Pro. Gone, my good lord.

Duke. My daughter takes his going heavily.
Pro. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Dake. So I believe, but Thurio thinks not fo.
Protheus, the good conceit I hold of thee,
(For thou haft fhewn fome fign of good defert)
Makes me the better to confer with thee.

Pra. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace,
Let me not live to look upon your grace. [effect
Duke. Thou know'ft, how willingly I would
The match between fir Thurio and my daughter.
Pro. I do, my lord.

Duke. And, Protheus, we dare trust you in this
Because we know, on Valentine's report, [kind;
You are already love's firm votary,

And cannot foon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant shall you have accefs,
Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
For fhe is lumpifh, heavy, melancholy,
And, for your friend's fake, will be glad of you ;
Where you may temper her, by your perfuafion,
To hate young Valentine, and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect :-
But you, fir Thurio, are not fharp enough;

Duke. And alfo, I do think, thou art not ignorant You must lay lime 3, to tangle her defires,
How the opposes her against my will.

Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.
Duke. Ay, and perverfely the perfevers fo.
What might we do to make the girl forget
The love of Valentine, and love fir Thurio?

Pro. The best way is, to flander Valentine
With falfhood, 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 muft, with circumftance, be spoken
By one, whom the esteemeth as his friend.

Duke. Then you must undertake to flander him.
Pro. And that, my lord, I fhall be loth to do:
'Tis an ill office for a gentleman;
Especially, against his very friend.

[him,

Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage
Your flander never can endamage him;
Therefore the office is indifferent,

Being intreated to it by your friend.

By wailful fonnets, whofe composed rhimes
Should be full fraught with ferviceable vows.

Duke. Ay, much is the force of heaven-bred poefy.
Pro. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty
You facrifice your tears, your fighs, your heart:
Write, till your ink be dry; and with your tears
Moift it again; and frame fome feeling line,
That may difcover fuch integrity:—

For Orpheus' lute was ftrung with poets' finews ;
Whofe golden touch could foften steel and stones,
Make tygers tame, and huge leviathans
Forfake unfounded deeps to dance on fands.
After your dire-lamenting elegies,

Vifit by night your lady's chamber-window
With fome fweet concert: to their inftruments
Tune a deploring dump4; the night's dead filence
Will well become fuch fweet complaining grievance.
This, or elfe nothing, will inherit her 5. [love.

Duke. This difcipline fhews thou hast been in
Thu. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice:

Pra. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, Therefore, fweet Protheus, my direction-giver,

1 Very is immediate. 2 The meaning of this allufion is, As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The women's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of thread. 3 That is, birdlime. 4 A dump was the ancient term for a mournful gy. To inherit, is here ufed for to obtain poffeffion of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. That is, to chufe out. 7 That is, I will excufe you from waiting.

My riches are these poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the fum 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 fojourn'd there?

Val. Some fixteen months; and longer might have ftaid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

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

2 Out. For what offence?

Val. For that which now torments me to rehearíe.
I kill'd a man, whofe death I much repent ;
But yet I flew him manfully in fight,
Without falfe vantage, or bafe treachery.

Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine,
And now I must be as unjuft to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,
I have accefs my own love to prefer;
But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
When I proteft true loyalty to her,
She twits me with my falfhood 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 fudden quips 3,
[friar, The leaft whereof would quell a lover's hope,
Yet, spanicl-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows, and fawneth on her ftill.
But here comes Thurio: now muft we to her
window,

1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done fo: But were you banish'd for fo small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of fuch a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues?

Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or elfe I often had been miferable.

3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat
This fellow were a king for our wild faction.
1 Out. We'll have him: firs, a word.
Speed. Mafter, be one of them;

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

1

[to

2 Out. Tell us this; have you any thing to take Fal. Nothing but my fortune.

3 Out. Know then, that fome of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth

I

Thruft from the company of awful 1 men:
Myfelf was from Verona banished,

For practifing to fteal away a lady,

An heir, and niece ally'd unto the duke.

2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, Iftabb'd unto the heart,

1 Out. And I, for fuch like petty crimes as thefe.
But to the purpose,--(for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives)
And, partly, feeing you are beautify'd
With goodly fhape; and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection,
As we do in our quality 2 much want,——

2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, above the reft, we parley to you:
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of neceffity,

And live, as we do, in the wilderness?

3 Out. What fay'ft thou wilt thou be of our
confort?

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 fcom our courtesy, thou dy ft.
2 Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we

have offer'd.

Val. I take your offer, and will live with you;

1 Reverend, worshipful, fuch as magistrates. hafty paffionate reproaches and fcoffs.

Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that
Will creep in fervice where it cannot go.

Tha. Ay, but I hope, fir, that you love not here.
Pro. Sir, but I do; or elfe I would be hence.
Thu. Whom? Silvia?

Pro. Ay, Silvia, for your fake.

Thu. Ithank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it luftily a while.

Enter Hoff, at a difiance; and Julia in boy's cloaths. Hoft. Now, my young guest! methinks you're allycholly; I pray you, why is it?

Jul. Marry, mine hott, because I cannot be

merry.

Hoft. Come, we'll have you merry: I'll bring you where you shall hear music, and fee the gen tleman that you afk'd for.

Jul. But fhall I hear him speak?
Hoft. Ay, that you shall.

Jul. That will be mufic.

Hoft. Hark! bark!

Jul. Is he among these?

Hoft. Ay: but peace, let's hear 'em.
SON G.

Who is Silvia? what is fhe,

That all our fains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wife is the;

The heavens fuch grace did lend her,
That he might admired be...

2 Quality is nature relatively confidered. 3 That is,

Hoft. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me, To worship shadows, and adore false shapes, he lov'd her out of all nick '.

Pro. Sir Protheus, gentle lady, and your fervant. There's fome great matter fhe'd employ me in.

Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckonings are kept upon nicked or notched flicks or tallies? Inpofe is injunction, command.

It is your pleafure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not I flatter, for, 1 fwear, I do not)
Valiant, wife, remorfeful, well accomplith'd.
Thou art not ignorant, what dear good will
I bear unto the banish'd Valentine;
Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very foul abhors.
Thyfelf haft lov'd; and I have heard thee fay,
No grief did ever come fo near thy heart,
As when thy lady and thy true love dy'd,
2 Upon whofe grave thou vow'dit pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

thrufts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemen-like dogs under the duke's table : he had not been there (blefs the mark) a piling while, but all the chamber fmelt him. Out with the dog, fays one; What cur is that? fays another; Whip him out, fays the third; Hang him up, fays the duke: I, having been acquainted with the fmell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs7: Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? y, marry, do I, quoth he. You do bim the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many mafters To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode; would do this for their fervant? nay, I'll be fworn And, for the ways are dangerous to pass, I have fat in the ftocks for puddings he hath ftolen, I do defire thy worthy company, otherwife he had been executed: I have ftood on Upon whofe faith and honour I repofe. the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, otherwife he Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour, had fuffer'd for 't: thou think'it not of this now! But think upon my grief, a lady's grief; -Nay, I remember the trick you ferv'd me, when And on the juftice of my flying hence, I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid To keep me from a most unholy match, [plagues. thee ftill mark me, and do as I do? When did'st Which heaven, and fortune, ftill reward with thou fee me heave up my leg, and make water

I do defire thee, even from a heart
As full of ferrows, as the fea of fands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have faid to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

Egl. Madam, I pity much your 3 grievances;
Which fince I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give confent to go along with you;

4 Recking as little what betideth me,

As much I with all good befortune you.
When will you go?

Sil. This evening coming.

Egl. Where fhall I meet you?

Sil. At friar Patrick's cell,

Where I intend holy confeffion.

Egl. I will not fail your ladyship:
Good-morrow, gentle lady.

Sil. Good-morrow, kind fr Eglamour. [Exeunt.
Futer Launce with his dog.

against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didit thou ever fee me do fuch a trick?

Enter Protheus and fulia.

Pro. Sebaftian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in fome service presently. Jul. In what you please; —I'll do, fir, what I can. Pro. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whorefon peafant, [To Launce. Where have you been thefe two days loitering? Laun. Marry, fir, I carry'd miftrefs Silvia the dog you bade me.

Pro. And what fays fhe to my little jewel?

Laun. Marry, the fays, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currifh thanks is good enough for such a prefent.

Pro. But fhe receiv'd my dog?

Laun. No, indeed, the did not: here I have brought him back again.

Pro. What, didit thou offer her this from me?

When a man's fervant fhall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I fav'd from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would fay precifely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was fent to deliver him, as a prefent to miftrefs Silvia, from my mafter; and I came no fooner into the dining chamber, but he fteps me to her trencher,| and feals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep 5 himself in all companies! I would have, as one fhould fay, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hang'd for 't; fure as I Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth: live, he had fuffer'd for't: you fhall judge. He Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.

Laun. Ay, fir; the other squirrel was ftol'n from me by the hangman's boy in the market-place: and then I offer'd her mine own; who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater.

Pro. Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again,
Or ne'er return again into my fight.
Away, I fay: Stay'st thou to vex me here?
A flave, that, still an end, turns me to fhame.
[Exit Launce.

Sebaftian, I have entertained thee,
Partly, that I have need of fuch a youth,
That can with fome difcretion do my business,
For 'tis no trufting to yon foolish lowt;
But, chiefly, for thy face, and thy behaviour;
Which (if my augury deceive me not)

3 Sorrows.

widows to make. To reck is to care 7 This appears to

1 Remorseful is pitiful. 2 It was common in former ages for widowers and vows of chaitity in honour of their deceafed wives or husbands. for. 5 That is, reftrain himself. 6 A proverbial expreffion of thofe times. have been part of the office of an ufher of the table. 8 That is, in the end, at the conclufion of every

bufinefs he undertakes.

Go

!

I know, they are stuff'd with protestations,
And full of new-found oaths; which he will break,

ful. It feems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: As eafily as I do tear this paper.

I That is, in good carnet.