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Speed. He fhould give her intereft; and the gives it him.

Val. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter, Unto the fecret nameless friend of yours;

Which I was much unwilling to proceed in,
But for my duty to your ladyship.

Sil. I thank you, gentle fervant: 'tis very clerkly done 1.

Val. Now truft me, madam, it came hardly off"; For, being ignorant to whom it goes,

I writ at random, very doubtfully.

Sil. Perchance you think too much of fo much pains?

Val. No, madam; fo it ftead you, I will write, Please you command, a thousand times as much: And yet,

Sil. A pretty period! Well, I guess the fequel; And yet I will not name it :-and yet I care not ;And yet take this again;-and yet I thank you; Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more. Speed. And

And yet you will; and yet another yet.

[Afide. Val. What means your ladyfhip? do you not like

it ?

Sil. Yes, yes! the lines are very quaintly writ: But fince unwillingly, take them again; Nay, take them.

So in Marston's What you will, 1607:

"Sweet fifter, let's fit in judgment a little; faith upon my fervant Monfieur Laverdure.

Mel. Troth, well for a fervant, but for a husband!" Again, in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour : "Every man was not born with my fervant Brisk's features." STEEVENS.

1

-'tis very clerkly done.] i. e. like a scholar.

So in the Merry Wives of Windfor:

2

"Thou art clerkly, fir John, clerkly." STEEVENS.

it came hardly off;] A fimilar phrase occurs in Timon, act I. fc. i:

"This comes off well and excellent." STEEVENS.

VOL. I.

L

Val

Val. Madam, they are for you.

Sil. Ay, ay; you writ them, fir, at my requeft; But I will none of them; they are for you s I would have had them writ more movingly.

Val. Please you, I'll write your ladyfhip another. Sil. And, when it's writ, for my fake read it over: And, if it pleafe you, fo; if not, why, fo. Val. If it please me, madam? what then? Sil. Why, if it please you, take it for your labour; And fo good-morrow, fervant.

[Exit.

Speed. O jeft unfeen, infcrutable, invifible, As a nofe on a man's face, or a weathercock on a

steeple!

My mafter fues to her; and she hath taught her fuitor, He being her pupil, to become her tutor.

O excellent device! was there ever heard a better? That my master, being the scribe, to himself should write the letter?

3

Val. How now, fir? what are you 3 reasoning with yourself?

Speed. Nay, I was rhiming; 'tis you that have the

reafon.

Val. To do what?

Speed. To be a fpokefman from madam Silvia.
Val. To whom?

Speed. To yourself: why, the wooes you by a figure.
Val. What figure?

Speed. By a letter, I fhould fay.

Val. Why, the hath not writ to me?

Speed. What need the, when fhe made you write to yourself? Why, do you not perceive the jeft? Val. No, believe me.

Speed. No believing you indeed, fir: But did you perceive her earneft?

3

Val. She gave me none, except an angry word. Speed. Why, the hath given you a letter.

-reafoning with yourself?] That is, difcourfing, talking. An Italianifm. JOHNSON.

Val. That's the letter I writ to her friend.

Speed. And that letter hath fhe deliver'd, and there an end 4.

Val. I would, it were no worse.

Speed. I'll warrant you, 'tis as well:

For often you have writ to her; and she, in modefty,
Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply;
Or fearing elfe fome messenger, that might her mind dif-

cover,

Herfelf bath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.

All this I fpeak in print; for in print I found it.Why mufe you, fir? 'tis dinner time.

Val. I have din'd.

Speed. Ay, but hearken, fir: though the cameleon love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourish'd by my victuals, and would fain have meat: Oh be not like your mistrefs; be moved, be moved.

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SCENE II.

Julia's houfe at Verona.

Enter Protheus and Julia.

Pro. Have patience, gentle Julia. ful. I muft, where is no remedy.

Pro. When poffibly I can, I will return.

4

[Exeunt.

-and there an end.] i. e. there's the conclufion of the matter. So in Macbeth:

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"That when the brains were out, the man would die,
"And there an end.".
STEEVENS.

All this I fpeak in print ;] In print means with exactness.
So in the comedy of All Fooles, 1605:

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not a hair

"About his bulk, but it stands in print." STEEVENS.

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Jul. If you turn not, you will return the fooner: Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's fake.

[Giving a ring. Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this.

ful. And feal the bargain with a holy kiss.
Pro. Here is my hand for my true conftancy;
And when that hour o'er-flips me in the day,
Wherein I figh not, Julia, for thy fake,
The next enfuing hour fome foul mischance
Torment me for my love's forgetfulness!
My father ftays my coming; answer not;
The tide is now: nay, not thy tide of tears;
That tide will stay me longer than I should:

[Exit Julia.
Julia, farewell.-What! gone without a word?
Ay, fo true love fhould do: it cannot speak;
For truth hath better deeds, than words, to grace it.

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Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb. [Exeunt,

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Enter Launce, leading a dog.

Laun. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault: I have receiv'd my proportion, like the prodigious fon, and am going with fir Protheus to the imperial's court. I think, Crab my dog be the foureft natur'd dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my fifter crying, our maid

howling,

howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our houfe in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruelhearted cur fhed one tear: he is a ftone, a very pebble-stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our part, ing; why, my grandam having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll fhow you the manner of it: This fhoe is my father;no, this left fhoe is my father;-no, no, this left fhoe is my mother;-nay, that cannot be fo neither;-yes, it is fo, it is fo; it hath the worfer fole: This fhoe, with the hole in it, is my mother, and this my father; A vengeance on't! there 'tis : now, fir, this staff is my fifter; for, look you, she is as white as a lilly, and as finall as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid; I am the dog :-no, the dog is himself, and 7 I am the dog,-oh, the dog is me, and I am myself; ay, fo, fo. Now come I to my father; Father, your bleffing; now fhould not the fhoe speak a word for weeping; now fhould I kifs my father; well, he weeps on: now come I to my mother;-oh that fhe could fpeak now like a wood woman!

66

6

8

6 I am the dog-&c.] A fimilar thought occurs in a play of elder date than this. See A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612: you shall stand for the lady, you for her dog, and I the page; you and the dog looking one upon another: the page prefents himself." STEEVENS,

7-I am the dog, &c.] This paffage is much confused, and of confufion the prefent reading makes no end. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I am the dog, no, the dog is himself and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself. This certainly is more reasonable, but I know not how much reafon the author intended to bestow on Launce's foliloquy. JOHNSON.

8

first folios agree in myftery to Mr. Pope, But it must be writ, crazy, frantic with The word is very writ wood, fome

like a wood woman!· ] The would-woman; for which, becaufe it was a he has unmeaningly fubftituted ould woman. or at least understood, wood woman, i. e. grief; or distracted, from any other caufe. frequently used in Chaucer; and fometimes times wode. THEOBALD.

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