The dramatic works of William Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson, Stevens [sic] and Reed, with glossarial notes, his life, and a critique on his genius & writings by N. Rowe

see things too, although you judge I wink. Jul. Come, come, will't please you go?

[Exeunt. 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?
Pan. Twas of his nephew Proteus, your
Ant. Why, what of him?
[son.

Pan. He wonder'd, that your lordship
Would suffer him to spend his youth at home:
While other men, of slender reputation,t
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 impórtune you,
To let him spend his time no more at home,
Which would be great impeachment; to his
In having known no travel in his youth. [age,
Ant. Nor need'st thou much impórtune 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 achiev'd.
And perfected by the swift course of time:
Then, tell me, whether were I best to send him?
Pan. I think, your lordship is not ignorant,
How his companion, youthful Valentine,
Attends the emperor in his royal court.
Ant. I know it well.

Pan. 'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither:

There shall he practise tilts and tournaments,
Hear sweet discourse, converse with noble-
And be in eye of every exercise, [men;
Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.
Ant. I like thy counsel; well hast thou ad-
vis'd:
[it,

And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like
The execution of it shall make known;
Even with the speediest execution

I will despatch him to the emperor's court.
Pant. To-morrow, may it please you, Don
Alphonso,

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 Pro-
[him.§
And, in good time,-now will we break with

teus go:

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 on 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.
I 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.
To-morrow be in readiness to go:
Excuse it not, for I'm peremptory.

Pro. My lord, I cannot be so soon provided; Please you, deliberate a day or two.

Ant. Look what thou want'st, shall be sent

after thee:

No more of stay; to-morrow thou must go.Come on, Panthino; you shall be employ'd To hasten on his expedition.

[Exeunt ANT. and PAN. Pro. Thus have I shunn'd the fire, for fear of burning; [drown'd: And drench'd me in the sea, where I am 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 shows all the beauty of the sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away!

Val. 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!
Val. How now, sirrah?

Speed. She is not within hearing, Sir.
Val. Why, Sir, who bade you call her?
Speed. Your worship, Sir; or else I mistook.
Val. Well, you'll still be too forward.
Speed. And yet I was last chidden for being
too slow.

Val. 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 learned, 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 hath buried her gran-
dam; to fast, like one that takes diet; to
watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak pul-
ing, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were
wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock;
when you walked, to walk like one of the lions;
when you fasted, it was presently after dinner;
when you looked sadly, it was for want of
money: and now you are metamorphosed with a
mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hard-
ly think you my master.

Val. Are all these things perceived in me?
Speed. They are all perceived without you.
Val. 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 follies 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.

Val. But, tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia ?

Speed. She, that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper?

Val. Hast thou observed that? even she I

mean.

Speed. Why, Sir, I know her not.

Speed. O, 'give you good even! Here's a million of manners. [Aside. Sil. Sir Valentine and servant, to you two thousand.

Speed. He should give her interest; and she gives it him.

letter,

Val. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your 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.

For, being ignorant to whom it goes,
Val. Now trust me, madam, it came hardly
[off;

I writ at random, very doubtfully.
Sil. Perchance you think too much of so
much pains?

Val. Dost thou know her by my gazing on Please you command, a thousand times as

her, and yet know'st her not?

Speed. Is she not hard favoured, Sir?
Val. Not so fair, boy, as well favoured.
Speed. Sir, I know that well enough.
Val. What dost thou know?

Speed. That she is not so fair, as (of you)

well favoured.

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.

Val. How painted? and how out of count? Speed. Marry, Sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no man counts of her beauty.

Val. How esteemest thou me? I account of her beauty.

Speed. You never saw her since she was

deformed.

Val. How long hath she been deformed?
Speed. Ever since you loved her.

Val. I have loved her ever since I saw her; and still I see her beautiful.

Speed. If you love her, you cannot see her.
Val. Why?

Speed. Because love is blind. O, that you had mine eyes; or your own had the lights they were wont to have, when you chid at Sir Proteus for going ungartered!

Val. 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.

Val. 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.

Val. In conclusion, I stand affected to her. Speed. I would you were set; so, your affection would cease.

* Under a regimen. + Allhallowmas. * Whipped.

Val. No, madam; so it stead you, I will write,
And yet,-
[much:
Sil. A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel;
And yet I will not name it :-and yet I care

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
And so good-morrow, servant. [Erit SILVIA.
labour;
Speed. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible.
As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on
[suitor,
a steeple!
My master sues to her; and she hath taught her
He being her pupil, to become her tutor.

excellent device! was there ever heard a That my master, being scribe, to himself should

better?

write the letter?

with yourself?
Val. How now, Sir? what are you reasoning

Speed. Nay, I was rhyming; 'tis you that have the reason.

Speed. To yourself: why, she wooes you by | with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I a figure.

Val. What figure?

Speed. By a letter, I should say.

Val. 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?

Val. 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."

think, Crab my dog to be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel. hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble-stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandan having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it: This shoe is my father-no, this left shoe is my father:no, no, this left shoe is my mother;-nay, that cannot be so neither;-yes, it is so, it is so; it hath the worser sole; This shoe, with the hole in it, is my mother, and this my father; A vengeance on't! there 'tis: now, Sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog :—no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog,-O, 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; here's my Speed. Ay, but hearken, Sir: though the mother's breath up and down: now come I to cameleon Love can feed on the air, I am one my sister; mark the moan she makes: now the that am nourished by my victuals, and would dog all this while sheds not a tear, nor speaks fain have meat: O, be not like your mistress, a word; but see how I lay the dust with my be moved, be moved. [Ereunt. | tears.

Val. I would, it were no worse.
Speed. I'll warrant you, 'tis as well:
For often you have writ to her; and she, in modesty,
Or else for want of idle time, could not again
reply,

Or fearing else some messenger, that might her
mind discover,

Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto
her lover.-
[it.

All this I speak in print; for in print I found
Why muse you, Sir? 'tis dinner time.

Val. I have dined.

take you this.

Jul. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.
Pro. Here is my hand for my trne 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 the tide of tears;
That tide will stay me longer than I should;
[Exit JULIA.
Julia, farewell.-What! gone without a word?
Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak;
For truth hath better deeds, than words, to

grace it.

Enter PANTHINO.

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

Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb.

;

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

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

Laun. Sir, call me what thou darest.
Pan. Wilt thou go?

[Exeunt.

Laun. Well, I will go.

DUKE'S Palace.

SCENE III. -The summe. - A Street.

Enter LAUNCE, leading a dog.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-Milan.-An Apartment in the

Lan. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have Enter VALENTINE, SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEed.

done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault: I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going + Kindred.

• There's the conclusion.

Sil. Servant

Val. Mistress?

Speed. Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you.

*Crazy, distracted.

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 him leave, madam; he is a kind of cameleon.

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. Val. I know it well, Sir; you always end ere you begin.

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

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

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?

Val. My lord, I will be thankful
To any happy messenger from thence.
Duke. Know you Don Antonio, your coun-
tryman?

Val. 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?

Val. 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

[gether: We have convers'd, and spent our hours toAnd though myself have been an idle truant, Omitting the sweet benefit of time,

To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection;
Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name,
Made use and fair advantage of his days;
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word, (for far behind his worth
+ Perhaps.

* Serious.

+ Observe.

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. Beshrew* me, 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.

Val. 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 'citet him to it: . I'll send him hither to you presently.

[Exit DUKE. Val. This is the gentleman, I told your lady

ship,

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 Upon some other pawn for fealty.

[them

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

eye:

Was this the idol that you worship so?

Val. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?

Pro. No; but she is an earthly paragon.
Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O, flatter me; for love delights in praises. Pro. When I was sick, you gave me bitter And I must minister the like to you. Val. Then speak the truth by her; if not [pills; Yet let her be a principality, [divine, Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth. Pro. Except my mistress.

Vel. Sweet, except not any; Except thou wilt except against my love. Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own? 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. Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is

this?

Val. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can, is nothing To her, whose worth makes other worthies noShe is alone.

Pro. Then let her alone.

[thing;

Val. 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 seest 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?

Vul. 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.

Pro. Go on before; I shall inquire 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?
Pro. I will.-

[Exit VAL.

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.
Is it mine eye, or Valentinus' praise,
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus ?
She's 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:
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.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill. [Exit. -
SCENE V.-The same.-A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

Speed. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan.

Laun. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth; that a man is never undone, till he be hanged; for I am not welcome. I reckon this always 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 alehouse with you presently; where, for one welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master shot of fivepence, thou shalt have five thousand part with madam Julia?

Laun. Marry, after they closed in earnest,

they parted very fairly in jest.

Speed. But shall she marry him?
Laun. No.

Speed. How then? Shall he marry her?
Luun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Luun. No, they are both as whole as a fish. Speed. Why then, how stands the matter with

them?

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The dramatic works of William Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson, Stevens ...