Sil. And duty never yet did want his meed : Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress. Pro. I'll die on him that says fo, but yourself, Sil. That you are welcome?

Pro, No; that you are worthlefs.

Enter Servant.

Ser. Madam, my lord your father would speak

with you,

Sil. I'll wait upon his pleasure. [Exit Serv.] Come, Sir Thurio,

Go with me :-Once more, new fervant, welcome; I'll leave you to confer of home-affairs;

When you have done, we look to hear from you. Pro. We'll both attend upon your ladyfhip. [Exit Silvia and Thurio. Val. Now, teil me, how do all from whence you came ?

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much commended.

Val. And how do yours

Pro. I left them all in health.

Val. How does your lady? and how thrives your love?

Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you; I know, you joy not in a love-difcourfe.

Val. Ay, Protheus, but that life is alter'd now, I have done penance for contemning love; 7 Whofe high imperious thoughts have punish'd me

5 No; that you are worthless,] I have inferted the particle no to fill up the measure. JOHNSON.

6 Thur, Madam, my lord your father-] This speech in all the editions is affigned improperly to Thurio; but he has been all along upon the ftage, and could not know that the duke wanted his daughter. Befides, the first line and half of Silvia's anfwer is evidently addreffed to two perfons. A fervant, therefore, muft come in and deliver the meffage; and then Silvia goes out with Thurio. THEOBALD.

7 Whofe high imperious] For whofe I read thofe. I have contemned love and am punifhed. Those high thoughts by which Í exalted myself above huiman paffions or trailties, have brought upon me fafts and groans. JOHNSON,

With bitter fafts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs;
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chac'd fleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's forrow,
O, gentle Protheus, love's a mighty lord;
And hath fo humbled me, as, I confefs,
There is no woe to his correction,

Nor, to his fervice, no fuch joy on earth!
Now, no difcourfe, except it be of love;
Now can I break my faft, dine, fup, and fleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye: Was this the idol that you worship fo?

Val. Even fhe; and is the not a heavenly faint?
Pro. No; but the is an earthly paragon.
Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O flatter me; for love delights in praise. Pro. When I was fick, you gave me bitter pills; And I muft minifter the like to you.

Val. Then fpeak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

9

Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.

Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any;

Except thou wilt except against my love,
Pro. Have I not reafon to prefer mine own?

-no woe to his correction ;] No mifery that can be com pared to the punishment inflicted by love. Herbert called for the prayers of the liturgy a little before his death, faying, None to them, none to them. JOHNSON.

The fame idiom occurs in an old ballad quoted in Cupid's Whir ligig, 1616:

9

"There is no comfort in the world

"To women that are kind." MALONE.

—a principality,] The first or principal of women. So the old writers ufe ftate." She is a lady, a great state." Latymer. "This look is called in states varlie, in others otherwife." Sir T. More.

JOHNSON.

Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too: She shall be dignified with this high honour, To bear my lady's train; left the base earth Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss, And, of fo great a favour growing proud, Difdain to root the fummer-fwelling flower, And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardifm is this? Val. Pardon me, Protheus: all I can, is nothing To her, whofe worth makes other worthies nothing; * She is alone.

Pro. Then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world: why, man, fhe is mine

own;

And I as rich in having fuch a jewel,
As twenty feas, if all their fand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou fee'ft me doat upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes,
Only for his poffeffions are fo huge,
Is gone with her along; and I muft after,
For love, thou know'ft, is full of jealousy.
Pro. But fhe loves you?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay, more, our marriage hour,

With all the cunning manner of our flight,

* Summer-f-welling flower,] I once thought that the poet had written fummer-fmelling; but the epithet which ftands in the text I have fince met with in the tranflation of Lucan, by Sir Ar thur Gorges, 1614, b. viii. p. 354:

66

no Roman chieftaine fhould

"Come neare to Nyles Pelufian mould,

"But fhun that fommer-fuelling fhore."

The original is, "ripafque æftate tumentes," 1. 829. May likewife renders it fummer-fivelled banks. The fummer-fwelling flower is the flower which fwells in fummer, till it expands itself into bloom. STEEVENS.

2 She is alone,] She stands by herself. There is none to be sompared to her. JOHNSON.

Determin'd

Determin'd of: how I muft climb her window;
The ladder made of cords; and all the means
Plotted, and 'greed on, for my happiness.
Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I fhall enquire you forth:
I muft unto the road, to difembark
Some neceffaries that I needs muft ufe ;
And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make hafte?
Pro. I will.-

Even as one heat another heat expels,

Exit Val

Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.

Is it mine eye, or Valentino's praife,
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonless, to reason thus?
She's fair; and fo is Julia, that I love ;-
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,
Bears no impreffion of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold;

3 Is it mine THEN, or Valentino's praife,] Here Protheus quef tions with himself, whether it is his own praife, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love with Valentine's mistress. But not to infift on the abfurdity of falling in love through his own praises, he had not indeed praised her any farther than giving his opinion of her in three words, when his friend asked it of him. In all the old editions we find the line printed thus:

It is mine, or Valentino's praife?

A word is wanting. The line was originally thus:

Is it mine EYE, or Valentino's praife?

Protheus had juft feen Valentine's mistress, whom her lover had been lavishingly praifing. His encomiums therefore heightening Protheus's idea of her at the interview, it was the lefs wonder he should be uncertain which had made the ftrongest impreffion, Valentine's praises, or his own view of her. WARBURTON.

4

a waxen image 'gainft a fire,] Alluding to the figures made by witches, as reprefentatives of those whom they defigned to torment or destroy. STEEVENS,

And

6

And that I love him not, as I was wont :
O! but I love his lady too, too much;
And that's the reafon I love him fo little.
How fhall I doat on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her?
"Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazled fo my reafon's light:
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compafs her I'll ufe my fkill.

[Exit.

with more advice,] With more prudence, with more difcretion. JOHNSON.

With more advice, is on further knowledge, on better confideration. So in Titus Andronicus :'

"The Greeks, upon advice, did búry Ajax."

The word, as Mr. Malone obferves, is ftill current among mercantile people, whofe conftant language is, "We are advised by letters from abroad," meaning informed. So in bills, the conclu-. fion always is" Without further advice." So in this very play : "This pride of hers, upon advice, &c."

So in Measure for Measure:

"Yet did repent me after more advice." STEEVENS. 'Tis but her picture] This is evidently a flip of attention, for he had seen her in the last scene, and in high terms offered her his fervice. JOHNSON.

I believe Protheus means, that, as yet, he had feen only her outward form, without having known her long enough to have any acquaintance with her mind.

So in Cymbeline:

"All of her, that is, out of door, most rich!
"If the be furnish'd with a mind fo rare, &c."

Again, in the Winter's Tale, act II. fc. i:

"Praife her but for this her without-door form."

STEEVENS.

t

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SCENE