And that hath dazzled my reason's light;
But when ] look on her perfections,5
There is no reason but I shall be blind.
If ] can check my erring love, [ will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

SCENE V.

The same. A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

[Exit.

Speed. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan. Laun. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always-that a man is never undone, till he be hanged; nor never welcome to a place, till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess. say, welcome.

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the ale-house with you, presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with madam Julia?

Laun. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest.

Speed. But shall she marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? Shall he marry her?

Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Laun. No, they are both as whole as a fish.

Speed. Why, then, how stands the matter with them? Laun. Marry, thus; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her.

Speed. What an ass art thou? I understand thee not.

Philoclea, immediately on seeing her portrait, in the house of Kalander. Steevens.

5 And that hath dazzled my reason's light;

But when I look, &c.] Our author uses dazzled as a trisyllable. The editor of the second folio, not perceiving this, introduced so, ("And that hath dazzled so," &c.) a word as hurtful to the sense, as unnecessary to the metre. The plain meaning is, Her mere outside has dazzled me;—when I am acquainted with the perfections of her mind, I shall be struck blind. Malone.

6 -to Milan.] It is Padua in the former editions. note on Act III. Pope.

See the

Laun. What a block art thou, that thou canst not? My staff understands me."

Speed. What thou say'st?

Laun. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me.

Speed. It stands under thee, indeed.

Laun. Why, stand under and understand is all one. Speed. But tell me true, will 't be a match?

Laun. Ask my dog: if he say, ay, it will; if he say, no, it will; if he shake his tail, and say 'nothing, it will. Speed. The conclusion is, then, that it will.

Laun. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. 'Tis well that I get it so.

But, Launce, how say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?8 Laun. I never knew him otherwise.

Speed. Than how?

Laun. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be. Speed. Why, thou whorson ass, thou mistakest me. Laun. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy

master.

Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover. Laun. Why I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself in love. If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, so; If not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.

66

7 My staff understands me.] This equivocation, miserable as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great poem, B. VI: -The terms we sent were terms of weight, "Such as, we may perceive, amaz'd them all, "And stagger'd many; who receives them right, "Had need from head to foot well understand; "Not understood, this gift they have besides, "To shew us when our foes stand not upright."

Johnson.

The same quibble occurs likewise in the second part of The Three Merry Coblers, an ancient ballad:

8

"Our work doth th' owners understand,

"Thus still we are on the mending hand. Steevens.

how sav'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?] i. e. (as Mr. M. Mason has elsewhere observed) What say'st thou to this circumstance,-namely, that my master is become a notable lover? Malone.

9 -so;] So, which is wanting in the first folio, was supplied by the editor of the second. Malone.

Speed. Why?

Laun. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee, as to go to the ale1 with a Christian: Wilt thou go? Speed. At thy service. [Exeunt.

Pro. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;
To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn:

To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
And even that power, which gave me first my oath,
Provokes me to his threefold perjury.

Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear:

O sweet-suggesting love!3 if thou hast sinn'd,

Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.
At first, I did adore a twinkling star,

1

the ale -] Ales were merry meetings instituted in country places. Thus, Ben Jonson:

"And all the neighbourhood, from old records
"Of antique proverbs drawn from Whitson lords,
"And their authorities at wakes and ales,

"With country precedents, and old wives' tales,
"We bring you now."

Again, in Ascham's Toxophilus, edit. 1589, p. 2: make merry with their neighbours at the ale."

-or else Again, as Mr. M. Mason observes, in the play of Lord Cromwell:

"O Tom, that we were now at Putney, at the ale there!" See also Mr. T. Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. III. p. 128. Steevens.

2 It is to be observed, that, in the folio edition there are no directions concerning the scenes; they have been added by the later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that can give more consistency or regularity to the drama by such alterations. I make this remark, in this place, because I know not whether the following soliloquy of Proteus is so proper in the street. Johnson.

The reader will perceive that the scenery has been changed, though Dr. Johnson's observation is continued. Steevens.

30 sweet-suggesting love!] To suggest is to tempt, in our author's language. So again:

"Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested."

The sense is, O tempting love, if thou hast influenced me to sin, teach me to excuse it. Johnson.

But now, I worship a celestial sun.
Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
And he wants wit, that wants resolved will

To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.-
Fye, fye, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;

But there I leave to love, where I should love.
Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose:

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
If I lose them, thus find I by their loss,
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia.
I to myself am dearer, than a friend;
For love is still more precious in itself:
And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair!
Shews Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,
Rememb'ring that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I 'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.

I cannot now prove constant to myself,
Without some treachery, used to Valentine:-
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor: 4

in counsel, his competitor:] Myself, who am his competitor or rival, being admitted to his counsel. Johnson. Competitor is confederate, assistant, partner. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Is it not Cæsar's natural vice, to hate
"One great competitor ?"

and he is speaking of Lepidus, one of the triumvirate. Steevens. Steevens is right in asserting, that competitor, in this place, means confederate, or partner. The word is used in the same sense in Twelfth Night, where the Clown, seeing Maria and Sir Toby, approach, who were joined in the plot against Malvolio, says, "The competitors enter." And again, in K. Richard III, the messenger says:

66 -The Guildfords are in arms,
"And every hour more competitors
"Flock to the rebels,"

So also, in Love's Labour Lost:

"The king, and his competitors in oath." M. Mason.

Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising, and pretended flight;5
Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine;
For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter:
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross,
By some sly trick, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!"

SCENE VII.

Verona. A Room in Julia's House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me!
And, even in kind love, I do conjure thee,—
Who art the table, wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly charácter'd and engrav'd,-
To lesson me; and tell me some good mean,
How, with my honour, I may undertake
A journey to my loving Proteus.

Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long.
Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
Much less shall she, that hath love's wings to fly;
And when the flight is made to one, so dear,

Of such divine perfection, as sir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Proteus make return.

Exit.

Jul. O, know'st thou not, his looks are my soul's food? Pity the dearth that I have pined in,

By longing for that food so long a time.

Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,

5

pretended flight;] Pretended flight is proposed, or intended flight. So, in Macbeth:

-What good could they pretend.”

Mr. M. Mason justly observes, that the verb pretendre in French, has the same signification. Steevens.

Again, in Dr. A. Borde's Introduction of Knowledge, 1542, sig. H3: "I pretend to return and come round about thorow other regyons in Europ." Reed.

6 this drift!] I suspect, that the author concluded the act with this couplet, and that the next scene should begin the third act; but the change, as it will add nothing to the probability of the action, is of no great importance. Johnson.