SIL. O heaven! PRO. I'll force thee yield to my defire. VAL. Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch; Thou friend of an ill fashion! PRO. Valentine! VAL. Thou common friend, that's without faith (For fuch is a friend now,) treacherous man! I am forry, I must never trust thee more, curft! 'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst! 2 that's without faith or love;] That's is perhaps here used, not for whe is, but for id eft, that is to fay. MALONE. 3 Who bould be trufted now, when one's right hand-] The word now is wanting in the firft folio. STEEVENS. The fecond folio, to complete the metre, reads: "Who fhall be trufted now, when one's right hand,-" The addition, like all thofe made in that copy, appears to have been merely arbitrary; and the modern word [own, which was introduced by Sir T. Hanmer] is, in my opinion, more likely to have been the author's than the other. MALONE. What!" all at one fell fwoop!" are they all arbitrary, when Mr. Malone has honoured fo many of them with a place in his text? Being completely fatisfied with the reading of the fecond folio, I have followed it. STEEVENS. 4 The private wound, &c.] I have a little mended the measure. The old edition, and all but Sir T. Hanmer's, read: "The private wound is deepest: O time most accurs'd.” JOHNSON. Deepest, bigbeft, and other fimilar words, were fometimes used by the poets of Shakspeare's age as monofyllables. PRO. My fhame and guilt confounds me.- I tender it here; I do as truly fuffer, As e'er I did commit. VAL. Then I am paid; And once again I do receive thee honeft:- Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd; So, in our poet's 133d Sonnet: "But flave to flavery my fweeteft friend muft be." MALONE. Perhaps our author only wrote-"fweet," which the tranfcriber, or printer, prolonged into the fuperlative" fweeteft." STEEVENS, 3 All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.] It is (I think) very odd, to give up his miftrefs thus at once, without any reafon alledged. But our author probably followed the ftories just as he found them in his novels as well as hiftories. POPE. This paffage either hath been much fophifticated, or is one great proof that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shak fpeare; for it is impoffible he could make Valentine act and speak fo much out of character, or give to Silvia fo unnatural a behaviour, as to take no notice of this ftrange conceffion, if it had been made. HANMER. Valentine, from feeing Silvia in the company of Proteus, might conceive she had escaped with him from her father's court, for the purposes of love, though fhe could not foresee the violence which his villainy might offer, after he had feduced her under the pretence of an honeft paffion. If Valentine, however, be supposed to hear all that paffed between them in this fcene, I am afraid I have only to fubfcribe to the opinions of my predeceffors. STEEVENS. -I give thee.] Transfer thefe two lines to the end of Thurio's fpeech in page 287, and all is right. Why then should Julia faint? It is only an artifice, feeing Silvia given up to Va lentine, to difcover herself to Proteus, by a pretended miftake of the rings. One great fault of this play is the haftening too abruptly, and without due preparation, to the denouement, which fhews that, if it be Shakspeare's (which I cannot doubt,) it was one of his very early performances. BLACKSTONE, JUL. O me, unhappy! PRO. Look to the boy. [Faints. VAL. Why, boy! why wag! how now? what is the matter? Look up; speak. JUL. O good fir, my mafter charg'd me To deliver a ring to madam Silvia ; + Which, out of my neglect, was never done. JUL. Here 'tis this is it. [Gives a ring. PRO. How! let me fee:" Why this is the ring I gave to Julia. JUL. O, cry you mercy, fir, I have mistook; This is the ring you fent to Silvia. I [Shows another ring. PRO. But, how cam'ft thou by this ring? at my depart, gave this unto Julia. JUL. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. PRO. How! Julia! JUL. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths," 4 To deliver a ring to Madam Silvia ;] Surely our author wrote"To give a ring," &c. A verfe fo rugged muft be one of those corrupted by the players, or their tranfcriber. STEEVENS. s Pro. How! let me fee: &c.] I fufpect that this unmetrical paffage should be regulated as follows: Pro. How! let me fee it: Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia. Jul. 'Cry you mercy, fir, I have mistook this is the ring you sent To Silvia. Pro. But how cam'ft thou by this? At my depart, I gave this unto Julia. STEEVENS. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,] So, in Titus Andronicus, A&V. fc. iii: "But gentle people, give me aim a while." And entertain❜d them deeply in her heart: It is the leffer blot, modefty finds, Women to change their fhapes, than men their minds. PRO. Than men their minds! 'tis true: O heaven! were man But conftant, he were perfect: that one error Fills him with faults; makes him run through all fins: Inconftancy falls off, ere it begins: VAL. Come, come, a hand from either: ever. JUL. And I have mine.* Both thefe paffages allude to the aim-crier in archery. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Act III. fe. ii: "all my neighbours fhall cry aim See note, ibid. STEEVENS. 6 How oft haft thon with perjury cleft the root?] Sir T. Hanmer reads-cleft the root on't. JOHNSON. 7 cleft the root?] i. e. of her heart. MALONE. if fhame live-] That is, if it be any shame to wear a difguife for the purposes of love. JOHNSON. • And I have mine.] The old copy reads "And I mine." I have inferted the word have, which is neceffary to metre, by the advice of Mr. Ritfon. STEEVENS. Enter Out-laws, with DUKE and THURIO. Ουτ. A prize, a prize, a prize! VAL. Forbear, I fay; it is my lord the duke. Your grace is welcome to a man difgrac'd, Banished Valentine. THU. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine. 2 Come not within the measure of my wrath: Forbear, I fay; it is my lord the duke.] The old copy, without regard to metre, repeats the word forbear, which is here omitted. 2 a STEEVENS. the meafure-] The length of my fword, the reach of my anger. JOHNSON. 3 Milan ball not behold thee.] All the editions-Verona fall not behold thee. But, whether through the mistake of the first editors, or the poet's own careleffnefs, this reading is abfurdly faulty. For the threat here is to Thurio, who is a Milanefe; and has no concern, as it appears, with Verona. Befides, the fcene is betwixt the confines of Milan and Mantua, to which Silvia follows Valentine, having heard that he had retreated thither. And, upon these circumstances, I ventured to adjuft the text, as I imagine the poet muft have intended; i. e. Milan, thy country hall never fee thee again: thou shalt never live to go back thither. THEOBALD. |