Pro. I grant, fweet love, that I did love a lady; But fhe is dead.

Jul. "Twere falfe, if I should speak it; For, I am fure, fhe is not buried.

Sil. Say, that the be; yet Valentine, thy friend,
Survives; to whom, thyfelf art witness,

I am betroth'd: And art thou not afham'd
To wrong him with thy importúnacy?
Pro. I likewife hear, that Valentine is dead.
Sil. And fo, fuppofe, am I; for in his
Affure thyfelf, my love is buried.

grave

Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth.
Sil. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence;
Or, at the least, in her's fepulchre thine.

Jul. He heard not that.

Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, Vouchfafe me yet your picture for my love, The picture that is hanging in your chamber; To that I'll fpeak, to that I'll figh and weep: For, fince the fubftance of your perfect felf Is elfe devoted, I am but a fhadow;

And to your fhadow will I make true love.

[Afide

Afide

Jul. If 'twere a substance, you would, fure, deceive it. And make it but a shadow, as I am.

Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, fir;

But, fince your falfehood fhall become you well
To worship shadows, and adore falfe fhapes,
Send to me in the morning, and I'll fend it:
And fo, good rest.

Pro.

As wretches have o'er-night,

That wait for execution in the morn.

[Afide

[Exeunt PROTEUS; and SILVIA, from above.

Jul. Hoft, will you go?

5 This is hardly fenfe. We may read, with very little alteration, "But fince you're falfe, it fhall become you well."

JOHNSON.

There is no occafion for any alteration, if we only fuppofe that it is understood here, as in feveral other places. Or indeed, in this place, To worship fhadows, &c. may be confidered as the nominative case to shall become. TYRWHITT.

3

Hoft. By my hallidom," I was fast asleep.
Jul. Pray you, where lies fir Proteus?

Hoft. Marry, at my house: Trust me, I think, 'tis almost day.

Jul. Not fo; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest

SCENE III.

The fame.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

Egl. This is the hour that madam Silvia
Entreated me to call, and know her mind;
There's fome great matter fhe'd employ me in.-
Madam, madam!

Sil.

Egl.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.

Who calls?

[Exeunt.

Your fervant, and your friend;
One that attends your ladyfhip's command.
Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thoufand times good-morrow.
Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself.
According to your ladyship's impofe,"
I am thus early come, to know what fervice
It is your pleasure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not, I flatter, for, I swear, I do not,}
Valiant, wife, remorseful, well accomplish'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 abhorr'd.
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 died,

H 2

Upon

6 i. e. my fentence at the general refurrection, or, as I hope to be faved: haligdom, Saxon. RITSON.

7 Impofe is injunction, command. A talk fet at college, in confequence of a fault, is ftill called an impofition. STEVENS.

8 Remorseful is pitiful. STEVENS

Upon whofe grave thou vowd'ft pure chastity.9
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode;
And, for the ways are dangerous to pafs,
I do defire thy worthy company,
Upon whofe faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief;
And on the juftice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which heaven and fortune ftill reward with plagues.
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 3 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?

At friar Patrick's cell,

Sil.
Where I intend holy confeffion.
Egl. I will not fail your ladyship:
Good-morrow, gentle lady.

Sil. Good-morrow, kind fir Eglamour.

[Exeunt.

9 It was common in former ages for widowers and widows to make vows of chastity in honour of their deceafed wives or husbands. In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, page 1013, there is the form of a commiffion by the bishop of the diocefe for taking a vow of chastity made by a widow. It feems that, befides obferving the vow, the widow was, for life, to wear a veil and a mourning habit. Some fuch diftinction we may suppose to have been made in respect of male votarifts; and therefore this circumstance might inform the players how fir Eglamour should be dreft; and will account for Silvia's having chofen him as a person in whom she could confide without injury to her own character.

STEEVENS.

2 Sorrows, forrowful affections. JOHNSON.
3 Recking as little-] To reck is to care for. STELVENS.
6

SCENE

SCENE IV.

The fame.

Enter LAUNCE, with his dog.

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 faved 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 steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himfelf in all companies! I would have, as one fhould fay, one that takes upon hiin to be a dog 5 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, 1 think verily he had been hang'd for't; fure as I live, he had fuffer'd for't: you fhall judge. He thrus me himfelf 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 fiell 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 do this for their fervant? Nay, I'll be fworn, I have fat in the stocks for puddings he hath ftolen, otherwise he had been executed : I have stood on the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, other

6

H 3

4 -keep himself—] i. e. restrain himself. STEEVENS.

wife

5 I believe we fhould read-I would have, &c. one that takes upon bim to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be, &c. JOHNSON.

6 This expreffion is ufed in Ben Jonfon's Magnetic Lady: have patience but a piling while." It appears from Ray's Collection, that it is proverbial. STEEVENS.

7 This appears to have been part of the office of an uber of the table. STEEVENS.

8

wife he had fuffer'd for't: thou think't 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 ftill mark me, and do as I do? When didft thou fee 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. Sebaftian is thy name? I like thee well,
And will employ thee in fome fervice presently.
Jul. In what you pleafe ;-I will do what I can.

Pro. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whorefon pea

fant?

[TO LAUNCE Where have you been these two days loitering?

Laun. Marry, fit, I carry'd mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.

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 I brought him back again.

Pro. What, didft thou offer her this from me A

Laun. Ay, fir; the other fquirrel 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,9 turns me to fhame.

Sebastian, I have entertained thee,

Partly, that I have need of such a youth,

[Exit LAUNCE.

That

8 Perhaps we should read of madam Julia. It was Julia only of whom

a formal leave could have been taken. STEEVENS.

9 i. e, in the end, at the conclufion of every bufiness he undertakes.

STEEVENS.

Still an end, and moft an end, are vulgar expreffions, and mean commonly, generally. M. MASON,