the alehouse; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, | I cannot leave to love, and yet I do ; and not worth the name of a Christian.

| But there I leave to love, where I should love. SPEED. Why?

Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose:
Laun. Because thou hast not so much charity If I keep them, I needs must lose myself ;
in thee as to go to the ale(5) with a Christian : If I lose them, thus find I, by their loss,
Wilt thou go?

For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia.
SPEED. At thy service.

[Exeunt. I to myself am dearer than a friend,

For love is still most precious in itself: SCENE VI.—The same. A Room in the Palace.

| And Silvia, witness Heaven, that made her fair!

Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope.
Enter PROTEUS.

I will forget that Julia is alive,
PRO. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn ; Rememb’ring that my love to her is dead;
To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn ;

And Valentine I 'll hold an enemy,
To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn; Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend.
And even that power, which gave me first my oath, | I cannot now prove constant to myself,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.

Without some treachery us’d to Valentine:Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear : | This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder O sweet-suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd, To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window; Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.

| Myself in counsel, his competitor : At first I did adore a twinkling star,

Now presently I 'll give her father notice But now I worship a celestial sun.

Of their disguising, and pretended flight;d Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken ; Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine ; And he wants wit that wants resolved will

For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter: To learn his wit to exchange the bad for better. - But, Valentine being gone, I 'll quickly cross, Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad, . By some sly trick, blunt Thurio's dull proceeding. Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths. As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift! [Exit.

a O sweet suggesting love,-) To suggest is to entice, to tempt, to seduce. Thus, in "The Tempest," Act II. Sc. 1:

For all the rest
They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk."
And in the present play, Act III. Sc. 1:-

“Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested."
b I cannot leave to love,-) i. e. I cannot cease to love. This use
of leave is very frequent in the old writers.

Myself in counsel, his competitor :) In counsel is in secret; and compelilor here, as in other places, means coadjutor, auxiliary, confederate. In "Richard III." Act IV. Sc. 4, we have,

“

The Guildfords are in arms,
And every hour more competitors

Flock to the rebels ;"
and in “Love's Labour's Lost,"'--

"The king and his competitors in oath."
d Pretended flight;] i.e. intended, purposed flight.

Luc. But in what habit will you go along ? JUL. Nay, that I will not.

JUL. Not like a woman; for I would prevent Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go.. The loose encounters of lascivious men :

If Proteus like your journey, when you come, Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds

No matter who's displeasd, when you are gone : As may beseem some well-reputed page.

I fear me, he will scarce be pleas'd withal. Luc. Why, then, your ladyship must cut your JUL. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear : hair.

A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,
JUL. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings, | And instances of infinite of love,
With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots : Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.
To be fantastic, may become a youth

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men. Of greater time than I shall show to be.

JUL. Base men, that use them to so base effect ! Luc. What fashion, madam, shall I make your But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth : breeches ?

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles ; JUL. That fits as well as—" Tell me, good my His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate ; lord,

His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart; What compass will you wear your farthingale ?” His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. Why, ev'n what fashion thou best lik’st, Lucetta. Luc. Pray Heaven he prove so, when you come Luc. You must needs have them with a cod

to him ! piece, madam.

JUL. Now, as thou lov’st me, do him not that Jul. Out, out, Lucetta ! that will be ill favour'd.

wrong, Luc. A round hose, madam, now 's not worth To bear a hard opinion of his truth : a pin,

Only deserve my love, by loving him ;
Unless you have a cod-piece to stick pins on. And presently go with me to my chamber,

JUL. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have To take a note of what I stand in need of,
What thou think’st meet, and is most mannerly. To furnish me upon my longing journey.
But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me, All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
For undertaking so unstaid a journey ?

My goods, my lands, my reputation ;
I fear me, it will make me scandalis’d.

Only, in lieu thereof, despatch me hence ; Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and Come, answer not, but to it presently: go not.

I am impatient of my tarriance. [Exeunt.

Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS. A pack of sorrows, which would press you down,

Being unprevented, to your timeless grave. DUKE. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile; DUKE. Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest We have some secrets to conferabout. Exit TUURIO.

care; Now, tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me? Which to requite, command me while I live. Pro. My gracious lord, that which I would | This love of theirs myself have often seen, discover,

Haply, when they have judg’d me fast asleep; The law of friendship bids me to conceal:

And oftentimes have purpos’d to forbid
But, when I call to mind your gracious favours Sir Valentine her company, and my court :
Done to me, undeserving as I am,

But, fearing lest my jealous aim“ might err, My duty pricks me on to utter that

And so, unworthily, disgrace the man, Which else no worldly good should draw from me. (A rashness that I ever yet have shunn'd) . Know, worthy prince, sir Valentine, my friend, I gave him gentle looks; thereby to find This night intends to steal away your daughter ; That which thyself hast now disclos’d to me. Myself am one made privy to the plot.

And, that thou mayst perceive my fear of this, I know you have determin’d to bestow her

Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested, On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates ; I nightly lodge her in an upper tower, And should she thus be stolen away from you, The key whereof myself have ever kept ; It would be much vexation to your age.

And thence she cannot be convey'd away. Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose

Pro. Know, noble lord, they have devis'd a To cross my friend in his intended drift,

mean Than, by concealing it, heap on your head

How he her chamber-window will ascend,

a My jealous aim might err,-) Aim, as Malone and Steevens remark, in this instance, implies guess, surmise, as in “Romeo and Juliet:"

And with a corded ladder fetch her down;

Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor, For which the youthful lover now is gone,

(For long agone I have forgot to court ; And this way comes he with it presently;

Besides, the fashion of the time is chang'd :) Where, if it please you, you may intercept him. How, and which way, I may bestow myself, But, good my lord, do it so cunningly,

To be regarded in her sun-bright eye. That my discovery be not aimed at ; *

VAL. Win her with gifts, if she respect not words; For love of you, not hate unto my friend,

Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, Hath made me publisher of this pretence." More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.

DUKE. Upon mine honour, he shall never know DUKE. But she did scorn a present that I sent That I had any light from thee of this.

her. Pro. Adieu, my lord ; sir Valentine is coming. VAL. A woman sometimes scorns what best

[Exit.

contents her: Enter VALENTINE.

Send her another ; never give her o'er;

For scorn at first makes after-love the more. Duke. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast ? If she do frown, 't is not in hate of you,

VAL. Please it your grace, there is a messenger But rather to beget more love in you :
That stays to bear my letters to my friends, If she do chide, 't is not to have you gone;
And I am going to deliver them.

For why, the fools are mad, if left alone.
DUKE. Be they of much import?

Take no repulse, whatever she doth say: VAL. The tenor of them doth but signify

For get you gone, she doth not mean away : My health, and happy being at your court.

Flatter, and praise, commend, extol their graces ; Duke. Nay then, no matter; stay with me a Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces. while;

That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, I am to break with thee of some affairs,

If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret. DUKE. But she I mean is promis’d by her friends 'T is not unknown to thee, that I have sought Unto a youthful gentleman of worth ; To match my friend, sir Thurio, to my daughter. And kept severely from resort of men, Val. I know it well, my lord ; and, sure, the That no man hath access by day to her.

VAL. Why then I would resort to her by night. Were rich and honourable ; besides, the gentleman DUKE. Ay, but the doors be lock’d, and keys Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities

kept safe, Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter: That no man hath recourse to her by night. Cannot your grace win her to fancy him ?

VAL. What lets, but one may enter at her Duke. No, trust me; she is peevish, sullen,

window ? froward,

Duke. Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground, Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty; And built so shelving, that one cannot climb it Neither regarding that she is my child,

Without apparent hazard of his life. Nor fearing me as if I were her father:

VAL. Why, then, a ladder, quaintly' made of And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers,

cords,
Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her ; To cast up with a pair of anchoring hooks,
And, where o I thought the remnant of mine age | Would serve to scale another Hero's tower,
Should have been cherish'd by her childlike duty, So bold Leander would adventure it.
I now am full resolv’d to take a wife,

DUKE. Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood, And turn her out to who will take her in :

Advise me where I may have such a ladder. Then let her beauty be her wedding-dower ;

Val. When would you use it? pray, sir, tell For me and my possessions she esteems not.

me that. VAL. What would your grace have me to do in DUKE. This very night ; for love is like a child, this?

That longs for everything that he can come by. DUKE. There is a lady, sir, in Milano here, VAL. By seven o'clock I 'll get you such a Whom I affect ; but she is nice, and coy,

ladder. And nought esteems my aged eloquence:

DUKE. But, hark thee; I will go to her alone;

match