Pro. Upon some book I love, I'll pray for thee. Val. That's on some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.

Pro. That's a deep story of a deeper love, For he was more than over shoes in love.

Val. "Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never swam the Hellespont.

Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots'. Val. No, I will not, for it boots thee not.

Pro.

What?

Val. To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; Coy looks, with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's

mirth,

With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights:

If haply won, perhaps, a hapless gain;

If lost, why then a grievous labour won:
However, but a folly bought with wit,
Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

Pro. So, by your circumstance you call me fool.
Val. So, by your circumstance, I fear, you'll prove.

Pro. 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not love.
Val. Love is your master, for he masters you;
And he that is so yoked by a fool,

Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.
Pro. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

Val. And writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,

Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly; blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.

1 - nay, give me not the BOOTS.] A proverbial expression, not unfrequently met with in our old dramatists, signifying, don't make a laughing-stock of me. It seems to have no connection whatever with the punishment of the boots in Scotland, to which the commentators refer.

But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee,
That art a votary to fond desire?

Once more adieu. My father at the road
Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd.

Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
Val. Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave.
To Milan let me hear from thee by letters?,
Of thy success in love, and what news else
Betideth here in absence of thy friend,
And I likewise will visit thee with mine.

Pro. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan.
Val. As much to you at home; and so, farewell.

[Exit.

Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love: He leaves his friends to dignify them more; I leave myself, my friends, and all for love. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought, Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.

Enter SPEED.

Speed. Sir Proteus, save you. Saw you my master? Pro. But now he parted hence to embark for Milan. Speed. Twenty to one, then, he is shipp'd already, And I have play'd the sheep3 in losing him.

Pro. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, An if the shepherd be awhile away.

Speed. You conclude, that my master is a shepherd, then, and I a sheep1?

2 To Milan let me hear from thee by letters,] This is merely an inversion of "Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan." The first folio reads "To Milan," which the second folio needlessly changes to "At Milan," &c.

3 And I have play'd the SHEEP] A play upon the resemblance in sound between the words "ship" and "sheep." In many parts of the country "sheep" is pronounced “ship.” This joke is employed again in “The Comedy of Errors," Vol. ii. p. 150. In writings of the time "Sheep-street," in Stratford-upon-Avon, is often spelt Ship-street.

And I A sheep?] The indefinite article was added in the second folio.

Pro. I do.

Speed. Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I

wake or sleep.

Pro. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep.
Speed. This proves me still a sheep.

Pro. True, and thy master a shepherd.

Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. Pro. It shall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. Speed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me: therefore, I am no sheep.

Pro. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, the shepherd for food follows not the sheep; thou for wages followest thy master, thy master for wages follows not thee: therefore, thou art a sheep.

Speed. Such another proof will make me cry "baa." Pro. But, dost thou hear? gav'st thou my letter to Julia?

Speed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton"; and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour.

Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such store of

muttons.

Speed. If the ground be overcharg'd, you were best stick her.

Pro. Nay, in that you are astray: 'twere best pound

you.

Speed. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter.

Pro. You mistake: I mean the pound, the pinfold.

5 A LACED MUTTON;] Many authorities prove that mutton and courtezan were synonymous terms in the time of Shakespeare and long afterwards; and hence (as Malone tells us) the place called Mutton-lane in Clerkenwell. The question is, what was meant by a "laced mutton," for the participle and substantive are often found together. Laced probably meant dressed or adorned; and in Deloney's" Thomas of Reading," chap. ii., we read this passage: "No meat pleased him so well as mutton, such as was laced in a red petticoat." Speed's jest, such as it is, may have reconciled Proteus to the ill compliment to his mistress.

Speed. From a pound to a pin? fold it over and

over,

'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your

lover.

Pro. But what said she? did she nod"?

Speed. I.

Pro. Nod, I? why that's noddy'.

[SPEED nods.

Speed. You mistook, sir: I say she did nod, and you ask me, if she did nod? and I say I.

Pro. And that set together, is noddy.

Speed. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for your pains.

Pro. No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter. Speed. Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you.

Pro. Why, sir, how do you bear with me?

Speed. Marry, sir, the letter very orderly; having nothing but the word noddy for my pains.

Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.

Speed. And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse. Pro. Come, come; open the matter in brief: what said she?

Speed. Open your purse, that the money, and the matter, may be both at once deliver❜d.

Pro. Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she?

Speed. Truly, Sir, I think you'll hardly win her.

Pro. Why? Couldst thou perceive so much from her?

Speed. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her;

6 did she nod 1] These words were supplied by Theobald, and seem to be necessary. They are not in the old copies; but it is clear from what Speed afterwards says that Proteus had asked the question. In Speed's answers the old spelling of the affirmative particle has been retained; otherwise the conceit of Proteus would be less intelligible.

7 - that's NODDY.] Noddy was a game at cards, and to call a person a Noddy was the same as to call him a fool. Noddy was the Knave or Fool in a pack of cards. The practice of calling the knave Nod, or Noddy, is not yet entirely discontinued.

no, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter; and being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind. Give her no token but stones, for she's as hard as steel.

Pro. What! said she nothing?

Speed. No, not so much as "take this for thy pains." To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me'; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself. And so, sir, I'll commend you to my master.

Pro. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck, Which cannot perish, having thee aboard,

Being destin'd to a drier death on shore.—
I must go send some better messenger:
I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
Receiving them from such a worthless post. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. Julia's Garden.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

Jul. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone,
Wouldst thou, then, counsel me to fall in love?
Luc. Ay, madam; so you stumble not unheedfully.
Jul. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen,

That every day with parle encounter me,
In thy opinion which is worthiest love?

8 in telling YOUR mind.] The meaning (says Malone) is,-She being so hard to me who was the bearer of your mind, I fear she will prove no less so to you in the act of telling your mind.

9

· you have TESTERN'D me;] You have given me a testern, that is, sixpence. In the time of Henry VIII. a tester, testern, or teston, was of the value of a shilling it was so called from having a teste, i. e. head, upon it. In the folio, 1623, "testern'd" is misprinted cestern'd.