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Pro. So, by your circumftance, you call me fool. Val. So, by your circumftance, I fear, you'll prove. Pro. 'Tis love you cavil at; I am not love.

Val. Love is your mafter, for he masters you; And he that is fo yoked by a fool,

Methinks fhould not be chronicled for wife.

Pro. Yet writers fay, As in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, fo eating love Inhabits in the fineft wits of all.

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

Even fo by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly; blasting in the bud,
Lofing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.
But wherefore wafte I time to counsel thee,
That art a votary to fond defire?

Once more adieu: my father at the road
Expects my coming, there to fee me fhipp'd.

Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
Val. Sweet Protheus, no; now let us take our
leave.

At Milan, let me hear from thee by letters,
Of thy fuccefs in love, and what news elfe
Betideth here in abfence of thy friend;
And I likewife will vifit thee with mine.

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

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 haft metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my ftudies, lofe my time,

[Exit.

However, but a folly-] This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the lofs of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. JOHNSON.

War

War with good counfel, fet the world at nought; ? Made wit with mufing weak, heart fick with thought.

8 Enter Speed.

Speed. Sir Protheus, fave you: Saw you my mafter? Pro. But now he parted hence to imbark for Milan. Speed. Twenty to one then, he is fhipp'd already; And I have play'd the fheep, in lofing him.

Pro. Indeed, a fheep doth very often stray, An if the fhepherd be awhile away.

Speed. You conclude, that my mafter is a fhepherd then, and I a fheep?

Pro. I do.

Speed. Why then my horns are his horns, whether I wake or fleep.

Pro. A filly anfwer, and fitting well a fheep.
Speed. This proves me ftill a fheep.

Pro. True; and thy mafter a fhepherd.

Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumftance. Pro. It fhall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. Speed. The fhepherd feeks the fheep, and not the fheep the fhepherd; but I feek my master, and my mafter feeks not me: therefore I am no fheep.

7 Made wit with mufing weak,-] For made read make. Thon, Julia, haft made me war with good counfel, and make wit weak with mufing. JOHNSON.

Surely there is no need of emendation. It is Julia, who bas already made wit aveak with mufing, &c. STEEVENS.

This whole fcene, like many others in thefe plays (fome of which I believe were written by Shakespeare, and others interpolated by the players) is compofed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the grofs taste of the age he lived in; Populo ut placerent. 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 fcenes, is mean and vulgar, will 'be univerfally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players feems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticism. JOHNSON.

Pro.

Pro. The theep for fodder follows the fhepherd, the fhepherd for the food follows not the fheep; thou for wages followeft thy mafter, thy mafter for wages follows not thee: therefore thou art a fheep. Speed. Such another proof will make me cry baâ. Pro. But doft thou hear? gav'ft thou my letter to Julia?

Speed. Ay, fir: 91, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton; and fhe, a lac'd mutton, gave me, a loft mutton, nothing for my labour.

Pro. Here's too small a pafture for fuch a store of

muttons.

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

beft ftick her.

Pro.

1

I, a loft 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 confequently the object of their paffion muit, by the metaphor, be the mutton. And Cotgrave, in his English-French Dictionary, explains lac'd mutton, Une garfe, putain, fille de joye. And Mr. Motteux has rendered this paffage of Rabelais, in the prologue of his fourth book, Cailles coiphees mignonnement chantans, in this manner; Coated quails and lac'd mutton vaggishly finging. So that lac'd mutton has been a fort of ftandard phrafe for girls of pleasure. THEOBALD.

Nah, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1595, speaking of Gabriel Harvey's incontinence, fays: he would not flick to extoll rotten lac'd mutton. So in the comedy of The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the Gentle Craft, 1610:

"Why here's good lac'd mutton, as I promis'd you." Again, in Blurt Mafter Confiable, 1602:

66

Cupid hath got me a stomach, and I long for lac'd mutton.” Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

"And I fmelt he lov'd lac'd mutton well."

Again, Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, speaking of Cupid, fays, he is the "Hero of hie-hoes, admiral of ay-me's, and monfieur 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 fame character, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, 1639:

"Search

I

Pro. Nay, in that you are a ftray; 'twere beft pound you.

Speed. Nay, fir, lefs than a pound fhall ferve 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 faid fhe? did she nod. [Speed nods. Speed. I.

Pro. Nod, I why, that's noddy 3.

Speed. You miftook, fir; I faid, fhe did nod: and you ask me, if fhe did nod; and I faid, I. Pro. And that fet together, is-noddy.

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

Pro. No, no, you fhall have it for bearing the letter.

"Search all the alleys, Spittle or Pickthatch,
"Turnbull, the Bank-fide, or the Minories,

"White Friars, St. Peter's Street, and Mutton-lane." Again, in Blurt Mafter Conflable, by Middleton, 1652 : "Laz. Pilcher, Cupid hath got me a stomach, and I long for laced mutton.

"Pilch. Plain mutton without a lace will do for me.”

Before I met with this paffage, I own I understood laced mutton in the sense of mouton galonée, and could not at all account for fo ftrange an expreffion. From the above, it appears to have been a phrafe much of the fame kind as caille coiffée. MALONE.

Nay, in that you are aftray;-] For the reafon Protheus gives, Dr. Thirlby advises that we should read, a ftray, i. e. a ftray sheep; which continues Protheus's banter upon Speed.

THEOBALD.

2 - -did he nod?] Thefe words have been fupplied by fome of the editors, to introduce what follows. STEEVENS.

3 Noddy was a game at cards. So in The Inner Temple Mask, by Middleton, 1619: "I leave them wholly (fays Christmas) to my eldest fon Noddy, whom, during his minority, I commit to the cuftody of a pair of knaves and one and thirty." Again, in Quarles's Virgin Widow, 1656: "Let her forbear chefs and noddy, as games too ferious." STEEVENS.

Speed

Speed. Well, I perceive, I must be fain to bear 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. Befhrew me, but you have a quick wit. Speed. And yet it cannot overtake your flow purse. Pro. Come, come, open the matter in brief: What faid fhe?

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

Pro. Well, fir, here is for your pains: What said The ?

Speed. Truly, fir, I think you'll hardly win her. Pro. Why? Could'ft thou perceive fo much from her?

Speed Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not fo much as a ducket for delivering your letter: And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear, fhe'll prove as hard to you in telling her mind. Give her no token but ftones; for the's as hard as steel.

Pro. What, faid the nothing?

5

Speed. No, not fo much as-take this for thy pains. To teftify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself: and fo, fir, I'll commend you to my mafter.

Pro. Go, go, be gone, to fave your ship from wreck;

Which cannot perish, having thee aboard,
Being deftin'd to a drier death on fhore :-

5

-telling her mind.] The old copy reads, your mind..

STEEVENS.

-you have teftern'd me ;] You have gratified me with a efter, teftern, or teften, that is, with a fixpence. JOHNSON. The old reading is ceftern'd. Mr. Rowe made the alteration.

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STEEVENS.

I muft

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