I am forry, I muft never trust thee more,
But count the world a stranger for thy fake.
The private wound is deepeft: O time, most curst!
'Mongft all foes, that a friend should be the worst!
Pro. My fhame and guilt confounds me.-
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty forrow
Be a fufficient ranfom for offence,

I tender it here; I do as truly fuffer,
As e'er I did commit.

Val.

Then I am paid;

And once again I do receive thee honest:-
Who by repentance is not fatisfy'd,

Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd;
By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeas'd :-
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.
Jul. O me, unhappy!

Pro. Look to the boy.

[Faints.

Val. Why, boy! why wag! how now? what is the

matter?

Look

8 It is (I think) very odd, to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reafon alledged. But our author probably followed the stories jutt-as he found them in his novels as well as hiftories. PoPE.

This paffage either hath been much fophifticated, or is one great proof that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shakspeare; for it is impoffible he could make Valentine act and speak fo much out of character, or give to Silvia so unnatural a behaviour, as to take no notice of this ftrange conceffion, if it had been made. HANMER,

Valentine, from seeing Silvia in the company of Proteus, might conceive the had escaped with him from her father's court, for the purposes of love, though she could not foresee the violence which his villainy might offer, after he had feduced her under the pretence of an honeft paffion. If Valentine, however, be fuppofed to hear all that paffed between them in this fcene, I am afraid I have only to fubfcribe to the opinions of my predeceffors. STEEVENS,

-I give thee,] Transfer these two lines to the end of Thurio's fpeech in page 163, and all is right. Why then fhould Julia faint? It is only an artifice, feeing Silvia given up to Valentine, to difcover herfelf to Proteus, by a pretended mistake of the rings. One great fault of this play is the haftening too abruptly, and without due preparation, to the denouement, which fhews that, if it be Shakspeare's (which I cannot doubt,) it was one of his very early performances. BLACKSTONE.

& And, that the] Suppose these two lines to be spoken by Proteus ? TT. _ Or if by Val ._ Litte B- for mine read thine i.C. "And that my whatever then claimst in Silvra,

Look up; fpeak.
Jul.

O good fir, my mafter charg'd me

To deliver a ring to madam Silvia;

Which, out of my neglect, was never done.
Pro. Where is that ring, boy?
Jul.

Here 'tis this is it. [Gives a ring.

Pro. How! let me fee:

:

Why this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O, cry your mercy, fir, I have mistook;

This is the ring you fent to Silvia.

[Shows another ring.

Pro. But, how cam'ft thou by this ring? at my depart,

I gave this unto Julia.

ful. And Julia herself did give it me;

And Julia herself hath brought it hither.
Pro. How! Julia!

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,
And entertain'd them deeply in her heart:
How oft haft thou with perjury cleft the root?
O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!
Be thou afham'd, that I have took upon me
Such an immodeft rayment; if shame live
In a difguife of love:

It is the leffer blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their fhapes, than men their minds.
Pro. Than men their minds! 'tis true: O heaven! were

man

But conftant, he were perfect: that one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all fins:
Inconftancy falls off, ere it begins ::

What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's with a conftant eye?

Val. Come, come, a hand from either :

Let me be bleft to make this happy close ;

"Twere pity two fuch friends fhould be long foes.
Pro. Bear witnefs, heaven, I have my wifh for ever.
Jul. And I have mine.

2 That is, if it be any shame to wear disguise for the purposes of love.

Enter

JOHNSON

Enter Out-laws, with DUKE and THURIO.

Out.
A prize, a prize, a prize!
Val. Forbear, I fay; it is my lord the duke.
Your grace is welcome to a man disgrac'd,

Banished Valentine.

Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.

Val. Thurio give back, or elfe embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure 3 of my wrath:
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Milan fhall not behold thee. Here the ftands,
Take but poffeffion of her with a touch;-
I dare thee but to breathe

--

upon my love.-
Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:
Iclaim her not, and therefore fhe is thine.
Duke. The more degenerate and bafe art thou,
To make fuch means for her as thou haft done,♦
And leave her on fuch flight conditions.-
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy fpirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an emprefs' love.
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.-
Plead a new ftate in thy unrival'd merit,
To which I thus fubfcribe,-fir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd;

Take thou thy Silvia, for thou haft deferv'd her.

I

Val. I thank your grace; the gift hath made me happy. now befeech you, for your daughter's fake,

To grant one boon that I fhall afk of you.

Duke. I grant it, for thine own, whate'er it be.
Val. These banish'd men, that I have kept withal,
Are men endued with worthy qualities;

Forgive

3 The length of my fword, the reach of my anger.. JOHNSON. 4 i. e. to make fuch intereft for, to take fuch difingenuous pains about her. STEEVENS.

Griefs in old language frequently fignified grievances, wrongs.

MALONE

Forgive them what they have committed here,
And let them be recall'd from their exile:
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

Duke. Thou haft prevail'd; I pardon them, and thee;
Difpofe of them, as thou know'ft their deferts.
Come, let us go; we will include all jars 6
With triumphs, mirth, and rare folemnity.
Val. And, as we walk along, I dare be bold
With our difcourfe to make your grace to finile:
What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes.
Val. I warrant you, my lord; more grace than boy.
Duke. What mean you by that faying?

Val. Pleafe you, I'll tell you as we pafs along,
That you will wonder, what hath fortuned.-
Come, Proteus; 'tis your penance, but to hear
The ftory of your loves difcovered :

That done, our day of marriage fhall be yours;
One feaft, one houfe, one mutual happiness.

6 To include is to shut up, to conclude. STEEVENS.

[Exeunt.

7 Triumphs in this and many other paflages of Shakspeare, fignify Mafques and Revels, &c.

STEEVENS.

In this play there is a strange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The verfification is often excellent, the allufions are learned and just; but the author conveys his heroes by fea from one inland town to another in the fame country; he places the emperor at Milan, and fends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Proteus, after an interview with Silvia, fay he has only feen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by miftaking places, left his fcenery inextricable. The reafon of all this confufion feems to be, that he took his story from a novel, which he fometimes followed, and sometimes forfook, sometimes remembered, and fometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shakspeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom fhali it be given? This question may be asked of all the difputed plays except Titus Andrenicus; and it will be found more credible, that Shakspeare might fometimes fink below his highest flights, than that any other should rife up to his lowest.

JOHNSON,

Johnfon's general remarks on this play are juft, except that part in which he arraigns the conduct of the poet, for making Proteus fay, that he had only feen the picture of Silvia, when it appears that he had had a

perfonal

perfonal interview with her. This, however, is not a blunder of Shakpeare's, but a mistake of Johnson's, who confiders the passage alluded to in a more literal fenfe than the author intended it. Sir Proteus, it is true, had feen Silvia for a few moments; but though he could form from thence fome idea of her perfon, he was ftill unacquainted with her temper, manners, and the qualities of her mind. He therefore confiders h mfelf as having feen her picture only. The thought is just and elegantly expreffed.-So, in The Scornful Lady, the elder Loveless fays to her:

"I was mad once when I loved pictures;

For what are shape and colours elfe, but pictures."

M. MASON.

MERRY

H