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THE
PLAYS AND POEMS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE,
WITH THE
CORRECTIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
OF
VARIOUS COMMENTATORS:
COMPREHENDING
311 %ift of flje ^oet,
AND
AN ENLARGED HISTORY OF THE STAGE,
BY
THE LATE EDMOND MALONE.
WITH A NEW GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
TH2 <i>T2E£12 rPAMMATET2 HN, TON KAAAMON
AHOBPEXaN EI2 NOTN. Vet. Auct. apiid Suidam.
VOL. IV.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; T. EGERTON ; J. CUTHELL ; SCATCHERD AND LETTERMAN ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN ; CADELL AND DAVIES; LACKINGTON AND CO.; J. BOOKER; BLACK AND CO. ; J. BOOTH; J.RICHARDSON; J. M.RICHARDSON; J. MURRAY; J.HARDING; R.H.EVANS; J. MAWMAN; R. SCHOLEY ; T. EARLE ; J. BOHN ; C.BROWN; GRAY AND SON ; R. PHENEY ; BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY; NEWMAN AND CO. ; OGLES, DUN- CAN, AND CO. ; T. HAMILTON; W.WOOD; J. SHELDON; E.EDWARDS; WHIT MORE AND FENN; W. MASON; G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER; SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL; R. SAUNDERS: J. DEIGHTON AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE: WILSON AND SON, YORK : AND STIRLING AND SLADE, FAIRBAIRN AND ANDERSON, AND D. BROWN, EDINBURGH.
1821.
" Take pains the genuine meaning to explore ; " There sweat, there strain ; tug the laborious oar; " Search every comment that your care can find ; " Some here, some there, may hit the poet's mind: " When things appear unnatural and hard, " Consult your author with himself compar'd."
Roscommon.
C, Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street, London.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. COMEDY OF ERRORS. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
OF
VERONA.
VOL. IV.
B
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
Some of the incidents in this play may be supposed to have been taken from The Arcadia, - Book I. chap. vi. where Pyrocles con- sents to head the Helots. (The Arcadia was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, August 23d, 1588.) The love-adventure of Julia resembles that of Viola in Twelfth Night, and is indeed common to many of the ancient novels. Steevens.
Mrs. Lenox observes, and I think not improbably, that the story of Proteus and Julia might be taken from a similar one in the ** Diana "of George of Montemayor. — "This pastoral romance," says she, *' was translated from the Spanish, in Shakspeare's time." I have seen no earlier translation than that of Bartholomew Yong, who dates his dedication in November, 1598 ; and Meres, in his Wit's Treasuiy, printed the same year, expressly mentions the Two Gentlemen of Verona. Indeed, Montemayor was translated two or three years before, by one Thomas Wilson ; but this work, I am persuaded, was never published entirely ; perhaps some parts of it were, or the tale might have been translated by others. However, Mr, Steevens says, veiy truly, that this kind of love- adventure is frequent in the old novelists. Farmer.
There is no earlier translation of the Diana entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, than that of B. Younge, Sept. 1598. Many translations, however, after they were licensed, were capriciously suppressed. Among others, " The Decameron of Mr. John Boccace, Florentine," was "recalled by my lord of Canterbury's commands." Steevens.
It is observable (I know not for what cause) that the style of this comedy is less figurative, and more natural and unaffected, than the greater part of this author's, though supposed to be one of the first he wrote. Pope.
It may very well be doubted whether Shakspeare had any other hand in this play than the enlivening it with some speeches and lines thrown in here and there, which are easily distinguished, as being of a different stamp from the rest. Hanmer.
To this observation of Mr. Pope, which is very just, Mr. Theo- bald has added, that this is one of Shakspeare's " worst plays, and is less corrupted than any other." Mr. Upton peremptorily deter- mines, " that if any proof can be drawn from manner and style, this play must be sent packing, and seek for its parent elsewhere.
B 2
4
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
How otherwise," says he, " do painters distinguish copies from originals ? and have not authors their peculiar style and manner, from w^hich a true critic can form as unerring judgement as a painter ? " I am afraid this illustration of a critic's science will not prove what is desired. A painter knows a copy from an original by rules somewhat resembling those by which critics know a trans- lation, which, if it be literal, and literal it must be to resemble the copy of a picture, will be easily distinguished. Copies are known from originals, even when the painter copies his own pic- ture ; so, if an author should literally translate his work, he would lose the manner of an original.
Mr. Upton confounds the copy of a picture with the imitation of a painter's manner. Copies are easily known ; but good imi- tations are not detected with equal certainty, and are, by the best judges, often mistaken. Nor is it true that the writer has always peculiarities equally distinguishable with those of the painter. The peculiar manner of each arises from the desire, natural to every performer, of facilitating his subsequent work by recurrence to his former ideas ; this recurrence produces that repetition which is called habit. The painter, whose work is partly intel- lectual and partly manual, has habits of the mind, the eye, and the hand ; the writer has only habits of the mind. Yet, some painters have differed as much from themselves as from any other ; and I have been told, that there is little resemblance be- tween the first works of Raphael and the last. The same varia- tion may be expected in wi'iters ; and if it be true, as it seems, that they are less subject to habit, the difference between their works may be yet greater.
But by the internal marks of a composition we may discover the author with probability, though seldom with certainty. When I read this play, I cannot but think that I find, both in the serious and ludicrous scenes, the language and sentiments of Shakspeare. It is not, indeed, one of his most powerful effusions ; it has nei- ther many diversities of character, nor striking delineations of life ; but it abounds in yvu^juxi beyond most of his plays, and few have more lines or passages, which, singly considered, are emi- nently beautiful. I am yet inclined to believe that it was not very successful, and suspect that it has escaped corruption, only be- cause being seldom played, it was less exposed to the hazards of transcription. Johnson.
That it ever should have been a question whether this comedy were the genuine and entire composition of Shakspeare, appears to me veiy extraordinary. The notions of Sir Thomas Hanmer and Mr. Upton on this subject, which have been above stated, in my opinion only show their want of taste and critical skill, and their deficiency of information respecting the history of Shak- speare and the chronological order of his dramas. They never
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
5
seem to have considered whether the Two Gentlemen of Verona were his first or one of his latest pieces ; and it might, for aught which they appear to have known, have belonged, like The Tempest, to the latter class, notwithstanding its having so forward a place in the first authentic edition of his plays. But reasons have been already assigned, to show that it was the earliest, or at least one of the earliest, of his dramatick compositions ; and therefore it is not to be weighed against that late most beau- tiful and highly-wrought comedy, which in the volume published by the players is preposterously placed before it.
Is no allowance to be made for the first flights of a young poet ? nothing for the imitation of a preceding celebrated dramatist, which in some of the lower dialogues of this comedy (and these only) may, I think, be traced ? But even these, as well as the other parts of this play, are as perfectly Shakspearian (I do not say as finished or as beautiful) as any of his other pieces ; and the same judgment must, I conceive, be pronounced concerning the Comedy of Errors and Love's Labour Lost, by eveiy person who is inti- mately acquainted with his manner of thinking and writing.
Mr. Pope has expressed his surprise, that " the style of this comedy is less figurative and more natural and unaffected than the greater part of this author's, though supposed to be one of the first he wrote." But I conceive it is natural and unaffected, and less figurative, than some of his subsequent productions, in con- sequence of the very circumstance which has been mentioned — because it was a youthful performance. Though many young poets of ordinaiy talents are led by false taste to adopt inflated and figurative language, why should we suppose that such should have been the course pursued by this master genius ? The figu- rative style of Othello, Lear, and Macbeth, vn-itten when he was an established and long-practised dramatist, may be ascribed to the additional knowledge of men and things, which he had acquired during a period of fifteen years ; in consequence of which, his mind teemed with images and illustrations, and thoughts crowded so fast upon him, that the construction in these, and some other of his plays of a still later period, is much more difficult and involved than in the productions of his youth, which in general are distinguished by their ease and perspicuity ; and this simpli- city and unaffected elegance, and not its want of success, were, I conceive, the cause of its being less corrupted than some others. Its perspicuity rendered any attempt at alteration unnecessary. Who knows that it was not successful ? For my own part, I have no doubt that it met with the highest applause. Nor is this mere conjecture ; for we know from the testimony of a contemporary well acquainted with the stage, whose eulogy on our author I have already produced, that he was very early distinguished for his comick talents, and that before the end of the year 1592, he had
6
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
excited the jealousy of one of the most celebrated dramatick poets of that time.
In a note on the first scene of this comedy, Mr. Pope has parti- cularly objected to the low and trifling conceits which he says are found there and in various other parts of the play before us : but this censure is pronounced without sufficient discrimination, or a due attention to the period when it was produced. Every com- position must be examined with a constant reference to the opinions that prevailed when the piece under consideration was wi-itten ; and if the present comedy be viewed in that light, it will be found that the conceits here objected to were not deno- minated by any person of Shakspeare's age low and trifling, but were veiy generally admired, and were considered pure and ge- nuine wit. Nothing can prove the tmth of this statement more de- cisively than a circumstance which I have had occasion to mention elsewhere, — that Sir John Harrington was commonly called by Queen Elizabeth her witty godson, and was very generally admired in his own time for the liveliness of his talents and the playfulness of his humour ; yet when we examine his writings*, we find no other proof of his wit than those very conceits which have been censured in some of our author's comedies aS mean, low, and trifling. It is clear therefore that the notions of our ancestors on this subject were very dift'erent from ours ; what we condemn, they highly admired ; and what we denominate true wit, they certainly would not have relished, and perhaps would scarcely have understood.
Mr. Pope should also have recollected, that in Shakspeare's time, and long before, it was customary in almost every play to introduce a jester, who, with no great propriety, was denomi- nated a CLOWN ; whose merriment made a principal part of the entertainment of the lower ranks, and, I believe, of a large portion of the higher orders also. When no clown or jester was intro-
* See particularly his " Supplie " [or Supplement] to Godwin's Account of the English Bishops ; which abounds in almost every page with such conceits as we are now speaking of. The titles of some of our poet's comedies, which appear to have been written by the booksellers for whom they were printed, may also be cited for the same purpose; thus we have " A pleasant conceited comedy called Love's Labour's Lost," &c. 1598; that is, a comedy full of pleasant conceits. The bookseller doubtless well knew the publick taste, and added this title as more likely to attract purchasers than any other he could devise. See also " A most pleasant and excellent conceited comedy of Syr John Falstafl'e," &c. 1602, i. e. a comedy full of excellent con- ceits.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
7
duced in a comedy, the seiTants of the principal personages sustained his part; and the dialogue attributed to them was written with a particular view to supply that deficiency, and to amuse the audience by the promptness of their pleasantry and the liveliness of their conceits. Such is the province assigned to those characters in Lilly's comedies, which were performed with great success and admiration for several years before Shakspeare's time ; and such are some of the lower characters in this drama, the Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, and some others. On what ground therefore is our poet to be condemned for adopting a mode of writing universally admired by his contemporaries, and for not foreseeing that in a century after his death, these dialogues which set the audience in a roar, would by more fastidious criticks be denominated low quibbles and trifling conceits * ?
With respect to his neglect of geography in this and some other plays, it cannot be defended by attributing his errour in this instance to his youth ; for one of his latest productions is liable to the same objection. The truth, I believe, is, that as he neg- lected to observe the rules of the drama with respect to the unities, though before he began to write they had been enforced by Sidney in a treatise which doubtless he had read; so he seems to have thought that the whole terraqueous globe was at his com- mand ; and as he brought in a child in the beginning of a play, who in the fourth act appears as a woman, so he seems to have wholly set geography at defiance, and to have considered countries as inland or maritime just as it suited his fancy or convenience.
With the qualifications and allowances which these considera- tions demand, the present comedy, viewed as a first production, may surely be pronounced a very elegant and extraordinary per- formance.
Having already given the reasons why I suppose this to have been our author's first play, it is only necessary to say here, that I believe it to have been written in 1591. See the Essay on the • Chronological Order of Shakspeare's Plays. Malone.
* See this topick further discussed, in the preliminaiy obser- vations to the Comedy of Errors.
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
Duke of Milan, father to Silvia.
^ Gentlemen of Verona.
Antonio, father to Proteus. Thurio, a foolish rival to Valentine. Egl AMOUR, agent for Silvia, in her escape. Speed, a clownish servant to Valentine. Launce, servant to Proteus. Panthino^, servant to Antonio. Host, where Julia lodges in Milan. Out-laws.
Julia, a lady of Verona, beloved by Proteus. Silvia, the Duke's daughter, beloved by Valentine. LucETTA, waiting-woman to Julia.
SCENE, sometimes in Verona ; sometimes in Milan ; and on the frontiers of Mantua.
' Proteus,] The old copy has — ProtAeus; but this is merely the antiquated mode of spelling Proteus. See the Princely Plea- sures at Kenelworth Castle, by G. Gascoigne, 1587, where *' ProtAeus appeared, sitting on a dolphyns back." Again, in one of Barclay's Eclogues :
" Like as Protheus oft chaungeth his stature."
Shakspeare's character was so called, from his disposition to change. Steevens.
* Panthino.] In the enumeration of characters in the old copy, this attendant on Antonio is called Panthion^ but in the play, always Panthino. Steevens.
Servants, Musicians.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
OP
VERONA.
ACT I. SCENE I. An open place in Verona.
Enter Valentine and Proteus.
Val, Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus^; Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits*:
3 Proteus.] Mr. Steevens has justly observed that Protheus, which is found in the old copy throughout this play, is merely the old spelling of Proteus, a circumstance which escaped him and all other editors till the year 1793. Thus in *' the True Tragedie of Richard, Duke of York e," 1.595, on which Shakspeare formed the Third Part of King Heniy VI. :
" And for a need change shapes with Protheus.''
Again in Greene's Philomela :
*' Nature foreseeing how men would devise
*' More wiles than Protheus, women to entise."
Our ancestors seem to have been fond of introducing the letter h into proper names to which it does not belong ; and hence, even to this day, our common christian name Antony is written improperly Anthony. Even scholars shewed the same disregard to propriety in this respect as the unlearned. Thus Sir John Davys, in his fine Eulogy on the English law, prefixed to his Reports, folio 1615 : — " a greater combustion than that which happened when the chariot of the Sun did want a guide but half a day, as is lively expressed in the fable of Phaethon.'"
So also Sackville in the Mirrour for Magistrates :
" And Phaethon now near reaching to his race."
Tubervile in his Tragical Tales, 1567, has Thunis for Tunis.
Lydgate, in like manner, has TheJephus and Anthenor ; and in an old translation of the Gesta Romanorum, printed about 1580, we find in p. 1, Athalanta for Atalanta. Malone.
4 Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits:] Milton
10
TWO GENTLEMEN
^CT I.
Wer t not, affection chains thy tender days To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love, I rather would entreat thy company, To see the wonders of the world abroad. Than, living dully sluggardiz'd at home. Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness^. But, since thou lov'st, love still, and thrive therein, Even as I would, when I to love begin.
Pro. Wilt thou begone ? Sweet Valentine, adieu! Think on thy Proteus, when thou, haply, seest Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel : Wish me partaker in thy happiness, When thou dost meet good hap ; and, in thy danger. If ever danger do environ thee. Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, For I will be thy bead's-man, Valentine.
Fal. And on a love -book pray for my success.
Pro. Upon some book I love, I'll pray for thee.
Fal. That's on some shallow story of deep love. How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont ^.
has the same play on words, in his Masque at Ludlow Cas- tle:
" It is for homely features to keep liome,
*' They had their name thence." Steevens.
5 SHAPELESS IDLENESS.] The expressiou is fine, as imply-
ing' that idleness prevents the giving any form or character to the manners. Warburton.
^ some shallow story of deep love,
How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.] The poem of Musaeus, entitled Hero and Leander, is meant. Marlowe's translation, or rather imitation, of this piece was entered on the Stationers' books, Sept. 18, 1593 ; but it did not appear till 1598, when the first two Sestiads, which were all that Marlowe had finished, were published by Edward Blount, for whom, in conjunc- tion with Isaac Jaggard, our author's plays were aftei-wards printed. The remainder of this poem was added by Chapman, in 1600. Marlowe's production was extremely popular, and de- servedly so, many of his lines being as smooth as those of Diyden. Our author has quoted one of them in As You Like It. He had probably read this poem in manuscript recently before he wrote the present play; for he again alludes to it in the third act:
sc. J.
OF VERONA.
11
Pro, That's a deep story of a deeper love ; For he was more than over shoes in love.
f^L, 'Tis true ; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never sworn the Hellespont.
Pro, Over the boots ? nay, give me not the boots ^
f^L. No, I will not, for it boots thee not. Pro. What ?
K4L, To be in love where scorn is bought with groans ;
*' Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords, *' Would serve to scale another Hero's tower, *' So bold Leander would adventure it." Malone. 7 — nay, give me "not the boots.] A proverbial expression, though now disused, signifying, don't make a laughing stock of me ; don't play upon me. The French have a phrase, Bailler Join en come ; which Cotgrave thus interprets, To give one the boots; to sell him a bargain. Theobald.
Perhaps this expression took its origin from a sport the country- people in Warwickshire use at their harvest-home, where one sits as judge to try misdemeanors 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. This they call giving them the boots. I met with the same expression in the old comedy called Mother Bombie, by Lyly :
" What do you give mee the boots f " Again, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, a comedy, 1618 :
*' — Nor your fat bacon can cany it away, if you offer us the boots.''
The boots, however, were an ancient engine of torture. In MS. Harl. 6999—48, Mr. T. Randolph writes to Lord Hunsdon, &c. and mentions in the P. S. to his letter, that George Flecke had yesterday night the boots, and is said to have confessed that the E. of Morton vcas privy to the poisoning the E. of Athol, 16 March, 1580: and in another letter, March 18, 1580: *' — that the Laird of Whittingham had the boots, but without torment confess'd," &c. Steevens.
The boot was an instrument of torture used only in Scotland. Bishop Burnet in The Histoiy of his own Times, Vol. L 332, edit. 1754-, mentions one Maccael, a preacher, who, being sus- pected of treasonable practices, undei-went the punishment so late as 1666: " — He was put to the torture, which, in Scotland, they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between these and the leg. The common
12
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT T.
Coy looks, with heart-sore sighs ; one fading mo- ment's mirth,
With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights :
If haply won, perhaps, a hapless gain ;
If lost, why then a grievous labour won ;
However, but a folly bought with wit.
Or else a wit by folly vanquished^.
Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. Fal, So, by your circumstance ^, I fear you'll prove.
Pro. 'Tis love you cavil at ; I am not love.
KiL. Love is your master, for he masters you ; And he that is so yoked by a fool, Methinks should not be chronicled for wise.
Pro. Yet writers say ; as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells ^ ; so eating Love Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
VkL. And writers say ; as the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow ; Even so by Love the young and tender wit Is turn'd to folly ; blasting in the bud, Losing his verdure even in the prime. And all the fair effects of future hopes. But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee. That art a votary to fond desire ? Once more adieu : my father at the road Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd.
torture was only to drive these in the calf of the leg : but I have been told they were sometimes driven upon the shin bone." Reed.
^ However, but a folly, &c.] This love will end in ^ foolish action, to produce which you are long to spend your voit, or it will end in the loss of your voit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. Johnson.
9 So by your circumstance.] Circumstance is used equivo- cally. It here means, conduct ; in the preceding line, circum- stantial deduction. Malone.
I As in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells,] So, in our author's 70th Sonnet : For canker vice the sxveetest buds doth love. " Malone.
sc. /.
OF VERONA.
13
Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
F^L. Sweet Proteus no ; now let us take our leave. To Milan, let me hear from thee by letters ^, Of thy success in love, and what news else Betideth here in absence of thy friend ; And I Ukewise will visit thee with mine.
Pro. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan !
jp'^L, As much to you at home ! and so, farewell !
\^Ea:it Valentine,
Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love : He leaves his friends, to dignify them more ; I leave myself^, my friends, and all for love. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me ; Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought ; Made wit^ with musing weak, heart sick with thought^.
^ To Milan, let me hear from thee by letters.] Thus the only authentick edition, for which the modern editors following the second folio of 1632, have substituted — Milan, &c. But there is no occasion for departing from the original copy. The con- struction is — Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan, i. e. directed or addressed to Milan. In Act. IV. Sc. I. :
*' you use this dalliance to excuse
Your breach of promise to the Porcupine." i. e. to meet me at the Porcupine.
^ I LEAVE myself, my friends, and all for love.] The old copy has — I love myself. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. In Antony and Cleopatra, Act. V. Sc. I., we have in the old copy — For Caesar cannot leave to be ungentle — for live to be ungentle. Malone.
^ Made wit with musing weak,] The construction is — Thou hast made me neglect — thou hast made wit with musing weak.
Malone.
5 This whole scene, like many others in these plays (some of which, I believe, were written by Shakspeare, and others inter- polated by the players,) is composed of the lowest and most tri- fling conceits, to be accounted for only from the gross taste of the age he lived in ; Popido ut placer ent. I wish I had authority to leave them out ; but I have done all I could, set a mark of repro- bation upon them throughout this edition. Pope.
That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will be universally allowed ; but that it was interpolated by the players.
14
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT /.
Enter Speed.
Speed . Sir Proteus, save you : saw you my master ? Pro. But now he parted hence to embark for Milan.
Speed. Twenty to one then, he is shipp'd already; And I have play'd the sheep ^, in losing him.
Pro. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray. An* if the shepherd be awhile away.
Speed. You conclude, that my master is a shep- herd then, and I a sheep ?
Pro. I do.
Speed. Why then my horns are his horns, whe- ther I wake or sleep. Pro. a silly answer, and fitting well a sheep. Speed. This proves me still a sheep. Pro. True ; and thy master a shepherd. Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. Pro. It shall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. Speed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not
* First folio, And.
seems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticism. Johnson.
Mr. Pope, when he published his edition of these plays, was, I believe, very little acquainted with the ancient dramatick writers that immediately preceded Shakspeare. In his earliest plays something of their manner may be traced. The notion that this and other scenes were interpolated, is so wild and capricious, as not to deserve a moment's consideration. Malone.
^ And I have play'd the sheep — ] The jest, such as it is, may .escape the reader, unless he recollect that in Wamickshii-e, Worcestershire, Hertfordshire, and probably in some other counties, a sheep is pronounced a ship. The two words seem, in consequence of this communication, to have been used indiscrimi- nately, and confounded. Thus in Playford's "Dancing-Master," 10th edition, 1698, in the table we have as the name of a dance, *' Three sheep skins, " p. 215 ; and in the page refen-ed to we find " Three ship skins." Malone.
' And I A sheep.] The article which is wanting in the only authentick copy, 1623, was added in the second folio. Malone.
SC, I,
OF VERONA,
15
the sheep the shepherd ; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me : therefore, I am no sheep.
Pro. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, the shepherd for food follows not the sheep ; thou for wages foUowest thy master, thy master for wages follows not thee : therefore, thou art a sheep.
Speed. Such another proof will make me cry baa.
Pro. But dost thou hear ? gav'st thou my letter to Julia ?
Speed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton ^ ; and she, a laced
• ^ I, a LOST MUTTON, gave your letter to her, a laced mut- ton ;] Speed calls himself a lost mutton, because he had lost his master, and because Proteus had been proving him a sheep. But why does he call the lady a laced mutton? Wenchers are to this day called mutton-mongers j and consequently the object of their passion must, by the metaphor, be the mutton. And Cotgrave, in his English French Dictionary, explains laced mutton, Une garse, putain, Jille dejoye. And Mr. Motteux has rendered this passage of Rabelais, in the prologue of his fourth book, Caillea coiphees mignonnement chantans, in this manner; Coated quails and laced mutton waggishly singing. So that laced mutton has been a sort of standard phrase for girls of pleasure. Theobald.
Nash, in his " Have w^ith you to Saffron Walden," 1595, speak- ing of Gabriel Harvey's incontinence, says, " he would not stick to extoll rotten lac'd mutton.''' So, in the comedy of The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the Gentle Craft, 1610 :
*' Why here's good lac'd mutton, as I promis'd you."
Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578: " And I smelt he lov'd lac'd mutton well."
Again, Hey^vood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, speaking of Cupid, says, he is the " Hero of hie-hoes, admiral of ay-mes, and monsieur of mutton lac'd.'' Steevens.
A laced mutton was in our author's time so established a term for a courtezan, that a street in Clerkenwell, which was much frequented by women of the town, was then called Mutton-lane. It seems to have been a phrase of the same kind as the French expression — caille coifee, and might be rendered in that language, mouton en corset. This appellation appears to have been as old as the time of king Henry III. " Item sequitur gravis poena cor- poralis, sed sine amissione vitse vel membrorum, si raptus fit de concubind legitima, vel alia gucestum faciente, sine delectu per-
16
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT I.
mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour.
Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.
Speed. If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her.
Pro. Nay, in that you are astray ^ ; 'twere best pound you.
Speed. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter.
Pro. You mistake ; I mean the pound, a pinfold. Speed. From a pound to a pin? fold it over and over,
'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover.
Pro. But what said she ? did she nod * ? Speed. I. [Speed nods.
Pro. Nod, I ? why that's noddy ^
sonarum: has quidem oves debet rex lueri pro pace sua." Bracton deLegibus, lib. ii. Malone.
9 Nay, in that you are astray, &c.] For the reason Proteus gives. Dr. Thirlby advises that we should read — a stray, i. e. a stray sheep, vrhich continues Proteus's banter upon Speed.
Theobald.
* — did she nod ?]" These words have been supplied by some of the editors, to introduce what follows. Steevens.
They were supplied by Mr. Theobald. In Speed's answer the old spelling of the affirmative particle has been retained ; other- wise the conceit of Proteus (such as it is) would be unintelligible.
Malone.
* — that's NODDY.] Noddi/wsLS a game at cards. This play upon syllables is hardly worth explaining. The speakers intend to fix the name of noddy, that is, ./bo/, on each other. So in the second part of Pasquil's Mad Cappe, Sig. E. : *' If such a noddy be not thought a fool."
Again in Wit's Private Wealth, 1612, if you see a trull scarce, give her a nod, but follow her not, lest you prove a noddy.
Reed.
There can be no doubt concerning the meaning of noddy, a| used in the text ; the game at cards throws no light whatsoever on the present passage. Malone.
SC, I.
OF VERONA.
17
Speed. You mistook, sir ; I say she did nod : and you ask me, if she did nod ; and I say I .
Pro, And that set together, is noddy.
Speed, Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for your pains.
Pro, No, no, you shall have it for bearing the letter.
Speed, Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you.
Pro. Why, sir, how do you bear with me ?
Speed, Marry, sir, the letter very orderly ; having nothing but the word, noddy, for my pains.
Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.
Speed, And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.
Pro, Come, come, open the matter in brief: What said she ?
Speed. Open your purse, that the money, and the matter, may be both at once deliver d.
Pro, Well sir, here is for your pains: What said she.^
Speed, Truly, Sir, I think you'll hardly win her. Pro, Why ? Couldst thou perceive so much from her ?
Speed. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter : And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind ^. Give her no token but stones ; for she's as hard as steel.
3 — in telling your mind.] The editor of the second folio, not understanding this, altered i/our to her, which has been fol- lowed in all the subsequent editions. The old copy is certainly- right. The meaning is, — She being so hard to me who was the bearer of your mind, I fear she will prove no less so to you in the act of telling your mind, i. e. when you address her in person. VOL. IV. C
18
TWO GENTLEMEN
A€T I,
Pro, What, said she nothing ?
Speed, No, not so much as — take this for thy pains. To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me * ; in requital whereof, hence- forth carry your letters yourself : and so, sir, I'll commend you to my master.
Pro, Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck ;
Which cannot perish, having thee aboard ^, Being destin'd to a drier death on shore : — I must go send some better messenger ; I fear, my Julia would not deign my lines. Receiving them from such a worthless post.
[Exeunt,
The opposition is between brought and telling. Though Mr. Steevens had before him this easy and clear explanation of the words found in the only authentick copy of this play, he adhered to the sophisticated reading of the second folio, the words which are above explained being " to him unintelligible."
Malone.
^ — you have testern'd me;] You have gratified me with a tester y testern, or testen, that is, with a sixpence. Johnson.
The old reading is. — cestern'd. Steevens.
This typographical error was corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone.
Mr. H. White, in Mr. Steevens's edition of 1803, quotes a passage from one of Latimer's sermons [preached at Stamford in 1750] to show that a tester was in Latimer's time of the value of tenpence : the truth is, that it had a different value at different times. See Fleetwood's Chronicon Pretiosum, p. 32. " Testens, or as we now commonly call them, testers, from a head that was upon them, were coined (as is before said) 36 Hen. VIIL [1542]. Sir H. Spelman says they were French coin of the value of 18d. ; and he does not know but they might have gone for as much in England : he says it was brass, and covered over with silver; and in Henry the Eighth's days, for 12d. ; but 1 Edw. VL [1547], it was brought down to 9d. and then to 6d. (which still retains the name). " Malone.
5 Which cannot perish, &c.] The same proverb has been already alluded to in the first and last scenes of The Tempest.
Reed.
sc. ir.
OF VERONA.
19
SCENE II. The Same. The Garden of Julia's House.
Enter Julia and Lucetta,
Jul, But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, Would'st thou then counsel me to fall in love ?
Luc. Ay, madam; so you stumble not unheedfuUy.
Jul. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen, That every day with parle encounter me. In thy opinion, which is worthiest love ?
Luc. Please you, repeat their names, I'll shew my mind
According to my shallow simple skill.
Jul. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour ?
Luc. As our knight well-spoken, neat and fine ; But, were I you, he never should be mine ^.
Jul. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio ?
Luc. Well, of his wealth ; but of himself, so, so
Jul. What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus ?
Luc. Lord, lord ! to see what folly reigns in us !
Jul. How now, what means this passion at his name ?
Luc. Pardon, dear madam ; 'tis a passing shame. That I, unworthy body as I am. Should censure thus^ on lovely gentlemen.
^ — he Sir Eglamour never should be mine.] Perhaps Sir Eglamour was once the common cant term for an insignificant inamorato. So, in Decker's Satiromastix :
*' Adieu, Sir Eglamour ; adieu lute-string, curtain-rod, goose- quill," he. Sir Eglamour of Artoys indeed is the hero of an ancient metrical romance, " Imprinted at London, in Foster-lane, at the sygne of the Harteshorne, by John Walley," bl. 1. no date.
Steevens.
7 Should CENSURE thus — ] To censure^ in our author's time,
c 2!
20
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT I.
Jul, Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest ? Luc, Then thus, — of many good I think him best. Jul, Your reason ?
Luc, I have no other but a woman's reason ; I think him so, because I think him so.
Jul, And would'st thou have me cast my love on him
Luc, Ay, if you thought your love not cast away. Jul, Why, he of all the rest hath never mov d me. Luc, Yet he of all the rest, I think, best loves ye. Jul, His little speaking shows his love but small. Luc, Fire that's closest kept, burns most of all ®. Jul, They do not love, that do not show their love . Luc, O, they love least, that let men know their love.
Jul, I would, I knew his mind.
Luc, Peruse this paper, madam.
Jul, To Julia, — Say, from whom
Luc, That the contents will show.
Jul, Say, say ; who gave it thee ?
Luc, Sir Valentine's page ; and sent, I think, from Proteus : He would have given it you, but I, being in the way,
generally signified to give one's judgment or opinion. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act II. Sc. I.:
How blest am I
" In my just censure ? in my true opinion ? " See the note there. Malone.
* Fire that's closest kept, burns most of all.] The second and third words in this line are thus abbreviated in the only au- thentick copy of this play ; and hence it appears that Jire is here, as in many other places in these plays, used as a dissyllable. So, in the *' Letting of Humour's Blood," 8vo. 1600 : " O rare compound, a dying horse to choke, " Of English fyer and of Indie smoke." If it should be urged, that *' Fire that is closest " is a smoother line, I answer that we are not to re- write our author's plays.
Malone.
sc. JI.
OF VERONA.
21
Did in your name receive it; pardon the fault, I pray.
Jul. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker^! Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines ? To whisper and conspire against my youth ? Now, trust me, 'tis an office of great worth. And you an officer fit for the place. There, take the paper, see it be return'd ; Or else return no more into my sight.
Luc. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate.
Jul. Will you ^ be gone ?
Luc. That you may ruminate. \_Ea^lt, Jul. And yet, I would I had o'erlook'd the letter. It were a shame, to call her back again. And pray her to a fault for which I chid her. What fool is she, that knows I am a maid. And would not force the letter to my view ? Since maids, in modesty, say No, to that ^ Which they would have the profferer construe, Fie, fie ! how wayward is this foolish love. That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse, And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod ! How churlishly I chid Lucetta hence, When willingly I would have had her here !
* First folio, i/e.
9 —a goodly BROKER !] A broker was used for matchmaker, sometimes for a procuress. Johnson.
So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1599 :
" And flie (o flie) these hed-brokers unclean, " The monsters of our sex," &c. Steevens. Again, more appositely, in " Look to 't, for Tie stab ye," a col- lection of satirical verses by S. R. i. e. Samuel Rowlands, 8vo. 1604?: *' You scurvie fellow in the broker's suite *' A sattin doublet fac'd with greace and ale,
*' That of the art of bawdry can'st dispute, ***** *
*' Thou that within thy table hast set down
*' The names of all the squirrils in the towne," &c,
M ALONE.
^ — say No, to that, &c.] A paraphrase on the old proverb, *' Maids say nai/, and take it." Steevens.
22
TWO GENTLEMEN
^CT I.
How angerly ^ I taught my brow to frown, When inward joy enforc'd my heart to smile ! My penance is, to call Lucetta back, And ask remission for my folly past : — What ho! Lucetta!
Re-enter Lucetta,
Luc, What would your ladyship ?
Jul, Is it ^ dinner-time ?
Luc, I would, it were ; That you might kill your stomach ^ on your meat. And not upon your maid.
Jul, What is't that you Took up so gingerly ?
Luc, Nothing.
Jul, Why didst thou stoop then ?
Luc, To take a paper up that I let fall.
Jul, And is that paper nothing ?
Luc, Nothing concerning me.
Jul, Then let it lie for those that it concerns.
Luc, Madam, it will not lie where it concerns. Unless it have a false interpreter.
Jul. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhime.
Luc. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune : Give me a note : your ladyship can set.
Jul. As little by such toys* as may be possible :
* First folio, Is't.
^ How ANGERLY — ] Tlius the old copy ; and such was the usage of that time ; not angril>j, as several of the modern editions have exhibited the word. So, in Macbeth :
*' Why how now, Hecate? thou look'st fitwo-er/y." Malone.
3 — stomach — ] Was used ior passion or obstinacy. Johnson.
4 As little BY such toys — ] Set is here used equivocally, in the preceding speech, in the sense in which it is used by musicians ; and in the present line with the addition of the preposition by, in a quite different sense. To set by in old language signifies to make account of. So, in the First Book of Samuel, xviii. 30 : *' David behaved himself more wisely than all, so that he was much set by." Malone.
sc. JI.
OF VERONA.
23
Best sing it to the tune of Light o' love^.
Luc. It is too heavy for so light a tune.
Jul. Heavy ? belike, it hath some burden then.
Luc. Ay ; and melodious were it, would you sing it.
Jul. And why not you ?
Luc. I cannot reach so high.
Jul. Let's see your song : — How now, minion ?
Luc. Keep tune there still, so you will sing it out : And yet, methinks, I do not like this tune.
Jul. You do not ?
Luc. No, madam ; tis too sharp.
Jul. You, minion, are too saucy.
Luc. Nay, now you are too flat. And mar the concord with too harsh a descant^ : There wanteth but a mean^ to fill your song.
Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base®.
Luc. Indeed I bid the base for Proteus^.
5 — Light o' love.] This tune is given in a note on Much Ado About Nothing, Act III. Sc. IV. Steevens.
^ And mar the concord with too harsh a descant :] Descant signified formerly what we now denominate variations. So in some ancient poem of which I have neglected to preserve the title : *' O what a world of descant makes my soul *' Upon the voluntary ground of love ! " Malone.
^ There wanteth but a mean — ] The mean is the tenor in musick. So, in the Interlude of Marie Magdalen's Repentance, 1569:
*' Utilitie can sing the base full cleane,
*' And noble honour shall sing the meane.'' Steevens.
^ — with YOUR unruly base.] The only authentick copy of 1623 has, by a mistake of the press, oi you unruly base. This typographical errour was corrected in the second folio. Malone.
9 Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus.] The speaker here turns the allusion (which her mistress employed) from the base in musick to a country exercise, bid the base : in which some pursue, and others are made prisoners. So that Lucetta would intend, by this, to say. Indeed I take pains to make you a captive to Proteus's passion. Warburton.
Dr. Warburton is not quite accurate. The game was not called bid the base, but the base. To bid the base means here, I believe, ** to challenge to an encounter." So, in our author's Venus and Adonis :
24
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT I.
Jul, This babble shall not henceforth trouble me. Here is a coil with protestation ! — \Tcars the letter.
*' To hid the wind a hase he now prepares, *' And wh'er he run, or fly, they knew not whether." Again, in Hall's Chronicle, fol. 98. b : " The Queen marched
from York to Wakefield, and bade base to the Duke even before
his castle."
Again, in a letter from Lord Heniy Howard to James King of Scotland, Cecil's Correspondence, p. ^l, 8vo. 1766: — " It were a vain part for him to contend alone, or to bid base foolishly."
Mr. Todd, in a note on Spencer's Pastoral for September, p. 162, contends that Dr. Warburton is right, and that the game was called "-to bid the base;" which he infers from the following lines of that poet :
*' Whylome thou wont the shepheard's handes to lead " In rimes, in riddles, and in bidding base.'' But, not to insist that the quotation by no means proves what it is supposed to prove, the following instances will decisively shew that the game was called the base, or prison base, or prison bars. The first is found in Cymbeline :
*' lads more like to run
*' The country base, than to commit such slaughter." Again, in Annalia Dubrensia, 4to. 1636, Signat. 0.4?:
*' Yet was no better than our prison base.'' Again, in The Silke Wormes and their Flies, 4to. 1599 : '* All flies were made ere wormes beganne to peepe, *' Both they which all day long at base do play." Again, in the Letting of Humours in the Head-vaine, Svo. 1600:
*' To drinke half pots, or deale at the whole canne ; — " To play at base or pen andynkehorne Sir Jhan."
To the same purpose the celebrated Doctor Caius, or Key, in his Treatise *' On the Sweat," printed by Berthollet, 1552, affords another example : *' Tossing the windee balle, skirmish at base, an exercise for a gentleman, much used among the Italians."
On the passage in Cymbeline, Act IV. Sc. II. (above quoted), Mr. Steevens has produced four other instances of the same phra- seology : there can therefore, I conceive, be no doubt entertained that the game was called the base, or prison base, or prison bars, and not " bidding the base " or " bid the base."
In further confirmation of what has been here stated, I may add that Coles in his Dictionary, 1679, has prison base, " a play, diffugium ; " and " to Z'f^/ battle" he renders by *' hostem provocare."
In Ireland this game is called prison bars. I have often played at it, when a school-boy. Malone.
sc. II.
OF VERONA.
25
Go, get you gone, and let the papers lie : You would be fingering them, to anger me.
Luc, She makes it strange ; but she would be best pleas'd
To be so anger d with another letter. \_Exil .
Jul. Nay, would I were so anger'd with the same !
0 hateful hands, to tear such loving words ! Injurious wasps ; to feed on such sweet honey. And kill the bees, that yield it, with your stings ! ril kiss each several paper for amends.
Look, here is writ — kind Julia ; — unkind Julia ! As in revenge of thy ingratitude,
1 throw thy name against the bruising stones, Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain. And here is writ — love-xvounded Proteus : — Poor wounded name ! my bosom, as a bed,
Shall lodge thee \ till thy wound be throughly heal'd ;
And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss.
But twice, or thrice, was Proteus written down ^:
Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away.
Till I have found each letter in the letter,
Except mine own name ; that some whirlwind bear
Unto a ragged, fearful, hanging rock.
And throw it thence into the raging sea !
Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ, —
Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus,
To the sweet Julia; — that I'll tear away;
And yet I will not, sith so prettily
He couples it to his complaining names :
Mr. Malone's explanation of the verb — bid, is unquestionably just. So, in one of the parts of K. Henry VI. :
*' Of force enough to bid his brother battle." Steevens.
* — my BOSOM, as a bed, shall lodge thee,] So, in Venus and Adonis :
" Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast." Malone. - — written down:] To *' write doivn,'' is still a provincial expression for — to write. Henley.
26 TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT I.
Thus will I fold them one upon another ; Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will.
Re-enter Lucetta, Luc. Madam, Dinner is ready, and your father stays. Jul, Well, let us go.
Luc. What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here ?
Jul, If you respect them, best to take them up. Luc, Nay, I was taken up for laying them down : Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold^. Jul, I see, you have a month's mind to them*.
3 Yet here they shall not lie for catching cold.] i. e. lest they should catch cold.
So, in an ancient " Dialogue both pleasaunte and profitable," by Willyam Bulleyn, 1561?:
*' My horse starteth, and had like to have unsaddled me ; let me sit faster, for falling"
Again, in Plutarch's Life of Antony, translated by Sir Thomas North : " So he was let in, and brought to her muffled as he was, Jbr being hioxvn" i. e. for fear of being known.
Again, in Peele's K. Edward I. L503 :
" Hold up your torches Jbr dripping."
Again, in Love's Pilgrimage :
*' Stir my horse, Jbr catching cold."
Again, in Barnabie Riche's " Soldiers Wishe to Britons Wel- fare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill," 1604', p. : " Such other ill-disposed persons, being once press'd, must be kept ^^^th continual guard, &c. ybr running away." Steevens.
4 I see you have a month's mind to them.] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of popeiy ; or, as Mr. Ray calls it, a less solemnity directed by the will of the deceased. There was also year's mind, and a iveeK's mind. See Proverbial Phrases.
This appears from the interrogatories and obseiTations against the clergy, in the year 1552, Inter. 7 : *' Whether there are any month's 77iinds and anniversaries'?" Stiype's Memorials of the Refonnation, vol. vii. p. 354'.
" Was the month's mind of Sir William Laxton, who died the last month, (July 1556,) his hearse burning with wax, and the morrow mass celebrated, and a sermon preached," &c. Strype's Mem. vol. iii. p. 305. Grey.
A month's mind, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or
sc. III.
OF VERONA.
27
Luc. Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see ; I see things too, although you judge I wink,
Jul. Come, come, will't please you go ? [E.veunt,
SCENE III. The Same. A Room in Antonio's House.
Enter Antonio and Panthino,
Ant. Tell me, Panthino, what sad talk^ was that, wherewith my brother held you in the cloister ?
inclination, but remembrance ; yet I suppose this is the true ori- ginal of the expression. Johnson.
In Hampshire, and other western counties, for " I can't re- member'it,'' they say, " I can't mind it." Blackstone.
Puttenham, in his Art of Poetiy, 1589, chap. 24, speaking of Poetical Lamentations, says, they were chiefly used " at the burials of the dead, also at month's minds, and longer times : " and in the churchwarden's accompts of St. Helen's in Abingdon, Berkshire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expences attend- ing them, are frequently mentioned. Instead of month's minds, they are sometimes called month's moiiuments, and in the In- junctions of K. Edward VI. memories, Injunct. 21. By memories, says Fuller, we understand the Ohsequia for the dead, which some say succeeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia.
If this line was designed for a verse, we should read — monthes mind. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream :
*' Swifter than the moones sphere." Both these are the Saxon genitive case. Steevens.
The old copy reads — " month's, not monthes," which shew what was intended. Why should we suppose that the line was meant for a verse ? Our author throughout these plays frequently intermixes prose with his verse ; though Mr. Steevens has la- boured, by the aid of interpolation and omission, to efface all ves- tiges of this practice. Malone.
5 — what SAD talk — ] Sad is the same as gram or serious.
Johnson.
So, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638 : *' Marry, sir knight, I saw them in sad talk, *' But to say they were directly whispering," &c. Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578 : " The king feigneth to talk sadly with some of his counsel."
Steevens.
28
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT I.
Pant, 'Twas of his nephew Proteus, your son.
Ant. Why, what of him ?
Vant. He wonder d, that your lordship Would suffer him to spend his youth at home ; While other men, of slender reputation ^, Put forth their sons to seek preferment out : Some to the wars, to try their fortune there ; Some, to discover islands far away ^ ; Some, to the studious universities. For any, or for all these exercises. He said, that Proteus, your son, was meet ; And did request me, to importune you. To let him spend his time no more at home, Which would be great impeachment to his age ^ In having known no travel in his youth.
Ant. Nor need'st thou much importune me to that
Whereon this month I have been hammering.
I have consider'd well his loss of time ;
And how he cannot be a perfect man.
Not being try'd, and tutor'd in the world :
Experience is by industry atchiev d,
And perfected by the swift course of time :
^ ■ OF slender reputation,] i. e. who are thought slightly of, are of little consequence. Steevens.
7 Some, to discover islands far away ;] In Shakspeare's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went veiy frequently on these adventures. Such «as the Fortescues, CoUitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chesters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. Warburton.
8 — great impeachment to his age,] Impeachment in this passage means reproach or imputation. So Demetrius says to Helena in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :
" You do impeach your modesty too much,
" To leave the city, and commit yourself,
" Into the hands of one that loves you not." M. Mason.
sc. Ill,
OF VERONA.
29
Then, tell me, whither were I best to send him ?
Pant, I think, your lordship is not ignorant. How his companion, youthful Valentine, Attends the emperor in his royal court ^.
Ant, I know it well.
FdNT, Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither : There shall he practise tilts and tournaments, Hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen ; And be in eye of every exercise. Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.
Ant. I like thy counsel ; well hast thou advis'd : And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like it. The execution of it shall make known ; Even with the speediest expedition I will dispatch him to the emperor's court.
Pant, To-morrow, may it please you, Don Al- phonso.
With other gentlemen of good esteem. Are journeying to salute the emperor. And to commend their service to his will.
Ant. Good company ; with them shall Proteus go : And, in good time\ — now will we break with him ^.
9 Attends the emperor in his royal court.] Shakspeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan in this play. Several of the first German emperors held their courts there occasionally, it being, at that time, their immediate pro- perty, and the chief town of their Italian dominions. Some of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the poet fallen into any contradiction, by giving a duke to Milan at the same time that the emperor held his court there. The first dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not sovereign princes, as they aftemards became ; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their pleasure. Such was the Duke of Milan mentioned in this play. Mr. Monck Mason adds, that ** during the wars in Italy between Francis I. and Charles V. the latter frequently resided at Milan." Steevens. * — IN GOOD TIME,] In good time was the old expression
30
TWO GENTLEMEN
Enter Proteus,
Pro, Sweet love ! sweet lines ! sweet life ! Here is her hand, the agent of her heart ; Here is her oath for love, her honour s pawn : O, that our fathers would applaud our loves. To seal our happiness with their consents !
0 heavenly Julia !
Ant. How now ? what letter are you reading there ?
Pro. May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two Of commendations sent from Valentine, Deliver'd by a friend that came from him.
Ant. Lend me the letter ; let me see what news.
Pro. There is no news, my lord, but that he writes How happily he lives, how well belov'd, And daily graced by the emperor ; Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.
Ant. And how stand you affected to his wish ?
Pro. As one relying on your lordship's will. And not depending oti his friendly wish.
Ant. My will is something sorted with his wish : Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed ; For what I will, I will, and there an end.
1 am resolv'd, that thou shalt spend some time With Valentinus in the emperor's court ; What maintenance he from his friends receives. Like exhibition^ thou shalt have from me.
when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the French say, apropos. Johnson. So, in King Richard III. :
" And in prood time here comes the sweating lord."
Steevens.
— now will we break with him.] That is, break the matter to him. The same phrase occurs in Much Ado About Nothing, Act I. Sc. I. M. Mason.
3 — EXHIBITION — ] i. c. allowancc. So, in Othello :
" Due reference of place and exhibition."
sc. HI.
OF VERONA.
31
To-morrow be in readiness to go : Excuse it not, for I am peremptory.
Fro, My lord, I cannot be so soon provided ; Please you, deliberate a day or two. i
Ant, Look, what thou want'st, shall be sent after ; thee : ' No more of stay ; to-morrow thou must go. — j Come on, Panthino ; you shall be employ'd To hasten on his expedition.
[Exeunt Antonio and Panthino, \
Pro, Thus have I shunn'd the fire, for fear of ' burning ; j And drench'd me in the sea, where I am drown'd : ! I fear'd to show my father Julia's letter, ' Lest he should take exceptions to my love ; ! And with the vantage of mine own excuse ! Hath he excepted most against my love. O, how this spring of love resembleth *
The uncertain glory of an April day ; Which now shews all the beauty of the sun, i
And by and by a cloud takes all away !
Again, in The Devil's Law Case, 1623 : 1
*' in his riot does far exceed the exhibition I allowed him." J
Steevens. '
The term is still in use at Oxford. Boswell. 1 4 O, how this spring of love resembleth.'] It was not always the ' custom among our early wi-iters to make the first and third lines • rhime to each other ; and when a word was not long enough to complete the measure, they occasionally extended it. Thus j Spenser, in his Faeiy Queen, B. II. c. 12 : I *' Formerly grounded, and fast setteledy Again, B. II. c. 12 : ;
" The while sweet Zephirus loud vohisteled, &c." ; From this practice, I suppose our author wrote resernbeleth^ ] which, though it affords no jingle, completes the verse. Many poems have been written in this measure, where the second and fourth lines only rhime. Steevens.
Resembleth is here used as a quadrisyllable, as if it was written \ resembeleth. See Com. of Errors, Act V. Sc. the last : *' And these two Dromios, one in semblance.'' So, in As You Like It, Act II. Sc. II. :
*' The parts and graces of the wrestler.'' \
\
32
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
Re-enter 'Panthino.
Pant, Sir Proteus, your father calls for you; He is in haste, therefore, I pray you, go.
Pro. Why, this it is ! my heart accords thereto ; And yet a thousand times it answers, no. [Exeunt,
ACT II. SCENE I.
Milan. A Room in the Duke's Palace.
Enter Valentine and Speed. Speed, Sir, your glove. Pal. Not mine ; my gloves are on. Speed. Why then this may be yours, for this is but one \
And it should be observed, that Shakspeare takes the same liberty with many other words, in which or r, is subjoined to another consonant. See Com. of Errors, next verse but one to that cited above :
" These are the parents to these childreji."' Where some editors, being unnecessarily alarmed for the metre, have endeavoured to help it by a word of their own :
" These plainli/ are the parents to these children." Tyrwhitt.
See the notes at the end of this play. Bo swell.
5 Val. Not mine, my gloves are on.
Speed. Why then, this may be yours ; for this is but one.] It should seem from this passage, that the word 07ie was anciently pronounced as if it were written on. The quibble here is lost by the change of pronunciation ; a loss, however, which may be very patiently endured. In Shakspeare's time, probably in consequence of this similar pronunciation, the two words are frequently con- founded. In some manuscript letters of Lord Burghley's, about the year 1585, he veiy generally writes on for one.
See a note in King John, Act III. Sc. III. on the words — *' Sound one into the drowsy car of night," where various in- stances of the two words one and on being confounded are accu- mulated. Malone.
sc. 1.
OF VERONA.
33
EiL, Ha ! let me see : ay, give it me, it's mine: — Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine ! Ah Silvia ! Silvia !
Speed, Madam Silvia ! madam Silvia !
Fal, How now, sirrah ?
Speed. She is not within hearing, sir.
EiL, Why, sir, who bad you call her ?
Speed. Your worship, sir; or else I mistook.
Fal. Well, you'll still be too forward.
Speed. And yet I was last chidden for being too slow.
FdL. Go to, sir; tell me, do you know madam Silvia ?
Speed. She that your worship loves ?
Val. Why, how know you that I am in love ?
Speed. Marry, by these special marks : First, you have learn'd like sir Proteus, to wreath your arms like a male -content ; to relish a love -song, like a Robin -red -breast ; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence ; to sigh, like a school -boy that had lost his A B C ; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam ; to fast, like one that takes diet ^ ; to watch, like one that fears robbing ; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas'". You
^ — TAKES diet;] To take diet was the phrase for being under a regimen for a disease mentioned in Timon : *' — bring down the rose cheek 'd youth " To the tub-fast and the diet."" Steevens. 7 — Hallowmas.] That is, about the feast of All-Saints, when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable.
Johnson.
It is worth remarking, that on All-Saints-Day the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a souling as they call it; i. e. begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Diet, explains ^?//iwo-) for soid-cakes, or any good thing to make them merry ? This custom is mentioned by Peck, and seems a remnant of Popish superstition to pray for departed souls, particularly those of friends. The sonler's song, in Staffordshire, is different from that which Mr. Peck mentions, and is by no means worthy publication. Tollet. VOL. IV. D
34
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
were wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock ; when you walk'd, to walk like one of the lions ^ ; when you fasted, it was presently after dinner ; when you look'd sadly, it was for want of money : and now you are metamorphos'd with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.
KiL, Are all these things perceived in me ?
Speed, They are all perceived without ye.
Fal. Without me ? they cannot.
Speed, Without you ? nay, that's certain ; for, without you were so simple, none else would ^ : but you are so without these follies, that these folhes are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal ; that not an eye, that sees you, but is a physician to comment on your malady.
Pal, But, tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia ?
Speed. She, that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper ?
Pal, Hast thou observed that.^ even she I mean. Speed. Why, sir, I know her not. KiL. Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet know'st her not ?
Speed. Is she not hard-favour d, sir ? Fal. Not so fair, boy, as well favour'd. Speed. Sir, I know that well enough. Val. What dost thou know
Speed. That she is not so fair, as (of you) well- favour'd.
Val, I mean, that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour infinite.
Speed, That's because the one is painted, and the other out of all count.
VdL. How painted and how out of count H
^ — like one of the lions ;] If Shakspeare had not been think- ing of the lions in the Tower, he would have written " like a lion." RiTsoN.
9 — none else would :] None else would he so simple.
Johnson.
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
35
Speed, Marry, sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no man 'counts of her beauty.
f^L, How esteem'st thou me ? I account of her beauty.
Speed, You never saw her since she was deform'd.
How long hath she been deform'd ? Speed, Ever since you loved her. f^L, I have loved her ever since I saw her ; and still I see her beautiful.
Speed. If you love her, you cannot see her. /^z. Why.?
Speed. Because love is blind. O, that you had mine eyes ; or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to have, when you chid at sir Proteus for going ungartered ^ !
f^L, What should I see then ?
Speed. Your own present folly, and her passing deformity : for he, being in love, could not see to garter his hose ; and you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose.
J^L. Belike, boy, then you are in love ; for last morning you could not see to wipe my shoes.
Speed. True, sir ; I was in love with my bed : I thank you, you swinged me for my love, which makes me the bolder to chide you for yours.
J^L. In conclusion, I stand affected to her.
Speed. I would you were set^; so, your affec- tion would cease.
' — for going ungartered !] This is enumerated by Rosalind in As You Like It, Act. III. Sc. II. as one of the undoubted marks of love : " Then your hose should be ungartered^ your bonnet unbanded, &c." Malone.
^ I would you were set ;] Set for seated, in opposition to stand in the preceding line. M. Mason.
I believe the opposition above-mentioned was intended; but the meaning was surely of a very different nature from any thing con- nected with being seated. How being seated would diminish Va- lentine's affection, Mr. Mason has not told us. The poet more pro- bably used set metaphorically, with a view to the sense in which
D 2
36
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT n.
, P^L. Last night she enjoin'd me to write some lines to one she loves.
Speed And have you ?
Pal. I have.
Speed, Are they not lamely writ ? Pal. No, boy, but as well as I can do them : — Peace, here she comes.
Enter Silvia,
Speed. O excellent motion ! O exceeding pup- pet^! Now will he interpret to her.
Fal. Madam and mistress, a thousand good morrows .
Speed, O, 'give ye good even ! here's a million of manners. \_Aside.
SiL. Sir Valentine and servant to you two thousand.
it is employed when applied to the sun, when it falls below the horison in the west. Malone.
3 O excellent motion ! &c.] Motion, in Shakspeare's time, signified puppet. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair it is fre- quently used in that sense, or rather perhaps to signify a puppet- show ; the master whereof may properly be said to be an inter- pretei*, as being the explainer of the inarticulate language of the actors. The speech of the servant is an allusion to that practice, and he means to say, that Silvia is a puppet, and that Valentine is to interpret to or rather Jbr her. Sik J. Hawkins.
So, in The City Match, 16S9, by Jasper Maine : *' his mother came,
" Who follows strange sights out of town, and went *' To Brentford for a motion.'' Again, in The Pilgrim :
Nothing but a motion ? ** A puppet pilgrim? "— — Steevens. A motion certainly signified a puppet-shorv, not n puppet. See the extracts from Sir Henry Herbert's Oflfice Book, vol. iii. Speed means to say, what a fine puppet-shotv shall we have now? Here is the principal puppet to whom my master will be the inter- preter. The master of the puppet-show, or the person appointed by him to speak for his mock actors, was in Shakspeare's time frequently denominated the interpreter to the puppets. Malone. ■+ Sir Valentine and servant,] Here Silvia calls her lover
sc, /. OF VERONA. .37
Speed. He should give her interest; and she gives it him.
/^z. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter. Unto the secret nameless friend of yours ; "Which I was much unwilling to proceed in, But for my duty to your ladyship.
SiL. I thank you, gentle servant : 'tis very clerkly done \
Val. Now trust me, madam, it came hardly ofF^; For, being ignorant to whom it goes, I writ at random, very doubtfully.
SiL. Perchance you think too much of so much pains
Val. No, madam ; so it stead you, I will write. Please you command, a thousand times as much : And yet, —
SiL. A pretty period ! Well, I guess the sequel ; And yet I will not name it : — and yet I care not ; —
And yet take this again ; — and yet I thank you ; Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more. Speed. And yet you will ; and yet another yet.
[Aside.
servant, and again below, her gentle servant. This was the lan- guage of ladies to their lovers at the time when Shakspeare wrote.
Sir J. Hawkins.
So, in Marston's What You Will, 1607 :
" Sweet sister, let's sit in judgement a little ; faith upon my servant Monsieur Laverdure.
*' Mel. Troth, well for a servant ; but for a husband ! " Again, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour :
" Eveiy man was not born with my servant Brisk's features."
Steevens.
5 — 'tis veiy clerkly done.] i. e. like a scholar. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor :
*' Thou art clerkly, sir John, clerhli/.'' Steevens. ^ — it CAME hardly off;] A similar phrase occurs in Timon of Athens, Act I. Sc. I. :
" This comes off well and excellent." Steevens.
38
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
Val, What means your ladyship ? do you not like it ?
SiL. Yes, yes ! the lines are very quaintly writ : But since unwillingly, take them again ; Nay, take them.
Val, Madam, they are for you.
SiL, Ay, ay ; you writ them, sir, at my request ; But I will none of them ; they are for you : I would have had them writ more movingly.
Val. Please you, I'll write your ladyship another.
SiL, And, when it's writ, for my sake read it over :
And, if it please you, so ; if not, why, so. Val. If it please me, madam ; what then SiL. Why, if it please you, take it for your labour ;
And so good-morrow, servant. \Exit Silvia,
Speed. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible.
As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple !
My master sues to her ; and she hath taught her suitor,
He being her pupil, to become her tutor. O excellent device ! was there ever heard a better ? That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter ? VdL. How now, sir what are you reasoning with yourself^
Speed, Nay, I was rhiming ; 'tis you that have the reason.
Val. To do what ?
Speed. To be a spokesman from madam Silvia. KiL. To whom ?
7 — reasoning with yourself?] That is, discoursing, talking. An Italianism. Johnson.
So, in The Merchant of Venice :
I reason' d mih. a Frenchman yesterday." Steevens.
sc. J.
OF VERONA.
39
Speed, To yourself ; why, she wooes you by a figure.
P^L. What figure ?
Speed. By a letter, I should say.
f^L. Why, she hath not writ to me ?
Speed. What need she, when she hath made you write to yourself.^ Why, do you not perceive the jest.^'
KiL. No, believe me.
Speed. No believing you indeed, sir : But did you perceive her earnest ?
Val. She gave me none, except an angry word.
Speed. Why, she hath given you a letter.
Val. That's the letter I writ to her friend.
Speed. And that letter hath she deliver'd, and there an end ^.
Val. I would, it were no worse.
Speed. I'll warrant you, 'tis as well : For often have you xvrit to her ; and she, in modesty^ Or else for want of idle time, could 7iot again reply ; Or fearing else some messenger, that might her
mind discover. Her self hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover. —
All this I speak in print ^ ; for in print I found it. — Why muse you, sir ? 'tis dinner time.
^ — and there an end.] i. e. there's the conclusion of the matter.
So, in Macbeth :
" the times have been,
*' That when the brains were out the man would die, *' And there an end." Steevens. 9 All this I speak in print In print means with exactness. So, in the comedy of All F^ooles, 1605 : " not a hair
" About his bulk, but it stands print'' Again, in The Portraiture of Hypocrisie, bl. 1. 1589: *' — others lash out to maintaine their porte, which must needes bee in prints
Again, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 539:
40
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
Val. I have dined.
Speed. Ay, but hearken, sir : though the came- leon love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourish'd by my victuals, and would fain have meat : O, be not like your mistress ; be moved, be moved \
[Exeunt.
SCENE II. Verona. A Room in Julia's House.
Eiiter Proteus and Julia.
Pro. Have patience, gentle Julia. Jul. I must, where is no remedy. Pro. When possibly I can, I will return. Jul. If you turn not, you will return the sooner: Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.
[Giving a ring.
Pro, Why then we'll make exchange ; here, take you this.
Jul, And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.
Pro. Here is my hand for my true constancy ; And when that hour o'er-slips me in the day. Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake. The next ensuing hour some foul mischance Torment me for my love's forgetfulness ! My father stays my coming ; answer not ; The tide is now : nay, not thy tide of tears ; That tide will stay me longer than I should ; Julia, farewell. — What ! gone without a word ?
[Exit Julia, Ay, so true love should do : it cannot speak ; For truth hath better deeds, than words, to grace it.
" — he must speake in print, walke in print, eat and drinke in print, and that which is all in all, he must be mad in print.''
Steevens.
^ — be moved, be moved.] Have compassion on me, though your mistress has none on you. Malone.
sc. III.
OF VERONA.
41
Enter Panthjno.
EiNT. 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.
Launce. 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 pro- digious 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 weep- ing, 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 part- ing ; 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 :
^ — this LEFT shoe — ] Shoes in Shakspeare's time appear to have been adapted to the right and left foot, a fashion revived in our time. So, in K. John, Act IV. Sc. II. :
" Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
" Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet," Malone.
42
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
now, sir, this staff is my sister ; for, look you, she is as white as a lilly, 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, so, 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, (O, that she could speak now !) like a wood woman*; — well, I kiss her; why there 'tis;
3 — I am the dog, &c.] This passage is much confused, and of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I am the dog, no, the dog is himself, and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself. This certainly is more reasonable, but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on Launce's soliloquy. Johnson.
A similar thought occurs in a play printed earlier than the pre- sent. See A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612:
*' — you shall stand for the lady, you for her dog, and I the page ; you and the dog looking one upon another : the page pre- sents himself." Steevens.
The accidental circumstance, that The Christian turn'd Turk was printed before The Gentlemen of Verona, as Mr. Steevens well knew, gave that play no priority to our poet's, with respect to composition. The Gentlemen of Verona, we know, was written many years before 1612; and therefore it is not reasonable to have supposed that Shakspeare is here indebted to any other dramatist. Seethe Essay on the chronological order of his plays.
Malone.
— like a WOOD woman;] The first folios agree in voould tooman ; for which, because it was a mysteiy to Mr. Pope, he has unmeaningly substituted oidd woman. But it must be writ, or at least understood, ivood woman, i. e. crazy, frantic with grief; or distracted, from any other cause. The word is very frequently used in Chaucer ; and sometimes writ wood, sometimes n^ode.
Theobald.
Print thus : *' Now come I to my mother, (O, that she could speak now!) like a wood woman.''
Perhaps the humour would be heightened by reading — (O, that the shoe covXdi speah r^oyv \) Blackstone.
I have followed the punctuation recommended by Sir W. Black- stone. The emendation proposed by him was made, I find, by Sir T. Hanmer.
sc. III.
OF VERONA.
43
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.
Pant. Launce, away, away, aboard ; thy master is shipped, and thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter ? why weep'st thou, man ? Away^ ass; you'll lose the tide, if you tarry any longer.
Launce. It is no matter if the ty'd were lost ^ ; for it is the unkindest ty'd that ever any man ty'd. Pant, What's the unkindest tide ?
Wood, for wild, or mad, frequently occurs in our old English writers. So, in Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1600, vol. ii. p. 72 :
" If the seed of that melon which runneth up in one stalke be reduced into powder and strewed, .... she will be so voood after the companie of a man." Malone.
Launce is describing the melancholy parting between him and his family. In order to do this more methodically, he makes one of his shoes stand for his father, and the other for his mother. And when he has done taking leave of his father, he says. Novo come I to my mother, turning to the shoe that is supposed to per- sonate her. And in order to render the representation more per- fect, he expresses his wish that it could speak like a woman fran- tic with grief ! There could be no doubt about the sense of the passage, had he said — " O that it could speak like a wood tjooman ! " But he uses the feminine pronoun in speaking of the shoe, because it is supposed to represent a woman. M. Mason.
•5 — if the ty'd were lost ;] This quibble, wretched as it is, might have been borrowed by Shakspeare from Lylly's Endymion, 1591 : *' Ejpi. You know it is said, the tide tarrieth for no man. — Sam, True. — Epi. A monstrous lye : for I was ty'd two hours, and tar- ried for one to unlose me."
The same pl^y on words occurs in Chapman's Andromeda Liberata, 161 4< :
*' And now came roaring to the tied the tide.'' Steevens.
This joke may boast of more antiquity than has yet been as- signed to it. It is in Heywood's Epigrams ; " The tyde tarycth no man, but here to scan " Thou art tyde so that thou taryest every man." Bos well.
44
Launce. Why, he that's ty'd here ; Crab, my dog.
Pant. Tut, man, I mean thou't 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 ?
Launce . For fear thou should'st lose thy tongue.
Pant. Where should I lose my tongue ?
Launce. In thy tale.
Pant. In thy tail ?
Launce. 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.
Pant. Come, come, away man ; I was sent to call thee.
Launce. Sir, call me what thou dar'st. Pant. Wilt thou go ?
Launce. Well, I will go. [Exeunt,
SCENE IV. Milan. A Room in the Duke's Palace.
Enter Valentine^ Silvia^ Thurio, and Speed,
SiL. Servant, — Fal. Mistress ?
Speed. Master, sir Thurio frowns on you. FdL. Ay, boy, it's for love.
^ And the tide.] I have here followed a punctuation recom- mended by Mr. Steevens ; but have not followed him in arbitra- rily omitting the word — and. He omitted it, I suppose, because the tide is first mentioned, and he therefore considered the copu- lative unnecessary. But Shakspeare, when he repeats vvords already spoken, often departs from his original formula. Thus
sc. ir.
OF VERONA.
45
Speed. Not of you.
VkL. Of my mistress then.
Speed. 'Twere good, you knock'd him.
SiL. vServant, you are sad.
l^L. 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 quote 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
Val. Give me leave, madam ; he is a kind of cameleon.
Panthino says — '* thou'lt lose flood ; and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage," &c. But Launce, quoting his words, says — *' lose the tide.'' There is therefore clearly no need of change ; and of all changes omission is the most dangerous.
Not adverting to this usage, Mr. Pope, to make the two speeches conformable to each other, makes Launce say — " Lose the flood and the voyage," &c. Malone.
7 — how auoTE you my folly?] To quote is to observe. So, in Hamlet :
*' I am sorry that with better head and judgment, " I had not quoted, him." Steevens. Valentine in his answer plays upon the word, which was pro- nounced as if written coat. So, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594 ;
" the illiterate, that know not how
*' To cipher what is writ in learned books, *' Will cote my loathsome trespass in my looks." In our poet's time words were thus frequently spelt by the ear.
Malone.
46
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT n.
Thu. That hath more mind to feed on your blood, than live in your air.
Val. You have said, sir.
Thu. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time.
PQl. I know it vi^ell, sir; you always end ere you begin.
SiL. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.
KiL, 'Tis indeed, madam ; we thank the giver. SiL. Who is that, servant ?
Val. Yourself, sweet lady ; for you gave the fire: sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's 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.
Duke. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. Sir Valentine, your father s in good health : What say you to a letter from your friends Of much good news ?
K4L. My lord, I will be thankful To any happy messenger from thence.
Duke. Know you Don Antonio, your country- man^.^
^ Know you Don Antonio, your countryman ?] " The characters being Italians, not Spaniards," Mr. Ritson proposes to omit Z)o;/, though we have had (as he acknowledges) Don Alphonso in a preceding scene ; which shews decisively how very improper such an omission would be. For this incongruity the youthful poet must answer. Malone.
sc. IF.
OF VERONA.
47
E4L. Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman To be of worth, and worthy estimation. And not without desert so well reputed ^.
Duke, Hath he not a son ?
T^L. Ay, my good lord ; a son, that well deserves 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 cloath 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. With all good grace to grace a gentleman.
Duke. Beshrewme, sir, but, if he make this good. He is as worthy for an empress' love, As meet to be an emperor's counsellor. Well, sir ; this gentleman is come to me. With commendation from great potentates ; And here he means to spend his time a- while : I think, 'tis no unwelcome news to you.
9 And not without desert, &c.] And not dignified with so much reputation without proportionate merit. Johnson.
^ He is complete in feature,] He has all the advantage which is derived from a handsome well formed person. Feature in the age of Shakspeare often signified both beauty of countenance, and elegance of person. See Bullokar's Expositor, 8vo. 1616 : '"''Feature; handsomeness, comelinesse, beautie." So, in K. Heniy VI. First Part.
*' Her peerless feature^ joined with her birth, *' Approves her fit for none but for a king." Again in K. Richard III. :
" Cheated of feature by dissembling nature." Malone.
48
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IT.
KiL, Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he.
Duke. Welcome him then according to his worth ; Silvia, I speak to you ; and you, sir Thurio : — For Valentine, I need not 'cite him to it ' : I'll send him hither to you presently. \_E.vit Duke.
Fal. This is the gentleman, I told your ladyship, Had come along with me, but that his mistress Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks.
SiL. Belike, that now she hath enfranchis'd them Upon some other pawn for fealty.
Val. Nay, sure, I think, she holds them prisoners still.
SiL, Nay, then he should be blind ; and, being blind,
How could he see his way to seek out you ? Val. Why, lady, love hath twenty pair of eyes. Thu. They say, that love hath not an eye at all \ VdL. To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself;
Upon a homely object love can wink.
Enter Proteus.
SiL. Have done, have done ; here comes the gen- tleman.
T^L. Welcome, dear Proteus ! — Mistress, I be- seech you.
Confirm his welcome with some special favour.
SiL. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither. If this be he you oft have v%^ish'd to hear from.
Fal. Mistress, it is : sweet lady, entertain him To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
^ I need not 'cite him to it :] i. e. incite him to it. Malone.
3 They say, that love hath not an eye at all.] Thus certainly Cupid hath been long represented by the moderns ; and on this fancy, Amaltheus formed his beautiful lines on Aeon and Leonilla. But it is remarkable that no trace of such a notion has been found in any ancient Latin or Greek poet ; nor has it been ascer- tained at what period or by whom this delineation of the god of love was first given. Malone.
sc. ir.
OF VERONA.
49
SiL, Too low a mistress for so high a servant.
Pro. Not so, sweet lady ; but too mean a servant To have a look of such a worthy mistress.
Leave off discourse of disability; — Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant.
Pro. My duty will I boast of, nothing else.
iSiL, And duty never yet did want his meed : Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress. '
Pro. I'll die on him that says so, but yourself.
SiL. That you are welcome ?
Pro. No, that you are worthless \
Enter a Servant.
Ser. Madam my lord your father would speak with you.
eiL. I wait upon his pleasure. Servant.^ Come, sir Thurio, Go with me : — Once more, new servant, 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.
[E.veunt Silvia, Thurio, and Speed, Val. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came
Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much
commended. KiL. And how do yours Pro. I left them all in health.
^ No, that you are worthless.] I have supplied the particle wo, to fill up the measure. Johnson.
4 Ser. Madam, my lord your father — ] This speech in all the editions is assigned improperly to Thurio ; but he has been all along upon the stage, and could not know that the duke wanted his daughter. Besides, the first line and half of Silvia's answer is evidently addressed to two persons. A servant, therefore, must come in and deliver the message ; and then Silvia goes out with Thurio. Theobald.
VOL. IV. E
50
TWO GENTLEMEN act n.
Fal. How does your lady; and how thrives your love ?
Fro, My tales of love were wont to weary you ; I know, you joy not in a love -discourse.
Fal. Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now: I have done penance for contemning love ; Whose high imperious ^ thoughts^ have punish'd me With bitter fasts, with penitential groans, With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs ; For, in revenge of my contempt of love, Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes, And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. O, gentle Proteus, love's a mighty lord ; And hath so humbled me, as, I confess. There is no woe to his correction ^
* First folio, emperious.
5 Whose high imperious thoughts — ] For xiohose I read those. I have contemned love and am punished. Those high thoughts, by which I exalted myself above human passions or frailties, have brought upon me fasts and groans. Johnson.
I have no doubt that the reading of the old copy is right. Imperious (which in our author's time generally signified impe- rial), is an epithet veiy frequently applied to love by Shakspeare and his contemporaries. So, in The Famous Historic of George Lord Faulconbridge, 4to. 1616, p. 16: *' Such an imperious God is love, and so commanding." A few lines lower, Valentine observes, that " love's a mighty lord.'"
That imperious formerly signified imperial, is shewn by a pas- sage in Hamlet :
" Imperious Caesar dead and turn'd to clay — " and various others quoted there and elsewhere. See also Cow- dray's Alphabetical Table of Hard Words, Svo. 1604'; Impe- rious; desiring to rule ; full of commanding ; stately." Malone.
^ — no woe to his correction,] No misery thatcaw be compared to the punishment inflicted by love. Herbert called for the prayers of the Liturgy a little before his death, saying. None to them, none to them. Johnson.
The same idiom occurs in an old ballad, quoted in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607:
** There is no comfort in the world
" To women that are kind." Malone.
sc. n\
OF VERONA.
51
Nor, to his service, no such joy on earth ! Now, no discourse, except it be of love ; Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep. Upon the very naked name of love.
Pro. Enough ; I read your fortune in your eye : Was this the idol that you worship so ?
J^L. Even she ; and is she not a heavenly saint?
Pro. No; but she is an earthly paragon ^ Call her divine.
Pro, I will not flatter her.
Fal, O flatter me ; for love delights in praises.
Pro. When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills ; And I must minister the like to you.
F^l. Then speak the truth by her ; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality ^, Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.
Pro. Except my mistress.
Fal. Sweet, except not any ; Except thou wilt except against my love.
Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own ?
7 No; but she is an earthly paragon.] So, in Cymbeline : " By Jupiter an angel, or if not, " An earthly paragon." Malone.
^ — a PRINCIPALITY,] The first oy principal of women. So the old writers use state : " She is a lady, a great state.'" Laty- mer. " This look is called in states warlie, in others othei-wise." Sir T. More. Johnson.
There is a similar sense of this word in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, viii. 38 : " nor angels nor principalities.''
Mr. M. Mason thus judiciously paraphrases the sentiment of Valentine : *' If you will not acknowledge her as divine, let her at least be considered as an angel of the first order, superior to every thing on earth." Steevens.
Dr. Johnson's interpretation, " the princijjal of women," appears to me questionable. Both from the preceding and the subsequent words, Valentine seems to mean that his mistress was more than any earthly sovereign, and subordinate only to the Divine Nature. The poet was probably thinking of tlie words in the Sacred Writings quoted by Mr. Steevens. Malone.
E 2
52
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT //.
Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too : She shall be dignified with this high honour, — To bear my lady's train ; lest the base earth Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss ^, And, of so great a favour growing proud. Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower \ And make rough winter everlastingly.
Fro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism * is this?
Val, Pardon me, Proteus : all I can, is nothing To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing ; She is alone.
Fro, Then let her alone ^.
* First folio, hraggndisme. 9 — lest the BASE earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss, And, of so great a favour growing proud, Disdain to root, &c.] So, in King Richard II. :
" You debase your knee
" To make the base earth proud by hiss'mg it.'" Again, in Venus and Adonis :
" But if thou fall, O then imagine this, " The earth in love with thee thy footing trips, *' And all is but to rob thee of a kiss:" Malone. ^ — SUMMER-SWELLING flowcr,] I oucc thought that our poet had written summer-smelling ; but the epithet which stands in the text I have since met with in the translation of Lucan, by Sir Arthur Gorges, 1614, b. viii. p. 354 :
*' no Roman chieftaine should
" Come neare to Nyle's Pelusian mould, *' But shun that sommer-stvelling shore."
The original is, " ripasque cBstaie tiimentes:' 1. 827.
May likewise renders it summer -swelled banks. The summer- sivelling flower is the flower which swells in summer, till it expands itself into bloom. Steevens. ^ Val. She is alone.
Pro. Then let her alone.] These speeches, and innumerable others of the same kind which occur in these plays, might have shewn Mr. Steevens how improper and unwarrantable it is, by insertion or omission of words, to make all ourpoet's lines blank vei-se in those scenes where the dialogue in general is metrical. So,
sc. IF.
OF VERONA.
53
EiL. Not for the world : why, man, she is mine own ;
And I as rich in having such a jewel, As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold. Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee. Because thou see'st me dote upon my love. My foolish rival, that her father likes. Only for his possessions are so huge, Is gone with her along ; and I must after. For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy. 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 must climb her window ; The ladder made of cords ; and all the means Plotted, and 'greed on, for my happiness. Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber, In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Fro. Go on before ; I shall enquire you forth : I must unto the road ^, to disembark Some necessaries that I needs must use ; And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make haste
Fro. I will. — \Exit Valentine,
Even as one heat another heat expels. Or as one nail by strength drives out another. So the remembrance of my former love
below: *' But she loves you," which makes no part of a verse. Again, afterwards in this scene :
*' Val. Will you make haste ?
*' Fro. I will." Malone.
3 — unto the road,] The haven where ships ride at anchor. So, in the Merchant of Venice :
" For here I find for certain that my ships " Are safely come to road.'" Malone.
54
TWO GENTLEMEN
Is by a newer object quite forgotten^. Is it her mien, or Valentinus' praise ^,
Even as one heat another heat expels. Or as one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten.] Our author has fre- quently introduced this kind of imagery in subsequent plays. So in King John :
" falshood falshood cures, as fire cures fire,
" Within the scorched veins of one new^-burn'd." Again, in Julius Csesar :
*' As fire drives out fire, so pity pity." Again, in Coriolanus :
" One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail." The latter image occurs also in the Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, 1582 : which the poet may here have had in his thoughts, having, like the author of that poem, applied this imageiy to the subject of love :
*' And as out of a planke a nayle a nayle doth drive,
" So novel love out of the minde the ancient love doth rive."
Malone.
5 Is IT her MIEN, or Valentinus' praise,] The only authentick copy of this play, the folio 1623, reads —
*' It is mine, or Valentine's praise ? " Finding no sense here, the editor of the second folio, perceiving a note of interrogation at the end of the sentence, very rightly made the words it is change places ; but absurdly supplied the word omitted by reading —
" Is it mine then, or Valentiwea?e'5 praise? "
Dr. Warburton supplied the word eye; and the subsequent editors read with him, " Is it mineey^, or," &c. I shall subjoin his note, that the reading which he suggested may not be deprived of such support as it affords.
For the present judicious and happy emendation, I am indebted to my friend the Rev. Mr. Blakeway, Vicar of St. Mary's, in Shrewsbury: " Is it her mien, i. e. countenance, air," &c. The word mien occurs but in one other place in these plays, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. I. Sc. III. when it is spelt as it is here : *' but the revolt of mine is dangerous ; " indeed that is the general spelling of this word in Shakspeare's age, adopted from the French language, from which the word was taken.
It appears to me more probable that a compositor should omit a personal pronoun than the principal and important word of the clause ; that is, that her was omitted, rather than eije. Besides,
sc. jr.
OF VERONA.
55
Her true perfection, or my false transgression, That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus ? She is fair ; and so is Julia, that I love ; — That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd ; Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire ^, Bears no impression of the thing it was. Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold ; And that I love him not, as I was wont :
this emendation is much more consonant to the following line, with which the present, thus amended, exactly corresponds : " Is it her mien, or Valentines praise, ** Her true perfection, or my false transgression ? " Again, below: "She is fair; &c."
For Valentines, the old genitive case of Valentine, I formerly substituted Valentinus', which is found in a former scene ; [Act I. Sc. III.] ; and Mr. Steevens afterwards adopted the same reading ; for he had before printed Valentiwo^. But there is no need of departing in this instance from the old copy, which is supported by similar examples elsewhere. Malone.
Here Proteus questions with himself, whether it is his own praise, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love with Valentine's mistress. But not to insist on the absurdity 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 asked it of him.
A word is wanting in the first folio. The line was originally thus :
" It is mine ei/e, or Valentino's praise?" Proteus had just seen Valentine's mistress, whom her lover had been lavishly praising. His encomiums, therefore, heightening Proteus's ideas of her at the interview, it was the less wonder he should be uncertain which had made the strongest impression, Valentine's praises, or his own view of her. Warburton.
^ — a WAXEN IMAGE 'gaiust a fire,] Alluding to the figures made by witches, as representatives of those whom they designed to torment or destroy. See my note on Macbeth, Act I. Sc. III.
Steevens.
King James ascribes these images to the devil, in his treatise of Daemonologie : " to some others at these times he teacheth how to make pictures of tvaxe or claye, that by the roasting thereof the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted, and dried away by continual sicknesse." See Servius on the 8th Eclogue of Virgil, Theocritus Idyl. 2. 22. Hudibras, p. 2. 1. 2. v. 331. S.Weston.
56
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT 11.
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 picture I have yet beheld^, And that hath dazzled my reason's light ; But when I look on her perfections ^ There is no reason but I shall be blind.
7 — with more ADVICE,] Is, on further knowledge, on better consideration. Steevens.
The word is still current among mercantile people, whose con- stant language is "we are advised by letters from abroad ; " meaning — h^ormed. So, in bills of exchange, the conclusion always is, " without further advice — ." So, as Mr. Steevens has observed, in Measure for Measure:
" Yet did repent me, after more advice" Malone. ^ 'Tis but her picture — ] This is evidently a slip of attention, for he had seen her in the last scene, and in high terms offered her his service. Johnson.
I believe Proteus means to say that, as yet, he had seen only her outside form, without having known her long enough to have any acquaintance with her mind. So, in Cymbeline ; " All of her that is out of door most rich ! *' If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare," &c. Again, in The Winter's Tale, Act. II. Sc. I. :
" Praise her but for this her voithout-door form." Perhaps Proteus is mentally comparing his fate with that of Pyrocles, the hero of Sidney's Arcadia, who fell in love with Phi- loclea immediately on seeing her portrait in the house of Kalander.
Steevens.
I do not believe the poet had the Arcadia at all in his thoughts. When a passage affords a natural and easy meaning, why should we suppose that the wTiters had a passage of a preceding author in contemplation, which, instead of confirming that interpretation, is inconsistent with it, and presents a circumstance wholly dif- ferent. Malone.
9 And that hath dazzled my reason's light ;
But when I look, &c.] Our author uses dazzled as a trisyllable. So, also, Drayton :
" A diadem once dazzling the eye, " The day too darke to see affinitie," &c. The editor of the second folio, not perceiving this, introduced so, (" And that hath dazzled 5o," &c.) a word as hurtful to the sense as unnecessary to the metre. The plain meaning is, Her mere
sc. V,
OF VERONA.
67
If I can check my erring love, I will ;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill. \Exit.
SCENE V. A Street.
Enter Speed and Launce,
Speed, Launce ! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan \
Launce, Forswear not thyself, sweet youth ; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always — that a man is never undone, till he be hang'd ; 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 ?
Launce. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest.
Speed. But shall she marry him ? Launce. No.
Speed. How then ? Shall he marry her ?
Launce. No, neither.
Speed. What, are they broken ?
Launce. No, they are both as whole as a fish.
outside has dazzled me ; — when I am acquainted with the perfec- tions of her mind, I shall be struck blind.
Mr. Steevens, who, in the three editions which preceded mine, had followed the corrupt reading of the second folio, has here not subjoined one word in defence of that adulterated copy. Malone.
^ — to Milan.] It is Padua m the former editions. Seethe note on Act III. Sc. III. Pope.
58
TWO GENTLEMEN
Speed, Why then, how stands the matter with them ?
Launce. Marry, thus ; when it stands well with him, it stands well with her.
Speed, What an ass art thou ? I understand thee not.
Launce. What a block art thou, that thou canst not. My staff understands me ^. Speed. What thou say's t ?
Launce. Ay, and what I do too : look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me.
Speed. It stands under thee, indeed.
Launce, Why, stand-under and understand is all one.
Speed. But tell me true, will't be a match ?
Launce. Ask my dog : if he say, ay, it will ; if he say, no, it will ; if he shake his tale, and say no- thing, it will.
Speed. The conclusion is then, that it will.
Launce. 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 not- able lover ^ ?
^ My staff UNDERSTANDS mc] 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 Meriy Coblers, an ancient ballad :
*' Our work doth th' owners understand, " Thus still we are on the mending hand." Steevens. 3 — how say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?] i. e. (as Mr. Mason has elsewhere observed) What
sc. F.
OF VERONA.
m
Launce, I never knew him otherwise. Speed, Than how ?
Launce. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.
Speed. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistaks't me.
Launce, Why, fool, I meant not thee ; I meant thy master.
Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover.
Launce, 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.
Speed. Why ?
Launce. 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. [Ejceunt,
say'st thou to this circumstance, — namely, that my master is become a notable lover? Malone.
4 If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, so ; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, &c.] The word so, which is not found in the original copy, was added in the second folio ; and though I am extremely doubtful whether it is necessary, I have yet admitted it into the text ; because Falstaff, I think, more than once used the same phraseology. But certainly the old copy, without any ad- ditional word, is intelligible, if we place a comma after the word >voilt. If thou 'wilt, go with me to the ale-house; if not, &c. If it be thy pleasure, accompany me, &c. In the Sacred Writ- ings we have " thou wilt " in the same sense. Malone.
5 — 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 : " — or else make merry with their neighbours at the ale.''
Again, as Mr. M. Mason observes, in the play of Lord Cromwell :
60
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IJ.
SCENE VI. ^ The Same. A Room 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. Love bad 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 ; And he wants wit, that wants resolved will To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better. — Fie, fie, unreverend tongue ! to call her bad. Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr d With twenty thousand soul -confirming oaths.
*' 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.
^ 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 sceneiy has been changed, though Dr. Johnson's observation is continued. Steevens.
^ O 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 siuy teach me to excuse it. Johnson.
sc. ri.
OF VERONA.
61
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 most precious ^ in itself ;
And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair !
Shows 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 ^ :
^ For love is still most precious in itself ;] So the original copy. For most, Mr. Steevens has in his last three editions sub- stituted more. Malone.
9 And Silvia, witness heaven, that made her fair ! Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.] So, in Love's La- bour's Lost :
*' Thou for whom Jove would swear " Juno but an Ethiope were." Malone. ^ — in counsel, his competitor :] Myself, who am his com- petitor or 7'ival, being admitted to his counsel. Johnson. Competitor is confederate, assistant, partner. So, in Antony and Cleopatra :
*' Is it not Caesar'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 IH. the messenger says :
62
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT II.
Now presently I'll give her father notice Of their disguising, and pretended flight " ; 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 ^ ! [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 —
" The Guildfords are in arms,
" And every hour more comjjeiitors " Flock to the rebels." So, also, in Love's Labour's Lost :
*' The king and his competitors in oath." M. Mason. ^ — PRETENDED flight ;] Pretended flight is proposed or in- tended flight. So, in Macbeth :
" — What 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. H 3 : *' / pretend to return and come round about thorow other regyons in Europ." Reed.
3 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.
4 And, e'en in kind love, I do conjure thee,] The verb to conjure, or earnestly request, had the accent on the first syllable in our author's time. So, in Macbeth :
" I conjure thee by that which you profess." Again, in The Winter's Tale :
*' I conjure thee by all the parts of man."
sc. VII.
OF VERONA.
63
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 souls 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.
Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire ; But qualify the fire's extreme rage ^, Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
Jul, The more thou dam'st 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 musick with the enamel'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage ;
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
Again, in The Comedy of Errors :
*' I conjure thee to leave me and begone." Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :
" She conjures him by high almighty love." Malone. 5 — the fire's extreme rage,] Fire is here, as in many other places, used as a dissyllable. Malone.
64
TWO GENTLEMEN
With willing sport, to the wild ocean. Then let me go, and hinder not my course : ril 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 fantastick, 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,
" What compass will you wear your farthingale " Why, even what ^ fashion thou best lik'st-f, Lucetta.
Luc. You must needs have them with a cod- piece ^ madam.
* First folio, that. f First folio, likes.
^ — with a COD-PIECE, &c.] Whoever wishes to be acquainted with this particular, relative to dress, may consult Buliver's Arti- ficial Changeling, where such matters are amply discussed. It is mentioned, however, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, 1598 : *' Tyro's round breeches have a cliffe behind ; *' And that same perking longitude before, " Which for £l pin-case antique plowmen wore." Ocular instruction may be had from the armour shown as John of Gaunt's in the Tower of London. The same fashion appears to have been no less offensive in P^rance. See Montaigne, chap, xxii. The custom of sticking pins in this ostentatious piece of indecency was continued by the illiberal warders of the Tower, till forbidden by authority. Steevens.
sc. VJI.
OF VERONA.
65
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-piece 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.
Luc, If you think so, then stay at home, and go not.
Jul. Nay, that I will not.
Luc, Then never dream on infamy, but go. If 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, That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear: A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears.
However offensive this language may appear to modern ears, it certainly gave none to any of the spectators in Shakspeare's days. He only used the ordinary language of his contemporaries. Thus in the middle of King James's reign, Lodowick Barry puts the same language into the mouth of a lady, v/ho is disguised in the dress of a page :
" methinks this cod-piece
" Should betray me." Ram Alley, 1611. Again, ibid. :
" Sure we never more shall see
" A good leg worne in a long silk stocking, " With a long cod-piece, of all fashions " That carried it, father." Here also the speaker is a lady. Malone. ^ Out, out, Lucetta ! &c.] Dr. Percy obsei-ves, that this inter- jection is still used in the North. It seems to have the same meaning as apage, Lat.
So, in Chapman's version of the thirteenth Iliad :
*' Out, out, I hate ye from my heart, ye rotten-minded men ! "
Steevens.
So, in livery Man out of his Humour, Act. II. Sc. VI. : *' Out, out ! unworthy to speak where he breatheth." Reed. VOL. IV. F
66
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT JI,
And instances of the 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 ; And presently go with me to my chamber. To take a note of what I stand in need of. To furnish me upon my longing journey \
9 And instances of the infinite of love,] The old copy has — qf infinite of love ; from which I have only deviated by the intro- duction of the before of. W e have in other places the infinite used as a substantive. Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing : " It is past the infinite of thought."
Again, in Troilus and Cressida :
*' The past proportion of his infinite.''
Infinites appears even in the latter end of the sixteenth century to have been used as a substantive in the sense of an infinity. Thus in the Memoirs of Lord Lonsdale, written in 1688, and printed in 1808, p. 49 :
" Infinites of men prest for the shippes and forces drawn out of Ireland."
The person who revised the second folio gave the reading which has been adopted in all the modern editions. : " And instances as infinite of love."
But of and as are by no means likely to have been confounded. Besides, as is not supported by the context ; for the oaths men- tioned in the preceding line were not infinite^ their number, though a large one, being specified. Malone.
* — my LONGING journey.] Dr. Grey observes, that longing is
sc. vii. OF VERONA. 67
All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
My goods, my lands, my reputation ;
Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
Come, answer not, but to it presently ;
I am impatient of my tarriance. \Ejceunt.
ACT III. SCENE I. Milan. An Ante -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, that 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
a participle active, with a passive signification ; for longed, wished or desired. Steevens.
I believe that by her longing journey, Julia means a journey which she shall pass in longing. M. Mason.
F 2
68
TWO GENTLEMEN
^4CT III,
To cross my friend in his intended drift, Than, by concealing it, heap on your head A pack of sorrows, which would press you down, Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.
Duke, Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest care ;
Which to requite, command me while I live. This love of theirs myself have often seen. Haply, when they have judg'd 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,) I gave him gentle looks ; thereby to find 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.
Fro, 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 * ;
— jealous AIM — ] Aim is g^uess^ in this instance, as in the fol- lowing. So, in Romeo and Juliet :
*' I aim'd so near when 1 suppos'd you lov'd." Steevens. So, also, in Othello :
*' Yet in these cases, where the aim reports, '* 'Tis oft with difference." Malone. 3 — suggested,] Tempted. This use of the word is frequent in Shakspeare ; see before, p. 60. Bo swell.
— be not AIMED at;] Be xvoii guessed. Johnson.
OF VERONA.
69
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 of this.
Pro, Adieu, my lord ; sir Valentine is coming.
Enter Valentine,
Duke. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast ?
EiL, Please it your grace, there is a messenger That stays to bear my letters to my friends. And I am going to deliver them.
Duke, Be they of much import ?
Val, The tenor of them doth but signify My health, and happy being at your court.
Duke. Nay, then no matter ; stay with me awhile ; I am to break with thee of some affairs, That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret. 'Tis not unknown to thee, that I have sought To match my friend, sir Thurio, to my daughter.
Val. I know it well, my lord; and sure, the match
W ere rich and honourable ; besides, the gentle- man
Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities] Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter : Cannot your grace win her to fancy him
Duke, No, trust me ; she is peevish, sullen, fro- ward.
Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty ; Neither regarding that she is my child. Nor fearing me as if I were her father : And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers,
5 — of this pretence.] Of this claim made to your daughter.
Johnson.
Pretence is design. So, in K. Lear: " — to my affection to your honour, and no other pretence of danger." Again, in the same play : " — pretence and pui-pose of unkindness." Steevens.
70
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT HI,
Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her ; And, where ^ I thought the remnant of mine age Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty,
I now am full resolv'd to take a wife, And turn her out to who will take her in : Then let her beauty be her wedding- dower ; For me and my possessions she esteems not.
Fal, What would your grace have me to do in this ?
Duke, There is a lady, sir, in Milan, here ^, Whom I affect ; but she is nice, and coy. And nought esteems my aged eloquence : Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor, (For long agone I have forgot to court ; Besides, the fashion of the time ^ is chang'd ;) How, and which way, I may bestow myself. To be regarded in her sun-bright eye.
KiL, Win her with gifts, if she respect not words ;
^ And, WHERE — ] Where for 'whereas. It is often so used by our old writers, particularly in the preambles of ancient acts of parliament. Malone.
7 — sir, IN Milan, here,] It ought to be thus, instead of — in Verona, here : for the scene apparently is in Milan, as is clear from several passages in the first act, and in the beginning of the first scene of the fourth act. A like mistake has crept into the eighth [fifth] scene of Act II. where Speed bids his fellow-servant Launce welcome to Padua. Pope.
The old copy has —
" There is a lady in Verona here," And the circumstance that the word Verona exactly suits the metre, which is not the case with Milan, seems to indicate that this was an oversight of the youthful authour. Mr. Pope, to make out the verse, was obliged to add sir ; but it is very unlikely that the compositor should have made two blunders of so different a kind in one line. However, to prevent the confusion that would arise from the introduction of Verona here, I have reluctantly followed all the other editions in adopting this emendation. Malone.
^ — the fashion of the time — ] The modes of courtship, the acts by which men recommended themselves to ladies. Johnson.
sc. I,
OF VERONA.
7f
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, More than quick words, do move a woman's mind ^. Duke. But she did scorn a present that I sent her\
9 Win her with gifts, if she respect not words ; Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind. More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.] An ear- lier writer than Shakspeare, speaking of women, has the same unfavourable (and, I hope, unfounded) sentiment : * 'Tis wisdom to give much ; a gift prevails, *' When deep persuasive oratory fails."
Marlotve's Hero and Leander. Our poet had probably read the popular poem recently before he composed this play. See the next page :
*' Would serve to scale another Hero's tower, " So bold Leander would adventure it." See also p. 10, n. 6. To this note in Mr. Steeven's last two editions some passages have been added, for which I am not an- swerable. I know not where they came from. Malone.
Again, in the First Part of Jeronymo, 1605 : though written much earlier :
*' let his protestations be
*' Fashioned with rich jewels, for in love *' Great gifts and gold have the best tongues to move. ** Let him not spare an oath without a jewel " To bind it fast : oh, I know women's hearts ** What stuff they are made of, my lord ; gifts and giving, *' Will melt the chastest seeming female living." Reed. In the fourth of the preceding lines spare is undoubtedly an errour of the press in the old edition of Jeronymo, for swear.
Malone.
* — SENT HER.] Mr.Steevens, to produce (as he says) "a more ac- curate rhyme," would read — that I sent. Sir; and Mr. J. M. Mason, with the same view, leaving the first line as it now stands, would read in that which follows, — ^what best content her, i. e. those gifts which best content her. I know not which of these sugges- tions is most exceptionable. He who has observed the laxity of ancient rhymes will not suspect any errour in the text ; only three lines lower we find the word you repeated as rhyme : which might have cautioned Mr. Steevens against tampering with the old copy on the ground of too great a similarity of the rhymes. So, in the Tempest :
*' Hourly joys be still upon you,
*' Juno sings her blessings on you." Malone.
72
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT III,
Val, a woman sometime scorns what best eon- tents her :
Send her another ; never give her o'er ;
For scorn at first makes after-love the more.
If she do frown, 'tis not in hate of you,
But rather to beget more love in you :
If she do chide, 'tis not to have you gone ;
For why, the fools are mad, if left alone.
Take no repulse, whatever she doth say ;
For, get you gone, she doth not mean, away :
Flatter, and praise, commend, extol their graces ;
Though ne'er so black, say, they have angels' faces.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man. If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
Duke. But she I mean, is promis'd by her friends Unto a youthful gentleman of worth ; And kept severely from resort of men. That no man hath access by day to her.
f^L, Why then I would resort to her by night.
Duke, Ay, but the doors be lock'd, and keys kept safe.
That no man hath recourse to her by night.
EiL, What lets^ but one may enter at her win- dow ?
Duke. Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground ; And built so shelving, that one cannot climb it Without apparent hazard of his life.
Eiz, Why then, a ladder, quaintly made of cords. To cast up, with a pair of anchoring hooks. Would serve to scale another Hero's tower. So bold Leander would adventure it.
* What LETS,] i. e. what hinders. So, in Hamlet, Act I. Sc. IV. :
" By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me."
Steevens.
SC\ J.
OF VERONA.
73
Duke. Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood. Advise me, where I may have such a ladder. P^L, When would you use it ? pray, sir, tell me that.
Duke. This very night ; for love is like a child, That longs for every thing that he can come by.
f^L. By seven o'clock I'll get you such a ladder.
Duke. But hark thee ; I will go to her alone ; How shall I best convey the ladder thither ?
Val. It will be light, my lord, that you may bear it Under a cloak, that is of any length.
Duke. A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn ?
Val. Ay, my good lord.
Duke. Then let me see thy cloak ; ril get me one of such another length.
Fal. Why, any cloak will serve the turn, my lord.
Duke. How shall I fashion me to wear a cloak ? — I pray thee, let me feel thy cloak upon me. — What letter is this same ? What's here ? — To Silvia? And here an engine fit for my proceeding ! I'll be so bold to break the seal for once. \_Reads. My thoughts do hm^hour with my Silvia nightly ;
And slaves they are to me, that send themjlying: 0, could their master come and go as lightly.
Himself would lodge, xvhere senseless they are lying.
My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them^ ;
fVhile /, their king, that thither them importune. Do curse the grace that with such grace hath hlesid them.
Because myself do xvant my servants' fortune: I curse myself, for they are sent by me'^,
3 My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom, &c.] i. e. the thoughts contained in my letter. See a subsequent note in this scene, on the words, " Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love."
Malone.
4 — roR they are sent—] For is the same as for that, since. Johnson.
74
TWO GENTLEMEN
III,
That they should harbour where their lord should he. What's here ?
Silvia, this i^ight I will enfranchise thee: 'Tis so ; and here's the ladder for the purpose. — Why, Phaeton, (for thou art Merops' son^ ,) Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car, And with thy daring folly burn the world ? Wilt thou reach stars, because they shine on thee ? Go, base intruder ! over-weening slave ! Bestow thy fawning smiles on equal mates ; And think, my patience, more than thy desert. Is privilege for thy departure hence : Thank me for this, more than for all the favours. Which, all too much, I have bestow'd on thee. But if thou linger in my territories. Longer than swiftest expedition Will give thee time to leave our royal court. By heaven, my wrath shall far exceed the love I ever bore my daughter, or thyself. Be gone, I will not hear thy vain excuse. But, as thou lov'st thy life, make speed from hence ^,
\_Ej:it Duke,
5 — Merops' son,)] Thou art Phaeton in thy rashness, but without his pretensions ; thou art not the son of a divinity, but a terrce Jilius, a low-born wretch ; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaeton was falsely reproached. Johnson.
This scrap of mythology Shakspeare might have found in the spurious play of K. John, 1591 :
" as sometime Phaeton,
" Mistrusting silly Merops for his sire." Or in Robert Greene's Orlando Furioso, 1594' : " Why, foolish, hardy, daring, simple groom, ** Follower of fond conceited Phaeton," &c. Steevens. * But if thou linger in my territories. Longer than swiftest expedition Will give thee time to leave our royal court, By heaven, my wrath shall far exceed the love I ever bore my daughter, or thyself. Be gone, I will not hear thy vain excuse, But, as thou lov'st thy life, make speed from hence.] So, as Mr. Boaden suggests to me, in King Lear :
sc\ /.
OF VERONA.
76
And why not death, rather than living tor- ment ?
To die, is to be banish'd from myself ; And Silvia is myself : banish'd from her. Is self from self ; a deadly banishment ! What light is hght, if Silvia be not seen ? What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by ? Unless it be, to think that she is by. And feed upon the shadow of perfection ^. Except I be by Silvia in the night. There is no musick in the nightingale ; Unless I look on Silvia in the day, There is no day for me to look upon : She is my essence ; and I leave to be, If I be not by her fair influence Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive. I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom ^ : Tarry I here, I but attend on death ; But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.
Enter Proteus and Launce.
Pro, Run, boy, run, run, and seek him out. Launce, So -ho ! so -ho ! Pro, What see'st thou ?
" Five days we do allow thee for provision, *' And on the sixth to turn thy hated back *' Upon our kingdom : if on the tenth day following ** Thy banish'd trunk be found in our doininions, *' The moment is thy death. Away ! By Jupiter, " This shall not be revok'd." Malone. And feed upon the shadow of perfection,]
Aniinum pidura pascit inani. Virg. Henley. * I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom :] To fly his doom, used for by flying, or in flying, is a gallicism. The sense is, By avoiding the execution of his sentence I shall not escape death. If I stay here, I sufter myself to be destroyed ; if I go away, I destroy myself. Johnson.
76
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT in.
Launce. Him we go to find : there's not a hair^ on's head, but 'tis a Valentine. Pro, Valentine ? No.
Pro. Who then ? his spirit ? Val, Neither. Pro, What then .^^ Val, Nothing.
Launce, Can nothing speak master, shall I strike ?
Pro, Who would'st thou strike ^ ? Launce, Nothing. Pro, Villain, forbear.
Launce. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing : I pray you, — Pro. Sirrah, I say, forbear : Friend Valentine, a word.
Val, My ears are stopp'd, and cannot hear good news,
9 — there's not a hair — '\ Launce is still quibbling. He is now running down the hare that he started when he entered. Malone.
^ Who would'st thou strike?] Our author throughout his plays has confounded the personal pronouns, and uses one for the other : {yoho for uohom, she for her, him for he, &c.) Nor was this in- accuracy peculiar to him, being very common when he wi-ote even among persons of good education. So, in Othello :
" lago. He's married : *' Cas. To ujAo?" Again, in Othello :
0th. Ha, with tu^o?" Again, in Cymbeline :
*' he hath a court
** He little cares for, and a daughter xuho *' He not respects at all." See various other instances to the same purpose in the Essay on Shakspeare's Phraseology:
The reviser of the second folio was so little acquainted with the phraseology of a former period, that he has here, and in various other places, substituted luhom for vuho ; in which he has been followed by Mr. Steevens, and all other modern editors. Malone.
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
77
So much of bad already have possess'd them.
Pro. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine. For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad.
f^L, Is Silvia dead ?
Pro. No, Valentine.
l^L, No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia ! — Hath she forsworn me ? Pro. No, Valentine.
No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me !— What is your news ?
Launce. Sir, there's a proclamation that you are vanished.
Pro. That thou art banish'd, O, that is the news, From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend.
Val. O, I have fed upon this woe already. And now excess of it will make me surfeit ^. Doth Silvia know that I am banished ? ^
Pro. Ay, ay ; and she hath offer'd to the doom, (Which, unrevers'd, stands in effectual force,) A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears ; Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd ; With them, upon her knees, her humble self ; Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them.
As if but now they waxed pale for woe ; But neither bended knees, pure hands held up, Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears, Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire ; But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die. Besides, her intercession chafed him so. When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
* First folio, banish'd. * O, I have fed upon this woe already.
And now excess of it will make me surfeit.] So, in Twelfth Night :
" Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
** The appetite may sicken and so die." Malone.
78
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT in.
That to close prison he commanded her, With many bitter threats of 'biding there.
Fal, No more, unless the next word that thou speak'st.
Have some malignant power upon my life : If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear, As ending anthem of my endless dolour.
Pro, Cease to lament for that thou canst not help.
And study help for that which thou lament'st. Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Here if thou stay, thou canst not see thy love ; Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life. Hope is a lover's staff ;. walk hence with that. And manage it against despairing thoughts. Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence ; Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love ^.
3 Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.] So, in Hamlet :
*' These to her excellent tvhite bosom,'* &c. Again, in Gascoigne's Adventures of Master F. J. first edit, p. 206 : At delivery thereof, [i. e. of a letter,] she understood not for what cause he thrust the " same into her bosom.''
Trifling as the remark may appear, before the meaning of this address of letters to the bosom of a mistress can be understood, it should be known that women anciently had a pocket in the fore part of their stays, in which they not only carried love-letters and love tokens, but even their money and materials for needle-work. Thus Chaucer, in his Merchantes Tale :
" This purse hath she in hire bosome hid." In many parts of England the rustic damsels still observe the same practice ; and a very old lady informs me that she remem- bers when it was the fashion to wear very prominent stays, it was no less the custom for stratagem or gallantry to drop its literary favours within the front of them. Steevens. See Lord Surrey's Sonnets, 1557:
" My song, thou shalt attain to find the pleasant place, " Where she doth live, by whom I live ; may chance to have the grace,
sc, /.
OF VERONA.
79
The time now serves not to expostulate : Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate ; And, ere I part with thee, confer at large Of all that may concern thy love affairs : As thou lov'st Silvia, though not for thyself. Regard thy danger, and along with me.
f^L. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy. Bid him make haste, and meet me me at the north gate.
Pro. Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine.
P^L. O my dear Silvia ! hapless Valentine !
[E.veunt K4lentine and Proteus,
Launce. I am but a fool, look you ; and yet I have the wit to think, my master is a kind of a knave ; but that's all one, if he be but one knave ^.
*' When she hath read, and seen the grief wherein I serve, Between her brests she shall thee put, there shall she thee reserved Malone.
* Launce. I am but a fool, look you ; and yet I have the wit to think, my master is a kind of a knave ; but that's all one, if he be but ONE KNAVE.] Where is the sense, or, if you won't allow the speaker that, where is the humour of this speech ? Nothing had given the fool occasion to suspect that his master was become double, like Antipholis in The Comedy of Errors. The last word is corrupt. We should read :
— if he be but one hind —
He thought his master was a kind of knave; however, he keeps himself in countenance with this reflection, that if he was a knave but of one kind, he might pass well enough amongst his neighbours. This is truly humourous. Wareurton.
This alteration is acute and specious, yet I know not whether, in Shakspeare's language, one knave may not signify a knave on only one occasion, a single knave. We still use a double villain for a villain beyond the common rate of guilt. Johnson.
This passage has been altered, with little difference, by Dr. Warburton and Sir T. Hanmer. — Mr. Edwards explains it,—" if he only be a knave, if / myself be not found to be another."' I agree with Dr. Johnson, and will support the old reading and his interpretation with indisputable authority. In the old play of Damon and Pythias, Aristippus declares of Carisophus : " You lose money by him if you sell him for one knave, for he serves for tuoayne."
80
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT III.
He lives not now, that knows me to be in love : yet I am in love ; but a team of horse shall not pluck ^ that from me ; nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman, I will not tell myself; and yet 'tis a milk-maid: yet 'tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips^: yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's maid, and serves for wages. She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel, — which is much in a bare christian \ Here is the
This phraseology is often met with : Arragon says, in The Mer- chant of Venice :
'* With one fooVs head I came to woo, *' But I go away with ^ujo." Donne begins one of his sonnets : " I am tvoo fools ^ I know, " For loving and for saying so" &c. And when Panurge cheats St. Nicholas of the chapel, which he vowed to him in a storm, Rabelais calls him *' a rogue — a rogue and an half—'Le gallant, gallant de demy."'' Farmer.
Again, in Like Will to Like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587:
*' Thus thou may'st be called a knave in graine,
*' And where knaves be scant, thou may'st go for tvoayne.
Steevens.
My master is a kind of knave ; but that were no great matter, if he were but one knave ; but he is two — a knave to his friend and a knave to his mistress. Capell.
5 — but a team of horse shall not pluck — ] I see how Valen- tine suffers for telling his love-secrets, therefore I will keep mine close. Johnson.
Perhaps Launce was not intended to shew so much sense ; but here indulges himself in talking contradictory nonsense.
Steevens.
So, in Twelfth Night :
** I think oxen and wain ropes cannot hale them together.'*
Malone.
^ — for she hath had gossips :] Gossips not only signify those who answer for a child in baptism, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. The quibble between these is evident.
Steevens.
' — a bare christian.] Launce is quibbling on. Bare has two senses ; mere and naked. In Coriolanus it is used in the first :
*' 'Tis but a dare petition of the state."
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
cate-log [^pulling out a paper] of her conditions ®. Imprimis, She can fetch and carry : Why, a horse can do no more : nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore, is she better than a jade. Item, She can milk ; look you, a sweet virtue in a maid with clean hands.
Enter Speed,
Speed, How now, signior Launce ? what news with your mastership ?
Launce. With my master's ship ^ ? why, it is at sea.
Speed, Well, your old vice still; mistake the word : What news then in your paper ?
Launce. The blackest ^ news that ever thou
heard'st. Speed. Why, man, how black ? Launce. Why, as black as ink. Speed. Let me read them.
Launce. Fie on thee, jolt-head ; thou canst not read.
Speed. Thou liest, I can.
Launce. I will try thee; Tell me this: Who
begot thee ? Speed. Marry, the son of my grandfather, Launce. O illiterate loiterer ! it was the son of
thy grandmother^: this proves, that thou canst
not read.
* First folio, the blackest.
Launce uses it in both, and opposes the naked female to the water-spaniel covered with hairs of remarkable thickness.
Steevens.
s — CONDITIONS.] i. e. qualities. The old copy has condition. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.
9 — with my master's ship?] The old copy reads — master- ship. The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald. Malone.
' — the son of thy grandmother :] It is undoubtedly true VOL. IV. G
82
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT in.
Speed. Come, fool, come : try me in thy paper. Launce. There ; and saint Nicholas be thy speed ^ ! Speed. Imprimis, She can milk, Launce. Ay, that she can ^. Speed. Item, She brexvs good ale"^,
that the mother only knows the legitimacy of the child. I sup- pose Launce infers, that if he could read, he must have read this well-known observation. Steevens.
^ — SAINT Nicholas be thy speed !] St, Nicholas presided over scholars, who were therefore called St. Nicholas's clerks. Hence, by a quibble between Nicholas and Old Nick, highway- men, in The First Part of Henry the Fourth, are called Nicholas's clerics. Warburton.
That this saint presided over young scholars may be gathered from Knight's Life of Dean Collet, p. 362 ; for by the statutes of Paul's school there inserted, the children are required to attend divine service at the cathedral on his anniversary. The reason I take to be, that the legend of this saint makes him to have been a bishop, while he was a boy. Sir J. Hawkins.
So, Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589 : " Methinks this fellow speaks like bishop Nicholas ; for on Saint Nicholas's night commonly the scholars of the country make them a bishop, who, like a foolish boy, goeth about blessing and preaching with such childish terms, as maketh the people laugh at his foolish counter- feit speeches." Steevens.
3 Speed. Imprimis, She can milk. Launce. Ay, that she can.] These two speeches should evidently be omitted. There is not only no attempt at humour in them, contraiy to all the rest in the same dialogue, but Launce clearly directs Speed to go on with the paper where he himself left off. See his preceding soliloquy. Farmer.
Of all the modes of emendation, omission is, in my opinion, the most dangerous ; and therefore nothing but the most cogent reasons shall ever induce me to omit what is found in the most authentic copies. A compositor may inadvertently repeat a word in a line, or his eye may catch a word from a preceding or sub- sequent line, and hence the sense of a passage may be destroyed ; but he never invents whole lines or speeches, nor do transcribers. Shakspeare, we know, in repeating a letter already recited from a paper, sometimes varies the words, in spite of the adage, litera scripta manet ; and therefore, I am confident, took no care that Speed should begin where Launce left off. Malone.
— She brews good ale.] Females were much employed in
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
83
Launce. And thereof comes the proverb, — Blessing of your heart '\ you brew good ale.
Speed. Item, She can sew.
Launce. That's as much as to say, Can she so ?
Speed. Item, She can knit.
Launce. What need a man care for a stock with a wench ; when she can knit him a stock ^ ?
Speed. Item, She can wash and scour.
Launce. A special virtue ; for then she need not be wash'd and scour d.
Speed. Item, She can spin.
Launce. Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for her living.
Speed. Item, She hath many nameless mrtues.
Launce. That's as much as to say, bastard vir- tues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.
Speed. Here follows her "vices.
Launce. Close at the heels of her virtues.
Speed. Item, She is not to be kiss'd fasting \ in respect of her breath.
Launce. Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast : Read on.
Speed. Item, She haih a szveet mouth^ .
Shakspeare's time in brewing ale, and the same office is still per- formed by them in many counties in England. Malone.
5 Blessing of your heart, &c.] So, in Ben Jonson's Masque of Augurs :
" Our ale's o' the best. And each good guest *' Prays for their souls that brew it." Steevens. ^ — knit him a stock?] i. e. a stocking. So, in Twelfth Night:
" — it does indifferent well in a flame-colour'd stock.'"
Steevens.
7 — She is not to be kiss'd fasting,] The old copy reads, — she is not to be fasting, &c. The necessary word, Iciss'd, was first added by Mr. Rowe. Steevens.
^ — sweet mouth.] This I take to be the same with what is now
G 2
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT JU,
Launce, That makes amends for her sour breath .
Speed, Item, She doth talk in her sleep,
Launce, It's no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk.
Speed, Item, She is sloxv in words.
Launce, O villainy, that set this down among her vices ! To be slow in words, is a woman's only virtue : I pray thee, out with't ; and place it for her chief virtue.
Speed, Item, She is p7'oud.
Launce, Out with that too ; it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en from her.
Speed, Item, She hath no teeth.
Launce, I care not for that neither, because I love crusts.
Speed. Item, She is crust.
Launce. Well ; the best is, she hath no teeth to bite.
vulgarly called a sxveet tooth, a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats. Johnson.
So, in Thomas Pagnell's translation of Ulrick Hutton's book De Medecina Guaiaci et morboGallico, 1539: — "delicatesanddeynties wherewith they may stere up their sweete mouthes, and provoke their appetites."
Yet how a luxurious desire of dainties can make amends for offensive breath, I know not. A sweet mouth may however mean a liquorish mouthy in a wanton sense. So, in Measure for Mea- sure :
** Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, &c."
Steevens.
There is, I conceive, no difficulty here. When Speed uses the term sweet mouth, he may use those words with a view to the works of the confectioner, and allude to a " luxurious desire of dain- ties and sweetmeats ; " but in Launcc's reply, — the same words may be understood in a quite different sense, as expressive of the beauty playing about that part of the face, which, according to him, may make amends for an offensive breath.
Hall in his Satires, book iv. sat. 1., 1599, has used the ex- pression here introduced :
*' Let sweet mouth' d Mercia bid what crownes she please,
" For half-red cherries, or greene garden peas," &c. Malone,
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
85
Speed, Item, She will often praise her liquor^,
Launce, If her liquor be good, she shall : if she will not, I will ; for good things should be praised.
Speed. Item, She is too liberal^.
Launce. Of her tongue she cannot; for thats writ down she is slow of: of her purse she shall not ; for that I'll keep shut : now of another thing she may ; and that cannot I help Well, proceed.
Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit ^ and more faults than hair, and more wealth than faults,
Launce. Stop there ; I'll have her ; she was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that last article : Rehearse that once more.
Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit, —
Launce. More hair than wit, — it may be; I'll
9 — praise her liquor.] That is, shew how well she likes it by drinking often. Johnson.
^ — too LIBERAL.] Liberal, is licentious and gross in language. So, in Othello : " Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor? "
Johnson.
Again, in The Fair Maid of Bristow, 1605, bl. 50 : *' But Vallenger, most like a liberal villain, " Did give her scandalous ignoble terms." Steevens. Again, in Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612: " — next that the fame *' Of your neglect and liberal-idXkmg tongue, ** Which breeds my honour an eternal viTong." Malone. ^ — cannot I help.] Thus the old copy, for which Mr. Steevens has given us — I cannot help. This minute matter is noticed, lest it should be supposed that the printer had committed an errour. Malone.
3 — She hath more hair than wit,] An old English proverb. See Ray's Collection :
*' Bush natural, more hair than tvit.'* Again, in Decker's Satiromastix :
*' Hair J 'tis the basest stubble ; in scorn of it " This proverb sprung, — He has more hair than mt." Again, in Rhodon and Iris, 1631 :
*' Now is the old proverb really perform'd ; More hair than wit.'' Steevens*
86
prove it : The cover of the salt hides the salt and therefore it is more than the salt : the hair, that covers the wit, is more than the wit ; for the greater hides the less. What's next ?
Speed. — j4nd more faults than hairs, — Launce. That's monstrous: O, that that were out!
Speed. — A72d more wealth than faults.
Launce. Why, that word makes the faults gra- cious ^ : Well, I'll have her : And if it be a match, as nothing is impossible, —
Speed. What then?
Launce. Why, then will I tell thee, — that thy master stays for thee at the north gate. Speed. For me
Launce. For thee ay ; who art thou he hath staid for a better man than thee. Speed. And must I go to him ?
^ — the COVER of the salt hides the salt,] The ancient English salt cellar was very different from the modern, being a large piece of plate, generally much ornamented, with a cover, to keep the salt clean. There was but one salt cellar on the dinner table, which was placed near the top of the table ; and those who sat below the salt were, for the most part, of an inferior condition to those who sat above it. Malone.
^ — makes the faults gracious :] Gracious, in old language, means graceful. So, in K. John:
*' There was not such a gracious creature born."
Again, in Albion's Triumph, 1631 :
*' On which [the Jreeze'] went festoons of several fruits in their natural colours, on which in gracious postures lay children sleep- ing."
Again, in The Male Content, 1604^ :
*' The most exquisite, &c. that ever made an old lady gracious by candle-light." Steevens. x
Mr. Steevens's interpretation of the word gracious has been controverted, but it is right. We have the same sentiment in The Merry Wives of Windsor :
" O, what a world of vile i\\-(n\'oufd faults
" Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year ! " Malone.
.sc. //.
OF VERONA.
87
Launce. Thou must run to him, for thou hast -staid so long, that going will scarce serve the turn.
Speed. Why didst not tell me sooner ? 'pox of your love-letters ! \_E.vit.
Launce, Now will he be swing'd for reading my letter ; An unmannerly slave, that will thrust him- self into secrets ! — I'll after, to rejoice in the boy s correction. [Exit,
SCENE II.
The same. A Room in the Duke's Palace.
Enter Duke and Thurio ; Proteus behind,
Duke, Sir Thurio, fear not, but that she will love you
Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight.
Thu. Since his exile she hath despis'd me most. Forsworn my company, and rail'd at me, That I am desperate of obtaining her.
Duke. This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice ^ which with an hour's heat Dissolves to water, and doth lose his form. A little time will melt her frozen thoughts. And worthless Valentine shall be forgot. — How now, sir Proteus ? Is your countryman, According to our proclamation, gone ?
Pro. Gone, my good lord.
Duke. My daughter takes his going grievously^.
^ Trenched in ice — ] Cut, carved in ice. TrancJier, to cut, Fr.
Johnson.
So, in Arden of Fevei-sham, 1592 :
*' Is deeply trenched in my blushing brow." Steevens.
7 — grievously,] So some copies of the first folio, 1623, the only authentick copy of this play; others (of which mine is one) have heavily^ Those copies which have grievously, have also, in one of Launce's speeches in the preceding scene, *' in that last article," instead of which, in the copies that read /feawVy,
88
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT III.
Pro, a little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke. So I believe ; but Thurio thinks not so. — Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee, (For thou hast shewn some sign of good desert,) Makes me the better to confer with thee.
Pro. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace. Let me not live to look upon your grace.
Duke. Thou know'st, how willingly I would effect The match between sir Thurio and my daughter.
Pro. I do, my lord.
Duke. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant How she opposes her against my will.
Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.
Duke. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. What might we do to make the girl forget The love of Valentine, and love sir Thurio ?
Pro. The best way is, to slander Valentine With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent ; Three things that women highly hold in hate.
Duke. Ay, but she'll think, that it is spoke in hate.
Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it : Therefore it must, with circumstance ^, be spoken By one, whom she esteemeth as his friend.
Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him.
Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loth to do : 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman ; Especially, against his very friend ^.
Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage him.
Your slander never can endamage him ; Therefore the office is indifferent,
we find *' mthat article." Both these corrections appear to have been made while the sheet was working off at the press. Malone.
* — with circumstance,] With the addition of such incidental particulars as may induce belief. Johnson.
9 — his VERY friend.] Very is 'mmediate. So, in Macbeth: ** And the verij ports they blow." Steevens.
sc. II.
OF VERONA.
89
Being entreated to it by your friend.
Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord : if I can do it, By aught that I can speak in his dispraise, She shall not long continue love to him. But say, this weed her love from Valentine, It follows not that she will love sir Thurio.
Thl\ Therefore as you unwind her love ^ from him.
Lest it should ravel, and be good to none. You must provide to bottom it on me : Which must be done, by praising me as much As you in worth dispraise sir Valentine.
Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind ;
Because we know, on Valentine's report.
You are already love's firm votary.
And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant shall you have access.
Where you wdth Silvia may confer at large ;
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy.
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you ;
Where you may temper her by your persuasion.
To hate young Valentine, and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect : — But you, sir Thurio, are not sharp enough ;
^ — as you UNWIND her love — ] As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottotn of thread. Johnson.
So, in Grange's Garden, 1557 : *' in answer to a letter written unto him by a Curtyzan :"
*' A bottome for your silke it seems
** My letters are become, " Which oft with winding off and on
*' Are wasted whole and some." Steevens. ^ — you may temper her,] Mould her, like wax, to what- ever shape you please. So, in King Henry IV. Part II. : " I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb ; and shortly will I seal with him. " Malone.
m TWO GENTLEMEN ^ct ///.
You must lay lime '\ to tangle her desires, By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhimes Should be full fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke, Ay, Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.
Pro. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart : Write, till your ink be dry ; and with your tears Moist it again ; and frame some feeling line. That may discover such integrity ^ : — For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews ^ ;
3 — lime,] That is, birdlime. Johnson. — such integrity : — ] I suspect that a line following this has been lost ; the import of which perhaps was
" As her obdurate heart may penetrate." Malone.
Such iyitegrity may mean such ardour and sincerity, as would be manifested by practising the directions given in the four pre- ceding lines. Steevens-
This note of Mr. Steevens, though carefully placed before the preceding remark in his edition, was written and published after it, and was intended to do away its force. The construction recommended is inadmissible : for the words — " that may discover such integrity," manifestly relate to the last clause of some feeling line, and not to the whole of the preceding speech. Malone.
5 For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews ;] This shews Shakspeare's knowledge of antiquity. He here assigns Orpheus his true character of legislator. For under that of a poet only, or lover, the quality given to his lute is vmintelligible. But, considered as a lawgiver, the thought is noble, and the imagery exquisitely beautiful. For by his lute, is to be under- stood his system of laws ; and by the poet's sinews, the power of numbers, which Orpheus actually employed in those laws to make them received by a fierce and barbarous people.
Warburton.
Proteus is describing to Thurio the powers of poetry ; and gives no quality to the lute of Orpheus, but those usually and \ailgarly ascribed to it. It would be strange indeed if, in order to prevail upon the ignorant and stupid Thurio to write a sonnet to his mistress, he should enlarge upon the legislative powers of Orpheus, which were nothing to the purpose. Warburton's observations frequently tend to prove Shakspeare more profound and learned than the occasion required, and to make the Poet of Nature the most unnatural that ever wrote. M. Mason.
SC, II.
OF VERONA.
91
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, Make tygers tame, and huge leviathans Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. After your dire -lamenting elegies, Visit by night your lady's chamber-window With some sweet concert ^ : to their instruments Tune a deploring dump ^ ; the night's dead silence
^ — with some sweet concert:] The old copy has cojisorl, which I once thought might have meant in our author's time a band or company of musicians. So, in Romeo and Juliet : *' Ti/b. Mercutio, thou consorVst with Romeo. Mer. Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels?
'The subsequent words, " To their instruments — ," seem to favour this interpretation ; but other instances, that I have since met with, in books of our author's age, have convinced me that consort was only the old spelling of concert, and I have accord- ingly printed the latter word in the text. The epithet ravcet, annexed to it, seems better adapted to the musick itself tb in to the band. Consort, when accented on the first syllable (as here) had, I believe, the former meaning ; when on the second, it sig- nified a company. So, in the next scene :
" What say'st thou ? Wilt thou be of our consort ? "
In addition to these remarks, I may observe, that Coles in his Dictionary, 1679 : renders consort by the Latin word concentus.
With respect to the relative pronoun their, to which we have here no correspondent word, it must be remembered that Shak- speare frequently refers to words not expressed but implied in the former part of the sentence ; thus in the present instance, the reference is to musiciajis, who are necessary to make a concert. So, in Othello :
*' — And bad me when my fate would have me wiv'd, " To give it her,'' i, e. his wife. Malone.
7 Tune a deploring dump ;] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegi/.
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A DOMPE O |
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ENTH CEN^ |
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92 TWO GENTLEMEN act in.
Will well become such sweet-complaining griev-
ance.
This, or else nothing, will inherit her^.
Duke, This discipline shews thou hast been in love.
Thu. And thy advice this night TU put in practice :
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sc. n.
OF VERONA.
93
Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction -giver.
Let us into the city presently
To sort ^ some gentlemen well skiU'd in musick :
I have a sonnet that will serve the turn.
To give the onset to thy good advice.
Duke. About it, gentlemen.
Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, till after supper ; And afterward determine our proceedings.
Duke. Even now about it ; I will pardon you ^
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For this curiosity the reader is indebted to Stafford Smith, Esq. of His Majesty's Chapel Royal. Steevens.
* — will INHERIT her.] To inherit, is by our author some- times used, as in this instance, for to obtain possession of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. So, in Titus Andronicus :
" He that had wit, would think that I had none, *' To bury so much gold under a tree, *' And never after to inherit it." This sense of the word was not wholly disused in the time of Milton, who in his Comus has — " dis-inherit Chaos," meaning only dispossess it. Steevens.
9 To SORT — ] i. e. to choose out. So, in K. Richard III. : " Yet I will sort a pitchy hour for thee." Steevens.
* — I will pardon you.] I will excuse you from waiting.
Johnson.
94i
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IV.
ACT IV. SCENE I. A Forest, near Mantua.
Enter certain Out-laifs.
1 Out. Fellows, stand fast ; I see a passenger.
2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down
with'em.
Enter Falentine and Speed.
S Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you ; If not, we'll make you sit^, and rifle you.
Speed. Sir, we are undone ! these are the villains That all the travellers do fear so much.
f^L. My friends, —
1 Out. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies.
2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him.
3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we ; for he is a proper man^
^ If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you.] The old copy reads as I have printed the passage ; paltry as the opposition between stcmd and sit may be thought, it is Shakspeare's own. My pre- decessors read — we'll make you, sh', &c. Steevens.
Sir is the corrupt reading of the third folio. Mr. Steevens's immediate predecessor (the present editor) did not adopt this false reading. Malone.
3 — a PROPER man.] i. e. a well-looking man ; he has the ap- pearance of a gentleman.
So, in Much Ado About Nothing, " at last she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy."
Proper, it should be observed, relates not to the countenance, but to the person or figure, and implies height and symmetiy of form. So, near the conclusion of this scene, one of the outlaws, addressing Valentine, says,
" And partly, seeing you are beautijied " With goodlij shape." Coles, in his Latin Dictionary, renders this word by procerus.
sc. I,
OF VERONA.
95
Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose ; A man I am, crossed with adversity : My riches are these poor habiliments. Of which if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have.
2 Out. Whither travel you ? Val. To Verona.
1 Out. Whence came you Val. From Milan.
3 Out. Have you long sojourn'd there
KiL. Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid. If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
2 Out. What, were you banish'd thence ? Val. I was.
2 Out. For what offence
Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse : I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent ; But yet I slew him manfully in fight. Without false vantage, or base treachery.
1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so : But were you banish'd for so small a fault
Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
1 Out. Have you the tongues
Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy ; Or else I often had been miserable.
3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar*. This fellow were a king for our wild faction.
So, in an old ballad concerning Robert the celebrated Earl of Essex :
" Then said the prentices proper and tall, " For Essex's sake we will die all." Malone. — Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen.
Johnson.
So, in A Merry Geste of Robin Hoode, &c. bl. 1. no date : " These byshoj)pes and these archebyshoppes " Ye shall them beate and bynde," he.
96
TWO GENTLEMEN act n\
1 Out, We'll have him : sh*s, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them ; It is an honourable kind of thievery. KiL. Peace, villain !
21 Out. Tell us this ; Have you any thing to take to?
Fal. Nothing, but my fortune. 3 Out. Know then that some of us are gentle- men.
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth Thrust from the company of awful men ^ :
But by Robin Hood's fat friar, I believe, Shakspeare means Friar Tuck, who was confessor and companion to this noted out- law. So, in one of the old songs of Robin Hood : '* And of brave little John, " Of Friar Tuck and Will Scarlett, " Stokesly and Maid Marian." Again, in the 26th song of Drayton's Polyolbion :
*' Of Tuck the merry friar which many a sermon made, " In praise oi Robin Hoode, his out-lawes, and his trade." Again, in Skelton's Play of Magnificence, f. 5, 6 : " Another bade shave halfe my berde, " And boyes to the pylery gan me pluck e, *' And wolde have made me freer Tucke *' Topreche oute of the pylery hole." See figure III. in the plate at the end of the first part of King Henry IV. with Mr. Toilet's observations on it. Steevens.
Dr. Johnson seems to have misunderstood this passage. The speaker does not swear by the scalp of some churchman who had been plundered, but by the shaven crown of Robin Hood's chaplain : — " We will live and die all together (says a personage in Peele's K. Edward I. 1593:) like Robin Hood, little John, Friar Tucke, and Maid Marian." Malone.
^ — AWFUL men :] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates, and other principal members of civil communities. Johnson.
Avoful is used by Shakspeare, in another place, in the sense of lavoful. Second part of Henry IV. Act IV. Sc. II. :
** We come within our avoful banks again." Tyrwhitt. So, in K. Henry V. 1600 :
'* creatures that by ax\3e ordain
" An act of order to a peopled kingdom." Avoful men are men full of awe and respect for the laws of society and the duties of life.
sc. I.
OF VERONA.
97
Myself was from Verona banished. For practising to steal away a lady, An heir, and near allied unto the duke ^.
2 Out, And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Who, in my mood I stabb'd unto the heart.
So, in Richard II. :
" And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
" To pay their atvful duty to our presence." Malone.
I think we should read lauful in opposition to laxvlessm^n. In judicial proceedings the word has this sense. Sir J. Hawkins.
I believe we should read men ; i. e. legales homines. So, in the Newe Boke of Justices, 1560 : " commaundinge him to the same to make an inquest and pannel of lawjul men of his countie." For this remark I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. Steevens.
^ An HEIR, and near allied unto the duke.] All the impressions from the first downwards, read — " An heir and niece allied unto the duke." But our poet would never have expressed himself so stu- pidly, as to tell us, this lady was the duke's niece, and allied to him : for her alliance was certainly sufficiently included in the first term. Our author meant to say, she was an heiress, and near allied to the duke ; an expression the most natural that can be for the purpose, and veiy frequently used ])y the stage-poets.
Theobald.
A niece, or a 7iephew, did not always signify the daughter of a brother or sister, but any remote descendant. Of this use I have given instances as to a nepliew. See Othello, Act I. I have not, however, disturbed Theobald's emendation. Steevens.
The old copy reads — and heir. The correction was made in the third folio.
Mr. Steevens asserts that a niece or a nephew did not akvays signify the daughter of a brother or sister, but any remote de- scendant. I suppose after " daughter " the words " or son" have been omitted in his note by an errour of the press. Know- ing, however, that the former observation could throw no light on the present passage, he added " or any remote descendant." But, in truth, the terms nephews and nieces, beside their ordinaiy meaning, were used to signify grand-sons and grand-daughters, but no other remote descendant ; and how our understanding- niece in the sense of gr arid-daughter would explain the present passage he has not told us. It is manifest, as Theobald has ob- served, that our poet would never have expressed himself so stu- pidly as to tell us that this lady was the Duke's niece, (in what- ever sense we understand the word,) and also allied to him.
Malone.
7 Who, in my MOOD,] Afoo^/ is anger or resentment. Malone. VOL. TV H
98
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IV.
1 Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these. But to the purpose, — for we cite our faults, That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives. And, partly, seeing you are beautify'd With goodly shape ; and by your own report A linguist ; and a man of such perfection, As we do in our quality ^ much want ; —
3 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you : Are you content to be our general ? To make a virtue of necessity. And live, as we do, in this wilderness ?
3 Out. What say'st thou ? wilt thou be of our consort ?
Say, ay, and be the captain of us all :
We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee.
Love thee as our commander, and our king.
1 Out. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.
2 Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have
offerd.
Val. I take your offer, and will live with you ; Provided that you do no outrages ^ On silly women, or poor passengers.
3 Out. No, we detest such vile base practices. Come, go vAXh us, we'll bring thee to our crews. And shew thee all the treasure we have got ; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.
\Exeunt.
^ — in our quality — ] i. e. in our profession. So, in The Tempest :
" task
*' Ariel, and all his quality" Malone. Hamlet, speaking of the young players, says, '* Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing ? " afterwards, *' Come give us a touch of your quality in both which passages ywaZzYz/ means profession. M. Mason. 9 — no outrages On silly women, or poor passengers.] This was one of the rules of Robin Hood's government. Steevens.
sc. IT.
OF VERONA.
99
SCENE II.
Milan. The Court of the Palace.
Enter Proteus. Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine, And now I must be as unjust to Thurio. Under the colour of commending him, I have access my own love to prefer ; But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy, To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. When I protest true loyalty to her. She twits me with my falshood to my friend ; When to her beauty I commend my vows. She bids me think, how I have been forsworn In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov d : And, notwithstanding all her sudden quips \ The least whereof would quell a lover's hope, Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love. The more it grows, and fawneth on her still. But here comes Thurio : now must we to her window. And give some evening musick to her ear.
Enter Thurio, and Musicians.
Thu. How now, sir Proteus ? are you crept before us ?
Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio ; for, you know, that love Will creep in service where it cannot go ^,
^ — sudden quips,] That is, hasty passionate reproaches and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be sudden; that is, irascible and impetuous. Johnson.
The same expression is used by Dr. Wilson in his Arte of Rhe- torique, 1553 : — " and make him at his wit's end through the sud- den quipy Malone.
^ — you know, that love
Will CREEP in service where it cannot go.] Kindness will creep where it cannot gang^ is to be found in Kelly's Collection of Scottish Proverbs, p. 226. Reed.
H 2
100
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IV.
Thu. Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here. Pro, Sir, but I do ; or else I would be hence. Thu. Who? Silvia Pro. Ay, Silvia, — for your sake. Thu. I thank you for your own . Now, gentlemen. Let's tune, and to it lustily a while.
Enter Host, at a distance ; and Julia in boy's cloaths.
Host. Now, my young guest ! me thinks you're allycholly ; I pray you, why is it ?
Jul. Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.
Host. Come, we'll have you merry : I'll bring you where you shall hear musick, and see the gen- tleman that you ask'd for.
Jul. But shall I hear him speak ?
Host. Ay, that you shall.
Jul. That will be musick*. [Musick plays.
Host. Hark ! hark !
Jul. Is he among these ?
Host, Ay : but peace, let's hear 'em.
SONG.
Who is Silvia ? what is she.
That all our swains commend her ?
Holy, fair, and wise is she ;
The heaven such grace did lend her ^
That she might admired be.
3 Who? Sylvia?] So the old copy; for which Mr. Steevens and the other modern editors have given us — Whom? Sylvia? See p. 76, n. 1. Malone.
4 Jul. But shall I hear him speak ? Host. Ay, that you shall.
Jul. That will be musick.] So, in the Comedy of Errors : " When every tuorc^was musick to mine ear." Malone. ■s Who is Silvia? what is she, &c. —
The heaven such grace did lend her,] So, in Pericles ;
sc. II.
OF VERONA.
101
Is she kind, as she is fair ?
For beauty lives with kindness ^ : Love doth to her eyes repair.
To help him of his blindness ; And, being help'd, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing.
That Silvia is excelling ; She excells each mortal thing.
Upon the dull earth dwelling ^ : To her let us garlands bring.
Host. How now ? are you sadder than you were before ? How do you, man ? the musick likes you not.
Jul. You mistake ; the musician likes me not. Host, Why, my pretty youth ? Jul, He plays false, father. Host. How ? out of tune on the strings ? Jul. Not so ; but yet so false, that he grieves my very heart-strings.
Host. You have a quick ear.
" So buxom, blithe, and full of face, " As heaven had lent her all his grace.** Douce. ^ — beauty lives with kindness :] Beauts/ without kindness dies unenjoyed, and undelighting. Johnson. So, Withers :
" If she be not fair for me, *' What care I how fair she be." Malone. ^ Upon the dull earth dwelling :] So, in Venus and Adonis, 1593:
" He sees her coming ; — *' And with his bonnet hides his angry brow, *' Looks on the dull earth with disturbed mind." Again, in our author's 29th Sonnet :
" Like to the lark at break of day arising " From sullen earth." Again, in King Henry II. Part II. Act I. Sc. 11. :
** Why are thine eyes fix'd on the sullen earth ? " Malone.
102
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT ir.
Jul. Ay, I would I were deaf! it makes me have a slow heart.
Host, I perceive, you delight not in musick.
Jul. Not a whit, when it jars so.
Host. Hark, what fine change is in the musick !
Jul. Ay, that change is the spite.
Host. You would then have them always play but one thing ?
Jul. I would always have one play but one thing. But, host, doth this Proteus, that we talk on, often resort unto this gentlewoman ?
Host. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me, he lov'd her out of all nick ^.
Jul. Where is Launce ?
Host. Gone to seek his dog ; which, to-morrow, by his master's command, he must carry for a pre- sent to his lady.
Jul. Peace ! stand aside ; the company parts.
Iro. Sir Thurio, fear you not ; I will so plead. That you shall say, my cunning drift excels.
Thu. Where meet we ?
Pro, At saint Gregory's well.
Thu. Farewell. \_Ej:eunt T hurio and Musicians.
Silvia appears above, at her window.
Pro. Madam, good evening to your ladyship. SiL. I thank you for your musick, gentlemen : Who is that, that spake ?
^ — out of all nick.] Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckon- ings are kept upon nicked or notched sticks or tallies.
Warburton.
So, in A Woman Never Vex'd, 1532 : " — I have carried
*• The tallies at my girdle seven years together, " For I did ever love to deal honestly in the nick.'^ As it is an inn-keeper who employs the allusion, it is much in character. Steevens.
sc. JI.
OF VERONA.
103
Pro. One, lady, if you knew his pure hearts truth,
You'd quickly learn to know him by his voice;
SiL, Sir Proteus, as I take it.
Pro. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.
SiL. What is your will ?
Pro. That I may compass yours.
SiL. You have your wish ; my will is even this^, — That presently you hie you home to bed. Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man ! Think'st thou, I am so shallow, so conceitless, To be seduced by thy flattery, That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows ? Return, return, and make thy love amends. For me, — by this pale queen of night I swear, I am so far from granting thy request, That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit ; And by and by intend to chide myself, Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady ; But she is dead.
Jul. 'Twere false, if I should speak it; For, I am sure, she is not buried. [^Aside.
SiL. Say, that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives ; to whom, thyself art witness, I am betroth'd ; And art thou not asham'd To wrong him of thy importunacy ?
Pro. I likewise hear, that Valentine is dead.
SiL. And so, suppose, am I ; for in his grave \ Assure thyself, my love is buried.
Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
SiL. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence ; Or, at the least, in her's sepulcher thine.
9 You have your wish ; my will is even this, — ] The word xuill is here ambiguous. He wishes to gain her mil : she tells him, if he wants her tci7/, he has it. Johnson.
* — in HIS grave,] The old copy has— -Ac;- grave. The emen- dation was made by the editor of the second foiio. Malone.
104
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IV.
Jul. He heard not that. \Aside.
Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love, The picture that is hanging in your chamber ; To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep : For, since the substance of your perfect self Is else devoted, I am but a shadow ; And to your shadow will I make true love.
Jul. If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, de- ceive it.
And make it but a shadow, as I am. [Aside.
SiL. I am veiy loth to be your idol, sir ; But, since your falshood shall become you well ^
^ But, since your falshood shall become you well — ] This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration ; " But since you're false, it shall become you well."
Johnson.
There is no occasion for any alteration, if we only suppose that it is understood here, as in several other places :
" But, since ?/02^r fahliood ^\\^ become you well " To worship shadows, and adore false shapes," i.e. But, ^\WQ^ your falshood, shall become you well, &c.
Or indeed, in this place, To voorship shadows, &c. may be considered as the nominative case to shall become. Tyrwhitt.
I once had a better opinion of the alteration proposed by Dr. Johnson than I have at present. I now believe the text is right, and that our author means, however licentious the expression, — But, since your falshood well becomes, or is well suited to, the worshipping of shadows, and the adoring of false shapes, send to me in the morning for my picture, &c. Or, in other words. But, since the worshipping of shadows, and the adoring of false shapes, shall well become you, false as you are, send, &c. To tvorship shadows, &c. I consider as the objective case, as well as you. There are other instances in these plays of a double accusative depending on the same verb. I have therefore followed the punc- tuation of tlie old copy, and not placed a comma after falshood, as in those modern editions which preceded mine.
Since is, I think, here not a preposition, but means inasmuch as. By supposing it a preposition, as Dr. Johnson and Mr. Tyiwhitt appear to have considered it, send in the third line is left un- connected with the word on which it in fact depends ; for the c(m- struction is, since tlie present you desire is perfectly suitable to your character, send to me in the morning for it. Malone.
sc. III.
OF VERONA.
105
To worship shadows, and adore false shapes, Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it : And so, good rest.
Pro. As wretches have o'er night, That wait for execution in the morn.
[E.veunt Proteus; and Silvia, from above,
Jul. Host, will you go ?
Host. By my halidom ^, I was fast asleep.
Jul. Pray you, where lies sir Proteus ?
Host. Marry, at my house : Trust me, I think, tis almost day.
Jul. Not so ; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest *.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III. The same.
Enter Eglamour.
Egl. This is the hour that madam Silvia Entreated me to call, and know her mind ; There's some great matter she'd employ me in. — Madam, madam !
Silvia appears above, at her window. Sil. Who calls
3 By my HALIDOM — ] Minshieu thus explains this word in his Dictionary, 1617, folio : " Halidome or Holidome, an old word, used by old country women, by manner of swearing : by my halidome, of the Saxon word, haligdome, ex halig, i. e. sanctum, and dome, dominium aut judicium." Malone.
4 — most heaviest.] This use of the double superlative is fre- quent in our author. So, in King Lear, Act II. Sc. III. :
*' To take the basest and most poorest shape." Steevens. Mr. Steevens might have added that the same ])hraseology is found very often in the translation of the Bible, 1611 ; and in all the books of Shakspeare's age. Malone.
106
TWO GENTLEMEN
ACT IV,
Egl, Your servant, and your friend ; One that attends your ladyship*s command,
SiL. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good mor- row.