patrick's cell this even; and there she was not:
These likelihoods confirm her flight from hence.
Therefore, I pray you, stand not to discourse,
But mount you presently, and meet with me
Upon the rising of the mountain-foot

That leads toward Mantua, whither they are fled.
Despatch, sweet gentlemen, and follow me. [Exit.
THU. Why, this it is to be a peevish girl,
That flies her fortune when it follows her:
I'll after; more to be reveng'd on Eglamour,
Than for the love of reckless Silvia.

[Exit.

PRO. And I will follow, more for Silvia's love,

Tis true, &c.] In the folio, 1623, this line is given to Thurio. There can be no doubt that it belongs to Julia.

That they are out by lease.] The meaning has been controverted. Lord Hailes explains it thus:-"By Thurio's possessions be himself understands his lands. But Proteus chooses to take the word likewise in a figurative sense, as signifying his mental

SCENE IV. Another part of the Forest.

Enter VALENTINE.

VAL. How use doth breed a habit in a man! This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns: Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune my distresses, and record my woes. O thou that dost inhabit in my breast, Leave not the mansion so long tenantless; Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall, And leave no memory of what it was ! Repair me with thy presence, Silvia;

Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain! What hallooing, and what stir, is this to-day? These are my mates, that make their wills their

law,

Have some unhappy passenger in chase:
They love me well; yet I have much to do,
To keep them from uncivil outrages.
Withdraw thee, Valentine; who 's this comes here?
[Steps aside.

endowments; and when he says they are out by lease, he means that they are no longer enjoyed by their master, (who is a fool,) but are leased out to another."

e And record my woes.] To record refers to the singing of birds, and is derived, Douce says, from the recorder,-a sort of flute by which they were taught to sing.

Enter PROTEUS, SILVIA, and JULIA.

PRO. Madam, this service I have done for you, (Though you respect not aught your servant doth,) To hazard life, and rescue you from him That would have forc'd your honour and your love. Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look; A smaller boon than this I cannot beg, And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give.

VAL. How like a dream is this I see and hear! Love, lend me patience to forbear a while. [Aside. SIL. O miserable, unhappy that I am!

PRO. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came; But, by my coming, I have made you happy. SIL. By thy approach thou mak'st me most unhappy.

presence.

JUL. And me, when he approacheth to your [Aside. SIL. Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the beast, Rather than have false Proteus rescue me. O, Heaven be judge how I love Valentine, Whose life 's as tender to me as my soul; And full as much (for more there cannot be) I do detest false perjur'd Proteus : Therefore be gone, solicit me no more.

PRO. What dangerous action, stood it next to death,

Would I not undergo for one calm look?
O, 't is the curse in love, and still approv'd,"
When women cannot love where they 're belov'd.
SIL. When Proteus cannot love where he's
belov'd.

Read over Julia's heart, thy first best love,
For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith
Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury, to love me.

Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two,
And that's far worse than none; better have none
Than plural faith, which is too much by one:
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

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And still approv'd,-] That is, always proved. So in "Othello," Act I. Sc. 3,

"My very noble and approv'd good masters."

b All that was mine, in Silvia, I give thee.] No passage in the play has caused so much perplexity to the commentators as this. "It is, I think, very odd," remarks Pope, "to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reason alleged; "-and every reader thinks so too; and innumerable have been the expedients suggested to remove the anomaly. It has been proposed to transfer the lines to Thurio in another scene; and Mr. Knight intimates that, with a slight alteration, they might be given to Silvia. Mr. Baron Field suggested we should read,

"All that was thine, in Silvia I give thee."

i.c. "I will make up my love for you as large as the love you once had for Silvia." The most plausible correction is, I think,

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VAL. Thou common friend, that's without faith or love;

(For such is a friend now;) treacherous man!
Thou hast beguil'd my hopes; nought but mine
eye

Could have persuaded me: now I dare not say
I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove me.
Who should be trusted when one's own* right hand
Is perjur'd to the bosom? Proteus,

I am sorry I must never trust thee more,
But count the world a stranger for thy sake.
The private wound is deepest: O time most
accurs'd!

'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst. PRO. My shame, and guilt, confounds me.— Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow

Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I tender it here; I do as truly suffer
As e'er I did commit.

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the transferring the disputed lines to Proteus, but reading Julia for Silvia, thus:

"And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine, in Julia, I give thee."

All the love I once felt for Julia, I will henceforth dedicate to my friendship for you.

Whatever may be thought of this conjecture, no one can believe the lines were spoken by Valentine, after seeing the vehemence with which he repels the advances of Thurio to his mistress subsequently, even in the presence of her father, the Duke:

"Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Verona shall not hold thee. Here she stands;
Take but possession of her with a touch;-
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love."

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This is the ring you sent to Silvia.

[Shows another ring. PRO. But how camest thou by this ring? At my depart, I gave this unto Julia. JUL. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. PRO. How! Julia!

JUL. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, And entertain❜d them deeply in her heart: How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?b

O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!

Be thou asham'd, that I have took upon me

Such an immodest raiment; if shame live

In a disguise of love:

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their shapes, than men their

minds.

PRO. Than men their minds! 't is true; O

Heaven! were man

That gave aim-] To give aim, and to cry atm, have been so admirably explained and discriminated by Mr. Gifford, that we cannot do better than append his note upon the expressions:"Ai! for so it should be printed, and not cry aim, was always addressed to the person about to shoot; it was an hortatory exclamation of the bystanders, or, as Massinger has it, of the dle lookers-on, intended for his encouragement. To cry aim! was to encourage; to give aim was to direct; and in these distinct

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all
th' sins:

Inconstancy falls off ere it begins:
What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's with a constant eye?

VAL. Come, come, a hand from either:

Let me be bless'd to make this happy close; "T were pity two such friends should be long foes. PRO. Bear witness, Heaven, I have my wish for

ever.

JUL. And I mine.

Enter Outlaws, with DUKE and THURIO.

OUT. A prize, a prize, a prize!

VAL. Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the duke.

Your grace is welcome to a man disgrac'd,
Banished Valentine.

and appropriate senses the words perpetually occur. Those who cried aim stood by the archers; he who gave it, was stationed near the butts, and pointed out, after every discharge, how wide, or how short, the arrow fell of the mark."

b Cleft the root?] That is, of her heart. She is carrying on the allusion to archery. To cleave the pin was to split the wooden peg which attached the target to the butt.

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Come not within the measure of my wrath:
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Verona shall not hold thee. Here she stands;
Take but possession of her with a touch ;-
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love..
THU. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:
I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

DUKE. The more degenerate and base art thou,
To make such means for her as thou hast done,
And leave her on such slight conditions.-
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress' love!
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.-
Plead a new state in thy unrivall'd merit,b
To which I thus subscribe,-Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd;
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv'd her.
VAL. I thank your grace; the gift hath made
me happy.

I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake,
To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

a Verona shall not hold thee.] This is the reading of the only authentic edition of the present play we possess. Theobald, upon the ground that Thurio was a Milanese, and that the scene is between the confines of Milan and Mantua, changed the reading

to

"Milan shall not behold thee;"

DUKE. I grant it, for thine own, whate'er it be VAL. These banish'd men, that I have kept withal,

Are men endued with worthy qualities;
Forgive them what they have committed here,
And let them be recall'd from their exile :
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.
DUKE. Thou hast prevail'd; I pardon them,
and thee;

Dispose of them, as thou know'st their deserts.
Come, let us go; we will include all jars
With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.(1)

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

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ILLUSTRATIVE COMMENTS.

ACT i.

(1) SCENE I.-Nay, give me not the boots.] To give one the boots, like the French equivalent, donner le change à quelqu'un, means, to sell him a bargain.

"Acc. What, doo you give me the boots?
Half. Whether will they, here be night
Cobler's cuts."

LILLY'S Mother Bombie, 1594.

So also in "The Weakest go to the Wall," 1618 :"Tis not your big belly nor your fat bacon can carry it away, if you ofer us the boots."

Steevens thinks the expression arose from a sport the country people in Warwickshire use at their harvest-home, where one sits as judge to try misdemeanours committed in harvest; and the punishment for the men is to be laid on a bench and slapped on the breech with a pair of boots. But he remarks, the allusion may be to the dreadful panishment known as the boots. In Harl. MSS., 699948, Mr. T. Randolph writes to Lord Hunsdon, and mentions in the P.S. to his letter, that George Fluke had yesterday night the boots, and is said to have confessed that the Earl of Morton was privy to the poisoning the Earl of Athol, 16th March, 1580; and in another letter, March 18th, 1580, "that the Laird of Wittingham had the boots, but without torment, confess'd," &c. The punishment consisted in putting on the victim a pair of iron boots, fitting close to the leg, and then driving wedges with a mallet between those and the limb. Not a great while before this play was written, Douce tells us it was indicted on a poor wretch, one Fian, in Scotland, in the presence of King James (afterwards our James the First). Fian was supposed to be a wizard, and to have been concerned in raising the storms which the King encountered on his matrimonial expedition to Denmark. The account of the transaction, which is contained in a very curious old pamphlet, states that Fian "was with all convenient speed, by commandement, convaied againe to the torment of the boots, wherein he continued a long time, and did abide so many blows in them, that his legges were crushte and beaten togeather as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so brused that the bloud and marrowe spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever." The miserable man was afterwards burned.

In our

(2) SCENE I.—I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton.] Laced mutton was, from a very early period of our history, a cant phrase to express a courtesan. author's time, according to Malone, it was so established a term for one of these unfortunates, that a street in Clerkenwell, much frequented by them, was then called Mutton Lane. Mr. Dyce suggests that, in the present instance, the expression might not be regarded as synonymous with courtesan; and that Speed applied the term to Julia in the much less offensive sense of a richly-attired piece of woman's flesh. We believe there was but one meaning attached to the term; and the only palliation for Speed's application of it in this case is, that in reality it was not the lady, but her waiting-maid, to whom he gave the letter.

(3) SCENE I.-You have testern'd me.] The old copy reads cestern'd-a palpable corruption. The tester, testern, teston, derives its name, some suppose, from the French teston, so called on account of the King's head first appearing on this coin,-Louis XII. 1513; or from an Italian coin of the same denomination. In England the name is said to have been first applied to the shilling (originally coined by Henry VII.), at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., and was at first of the value of twelve silver pennies; it subsequently became much reduced; and its debasement by an admixture of copper, temp. 1551, and again, 1560, is satirized in Heywood's "Epigrams:

"These testons, look, read; how like you the same?
'Tis a token of grace-they blush for shame."

At the latter period named, it was so far reduced as to be worth but fourpence halfpenny; but it afterwards rose in value again to the value of sixpence.

"Sir Toby. Come on; there is sixpence for you, let's have a song.

Sir Andrew. There's a testril of me too; if one knight give a

Clown. Would you have a love song," &c.

And it appears to have popular name for that coin.

Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 3. ever since continued as a

(4) SCENE II.-What ho! Lucetta /] It may be interesting to compare this scene with the corresponding portion of Felismena's story in Book II. of Bartholomew Yong's translation of the "Diana" of Montemayor, 1598 :

"But to see the meanes that Rosina made unto me (for so was she called), the dutifull services and unwoonted circumstances, before she did deliver it, the othes that she sware unto me, and the subtle words and serious protestations she used, it was a pleasant thing, and woorthie the noting. To whom (neverthelesse) with an angrie countenance I turned againe, saying, If I had not regard of mine owne estate, and what hereafter might be said, would make this shamelesse face of thine be knowne ever after for a marke of an impudent and bolde minion: but bicause it is the first time, let this suffice that I have saide, and give thee warning to take heed of the second.

"Me thinkes I see now the craftie wench, how she helde her peace, dissembling very cunningly the sorrow that she conceived by my angrie answer; for she fained a counterfaite smiling, saying, Jesus, mistresse! I gave it you, bicause you might laugh at it, and not to moove your patience with it in this sort; for if I had any thought that it would have provoked you to anger, I praie God he may shew his wrath as great towards me as ever he did to the daughter of any mother. And with this she added many wordes more (as she could do well enough) to pacifie the fained anger and ill opinion that I had conceived of her, and taking her letter with her, she departed from me. This having passed thus, I began to imagine what might ensue thereof, and love (me thought) did put a certaine desire into my minde to see the letter, though modestie and shame forbad me to ask it of my maide, especially for the wordes that had passed betweene us, as you have heard. And so I continued all that day untill night, in varietie of many thoughts; but when Rosina came to help me to

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