To keep them from uncivil outrages.
Withdraw thee, Valentine ; who's this comes here?

[Val. steps aside
Enter Protheus, Silvia, and Julia.
Pro. Madam, this service have I done for you,
(Though you respect not aught your servant doth)
To hazard life, and rescue you from him,
That wou'd have forc'd your honour and your love.
Vouchsafe me for iny meed ? but one fair look;
A smaller boon than this I cannot beg,
And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give.

Val. How like a dream is this, I fee, and hear! Love, lend me patience to forbear a while. [Ahile,

Sil. O miserable, unhappy that I am!

Pro. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came; But, by my coming, I have made you happy.

Sil. By thy approach thou mak'ft me most unhappy. Jul. And me, when he approacheth to your prefence.

[Aside. Sil. Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the beast, Rather than have false Protheus rescue me. Oh, heaven be judge, how I love Valentine, Whose life's as tender to me as my soul; And full as much (for more there cannot be) I do deteft false perjur'd Protheus : Therefore be gone, solicit me no more.

Pro. What dangerous action, stood it next to death, Would I not undergo for one calm look ? Oh, 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd, When women cannot love, where they're belov'd.

Sil. When Protheus cannot love, where he's

belov’d.
Read over Julia's heart, thy first best love,
For whose dear fake thou didst then rend thy faith
Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury, to love me.
Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou had'st two,
And that's far worse than none; better have none
Than plural faith, which is too much by one :
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

Pro. In love,
Who respects friend?

Sil. All men but Protheus.

Pro. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words
Can no way change you to a milder form,
I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms end;
And love you 'gainst the nature of love, force you.

Sil. Oh heaven!
Pro. I'll force thee yield to iny desire.

Val. Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch ;
Thou friend of an ili fashion !

Pro. Valentine!
Val. Thou common friend, that's without faith

or love; (For such is a friend now) treacherous man! Thou hast beguild my hopes; nought but mine eye Could have persuaded me: Now I dare not say, I have one friend alive ; thou would'It disprove me. Who should be trusted, when one's own right hand Is perjur’d to the bosom? Protheus, I ain sorry, I must never trust thee more, But count the world a stranger for thy fake. * The private wound is deepest : Oh time, most

curst! 'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst !

Pro. My shame and guilt confounds me.
Forgive me, Valentine : if hearty sorrow
Be a sufficient ransom for offence,
I tender it here; I do as truly suffer,
As e'er I did commit.

Pal. Then I am paid :
And once again I do receive thee honeft :-
Who by repentance is not satisfy'd,
Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd;
By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeas'd :-
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
5 All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.
Ful. Oh me unhappy!

[Faints. Pro. Look to the boy. Val. Why, boy ! why wag! how now? what is

the matter? Look up; speak.

Jul. O good fir, my master charg'd me
To deliver a ring to madam Silvia ;
Which, out of my neglect, was never done.

Pro. Where is that ring, boy?
Jul. Here 'tis : this is it.

[Gives a ring.

s All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.] It is (I think) very odd to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reason alledged. But our author probably followed the stories just as he found them in his novels as well as histories. Pope.

This patlage either hath been much sophisticated, or is one great proof that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shakespeare; for it is impollible he could make Valentine act and speak so much out of character, or give to Silvia so unnatural 3 behaviour, as to take no notice of this strange conceffion, if it had been made. HANMER.

Valentine, from seeing Silvia in the company of Protheus, might conceive she had escaped with him, from her father's court, for the purposes of love, though she could not foresee the violence which his villainy might offer, after he had seduced her under the pretence of an honeit paflion. If Valentine, however, be supposed to hear all that passed between them in this scene, I am afraid I have only to subscribe to the opinions of my predecessors.

STEEVENS.

Pra.

Pro. How ! let me see:
Why this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. Oh, cry your mercy, fir, I have miftook; This is the ring you sent to Silvia. [Shews another ring. Pro. But, how cam'ft thou by this ring? at my

depart, I gave this unto Julia.

Ful. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. · Pro. How! Julia ?

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, And entertain'd them deeply in her heart : • How oft haft thou with perjury cleft the root? Oh Protheus, let this habit make thee blush! Be thou afham'd, that I have took upon me Such an immodest rayment; 7 if shame live In a disguise of love : It is the lefser blot, modesty finds, Women to change their shapes, than men their

minds. Pro. Than men their ninds ! 'tis true: oh heaven!

were man But constant, he were perficct : that one error Fills him with faults; makes him run through all

fins :
Inconstancy falls off, ere it begins : :
What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's with a conltant eye?

Val. Come, come, a hand froin either :
Let me be bleft to make this happy close;
'Twere pity two such friends should long be foes.

Pro. Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish for ever.

Jul. And I mine. 6 How ofi haft thou with perjury cleft the root?] Sir T. Hanmer reads, cleft the root on't. JOHNSON,

? - iflbame live] That is, if it be any shame to wear a difguise for the purposes of love. Johnson.

Enter

clole be fo

P 3

Enter Out-laws, with Duke and Thurio.
Qut, A prize, a prize, a prize!
Val. Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the

duke.
Your grace is welcome to a man disgrac'd,
Banished Valentine.

Duke. Sir Valentine !
Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.

Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure of my wrath :
Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Milan shall not behold thee. Here the stands,
Take but possession of her with a touch ;-
I dare thee but to breathe upon rny love.-

Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that laves him not:
I claim her not, and therefore she is thine,

Duke. The more degenerale and base art thou,
To make such means for her as thou hast done,
And leave her on such sighit conditions.
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress' love,
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,

$ — the measure ) The length of my sword, the reach of my anger. Johnson.

*9 Milan Mall not be bold thee.- ) All the editions, Verona Mall not bold thee. Buit, whether through the mistake of the firit editors, or the poet's own carelessness, this reading is absurdly faulty. For the threat here is to Thurio, who is a Milanese; and has no concern, as it appears, with Verona. Besides, the scene is betwixt the confines of Milan and Mantua, to which Silvia follows Valentine, having heard that he had retreated thither. And, upon these circumstances, I ventured to adjust the text, as I imagine the poet must have intended ; i. e. Milan, thy country Jhall never see thee again: thou halt never live to go back thither.

THEOBALD.

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