This letter ;-that's her chamber.-Tell my lady,
I claim the promise for her heavenly picture.
Your message done, hie home unto my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me sad and solitary.

[Exit Protheus.
Jul. How many women would do such a message?
Alas, poor Protheus ! thou hast entertain'd
A fox, to be the shepherd of thy lambs:
Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him
That with his very heart defpiseth me?
Because he loves her, he defpiseth me;
Because I love him, I must pity him.
This ring I gave him, when he parted from me,
To bind him to remeinber my good will :
And now I am (unhappy messenger)
To plead for that, which I would not obtain;
. To carry that, which I would have refus'd;
To praise his faith, which I would have disprais'd.
I am my master's true confirmed love;
But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him ; but yet so coldly,
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed

Enter Silvia. Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mçan To bring me where to speak with madam Silvia.

Sil. What would you with her, if that I be the?

Jul. If you be she, I do intreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am sent on.

Sil. From whom?
Jul. From my master, fir Protheus, madam.
Sil. Oh! he sends you for a picture?
Jul. Ay, madain.

" To carry that, which I would have refus'd;] The sense is, To go and present that which I wish to be not accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be dispraised. Johnson.

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought.
Go, give your master this : tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber, than this shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.
-Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd
Deliver'd you a paper that I should not;
This is the letter to your ladyship.

Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again.
Jul. It may not be; good inadam, pardon me.

Sil. There, hold.
I will not look upon your master's lines :..
I know, they are stuff'd with protestations,
And full of new-found oaths; which he will break,
As easily as I do tear this paper.

Jul. Madain, he sends your ladyship this ring.

Sil. The more shame for him, that he sends it mes
For, I have heard him say a thousand times,
His Julia gave it him at his departure :

Though his false finger hath profan'd the ring,
Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. She ist do his Juliath profan'd;

Sil. What fay'st thou ?

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much.

Sil. Dost thou know her ?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself: To think upon her woes, I do proteft, That I have wept an hundred several times. Sil. Belike, she thinks, that Protheus hath forsook

her.
Jul, I think she doth; and that's her cause of

sorrow.
Sil. Is she not passing fair ?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madain, than she is :
When she did think my master lov'd her well,
She, in my judgment, was as fair as you ;

. But

* But since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,
The air hath starv'd the rofes in her cheeks,
And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,
That now she is become as black as I.

Sil. How tall was she?

Jul. About my ftature : for, at pentecoft,
When all our pageants of delight were play'd,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimın'd in madam Julia's gown ;
Which served me as fit, by all mens' judgment,
As if the garment had been made for me :
Therefore, I know she is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a-good',

8 But since she did negleit her looking-glass,

And threw her fun-capelling mask a way,

The air hath starv'd the roles in her checks, ". And pinch's the lily-tin&ture of her face,

That now she is become as black as I.) To ftarve the roses is certainly a very proper expression: but what is pinching a tincture ? However, starved, in the third line, made the blundering editors write pinch'd in the fourth : though they might have seen that it was a tanning scorching, not a freezing air that was spoken ofa For how could this latter quality in the air so affect the whiteness of the skin as to turn it black? We should read:

And Pitch'd the lily-tincture of her face. i. e. turned the white tincture black, as the following line has it :

. That now she is become as black as I: and we say, in common speech, as black as pitch.-By the roses being slarv'd, is only meant their being withered, and losing their colour. WARBURTON.

This is no emendation ; none ever heard of a face being pitched by the weather. The colour of a part pinched, is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly said to pinch when it produces the same visible effect. I believe this is the reason why the cold is said to pinch. Johnson. Cleopatra fays of herself:

" I'that am with Phæbus' pinches black.” Steevens, 9- weep a-good;] i. e, in good earnest. Tout de box. Fr.

STEEVENS. So in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

“ And therewithal their knees have rankled so
" That I have laugh'd a-goode" MALONE.

For

For I did play a lainentable part:
Madam, ''twas Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight;

Which
i 'twas Ariadne, paffioning i

For Theseus' perjury and unjuš Aight;] The history of this twice-deserted lady is too well known to need an introduction here; nor is the reader interrupted on the business of Shakespeare : but I find it difficult to refrain from making a note the vehiele for a conjecture like this, which I may have no better opportunity of communicating to the public.—The subject of a picture of Guido (commonly supposed to be Ariadne deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus) may possibly have been hitherto mistaken. Whoever will examine the fabulous history critically, as well as the performance itself, will acquiesce in the truth of the remark. Ovid, in his Fafti, tell us, that Bacchus (who left Ariadne to go on his Indian expedition) found too many charms in the daughter of one of the kings of that country.

“ Interea Liber depexos crinibus Indos

" Vincit, et Eoo dives ab orbe redit,
6 Inter captivas facie præftante puellas

" Grata nimis Baccho filia regis erat. .
“ Flebat amans conjux, spatiataque littore curto

66 Edidit incultis talia verba fonis.
" Quid me desertis perituram, Liber, arenis

" Servabas? potui dedoluisse semel.
6c Ausus es ante oculos, adducta pellice, nostros
66 Tam bene compositum sollicitare torum, &c.”

Ovid. Faft. 1. üi. lin. 465.
In this picture he appears as if just returned from India, bringing
with him his new favourite, who hangs on his arm, and whose
presence only causes those einotions so visible in the countenance
of Ariadne, who has been hitherto represented on this occasion,

as paffioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight. . From this painting a plate was engraved by Giacomo Freij, which is generally a companion to the Aurora of the same master. The print is so common, that the curious may easily satisfy themselves concerning the propriety of a remark which has perhaps intruded itself among the notes on this author.

To pajion is used as a verb by writers contemporary with Shakespeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the fame expression :

6 what, are thou pafioning over the picture of Cle

anthes ?"
Again, in Elioto Libidinoso, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606:

“6 ---- if thou gaze on a picture, thou must with Pigma. • lion be pasionate."

· Again,

S

Which I fo lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow!

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth ;-
Alas, poor lady! desolate and left!-
I weep myself, to think upon thy words,
Here, youth, there is my purse; I give thee this
For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her.
Farewell.

[Exit Silvia, Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you know

her. A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful. I hope, my master's suit will be but cold, Since she respects my mistress' love so much. Alas, how love can trifle with itself! Here is her picture : Let me fee; I think, If I had such a tire, this face of mine Were full as lovely as is this of hers : And yet the painter flatter'd her a little, Unless I flatter with myself too much. Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow : If that be all the difference in his love, I'll get me such a colour'd periwig. Her eyes are grey as glass; and fo are mine : Ay, but ? her forehead's low; and mine's as high, What should it be, that he respects in her, But I can make respective + in myself, Again, in Spenser's Faery Queen, b. iii. c. 2: . “ Some argument of inatter passioned.” STEEVENS,

2 l'll get me such a colour'd periwig.] It should be remembered, that falle hair was worn by the ladies, long before svigs were in fashion. These false coverings, however, were called periwigs. So in Northward Hoe, 1607: “ There is a new trade come up for cast gentlewomen, of perriwig-making : let your wife set up in the Strand." STEVENS.

3 — her forehead's low;- ) A high forehead was in our author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So in The History of Guy of Warwick: Felice his lady is said to have the Same high forehead as Venus. JOHNSON.

A respective] i. eo respectful, or refettable, STEEVENS.