To die, is to be banish'd from myself; Enter Protheus and Launce. Pro. Run, boy, run, run, and feek him out. Pro. What feeft thou? Laun. Him we go to find: There's not an hair on's head, but 'tis a Valentine. Pro. Valentine? Val. No. Pro. Who then? his spirit? Val. Neither. Pro. What then? Val. Nothing. Laun. Can nothing speak? Mafter, fhall I ftrike? Pro. Whom wouldst thou ftrike? Launc. Nothing. 7 I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom;] To fly his doom, ufed for by flying, or in flying, is a gallicifm. The fenfe is, By avoiding the execution of his fentence I fhall not escape death. If I ftay here, I fuffer myself to be destroyed; if I go away, I deftroy myself. JOHNSON. K 4 Pro. Pro. Villain, forbear. Launc. Why, Sir, I'll ftrike nothing: I pray youPro. Sirrah, I fay, forbear: friend Valentine, a word. Val. My ears are ftopp'd, and cannot hear good news; So much of bad already hath poffefs'd them. Pro. Then in dumb filence will I bury mine; Pro. No, Valentine. Val. No Valentine, indeed, for facred Silvia! Hath fhe forfworn me? Pro. No, Valentine. Val. No Valentine, if Silvia have forfworn me! What is your news? Launc. Sir, there's a proclamation that you are vanish'd. Pro. That thou art banish'd; oh, that is the news, From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend. V'al. Oh, I have fed upon this woe already, And now excefs of it will make me furfeit. Doth Silvia know that I am banished? Pro. Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom, (Which unrevers'd ftands in effectual force) A fea of melting pearl, which fome call tears; Thoie at her father's churlifh feet fhe tender'd, With them, upon her knees, her humble felf; Wringing her hands, whofe whitenefs fo became them, As if but now they waxed pale for woe. But neither bended knees, pure hands held up, Sad fighs, deep groans, nor filver-fhedding tears, Could penetrate her uncompaffionate fire; But Valentine, if he be ta'en, muft die. Befides, her interceffion chaf'd him fo, When the for thy repeal was fuppliant, That to clofe priton he commanded her, With many bitter threats of 'biding there. Val. No more; unless the next word, that thou fpeak'ft, Have fome malignant power upon my life: Pro. Čeafe to lament for that thou canst not help, And study help for that which thou lament'st. Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Here if thou ftay, thou canst not fee thy love; Befides, thy ftaying will abridge thy life. Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, And manage it against despairing thoughts. Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence, Which, being writ to me, fhall be deliver'd Even in the milk-white bofom of thy love. The time now ferves not to expoftulate: Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate, And, ere I part with thee, confer at large Of all that may concern thy love-affairs. As thou lov't Silvia, though not for thyself, Regard thy danger, and along with me. Val. I pray thee, Launce, an' if thou feeft my boy, Bid him make hafte, and meet me at the north-gate. Pro. Go, firrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! haplefs Valentine! [Exeunt Valentine and Protheus. 8 Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my mafter is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave. He lives not * Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my mafter is a kind of knave but that's all one, if he be but one KNAVE.] Where is the fenfe? or, if you won't allow the speaker that, where is the humour of this fpeech? Nothing had given the fool occafion to fufpect that his master was become double, like Antipholis in The Comedy of Errors. The laft word is corrupt. We fhould read -if he be but one KIND. He thought his mafter was a kind of knave; however, he keeps himself in countenance with this reflection, that if he was a knave but of one kind, he might pafs well enough amongst his neighbours. This is truly humourous. WARBURTON. not now that knows me to be in love: yet I am in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman I will not tell myself, and yet 'tis a milkmaid yet 'tis not a maid, for fhe hath had goffips; yet 'tis a maid, for fhe is her mafter's maid, and ferves for wages. She hath more qualities than a waterfpaniel, which is much in a bare chriftian. Here is the cat-log [Pulling out a paper] of her conditions. Imprimis, he can fetch and carry; why, a horse can do no more; nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore the is better than a jade. Item, fhe can milk, look you; a fweet virtue in a maid with clean hands. Enter Speed. Speed. How now, fignior Launce? what news with your mastership? 1 Laun. With my mafter's fhip? why, it is at fea. Speed. Well, your old vice ftill; mistake the word: what news then in your paper? Laun. The blackest news that ever thou heard'st. Speed. Why, man, how black? This alteration is acute and fpecious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's language, one knave may not fignify a knave on only one occafion, a fingle knave. We fill use a double villain for a villain beyond the common rate of guilt. 9 JOHNSON. a team of horse shall not pluck—] I fee how Valentine fuffers for telling his love-fecrets, therefore I will keep mine clofe. JOHNSON. In former editions it is, With my maftership? why, it is at fea.] For how does Launce miftake the word? Speed afks him about his mattership, and he replies to it literatim. But then how was his mastership at fea, and on fhore too? The addition of a letter and a note of apoftrophe make Launce both mistake the word, and fets the pun right: it reftores, indeed, but a mean joke; but, without it, there is no fenfe in the paffage. Befides, it is in character with the rest of the fcene; and, I dare be confident, the poet's own conceit. THEOBALD. Laun. Laun. Why, as black as ink. Speed. Let me read them. Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head; thou can'ft not read. Laun. I will try thee; tell me this, who begot thee? Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the fon of thy grandmother: this proves, that thou can'ft not read. Speed. Come, fool, come; try me in thy paper. Laun. There; and 2 St. Nicholas be thy speed! Speed. Imprimis, fhe can milk. Laun. Ay, that the can. Speed. Item, fhe brews good ale. Laun. And therefore comes the proverb, Bleffing of your heart, you brew good ale. 2 Speed. Item, fhe can few. Laun. That's as much as to fay, Can fhe fo? -St. Nicholas be thy fpeed !] St. Nicholas prefided over scholars, who were therefore called St. Nicholas's clerks. Hence, by a quibble between Nicholas and Old Nick, highwaymen, in The First Part of Henry the Fourth, are called Nicholas's clerks. WARBURTON. That this faint prefided over young fcholars, may be gathered from Knight's Life of Dean Colet, p. 362. For by the ftatutes of Paul's fchool there inferted, the children are required to attend divine fervice at the cathedral on his anniverfary. The reason I take to be, that the legend of this faint makes him to have been a bishop, while he was a boy. At Salisbury cathedral is a monument of a boy bishop; and it is faid that a custom formerly prevailed there, of choofing, from among the chorifters, a bishop, who actually performed the paftoral functions, and difpofed of fuch prebends as became vacant during his epifcopacy, which lafted but a few days. It is thought that the monument above-mentioned was for fome boy who died in office. See The Pofthumous Works of Mr. John Gregory, 4to. Oxon. HAWKINS. So Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589. "Methinks this "fellow speaks like bishop Nicholas; for on Saint Nicholas' "night commonly the fcholars of the country make them a "bishop, who, like a foolish boy, goeth about bleffing and preaching with fuch childish terms, as maketh the people laugh at his foolish counterfeit fpeeches." STEEVENS. Speed, |
