SS CE NE VI.

, Enter Protheus.
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:
6 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 fun,
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.
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 muít lose myself:
If I lose them, this find I by their loss,

s It is to be observed, that in the first folio edition, the only edition of authority, there are no direccions concerning the scenes ; they have been added by the later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that can give more confiftency or regularity to the drama by such alterations. I make this remark in this place, because I know not whether the following soliloquy of Protheus is so proper in the street.

JOHNSON. O sweet-suggesting love, -] To suggest is to tempt in our author's language. So again :

“Knowing that tender youth is soon fuggefied.” The sense is. O tempting love, if thou hast influenced me to fin, teach me to excuse it. Dr. Warburton reads, if I have finn'd; but, I think, not only without necessity, but with less elegance. JOHNSON.

For

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 !
Shews Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.
I will forget that Julia is alive,
Remembring 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 us'd to Valentine :
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window;
7 Myself in counsel, his competitor.
Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising, and 8 pretended fight;
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,
9 As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift! [Exit.

SCENE VII.

Julia's house in Verona.

Enter Julia and Lucetta. Jul. Counsel, Lucetta ;- gentle girl, affist me ; And, even in kind love, I do conjure thee, Who art the table wherein all my thoughts Are visibly character'd and engrav'd,

? Myself, who am his competitor or rival, being admitted to his countel. JOHNSON.

3-pretended flight;} We may read intended fligbt. Johns.

9 I fufpe&t 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.

То

Thou wou but know the so long a ti

To lesson me; and tell me some good mean,
How, with my honour, I may undertake

A journey to my loving Protheus.
! Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long,

Jul. A true-devoted pilgriin 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 Protheus.
Luc. Better forbear, till Protheus make return.
Jul. Oh, know'lt thou not, his looks are my soul's

food ?
Pity the dearth that I have pined in,
By longing for that food so long a time.
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou would'st as soon go kindle fire with snow,
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,
But qualify the fire's extreme rage,
Left it should burn above the bounds of reason.
Jul. The more thou damm'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 enameld stones; Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; And so by many winding nooks he strays, With willing sport, to the wild ocean. Then let me go, and hinder not my course : I'll be as patient as a gentle stream, And make a pastime of each weary step, Till the last step have brought me to my love; And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil, A blessed foul 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

The current, th being fopp mot hinderecord stones ;

And to taketh ir kits too with the indered, doch rage

Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds
As may beseem some well-reputed page...

Luc. Why then your ladyship must cut your hair.

Jul. No, girl, I'll knit it up in silken strings, With twenty odd-conceited true love-knots : To be fantastic, may become a youth Of greater time than I shall shew 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 9 with a cod-piece,

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

pin, Unless you have a cod-piece to stick pins on.

Inl. 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 Protheus 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.

F1:l. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear :
A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
And instances 'as infinite of love,
Warrant me welcome to my Protheus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men.

9.with a cod-piece, &c.] Whoever wishes to be acquainted with this particular, relative to dress, may consult Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, in which such matters are very amply discúfied. STEVENS. I of infinite ] Old edit. JOHNSON,

Jul.

Ful. Base men, that use them to fo base effect! But truer stars did govern Protheus' 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. 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 do it presently ; I am impatient of my tarriance.

Exeunt.

A CT III. SCENE I.

The duke's palace in Milan,
Enter Duke, Thurio, and Protheus.

DUKE.
CIR Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile;
We have some secrets to confer about.-

[Exit Thur. Now tell me, Protheus, what's your will with me?

Pro. My gracious lord, that which I would discover, 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,

Vol. I.

Know,