64

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

fire;

But qualify the fire's! extreme rage,

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
Jul. The more thou dam'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 music with th' enamel'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,3
A blessed soul doth in Elysium.

Lue. 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 up in silken strings,
With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots;
To be fantastic may become a youth
Of greater time than I shall show to be.
Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your
breeches?

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

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

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

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

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

I fear it will make me scandaliz❜d.

me,

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

ACT III.

[Exeuni

SCENE I.-Milan. An Anti-room in the Duke s
Palace. Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS.

Duke. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;
We have some secrets to confer about.

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

cover,

The law of friendship bids me to conceal:
But, when I call to mind your gracious favours
Done to me, undeserving as

am,

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

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

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

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

not.

Jul. Nay, that I will not.

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

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

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

to him!

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

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

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

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

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

Enter VALENTINE.

Duke. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast? Val. Please it your grace there is a messenger found the infinite of thought" in Much Ado Abort 4 Whoever wishes to be acquainted with that singu- Nothing. The text seems to me sufficiently intelligible, lar appendage to dress, a cod-piece, may consult "Bul-though we are not used to such construction. Malone wer's Artificial Changeling." Ocular instruction may be had from the armour shown as John of Gaunt's in the Tower. 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.

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

has cited an instance of infinite used for an infinity from Lord Lonsdale's Memoirs, written in 1688.

6 By her longing journey, Julia means a journey which she shall pass in longing.

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

And here an engine fit for my proceeding?
I'll be so bold to break the seal for once.
My thoughts do harbour with my Silvia nightly;
And slaves they are to me, that send them flying:
O, could their master come and go as lightly,

Himself would lodge where senseless they are lying.
My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them;
While I, their king, that thither them importune,
Do curse the grace that with such grace hath bless'd
them,

Because myself do want my servants' fortune: I curse myself, for they are sent by me,

Val. What would your grace have me to do in That they should harbour where their lord should be.

Unto a youthful gentleman of worth;
And kept severely from resort of men,
That no man hath access by day to her.

Val. 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.
Val. What lets, but one may enter at her

win-If

Duke. Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground;
And built so shelving that one cannot climb it
Without apparent hazard of his life.

Val. 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.

Duke. Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood,
Advise me where I may have such a ladder.
Val. When would you use it? pray, sir, tell me

Pro. Valentine?

Val. No.

Pro. Who then? his spirit?

Val. Neither.

Pro. What then?

Val. Nothing.

Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.2
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,

Laun. Can nothing speak? master, shall I strike? Regard thy danger, and along with me.
Pro. Whom would'st thou strike?

Laun. Nothing.

Pro. Villain, forbear.

Laun. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing: I pray youPro. Sirrah, I say, forbear: Friend Valentine, a word.

Val. My ears are stopp'd, and cannot hear good
news,

So much of bad already hath possess'd them.
Pro. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine,
For they are harsh, untunable, and bad.

Val. Is Silvia dead?

Pro. No, Valentine.

Val. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia!Hath she forsworn me?

Pro. No, Valentine.

Val. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy Bid him make haste, and meet me at the north gate Pro. Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! hapless Valentine!

[Exeunt VALENTINE and PROTEUS. Laun. 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. 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. hath more qualities than a water-spaniel,-which is

She

Val. No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me!-much in a bare christian. Here is the cate-log What is your news?

Laun. Sir, there's a proclamation that you are

vanish'd.

Pro. That thou art banished, O, that's 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 chaf'd him so
When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
That to close prison he commanded her,
With many bitter threats of 'biding there.

Val. No more; unless the next word that thou
speak'st,

Have some malignant pow'r 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 can'st 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

1 Grief.

2 So in Hamlet:

"These to her excellent white bosom." To understand this mode of addressing letters, &c. it should be known that women anciently had a pocket in the forepart of their stays, in which they carried not only love letters and love tokens, but even their money, &c. In many parts of England rustic damsels still continue the practice. A very old lady informed Mr. Steevens, that when it was the fashion to wear very prominent stays it was the custom for stratagem or galJantry to drop its literary favours within the front of

them.

[Pulling out a paper] of her condition. 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?

Laun. 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

Laun. The blackest news that ever thou heard'st.
Speed. Why, man, how black?
Laun. Why, as black as ink.
Speed. Let me read them.

Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head; thou can'st not
read.

Speed. Thou liest, I can.

Laun. I will try thee: Tell me this; Who begot thee?

Speed. Marry, the son of my grandfather.

Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the son of thy grandmother: this proves that thou canst not read. Speed. Come, fool, come: try me in thy paper. Laun. There and saint Nicholas' be thy speed: Speed. Imprimis, She can milk.

Laun. Ay, that she can.

Speed. Item, She brews good ale.

Laun. And therefore comes the proverb,-Bless
ing of your heart, you brew good ale.
Speed. Item, She can sew.

Laun. That's as much as to say, can she so?
Speed. Item, She can knit.

Laun. 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.

faire." Baret. The old copy reads condition, which was changed to conditions by Rowe.

6 It is undoubtedly true that the mother only knows the legitimacy of the child. Launce infers that if Speed could read, he must have read this well known obser

vation.

7 St. Nicholas presided over scholars, who were therefore called St. Nicholas' clerks; either because the legend makes this saint to have been a bishop while yet a boy, or from his having restored three young scholars to life. By a quibble between Nicholas and Old Nick highwaymen are called Nicholas' clerks in Henry IV part 1. The parish clerks of London finding that scho

3 Gossips not only signify those who answer for a child in baptism, but the tattling women who attend ly-lars, more usually termed clerks, were under the pa ings-in. The quibble is evident.

4 Bare, has two senses, mere and naked. Launce, quibbling on, uses it in both senses, and opposes the naked female to the water-spaniel covered with hairs of remarkable thickness.

"Condition, honest behaviour or demeanour in living, a custume or facion. Mos. Moris, fucon de

tronage of this saint, conceived that clerks of any kind might have the same right, and accordingly took him as their patron, much in the same way as the woolcombers did St. Blaise, who was martyred with an instrument like a carding comb; the nailmakers St. Clou: and the booksellers St. John Port Latin

8 i. e. stocking

Speed. Item, She is slow in words. Laun. O villain, 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 proud.

Laun. Out with that too; it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en from her.

Speed. Item, She hath no teeth.

Speed. Why did'st not tell me sooner? 'pox of your love-letters!

(Exit. Laun. Now will he be swinged for reading iny letter: An unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into secrets! I'll after, to rejoice in the boy's

correction.

A Room in the Duke's
SCENE II. The same.
Palace. Enter DUKE and THURIO; PROTEUS
behind.

Duke. Sir Thurio, fear not, but that she will love you,

Now Valentine is banished from her sight.

Thu. Since his exile she has 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
Trench'd 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. 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,

Laun. I care not for that neither, because I love (For thou hast shown some sign of good desert,)

crusts.

Speed. Item, She is curst.
Laun. Well, the best is, she hath no teeth to bite.
Speed. Item, She will often praise her liquor.
Laun. 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.2

Laun. Of her tongue she cannot; for that's 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,3 and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults.

Laun. Stop there; I'll have her: she was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that last article: Rehearse that once more.

prove

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit.Laun. More hair than wit,-it may be; I'll 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. And more faults than hairs.—
Laun. That's monstrous: O, that that were out!
Speed. And more wealth than faults.

Laun. Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I'll have her: and if it be a match, as nothing is impossible,

Speed. What then?

Laun. Why, then will I tell thee, that thy ter stays for thee at the north-gate. Speed. For me?

Laun. For thee? ay; who art thou? he

staid for a better man than thee.

Speed. And must I go to him?

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.
What might we do, to make the girl forget
Duke. Ay, and perversely she persevers so.
The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?

Pro. The best way is to slander Valentine
Three things that women highly hold in hate.
With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent;

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.
"Tis an ill office for a gentleman;
Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loth to do:

Especially against his very friend.

Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage
him,

Therefore the office is indifferent,
Your slander never can endamage him;
Being entreated to it by your friend.

Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it,
mas-She shall not long continue love to him.
By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,

hath

Laun. Thou must run to him, for thou hast staid so long, that going will scarce serve the turn.

1 Speed uses the term a sweet mouth in the sense of a sweet tooth; but Launce chooses to understand it in the literal and lauditory sense. Cotgrave renders Friand, A sweet-lips, daintie-mouthed, sweet-toothed," &c.

2 Liberal is licentious, free, frank, beyond honesty or decency. Thus in Othello, Desdemonda says of Iago: "is he not a most profane and liberal counsel. lor."

3 This was an old familiar proverb, of which Steevens has given many examples. I will add one from Florio: "A tisty-tosty wag feather, more haire than

wit."

There was but one on the dinner table, which was placed near the top, and those who sat below it were, for the most part, of inferior condition to those who sat above it.

5 Gracious was sometimes used for favoured, countenanced, like the Italian Gratiato, v. As you Like It, Act i. Sc. 2.

6 i. e. cut, carved; from the Fr. trancher. 7 i. e. with the addition of such incidental particulars as may induce belief.

8 Very, that is, true; from the Lat. verus. Massinger calls one of his plays "A Very Woman."

9 As you unwind her love from him, make me the 4 The ancient English salt-cellar was very different bottom on which you wind it. A bottom is the housefrom the modern, being a large piece of plate, generally wife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central much orname ated, with a cover to keep the salt clean. I body

Two GENTLEMEN

Dube. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind; | Of which if you should here disfurnish me,

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 with Silvia may confer at large;
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
friend's sake, will be glad of you;
And, for your
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;
You must lay lime,' to tangle her desires,
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes,
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:2-
For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers 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 consort:3 to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump ;4 the night's dead silence
Will well become such sweet complaining grievance.
This, or else nothing, will inherit her."

Duke. This discipline shews thou hast been in love.
Thu. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice:
Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently

To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music:
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.

ACT IV.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I-A Forest, near Mantua. Enter certain Out-laws.

1 Out. Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.
2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down

with'em.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

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 sojourned there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer mugh
have staid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Out. What, were you banish'd thence?
Val. I was.

2 Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to re
hearse :

I kill'd a man, whose death I must 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,

8

This fellow were a king for our wild faction.
1 Out. We'll have him; sirs, a word.
Speed. Master, be one of them;

It is an honourable kind of thievery.
Val. Peace, villain!

2 Out. Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
Val. Nothing but my fortune.

3 Out. Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men:
Myself was from Verona banish'd,
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Whom, in my mood, 10 I stabbed unto the heart.

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 ;-

2 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?

3 Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have Say ay, and be the captain of us all;

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.

Val. 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.

Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;
A man I am, cross'd with adversity:
My riches are these poor habiliments,

1 i. e. birdlime.

2 i. e. sincerity, such as would be manifested by such impassioned writing. Malone suspects that a line following this has been lost.

3 The old copy has consort, which, according to Bullokar and Philips, signified "a set or company of musicians." If we print concert, as Malone would have it, the relative pronoun their has no correspondent word. It is true that Shakspeare frequently refers to words not expressed, but implied in the former part of a sentence. But the reference here is to consort, as appears by the subsequent words, "to their instruments."

4 A dump was the ancient term for a mournful degy

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
offer'd.

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 with 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.