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Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 OUT. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you;

If not, we 'll make you sit, and rifle you.

SPEED. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains

That all the travellers do fear so much.

VAL. My friends,

1 OUT. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies. 2 OUT. Peace! we 'll hear him.

3 OUT. Ay, by my beard, will we; for he is a proper man!"

VAL. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;

A man I am cross'd with adversity:
My riches are these poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I have.
2 OUT. Whither travel you?

VAL. TO Verona.

1 OUT. Whence came you?

a A proper man!] Well-proportioned, comely man.

VAL. From Milan.

3 OUT. Have you long sojourn'd there? VAL. Some sixteen months; and longer might have stay'd,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 OUT. What, were you banish'd thence? VAL. I was.

2 OUT. For what offence?

VAL. For that which now torments me to rehearse:

I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage, or base treachery.

1 OUT. Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so: But were you banish'd for so small a fault? VAL. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 OUT. Have you the tongues?

VAL. My youthful travel therein made me happy;

Or else I often had been miserable.

3 OUT. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,a

This fellow were a king for our wild faction!

a Of Robin Hood's fat friar,-] Friar Tuck, the well-known associate and quasi confessor of Robin Hood, whom Scott has immortalized in his "Ivanhoe," and of whom Drayton sings in his "Polyolbion,"

"Of Tuck the merry friar, which many a sermon made In praise of Robin Hoode, his outlawes and his trade."

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Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men: b
Myself was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,

An heir, and near allied unto the duke.

2 OUT. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart. 1 OUT. And I, for such like petty crimes as these.

But to the purpose,-for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives,
And, partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape; and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection,

b Of awful men:] Men of worth and station. "An awful man is to this day used in the North to denote a man of dignity." -THOMAS WHITE, 1793.

c An heir, and near allied unto the duke.] The folio, 1623, reads, "And heire and Neece, alide vnto the Duke."

The folio, 1664, corrected the first word; Theobald substituted near for neece.

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As we do in our quality much want ;

2 OUT. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you: Are you content to be our general?

To make a virtue of necessity,

And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

3 OUT. What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consort ?b

Say, ay, and be the captain of us all:
We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee,
Love thee as our commander, and our king.

1 OUT. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou
diest.

2 OUT. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

VAL. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided that you do no outrages On silly women, or poor passengers.

3 OUT. No, we detest such vile base practices. Come, go with us, we 'll bring thee to our crews, And show thee all the treasure we have got; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Milan. Court of the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

PRO. Already have I been false to Valentine, And now I must be as unjust to Thurio. Under the colour of commending him, I have access my own love to prefer; But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy, To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. When I protest true loyalty to her, She twits me with my falsehood to my friend: When to her beauty I commend my vows, She bids me think how I have been forsworn In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov'd: And, notwithstanding all her sudden quips, The least whereof would quell a lover's hope, Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love, The more it grows, and fawneth on her still.

d

But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window,

And give some evening music to her ear.

In our quality-] Our profession or calling. Thus in "Hamlet," Act II. Sc. 2:

"Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing?" and subsequently :

"Come, give us a taste of your quality."

b Of our consort?] Of our fellowship, confederacy, fraternity. We'll bring thee to our crews,-] Mr. Collier's corrector reads, care; Mr. Singer, caves I have not ventured to alter the original text; but can hardly believe crews to be what the poet

wrote.

4 Her sudden quips,-] Her angry gibes, scoffs, taunts.

* Who?] "Our author, throughout his plays, has confounded

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Enter Host, at a distance; and JULIA, in boy's clothes.

HOST. Now, my young guest! methinks you're allycholly; I pray you, why is it?

JUL. Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry.

HOST. Come, we 'll have you merry: I'll bring you where you shall hear music, and see the gentleman that you asked for.

[Music plays.

JUL. But shall I hear him speak?
HOST. Ay, that you shall.
JUL. That will be music.
HOST. Hark! hark!
JUL. Is he among these?
HOST. Ay: but peace, let 's hear 'em.
SONG.

Who is Silvia? what is she,

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she,

The heaven such grace did lend her,

That she might admired be.

Is she kind as she is fair?

For beauty lives with kindness:
Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;
And, being help'd, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing,

That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing,
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

the personal pronouns, &c. and uses one for the other (who for whom, she for her, him for he); nor was this inaccuracy peculiar to him, being very common when he wrote, even among persons of good education."-MALONE.

f Holy, fair, and wise is she,-] Mr. Collier's corrector reads, wise as free; free is certainly a most inappropriate epithet applied to Silvia. Proteus had just before described her as

"too fair, too true, too holy;"

and true, no doubt, was the becoming term; but as the object of the serenade was to make her break faith, it would have been somewhat out of place in the song; and hence wise was substituted in its stead.

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HOST. How now? are you sadder than you were before? How do you, man? the music likes you not.

JUL. You mistake; the musician likes me not. HOST. Why, my pretty youth?

JUL. He plays false, father.

HOST. How? out of tune on the strings?

JUL. Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very heart-strings.

HOST. You have a quick ear.

JUL. Ay, I would I were deaf! it makes me have a slow heart.

HOST. I perceive you delight not in music.
JUL. Not a whit, when it jars so.
HOST. Hark, what fine change is in the music!
JUL. Ay, that change is the spite.

HOST. You would have them always play but one thing.

JUL. I would always have one play but one

thing.

But, host, doth this sir Proteus, that we talk on, Often resort unto this gentlewoman?

HOST. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me; he loved her out of all nick.b

a The music likes you not.] That is, pleases you not.

b Out of all nick.] Beyond all reckoning. It was the custom formerly to reckon by the nicks or notches cut upon the tallystick. Steevens, in a note to this passage, quotes a very apposite

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SIL. You have your wish; my will is even this,— That presently you hie you home to bed. Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man! Think'st thou, I am so shallow, so conceitless, To be seduced by thy flattery,

That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me, by this pale queen of night I swear,
I am so far from granting thy request,
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit;
And by and by intend to chide myself,
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
PRO. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady;
But she is dead.

JUL. 'T were false, if I should speak it;
For I am sure she is not buried.

[Aside.

SIL. Say that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,

I am betroth'd: And art thou not asham'd
To wrong him with thy importunacy?

PRO. I likewise hear that Valentine is dead. SIL. And so suppose am I; for in his grave Assure thyself my love is buried.

PRO. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. SIL. Go to thy lady's grave, and call hers thence ;

Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.

JUL. He heard not that.

[Aside.

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SIL. I am very loth to be your idol, sir; But, since your falsehood shall become you" well To worship shadows, and adore false shapes, Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it: And so, good rest.

PRO. As wretches have o'er-night, That wait for execution in the morn.

[Exeunt PROTEUS; and SILVIA, from above. JUL. Host, will you go?

HOST. By my halidom," I was fast asleep. JUL. Pray you, where lies sir Proteus ? HOST. Marry, at my house: trust me, I think 't is almost day.

a Shall become you well-] i. e. "since your falsehood shall adapt, or render you fil, to worship shadows.' Become here answers to the Latin convenire, and is used according to its genuine Saxon meaning."-DOUCE.

b By my halidom,-] “Halidome, or holidome, an old word used by old country women by manner of swearing; by my halidome, of the Saxon word, haligdome, ex. halig, i.e. sanctum, and dome, dominium aut judicium.”—MINSHEU's Dict., folio, 1617.

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EGL. As many, worthy lady, to yourself. According to your ladyship's impose,

d

I am thus early come, to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.

SIL. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not,)
Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd.
Thou art not ignorant what dear good will
I bear unto the banish'd Valentine;
Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhorr'd.
Thyself hast lov'd; and I have heard thee say,
No grief did ever come so near thy heart
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.(1)
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,
To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode ;
And, for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do desire thy worthy company,
Upon whose faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief;
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which Heaven and fortune still reward with
plagues.

I do desire thee, even from a heart
As full of sorrows as the sea of sands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

c Most heaviest.] The use of the double superlative is not peculiar to Shakespeare; it is found in all the authors of his time. d Your ladyship's impose,-] Impose is bidding, injunction, requirement.

Remorseful,-] Compassionate, full of pity.

he was none of those remorseful men,

Gentle and affable; but fierce at all times, and mad then."
G. CHAPMAN's Iliad, 1598.

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