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Pro. Ceafe to lament for that thou canst not help, And study help for that which thou lament'ft. Time is the nurfe and breeder of all good. Here if thou ftay, thou canft not fee thy love; Befides, thy ftaying will abridge thy life. Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, And manage it against despairing thoughts. Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence; Which, being writ to me, fhall be deliver'd Even in the milk-white bofom of thy love'. The time now ferves not to expoftulate : Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate; And, ere I part with thee, confer at large Of all that may concern thy love-affairs: As thou lov'ft Silvia,, though not for thyself, Regard thy danger, and along with me.

Val. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou feeft my boy, Bid him make hafte, and meet me at the north-gate. Pro. Go, firrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! hapless Valentine!

[Exeunt Valentine and Protheus.

2 Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think, my mafter is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave. He lives

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Even in the milk-white bofom of thy love.] So in Hamlet: "Thefe to her excellent white bofom, &c." Trifling as the remark may appear, before the meaning of this addrefs of letters to the bofom of a mistress can be understood, it fhould be known that women anciently had a pocket in the fore part of their stays, in which they not only carried love-letters and love tokens, but even their money and materials for needle work. In many parts of England the ruftic damfels still observe the same practice; and a very old lady informs me that the remembers when it was the fashion to wear very prominent ftays, it was no less the custom for ftratagem or gallantry to drop its literary favours within. the front of them. STEEVENS.

2 Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my mafter is a kind of knave: but that's all one, if he be but one KNAVE.] Where is the fenfe? or, if you won't allow the speaker that, where is the humour of this fpeech? Nothing had

not now, that knows me to be in love: yet I am in love; but 3 a team of horse shall not pluck that from

given the fool occafion to fufpect that his mafter was become double, like Antipholis in The Comedy of Errors. The laft word is corrupt. We should read

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if he be but one KIND.

He thought his master was a kind of knave; however, he keeps himself in countenance with this reflection, that if he was a knave but of one kind, he might país well enough amongst his neighbours. This is truly humourous. WARBURTON.

This alteration is acute and fpecious, yet I know not whether, in Shakespeare's language, one knave may not fignify a knave on only one occafion, a fingle knave. We still use a double villain for a villain beyond the common rate of guilt. JOHNSON.

This paffage has been altered, with little difference, by Dr. Warburton and fir Tho. Hanmer.-Mr. Edwards explains it,"if he only be a knave, if I myself be not found to be another." I agree with Dr. Johnson, and will fupport the old reading and his interpretation with indifputable authority. In the old play of Damon and Pythias, Ariftippus declares of Carifophus, you lofe money by him if you fell him for one knave, for he ferves for twayne."

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This phrafeology is often met with: Arragon fays in the Mer chant of Venice:

"With one fool's head I came to woo,
"But I go away with two."

Donne begins one of his fonnets:

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"I am two fools, I know,

"For loving and for faying fo, &c.""

And when Panurge cheats St. Nicholas of the chapel, which be vowed to him in a storm, Rabelais calls him " a rogue-a rogue and an half-Le gallant, gallant et demy." FARMer.

Again, in Like will to Like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587: "Thus thou may'st be called a knave in graine, "And where knaves be fcant, thou may'st go

for twayne." STEEVENS.

Again in Chapman's Tivo wife Men and all the reft Fools, 16:9: "I defire no more cunning than I now have, and I'll ferve you still and fet up for myfelf; for I had rather be a double knave than a fingle fool." MALONE.

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a team of horfe fhall not pluck—] I fee how Valentine fuffers for telling his love-fecrets, therefore I will keep mine clofe. JOHNSON.

Perhaps Launce was not intended to fhew so much sense; but here indulges himself in talking contradictory nonsense.

STEEVENS.

me;

me; nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman, I will not tell myself, and yet 'tis a milk-maid: yet 'tis not a maid, for the hath had goffips: yet 'tis a maid, for the is her master's maid, and ferves for wages. She hath more qualities than a water-fpaniel-which is much in a bare christian". Here is the cat-log [Pulling out a paper] of her conditions. Imprimis, She can fetch and carry: Why, a horse can do no more: nay, a horfe cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore, is the better than a jade. Item, She can milk, look you; A sweet virtue in a maid with clean hands.

Enter Speed.

Speed. How now, fignior Launce? what news with your mastership?

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Laun. With my mafter's fhip? why, it is at fea. Speed. Well, your old vice ftill; miftake the word: What news then in your paper?

Laun. The blackeft news that ever thou heard'st.
Speed. Why, man, how black?
Laun. Why, as black as ink.

4 for he hath had goffips:] Goffips not only fignify thofe who answer for a child in baptifm, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. The quibble between thefe is evilent. STEEVENS.

-a bare chriftian.] Launce is quibbling on. Bare has two fenses; mere and naked. In Coriolanus it is ufed in the firft: ""Tis but a bare petition of the state” Launce ufes it in both, and opposes the naked female to the water-fpaniel cover'd with hairs of remarkable thickness.

• In former editions it is,

STEEVENS.

With my masterfhip? why, it is at fea. For how does Launce mistake the word? Speed afks him about his mastership, and he replies to it literatim. But then how was his mastership at fea, and on fhore too? The addition of a letter and a note of apostrophe make Launce both mistake the word, and fets the pun right: it reftores, indeed, but a mean joke; but, without it, there is no fenfe in the paffage. Befides, it is in character with the rest of the scene; and, I dare be confident, the poet's own conceit.

THEOBALD.

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Speed. Let me read them.

Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head; thou can'ft not read,
Speed. Thou lyeft, I can.

Laun. Iwill try thee: Tell me this: Who begot thee?
Speed. Marry, the fon of my grandfather.

Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the fon of thy grandmother: this proves, that thou can't not

read.

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Speed. Come, fool, come: try me in thy paper.
Laun. There; And St. Nicholas be thy speed!
Speed. Imprimis, She can milk.

the fon of thy grandmother:] It is undoubtedly true that the mother only knows the legitimacy of the child. I fuppofe Launce infers, that if he could read, he must have read this well known obfervation. STEEVENS.

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-St. Nicholas be thy fpeed!] St. Nicholas prefided over scholars, who were therefore called St. Nicholas's clerks. Hence, by a quibble between Nicholas and Old Nick, highwaymen, in The First Part of Henry the Fourth, are called Nicholas's clerks. WARBURTON.

That this faint prefided over young fcholars, may be gathered from Knight's Life of Dean Colet, p. 362. For by the statutes of Paul's fchool there inferted, the children are required to attend divine service at the cathedral on his anniversary. The reason I take to be, that the legend of this faint makes him to have been a bishop, while he was a boy. At Salisbury cathedral is a monument of a boy bishop; and it is faid that a cuftom formerly prevailed there, of choofing, from among the choristers, a bishop, who actually performed the paftoral functions, and difpofed of fuch prebends as became vacant during his epifcopacy, which lafted but a few days. It is thought that the monument above mentioned was for fome boy who died in office.-See The Pofibu mous Works of Mr. John Gregory, 4to. Oxon. SrR. J. HAWKINS. So Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589: "Methinks this fellow fpeaks like bishop Nicholas; for on Saint Nicholas' night commonly the scholars of the country make them a bishop, who, like a foolish boy, goeth about bletling and preaching with fuch childish terms, as maketh the people laugh at his foolish counter. feit fpeeches." STEEVENS.

In Hearne's Liber Niger Scaccarii, 1771, vol. ii. p. 674, and 686, we find that archbishop Rotherham bequeathed "a myter for the barne-bishop, of cloth of gold, with two knopps of filver gilt and enamyled." And this was in a country village in Yorkfhire. TOLLET.

Laun. Ay, that the can.

Speed. Item, She brews good ale.

Laun. And therefore comes the proverb,-Bleffing

of your heart, you brew good ale.

Speed. Item, She can few.

Laun. That's as much as to fay, Can fhe fo ?
Speed. Item, She can knit.

Laun. What need a man care for a ftock with a wench, when she can knit him a stock'.

Speed. Item, She can wash and fcour

Laun. A fpecial virtue; for then the need not to be wafh'd and fcour'd.

Speed. Item, She can fpin.

Laun. Then may I fet the world on wheels, when The can spin for her living.

Speed. Item, She hath many nameless virtues.

Laun. That's as much as to fay, Baftard virtues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.

Speed. Here follow her vices.

Laun. Clofe at the heels of her virtues.

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Speed. Item, She is not to be kiss'd fafting, in respect of her breath.

Laun. Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast: Read on.

Speed. Item, She hath a 3 fweet mouth.

Laun.

Bleffing your heart, &c.] So in Ben Jonfon's Masque of

Augurs:

"Our ale's o' the best,

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"And each good guest

"Prays for their fouls that brew it." STEEVENS. knit him a stock.] i. e. a flocking. So in Twelfth Night: -it does indifferent well in a flame-colour'd stock."

STEEVENS.

-She is not to be kifs'd fafting,-] The old copy reads,— She is not to be fafting, &c. The neceffary word kif'd, was first added by M. Rowe. STEEVENS.

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fweet mouth.] This I take to be the fame with what is

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