Here 'tis; this is it. [Gives a ring.

Jul.

Pro. How! let me see:

Why, 'tis the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O, cry you mercy,6 sir, I have mistook: 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 'em deeply in her heart:

How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root !7

O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush !

Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me
Such an immodest raiment, - if shame live

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

Pro. Than men their minds! 'tis true. O Heaven, were

man

But constant, he were perfect! that one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all 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; 'Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.

6" Cry you mercy" is exactly the same in sense as "ask your pardon." Often used so by the Poet.

7 The allusion to archery is continued. To cleave the pin was in archery to hit the mark in the centre, or what is here called the root. So, two lines before, that which gave aim was the mark at which the shafts were aimed.

8 The meaning appears to be, "If it is any shame to wear a disguise in such a cause."

Pro. Bear witness, Heaven, I have my wish for ever.
Jul. And I mine.

Enter Outlaws, with the DUKE and THURIO.

Outlaws. A prize, a prize, a prize!

Val. Forbear, forbear, I say! it is my lord the Duke. Your Grace is welcome to a man disgraced,

Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.

Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure of my wrath :
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Milano 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 9 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 10 again.
Plead a new state in thy unrivall❜d merit,

To which I thus subscribe,· - Sir Valentine,

9 To make means for a thing is to use means or take pains in order to gain it.

10 To repeal one home is elliptical language, meaning to repeal one's sentence of exile, and let him come home.

Thou art a gentleman, and well derived;

Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved 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.

Duke. I grant it, for thine own, whate'er it be.
Val. These banish'd men, that I have kept 11 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 reformèd, 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 12 all jars
With triumphs, 13 mirth, and rare solemnity.

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 blushes.
Val. I warrant you, my lord, more grace than boy.

Duke. What mean you by that saying?

Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass along,
That you
will wonder what hath fortunéd.

Come, Proteus ; 'tis your penance, but to hear
The story of your loves discoveréd :

That done, our day of marriage shall be yours;
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

[Exeunt.

11 The Poet repeatedly uses kept in the sense of dwelt or lived. So in The Merchant, iii. 3: "It is the most impenetrable cur that ever kept with men."

12 Include in the sense of conclude or put an end to. So the Latin poets, and also the later prose writers, sometimes use the verb includo.

13 Triumphs here means pageants, such as masques and shows. The

word was often used thus.

CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 162. That's a deep story of a deeper love;

For he was more than over shoes in love.

Val. 'Tis true; and you are over boots in love.

of these lines, the original has for instead of and. The logical unfitness of for is evident enough. Collier's second folio substitutes but.

P. 162. Val. No,

I will not, for it boots not.

Pro.

Val.

What?

To be

In love, where scorn is bought with groans; coy looks

With heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth

With twenty watchful, &c. The original has the verse badly disordered here, printing "No, I will not, for it boots thee not” all in one line, running "To be " into the same line with " In love," &c., and setting "coy looks" at the beginning of the next line. The reading and arrangement in the text are Walker's.

P. 163. At Milan let me hear from thee by letters. — The original has "To Millaine." The correction is Malone's.

P. 164. I leave myself, my friends, and all, for love. - The original has love instead of leave. Corrected by Pope.

P. 164. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me;

Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,

War with good counsel, set the world at nought,

Make wit with musing weak, &c. - The original has "Made wit with musing weake." This implies thou to be the subject of the