Sil. I'll wait upon his pleasure: [Exit Serv.] Come, Sir Thurio, Go with me. And once more, new fervant, welcome

I'll leave you to confer of home-affairs;

When you have done, we look to hear from you.
Pro. We'll both attend upon your ladyship.

[Exit Sil. and Thu.

SCENE VII.

Val. Now tell me, how do all from whence you came ?

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much commended.

Val. And how do yours?

Pro. I left them all in health.

Val. How does your lady? and how thrives your love?

Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you? I know, you joy not in a love-difcourfe.

Val. Ay, Protheus, but that life is alter'd now;
I have done penance for contemning love;

Whofe high imperious thoughts have punish'd me (7)
With bitter fafts, with penitential groans;
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs.
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chac'd fleep from my enthralled

eyes,

And made them watchers of mine own heart's forrow.
O gentle Protheus, love's a mighty lord;
And hath fo humbled me, as, I confefs,
There is no woe to his correction, (8)

Nor

the editions is affigned improperly to Thurio; but he has been all along upon the stage, and could not but know that the Duke wanted his daughter, Befides, the first line, and half of Silvia's anfwer, is evidently addreffed to two perfons. A fervant, therefore, mult come in and deliver the meffage; and then Silvia goes out with Thurio. THEOBALD.

(7) Whofe high imperious-] For whofe I read thofe. I have contemned love and am punish'd. Those high thoughts by which I exalted myself above human paffions or frailties, have brought upon me fafts and groans.

(8) No woe to his correction,] No mifery that can be compared

to

Nor to his fervice, no fuch joy on earth.
Now no difcourfe, except it be of love;
Now can I break my faft, dine, fup, and fleep
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough: I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol, that you worship fo?

Val. Even the; and is the not an heav'nly faint?
Pro. No; but she is an earthly paragon.

Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O flatter me: for love delights in praise. Pro. When I was fick, you gave me bitter pills: And I muft minifter the like to you.

Val. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine,
Yet let her be a principality, (9)

Sov'reign to all the creatures on the earth.
Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any;

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reafon to prefer mine own?
Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too:
She fhall be dignified with this high honour,
To bear my lady's train, left the bafe earth
Should from her vefture chance to fteal a kifs
And, of fo great a favour growing proud,
Difdain to root the fummer-fwelling flower;
And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what bragadifm is this?
Val. Pardon me, Protheus; all I can, is nothing
To her, whofe worth makes other worthies nothing;
She is alone. *

Pro. Then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world: why, man, fhe is mine own; And I as rich in having fuch a jewel,

to the punishment inflicted by love. Herbert called for the prayers of the Liturgy a little before his death, faying, None to them, none to them.

(9) A principality,] The firft or principal of women. So the old writers ufe ftate. She is a lady, a great ftate. LATYMER. This look is called in states warlie, in others otherwife.

*She is alone.] She ftands by herfelf. compared to her,

Sir T. MORE.. There is none to be

As

As twenty feas, if all their fand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou feeft me doat upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes,
Only for his poffeffions are fo huge,
Is gone with her along, and I must after;
For love, thou know'It is full of jealoufy.
Pro. But she loves you?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage-hour,

With all the cunning manner of our flight,

Determin'd of, how I muft climb her window,
The ladder made of cords; and all the means
Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In thefe affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I shall enquire you forth.
I must unto the road, to difembark
Some neceffaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make hafte?

Pro. I will.

Ev'n as one heat another heat expels,

Or as one nail by ftrength drives out another;
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine eye, or Valentino's praife, (1)
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreflion,

[Exit Val.

(1) It is mine THEN, or Valentino's praife,] Here Protheus questions with himfelf, whether it is his own praife, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love with Valentine's miftrefs. But not to infist on the abfurdity of falling in love through his own praises, he had not indeed praised her any farther than giving his opinion of her in three words, when his friend afked it of him. In all the old editions, we find the line printed thus;

Is it mine, or Valentino's praile

A word is wanting. The line was originally thus:
Is it mine EYE, or Valentino's praise?

Protheus had just feen Valentine's miftrefs, whom her lover had been lavishly praifing. His encomiums therefore heightening Protheus's idea of her at the interview, it was the less wonder he should be uncertain which had made the strongest impreffion, Valentine's praises, or his own view of her. WARBURTON.

That

That makes me, reafonless, to reason thus?
She's fair, and fo is Julia, that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainft a fire,
Bears no impreffion of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold,
And that I love him not, as I was wont.
O! but I love his lady too, too much:
And that's the reason, I love him fo little.
How fhall I doat on her with more advice, (2)
That thus without advice begin to love her?
"Tis but her picture I have yet beheld, (3)
And that hath dazeled my reafon's light:
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason, but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compafs her I'll use my skill.

SCENE VIII.

Changes to a Street.

Enter Speed and Launce.

[Exit.

Sped. Launce, by mine honesty, welcome to * Milan. Laun. Forfwear not thyfelf, fweet youth; for I am not welcome: I reckon this always, that a man is never undone, 'till he be hang'd; nor ever welcome to a place, 'till fome certain fhot be paid, and the hoftess fay, wel

come.

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

(2) With more advice,] With more prudence, with more dif

cretion.

(3) 'Tis but her picture] This is evidently a flip of attention, for he had seen her in the last scene, and in high terms offered her his fervice.

*

It is Padua in the former editions. See the note on

POPE. Laun.

Laun. Marry, after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very fairly in jeft.

Speed. But fhall fhe marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? fhall 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 ftands well with her.

Speed. What an afs art thou? I understand thee not. Laun. What a block art thou, that thou canst not? My ftaff understands me. (5)

Speed. What thou fay'ft?

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

Speed. It ftands under thee indeed.

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

Laun. Afk my dog: if he fay ay, it will, if he fay no, it will; if he shake his tail, and fay nothing, it will. Speed. The conclufion is then, that it will.

Laun. Thou shalt never get fuch a fecret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. 'Tis well that I get it fo. But Launce, how fay'ft thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover? Laun. I never knew him otherwise.

Speed. Than how?

Laun. A notable lubber, as thou reporteft him to be. Speed. Why, thou whorfon afs, thou mistakest me. Laun. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy mafter.

This equivocation, miferable as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great Poem, B. VI.

The terms we fent 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 befides
To fhew us when our fees ftand not upright.
VOL. I.

L

Speed.