For love, thou know'ft, is full of jealousy.

Pro. But fhe loves you?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage hour,

With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determin'd of; how I muft climb her window,
The ladder made of cords, and all the means
Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In thefe affairs to aid me with thy counfel
Pro. Go on before; I fhall enquire you forth.
I muft unto the road, to disembark
Some neceffaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make haste?

· Pro. I will.

Ev'n as one heat, another heat expels,

Or as one nail by ftrength drives out another;
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine eye, or Valentino's praise, (11)
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonless, to reason thus ?
She's fair; and fo is Julia, that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;

[Exit Val.

(11) Is it mine then, or Valentino's praife,] This fupplemental word, then, was first clapt in by Mr. Rowe to help the lab'ring verfe, and fince embrac'd by Mr. Pope. But let us fee, what fenfe refults from it. What! is Protheus questioning with himself, whether it is his own praife, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love? But Protheus had not prais'd Silvia any further than giving his opinion of her in three words, when his friend demanded it. In all the old editions, we find it thus;

Is it mine, or Valentino's praife.

The verfe halts fo, that fome one fyllable must be wanting; and that Mr. Warburton has very ingenioufly, and, as I think, with certainty fupply'd, as I have reftor'd in the text. Protheus had just feen Valentine's mistress; Valentine had prais'd her fo lavishly, that the defcription heighten'd Protheus's fentiments of her from the interview; fo that it was the lefs wonder that he fhould not know certainly, at first, which made the ftrongeft impreffion, Valentine's praises, or his own view of the original,

Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,
Bears no imprefion of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold;
And that I love him not, as I was wont.
Oh! but I love his Lady too, too, much;
And that's the reafon, I love him fo little.
How fhall I doat on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her?
'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled fo my reason's light:
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason, but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

SCENE changes to a Street.

Enter Speed and Launce.

[Exit.

Speed. L Aunce, by mine honefty, welcome to + Milan.

Laun. Forfwear not thyfelf, fweet youth;

for I am not welcome: I reckon this always, that a man is never undone, 'till he be hang'd; nor never welcome to a place, 'till fome certain shot be paid, and the hoftefs fay, welcome..

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap; I'll to the ale-house with you prefently, where, for one fhot of five-pence, thou fhalt have five thousand welcomes. But, firrah, how did thy mafter part with madam Julia?

Laun. Marry, after they clos'd in earneft, they parted: very fairly in jest.

Speed. But fhall fhe marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? shall he marry her ?:

Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Laun. No, they are both as whole as a fish.

Speed. Why then how ftands the matter with them? ·

-It is Padua in the former editions. See the note on Act 3.

Mr. Pope,

Laun.

Laun. Marry, thus: when it ftands well with him it ftands well with her.

Speed. What an afs art thou? I understand thee not. Laun. What a block art thou, that thou canst not? My ftaff understands me.

Speed. What thou fay'ft?

Laun. Ay, and what I do too? look thee, I'll but lean, and my ftaff understands me.

Speed. It ftands under thee, indeed.

Laun. Why, ftand-under, and understand, is all one. Speed. But tell me true, will't be a match?

Laun. Afk my dog: if he fay, ay, it will; if he fay no, it will; if he shake his tail, and fay nothing, it will. Speed. The conclufion is then, that it will.

Laun. Thou fhall never get fuch a fecret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. "Tis well, that I get it fo; but, Launce, how fay't thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover? Laun. I never knew him otherwife.

Speed. Than how?

Laun. A notable lubber, as thou reporteft him to be. Speed. Why, thou whorefon afs, thou mistak'ft me. Laun. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master, Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover. Laun. Why, I tell thee, I care not tho' he burn himself in love: If thou wilt go with me to the ale-" house, fo; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Chriftian.

Speed. Why?

Laun. Because thou haft not fo much charity in thee, as to go to the ale-house with a Chriftian.: wilt thou go? Speed. At thy fervice.

Enter Protheus folus.

Pro. To leave my Julia, fhall I be forfworn; To love fair Silvia, fhall I be forfworn;

[Exeunt.

To wrong my friend, I fhall be much forfworn:
And ev'n that pow'r, which gave me first my oath,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury.

Love bade me fwear, and love bids me forfwear:

O fweet-fuggesting love! if thou haft finn'd,
Teach me, thy tempted fubject, to excufe it.
At first I did adore a twinkling ftar,
But now I worship a celeftial fun.

Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;
And he wants wit that wants refolved will,
To learn his wit t' exchange the bad for better.
Fy, fy, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whofe fov'reignty fo oft thou haft preferr'd
With twenty thousand foul-confirming oaths.
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do :

But there I leave to love, where I should love:
Julia I lofe, and Valentine I lofe:

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself:
If I lose them, this find I by heir lofs,
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia:-
I to myself am dearer than a friend;
For love is still more precious in its self:
And Silvia, (witness heav'n, that made her fair!)
Shews Julia but a fwarthy Ethiope.

I will forget that Julia is alive,
Remembring that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia as a fweeter friend.
I cannot now prove conftant to myself,
Without fome treachery us'd to Valentine:
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celeftial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel his competitor.

Now presently I'll give her father notice
Of their difguifing, and pretended flight;
Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine:
For Thurio, he intends, fhall wed his daughter.
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly crofs,
By fome fly trick, blunt Thario's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpofe fwift,
As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!

[Exit. SCENE

SCENE changes to Julia's House in Verona. Enter Julia and Lucetta.

Jul. C And, even, in kind love, I do conjure thee, CA

Ounfel, Lucetta; gentle girl, affift me;

Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are vifibly character'd and engrav'd,

To leffon me; and tell me fome good mean,
How with my honour I may undertake
A journey to my loving Protheus.

Luc. Alas! the way is wearifome and long.
Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;
Much lefs fhall the, that hath love's wings to fly;
And when the flight is made to one fo dear,
Of fuch divine perfection as Sir Protheus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Protheus make return.
Jul. Oh, know'ft thou not, his looks are my foul's food?
Pity the dearth, that I have pined in,

By longing for that food fo long a time.

Didit thou but know the inly touch of love,

Thou would't as foon go kindle fire with fnow,

As feek to quench the fire of love with words.

Luc. I do not feek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

Left it fhould burn above the bounds of reafon.

Jul. The more thou damm'ft it up, the more it burns : The current, that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'ft, being ftopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But when his fair courfe is not hindered,

He makes fweet mufick with th' enamel'd ftones;
Giving a gentle kifs to every fedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage:

And fo by many winding nooks he strays,

With willing fport, to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course;
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a paftime of each weary step,

"Till the last step, have brought me to my love;
And there I'll seft, as, after much turmoil,
A bleffed foul doth in Elyfium.

Lus.