Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. Val. Love is your master, for he masters you; Pro. Yet writers say, As in the sweetest bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine. leave. Pro. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! [Exit. • However, but a folly-] This love will end in a foolish aftion, to produce which you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. Johnson, War War with good counsel, fet the world at nought; ? Made wit with mufing weak, heart fick with thought. & Enter Speed. Speed. Sir Protheus, save you: Saw you my master? Pro. But now he parted hence to imbark for Milan. Speed. Twenty to one then, he is shipp'd already; And I have play'd the sheep, in lofing hiin. Pro. Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray, An if the shepherd be awhile away. Speed. You conclude, that my master is a fhepa herd then, and I a sheep? 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. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the Theep the shepherd ; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me : therefore I am no sheep. by a circa Theen. The neonard, but ? Made wit with mufing weak,-) For mode read make. Thos, Julia, bast made me war with good counsel, and make wit weak with mufing. JOHNSON. Surely there is no need of emendation. It is Julia, who bas already made wit weak with musing, &c. STEEVENS. 8 This whole scene, like many others in these plays (some of which I believe were written by Shakespeare, and others interpolated by the players) is composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the grofs taste of the age he lived in ; Populo ut placcrent. I wish I had authority to leave them out; but I have done all I could, fet a mark of reprobation upon them throughout this edition. Pope. That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will 'be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players seems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticism. JOHNSON. Proa ure for hy labour tton, Pro. The sheep for fodder follows the shepherd, the shepherd for the food follows not the Theeps thou for wages followest thy master, thy maíter for wages follows not thee : therefore thou art a sheep. Speed. Such another proof will make me cry baâ. Julia ? Speed. Ay, fir: 91, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton; and she, a lac'd mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour. Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such a store of muttons. Speed. If the ground be overcharg'd, you were best ftick her. · Pro. 91, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton ;- ) Speed calls himself a loft mutton, because he had lost his master, and because Protheus had been proving him a sheep. But why does he call the lady a lac'd mutton? Wenchers are to this day called mutton-mongers; and consequently the object of their passion muit, by the metaphor, be the mutton. And Cotgrave, in his English-French Dictionary, explains lac'd. mutton, Une garfi, putain, fille de joye. And Mr. Motteux has rendered this passage of Rabelais, in the prologue of his fourth book, Cailles coiphees mignonnement chantans, in this manner; Coated quails and lac'd mutton waggisbly finging. So that lac'd mutton has been a sort of 1tandard phrase for girls of pleasure. THEOBALD. Nash, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1595, speaking of Gabriel Harvey's incontinence, says : he would not slick to extoll rotten lac'd mutton. So in the comedy of The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the Gentle Craft, 1610: 66 Why here's good lac'd mutton, as I promis'd you." Again, in Blurt Master Confiable, 1602 : - Cupid hath got me a stomach, and I long for lac'd mutton." Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578: “ And I linelt he lov'd lac'd mutton well.” Again, Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, speaking of Cu. pid, says, he is the “ Hero of hie-hoes, admiral of ay-me's, and monsieur of mutton lac'd.” STEEVENS. A laced mutton was so established a name for a courtezan, that a street in Clerkenwell, which was much frequented by women of the town, was formerly called Mutton-lane. It is mentioned, with many others of the same character, in A Neru Trick to cheat , the Devil, 1639: 66 Search Pro. 'Nay, in that you are a stray ; 'twere best pound you. Speed. Nay, fir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter. Pro. You mistake; I mean the pound, a pinfold. 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 nods. Speed. You mistook, fir; I said, she did nod: and you ask me, if she did nod; and I said, 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. “ Search all the alleys, Spittle or Pickthatch, “ White Friars, St. Peter's Street, and Mutton-lane." Again, in Blurt Master Conftable, by Middleton, 1632 : * Laz. Pilcher, Cupid hath got me a stomach, and I long for laced mutton. 66 Pilch, Plain mutton without a lace will do for me.” Before I met with this passage, I own I understood laced muttox in the sense of mouton galonée, and could not at all account for so strange an expression. From the above, it appears to have been a phrase much of the same kind as caille coiffée. MALONE. Nay, in that you are astray ;- ] For the reason Protheus gives, Dr. Thirlby advises that we should read, a stray, i. e. a ftray sheep; which continues Protheus's banter upon Speed THEOBALD. 2 did she nod?] These words have been supplied by some of the editors, to introduce what follows. STEEVENS. 3 Noddy was a game at cards. So in The Inner Temple Make by Middleton, 1619: “ I leave them wholly (says Christmas) to my eldest son Noddy, whom, during his minority, I commit to the custody of a pair of knaves and one and thirty.” Again, in Quarles's Virgin' Widow, 1656: " Let her forbear cheis and noddy, as games too serious." "STEEVEXS. Speed, Speed. Well, I perceive, I must be fain to beat with you. Pro. Why, fir; -how do you bear with me? . · Speed. Marry, fir, the letter very orderly ; having nothing but the word noddy for my pains. Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit. Pro. Comey 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 The ? Speed. Truly, sir, I think you'll hardly win her. Pro. Why? Could'st thou perceive so much from her ? Speedo Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so much as a ducket for delivering your letter : And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear, she'll prove as hard to you in 4 telling her mind. Give her no token but stones; for the'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, s you have testern’d me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself: and so, fir, 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 : .+ telling her mind.] The old copy reads, your mind. - STEEVENS. s y ou have testern'd me ;] You have gratified me with a tefter, testlern, or teften, that is, with a fixpence. Johnson. The old reading is cestern’d. Mr. Rowe made the alteration. STEEVENS. VOL. 1. I must |