I do defire thee, even from a heart
As full of forrows 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 grievances;
Which fince I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give confent to go along with you;
Recking as little what betideth me,

As much I wish 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 fir Eglamour. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The fame.

Enter LAUNCE, with his dog.

When a man's fervant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I faved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it! I

& grievances ;] Sorrows, forrowful affections. JOHNSON, Recking as little-] To reck is to care for. So, in Hamlet: "And recks not his own read."

Both Chaucer and Spenfer ufe this word with the fame fignification. STEEVENS.

have taught him-even as one would fay precisely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was fent to deliver him, as a prefent to mistress Silvia, from my master; and I came no fooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep 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 live, he had fuffer'd for't: you shall judge. He thrusts 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 piffing 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 dogs : Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? Ay, marry, do I, quoth he. You do him the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would

3

4

2 keep himfelf-] i. c. reftrain himself. STEEVENS. to be a dog-] I believe we should read-I would have, &c. one that takes upon him to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be, &c. JOHNSON.

—a piffing while,] This expreffion is ufed in Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady: "-have patience but a piffing while." It appears from Ray's Collection, that it is proverbial. STEEVENS.

5 The fellow that whips the dogs:] This appears to have been part of the office of an uber of the table. So, in Mucedorus:

"I'll prove my office good: for look you, &c. When a dog chance to blow his nofe backward, then with a whip I give him good time of the day, and ftrew rushes prefently." STEEVENS.

do this for their fervant? Nay, I'll be sworn, I have fat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwife he had been executed: I have stood on the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, otherwise he had fuffer'd for't: thou think'ft not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you ferved me, when I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid thee still mark me, and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave up my leg, and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didft thou ever fee me do fuch a trick?

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

PRO. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in fome service presently. JUL. In what you please ;-I will do what I can. PRO. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whorefon peasant? [TO LAUNCE. Where have you been these two days loitering?

LAUN. Marry, fir, I carry'd mistress Silvia the

dog you bade me.

7

6 their fervant?] The old copy reads-his fervant?

Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

madam Silvia;] Perhaps we should read of madam Julia. It was Julia only of whom a formal leave could have been taken. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton, without any neceffity I think, reads -Julia; "alluding to the leave his mafter and he took when they left Verona." But it appears from a former fcene, (as Mr. Heath has obferved,) that Launce was not prefent when Proteus and Julia parted. Launce on the other hand has just taken leave of, i. e. parted from, (for that is all that is meant) madam Silvia. MALONE.

Though Launce was not prefent when Julia and Proteus parted, it by no means follows that he and Crab had not likewife their audience of leave. RITSON.

PRO. And what fays fhe to my little jewel?

LAUN. Marry, fhe fays, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currifh thanks is good enough for fuch a prefent.

PRO. But the receiv'd my dog?

LAUN. No, indeed, fhe did not: here have Į brought him back again.

PRO. What, didft thou offer her this from me?

LAUN. Ay, fir; the other squirrel was ftolen from me by the hangman's boys 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'ft thou to vex me here?
A flave, that, ftill 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 trusting to yon foolish lowt;

8 the other fquirrel, &c.] Sir. T. Hanmer reads-" the other, Squirrel," &c. and confequently makes Squirrel the proper name of the beast. Perhaps Launce only speaks of it as a diminutive animal, more refembling a Squirrel in fize, than a dog.

STEEVENS. The fubfequent words," who is a dog as big as ten of yours," fhew that Mr. Steevens's interpretation is the true one. MALONE. 9 an end,] i. e. in the end, at the conclufion of every bufinefs he undertakes. STEEVENS.

Still an end, and moft an end, are vulgar expreffions, and mean commonly, generally. So, in Maffinger's Very Woman, a Citizen afks the Mafter, who had flaves to fell," What will that girl do?" To which he replies:

fure no harm at all, fir,

"For the fleeps moft an end." M. MASON.

But, chiefly, for thy face, and thy behaviour;
Which (if my augury deceive me not,)

2

Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth:
Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go presently, and take this ring with thee,
Deliver it to madam Silvia:

She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me.'

JUL. It feems, you lov'd her not, to leave her token: +

She's dead, belike."

2

know thou,] The old copy has-thee. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

3 She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me.] i. e. She, who delivered it to me, lov'd me well. MALONE.

4 It feems, you lov'd her not, to leave her token:] Proteus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it away. The old edition has it:

"It seems you lov'd her not, not leave her token."

I fhould correct it thus:

"It feems you lov'd her not, nor love her token."

JOHNSON.
MALONE.

The emendation was made in the fecond folio. Johnson, not recollecting the force of the word leave, propofes an amendment of this paffage, but that is unneceffary; for, in the language of the time, to leave means to part with, or give away. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, Portia, fpeaking of the ring the gave Baffanio, fays,

66

and here he ftands;

"I dare be fworn for him, he would not leave it,
"Or pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
"That the world mafters."

And Baffanio fays, in a fubfequent scene:

"If you did know to whom I gave the ring, &c.
"And how unwillingly I left the ring,

"You would abate the ftrength of your difpleasure."

M. MASON.

To leave, is ufed with equal licence, in a former scene, for to cease. "I leave to be," &c. MALONE.

She's dead, belike.] This is faid in reference to what Proteus had afferted to Silvia in a former scene; viz. that both Julia and Valentine were dead. STEEVENS.