Speed. You never saw her since she was de- And, if it please you, so; if not, why, so. formed.

Val. No, boy, but as well as I can do them:- you perceive her earnest? Peace, here she comes.

Speed. O excellent motion 3 O exceeding pup there an end.

bet! now will he interpret to her.

Val. Madam and mistress, a thousand good

3 Motion signified, in Shakspeare's time, a puppetshore Speed means to say, what a fine puppet-show shall we have now? Here is the principal puppet to whom my master will be the interpreter. The show2 Set, for seated, in opposition to stand in the prece-man was then frequently called the interpreter. ding line. It appears, however, to be used metaphorical- 4 i. e. like a scholar. ly in the sense applied to the sun when it sinks below

Julia, farewell-What! gone without a word!
Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak;
For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.
Enter PANTHINO.

Pant. Sir Proteus, you are staid for.
Pro. Go; I come, I come :-

Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same. A Street. Enter
LAUNCE, leading a Dog.

Laun. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault; I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think, Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it: This shoe is my father:-no, this left shoe is my father;-no, no, this left shoe is my mother;-nay, that cannot be so neither ;-yes, it is so, it is so; it hath the worser sole; This shoe, with the hole in it, is my mother; and this my father: A vengeance on't! there 'tis: now, sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog :-no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog;-oh, the dog is me, and I am myself: Ay, 80, so. Now come I to my father; Father, your blessing; now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father; well he weeps on:-now come I to my mother, (0, that she could speak now!) like a wood woman ;-well, I kiss her ;-why there 'tis; here's my mother's breath up and down: now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes: now the dog all this while sheds not a tear, nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears. Enter PANTHINO.

Pan. Launce, away, away, aboard; thy master is shipped, and thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter? why weepest thou, man? Away, ass; you will lose the tide, if you tarry any longer.

Laun. It is no matter if the ty'd were lost; for it is the unkindest ty'd that ever any man ty'd. Pan. What's the unkindest tide?

Laun. Why, he that's ty'd here; Crab, my dog. Pan. Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lose the flood; and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage; and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy master; and, in losing thy master, lose thy service; and in losing thy service,-Why dost thou stop my mouth?

Laun. For fear thou should'st lose thy tongue.
Pan. Where should I lose my tongue?
Laun. In thy tale.

Pan. In thy tail?

Laun. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service: And the tide !-Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive the boat with my sighs.

Pan. Come, come away, man; I was sent to

call thee.

Val. Ay, boy, it's for love.
Speed. Not of you.

Val. Of my mistress then.

Speed. "Twere good you knocked him.
Sil. Servant, you are sad.'

Val. Indeed, madam, I seem so.
Thu. Seem you that you are not?
Val. Haply I do.

Thu. So do counterfeits.
Val. So do you.

Thu. What seem I, that I am not?
Val. Wise.

Thu. What instance of the contrary?
Val. Your folly.

Thu. And how quotes you my folly?
Val. I quote it in your jerkin.
Thu. My jerkin is a doublet.

Val. Well, then, I'll double your folly.
Thu. How?

Sil. What, angry, Sir Thurio? do you change

colour?

Thu. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. Val. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin.

Sil. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

Val. 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver.
Sil. Who is that, servant?

1

Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's Val. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire: looks, and spends what he borrows, kindly in your company.

Thu. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.

Val. I know it well, sir: you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers; for it appears by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.

Sil. No more, gentlemen, no more; here comes my father.

Enter DUKE.

Sir Valentine, your father's in good health:
Duke. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset
What say you to a letter from your friends
Of much good news?

Val. My lord, I will be thankful
To any happy messenger from thence.

Duke. Know you Don Antonio, your countryman?
To be of worth, and worthy estimation,
Val. Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman
And not without desert so well reputed.
Duke. Hath he not a son?

Val. Ay, my good lord; a son, that well de

serves

The honour and regard of such a father.
Duke. You know him well?

Val. I knew him as myself; for from our infancy
We have convers'd, and spent our hours together:
And though myself have been an idle truant,
Omitting the sweet benefit of time,
To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection;
Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name,
Made use and fair advantage of his days;
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word, (for far behind his worth
Come all the praises that I now bestow,)
He is complete in feature, and in mind,

ation was evidently cote from the French original.
5 To quote is to mark, to observe, the old pronunci-

6 Feature in the poet's age was often used for form
or person in general. Thus Baret: "The feature
and facion, or the proportion and figure of the whole
body. Conformatio quædam et figura totius oris et sor
poris." So in Ant. and Cleop. Act. ii. Sc. 5.
"Report the feature of Octavian."

Thus also Spenser:

"Which the fair feature of her limbs did hic.'

Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes, Duke. Beshrew me, sir, but, if he make this And made them watchers of mine own heart's sor

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 so little.
How shall I dote on her with more advice,'
That thus without advice begin to love her?
"Tis but her picture2 I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled3 my reason's light;
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason but I shall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.
SCENE V.-The same. A Street. Enter SPEED
and LAUNCE.

Milan.

[Exit.

I

SCENE VI.-The same. An Apartment in the
Palace. Enter PROTEUS.

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 this threefold perjury.

Speed. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Laun. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; for 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.

Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear: O sweet suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd, Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it. At first I did adore a twinkling star, But now I worship a celestial sun. Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken: To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.And he wants wit, that wants resolved will Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad, With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths. Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd I cannot leave to love, and yet I do; But there I leave to love, where I should love. Speed. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the ale-If I keep them, I needs must lose myself; Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose : nouse with you presently; where, for one shot of If I lose them, thus find I by their loss, ive pence thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with madam I to myself am dearer than a friend; Julia?

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

Speed. But shall she marry him?

Laun. No.

me.

Speed. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistakest

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 a Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian. Speed. Why?

Laun. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee, as to go to the ale with a Christian. Wilt thou go?

Speed. At thy service.

[Exeunt.

1 i. e. on further knowledge, on better consideration. 2 Proteus means to say, that as yet he had only seen outward form, without having known her long enough to have any acquaintance with her mind. 3 Dazzled is used as a trisyllable. 4 i. e. what say'st thou to this circumstance.

And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair'
For love is still most precious in itself:
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,
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
Without some treachery used to Valentine:-
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor :
Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising, and pretended' flight;
For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter:
Who all enrag'd, will banish Valentine;
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! [Exit.

SCENE VII.

Verona. A Room in Julia's House. Enter JULIA
and LUCETTA.

Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me!
And, e'en in kind love, I do conjure thee,-
Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'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.
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,
Thou would'st as soon go kindle fire with snow,
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

5 To suggest, in the language of our ancestors, was to tempt.

6 i. e. myself who am his competitor or rival, being admitted to his counsel. Competitor here means confederate, assistant, partner. Thus in Ant. Cleop. Act v.

Sc.

1.

That thou my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire,
Friend and companion in the front of war.

7 i. e. proposed or intended flight. The verb pretendre has the same signification in French.

8 The verb to conjure, or earnestly request, was then accented on the first syllable.

Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot | And presently go with me to my chamber,

fire;

But qualify the fire's! extreme rage,

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
Jul. The more thou dam'st2 it up, the more it
burns;

The current, that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with th' enamel'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,
A blessed soul doth in Elysium.

Luc. But in what habit will you go along?
Jul. Not like a woman; for I would prevent
The loose encounters of lascivious men:
Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds
As may beseem some well reputed page.
Luc. Why then your ladyship must cut your hair.
Jul. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings,
With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots;
To be fantastic may become a youth
Of greater time than I shall show to be.
Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your
breeches?

Jul. That fits as well, as-"tell me, good my
lord,

To take a note of what I stand in need of,
To furnish me upon my longing journey.
All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
My goods, my lands, my reputation;
Only, in lieu thereof despatch me hence:
Come, answer not, but to it presently;
I am impatient of my tarriance.

ACT III.

[Exeunt

SCENE I.-Milan. An Anti-room in the Duke's
Palace. Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS.
Duke. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;
We have some secrets to confer about.

[Exit THURIO Now, tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me? Pro. My gracious lord, nat which I would dis

cover,

The law of friendship bids me to conceal :
But, when I call to mind your gracious favours
Done to me, undeserving as I am,
My duty pricks me on to utter that

Which else no worldly good should draw from me.
Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, my friend,
This night intends to steal away your daughter;
Myself am one made privy to the plot.

I know you have determin'd to bestow her
On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates;
And should she thus be stolen away from you,
It would be much vexation to your age.
Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose
To cross my friend in his intended drift,
Than, by concealing it, heap on your head

"What compass will you wear your farthingale ?"
Why, even what fashion thou best lik'st, Lucetta.
Luc. You must needs have them with a cod-A
piece, madam.

Jul. Out, out, Lucetta; that will be ill favour'd.
Luc. A round hose, madam, now's not worth a
pin,

Unless you have a cod-picce to stick pins on.

Jul. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have What thou think'st meet, and is most mannerly: But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me, For undertaking so unstaid a journey?

I fear me, it will make me scandaliz❜d.

pack of sorrows, which would press you down.
Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.
Duke. Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest ca.
Which to requite, command me while I live.
This love of theirs myself have often seen,
Haply, when they have judged me fast asleep;
And oftentimes have purpos'd to forbid
Sir Valentine her company, and my court:
But, fearing lest my jealous aim" might err,
And so unworthily disgrace the man,
(A rashness that I ever yet have shunn'd,)

Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and go I gave him gentle looks; thereby to find

not.

Jul. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go.
It Proteus like your journey, when you come,
No matter who's displeas'd, when you are gone:
I fear me, he will scarce be pleas'd withal.

Jul. This is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
And instances of infinite" of love,
Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men.
Jul. Base men, that use them to so base effect!
But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth:
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud, as heaven from earth.
Luc. Pray heaven, he prove so, when you come

to him!

Jul. Now, as thou lov'st me, do him not that
wrong,

To bear a hard opinion of his truth;
Only deserve my love, by loving him;

1 Fire as a dissyllable, as if spelt Fier.
2 i. e. closest.
3 Trouble.

That which thyself hast now disclos'd to me.
And, that thou may'st perceive my fear of this,
Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested",
I nightly lodge her in an upper tower,
The key whereof myself have ever kept;
And thence she cannot be convey'd away.

Pro. Know, noble lord, they have devis'd a mean
How he her chamber-window will ascend,
And with a corded ladder fetch her down;
For which the youthful lover now is gone,
And this way comes he with it presently;
Where, if it please you, you may intercept him.
But, good my lord, do it so cunningly,
That my discovery be not aimed at;
For love of you, not hate unto my friend,
Hath made me publisher of this pretence".
Duke. Upon mine honour, he shall never know
That I had any light from thee on this.
Pro. Adieu, my lord; Sir Valentine is coming.
[Exit

Enter VALENTINE.

Duke. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast? Val. Please it your grace there is a messenger found the infinite of thought" in Much Ado About 4 Whoever wishes to be acquainted with that singu. Nothing. The text seems to me sufficiently intelligible, lar appendage to dress, a cod-piece, may consult "Bul-though we are not used to such construction. Malone wer's Artificial Changeling," Ocular instruction may has cited an instance of infinite used for an infinity be had from the armour shown as John of Gaunt's in from Lord Lonsdale's Memoirs, written in 1688. the Tower. However offensive this language may appear 6 By her longing journey, Julia means a journey to modern ears, it certainly gave none to any of the which she shall pass in longing. spectators in Shakspeare's days. He only used the ordinary language of his contemporaries.

5 The second folio reads-"as infinite of love," Malone wished to read of the infinite of love, because he

7 i. e. guess. In Romeo and Juliet we have-
"I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd."
8 i. e. tempted. Vide Note on Act . Sc. 5, p. 136.
9 i. e. design.