This letter ;-that's her chamber.-Tell my lady, I claim the promise for her heavenly picture. Your meffage done, hie home unto my chamber, Where thou fhalt find me fad and folitary.

[Exit Protheus.
Jul. How many women would do fuch a meffage?
Alas, poor Protheus! thou haft entertain'd
A fox, to be the fhepherd of thy lambs:
Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he defpifeth me;
Because I love him, I muft pity him.
This ring I gave him, when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will:
And now I am (unhappy meffenger)

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 fervant to my mafter,

Unless I prove falfe traitor to myself.

Yet will I woo for him; but yet fa coldly,
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him fpeed.

Enter Silvia.

Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean
To bring me where to fpeak with madam Silvia.
Sil. What would you with her, if that I be fhe?
Jul. If you be fhe, I do intreat your patience
To hear me fpeak the meffage I am sent on.
Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my mafter, fir Protheus, madam,
Sil. Oh! he fends you for a picture?

Jul. Ay, madain.

:

To carry that, which I would have refus'd;] The fenfe is, To go and prefent that which I wish to be not accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be difpraifed. JOHNSON.

Sil. Urfula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought
Go, give your mafter this; tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber, than this fhadow.
Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.
Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd
Deliver'd you a paper that I fhould not;
This is the letter to your ladyfhip.

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

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

ful. Madam, he fends your ladyship this ring.
Sil. The more fhame for him, that he fends it me;
For, I have heard him fay a thousand times,
His Julia gave it him at his departure:

Though his falfe finger hath profan'd the ring,
Mine Thall not do his Julia so much wrong.
Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What fay'ft thou?

ful. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my mafter wrongs her much. Sil. Doft thou know her?

Jul. Almoft as well as I do know myself:

To think upon her woes, I do proteft,

That I have wept an hundred feveral times.

Sil. Belike, the thinks, that Protheus hath forfook her.

Jul. I think he doth; and that's her caufe of forrow.

Sil. Is the not paffing fair?

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

8 But fince fhe did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her fun-expelling mask away,
The air hath ftarv'd the rofes in her cheeks,
And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,
That now fhe is become as black as I.
Sil. How tall was the ?

ful. 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 trimin'd in madam Julia's gown;
Which ferved me as fit, by all mens' judgment,
As if the garment had been made for me:
Therefore, I know fhe is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a-good',

But fince he did neglect her looking-glafs,
And threw her fun-expelling mask away,
The air bath ftarv'd the roses in her cheeks,
And PINCH'D the lily-tincture of her face,

That now he is become as black as I.] To ftarve the roses is certainly a very proper expreffion: but what is pinching a tincture? However, ftarved, in the third line, made the blundering editors write pinch'd in the fourth: though they might have seen that it was a tanning fcorching, not a freezing air that was spoken of. For how could this latter quality in the air fo 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 the is become as black as I:

and we fay, in common fpeech, as black as pitch.-By the rofes being far'd, is only meant their being withered, and lofing 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 faid to pinch when it produces the fame vitible effect. I believe this is the reafon why the cold is faid to pinch. JOHNSON. Cleopatra fays of herfelf:"

"I that am with Phoebus' pinches black." STEEVENS. weep a-good;] i. e. in good earnest. Tout de boa. Fr. STEEVENS

So in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"And therewithal their knees have rankled fo
"That I have laugh'd a-good." MALONE.

For

For I did play a lamentable part:
Madam, "twas Ariadne, paffioning
For Thefeus' perjury, and unjust flight;

1

-'twas Ariadne, paffioning

Which

For Thefeus' perjury and unjuft flight;] 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 vehicle 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 fuppofed to be Ariadne deferted by Thefeus and courted by Bacchus) may poffibly have been hitherto mistaken. Whoever will examine the fabulous hiftory critically, as well as the performance itself, will acquiefce 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.
"Inter captivas facie præftante puellas
"Grata nimis Baccho filia regis erat.
"Flebat amans conjux, fpatiataque littore curvo
"Edidit incultis talia verba fonis.

"Quid me defertis perituram, Liber, arenis
"Servabas? potui dedoluiffe femel.-

"Aufus es ante oculos, adducta pellice, noftros

"Tam bene compofitum follicitare torum, &c."

Ovid. Faft. 1. iii. 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 whofe prefence only causes thofe emotions fo vifible in the countenance of Ariadne, who has been hitherto reprefented on this occafion, as paffioning

For Thefeus' perjury and unjust flight.

From this painting a plate was engraved by Giacomo Freij, which is generally a companion to the Aurora of the fame mafter. The print is fo common, that the curious may eafily fatisfy themselves concerning the propriety of a remark which has perhaps intruded itself among the notes on this author.

To paffion is ufed as a verb by writers contemporary with Shakefpeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the fame expreffion:

what, are thou paffioning over the picture of Cle

anthes ?"

Again, in Eliofto Libidinofo, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606: if thou gaze on a picture, thou must with Pigmalion be paffionate."

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 forrow!

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth :-
Alas, poor lady! defolate and left!-

I weep myfelf, to think upon thy words. Here, youth, there is my purfe; I give thee this For thy fweet miftrefs' fake, because thou lov'ft her. Farewell. [Exit Silvia. ful. And the fhall thank you for't, if e'er you know

her.

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful,
I hope, my mafter's fuit will be but cold,
Since the refpects my miftrefs' love fo much,
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: Let me fee; I think,
If I had fuch 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 fuch a colour'd periwig.

3

Her eyes are grey as glafs; and fo are mine:
Ay, but her forehead's low; and mine's as high.
What should it be, that he refpects in her,
But I can make refpective in myself,

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. iii. c. 2:

"Some argument of matter paffioned." STEEVENS. 2 F'll get me fuch a colour'd periwig.] It fhould be remembered, that falfe hair was worn by the ladies, long before rigs were in fashion. These falfe coverings, however, were called periwigs. So in Northward Hoe, 1607: "There is a new trade come up for caft gentlewomen, of perriwig-making: let your wife fet up in the Strand." STEEVENS.

3 her forehead's low;] A high forehead was in our author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful. So in The Hiftory of Guy of Warwick: Felice his lady is faid to have the fame high forehead as Venus. JOHNSON.

refpective] i. e. refpectful, or ref ectable. STEEVENS.