Lest it should ravel, and be good to none,
You must provide to bottom it on me:
Which must be done, by praising me as much
As you in worth dispraise sir Valentine.

Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this
kind;

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,
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
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 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:5

For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans

3

-

you may temper her,] Mould her, like wax, to whatever shape you please.

4

lime,] That is, birdlime.

such integrity:] Such integrity may mean such ardour and sincerity as would be manifested by practising the directions given in the four preceding lines. STEEVENS.

I suspect that a line following this has been lost; the import which perhaps was-

"As her obdurate heart may penetrate." MALOne.

Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
After your dire lamenting elegies,

Visit by night your lady's chamber-window,
With some sweet concert: to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump; the night's dead silence
Will well become such sweet complaining grievance.
This, or else nothing, will inherit her."

Duke. This discipline shows 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 musick:
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."

Exeunt.

ACT IV.

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.

6 Tune a deploring dump ;] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy.

7

will inherit her.] To inherit, is, by our author, sometimes used, as in this instance, for to obtain possession of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance.

8 To sorti. e. to choose out.

9 I will pardon you.] I will excuse you from waiting.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have 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's 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,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
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 sojourn'd there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might 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 much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,

1

a proper man.] i. e. a well-looking man; he has the ap

pearance of a gentleman.

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, 2

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 gentle

men,

Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men :'
Myself was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,

An heir, and near allied unto the duke.

4

2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart. 1 Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these.

Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. But by Robin Hood's fat friar, Shakspeare means Friar Tuck, who was confessor and companion to this noted out-law.

3

awful men :] Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates, and other principal members of civil communities. JOHNSON. Dr. Farmer would read— lawful men-i. e. legales homines. Awful men means men well governed, observant of law and authority; full of, or subject to awe. In the same kind of sense as we use fearful. RITSON.

Whom, in my mood,] Mood is anger or resentment.

But to the purpose,-(for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives,)
And, partly, seeing you are beautified
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

consórt ?

wilt thou be of our

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 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.

5-in our quality-] Our quality means our profession, calling, or condition of life.

• Our company.