Egl. Your fervant, and your friend;
One that attends your ladyfhip's command.

Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow.
Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself.
According to your ladyfhip's impofe 2,
I am thus early come to know what fervice
It is your pleasure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
Think not, I flatter, for, I fwear, I do not)
Valiant, wife, remorfeful, well accomplish'd.
Thou art not ignorant, what dear good will
I bear unto the banifh'd Valentine;

Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very foul abhors.
Thyfelf haft lov'd; and I have heard thee fay,
No grief did ever come fo near thy heart,
As when thy lady and thy true love dy'd,
+ Upon whofe grave thou vow'dit pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode;

2

your ladyfhip's impofe,] Impofe is injunction, command. A task fet at college, in confequence of a fault, is ftill called an impofition. STEEVENS.

3 Remorfeful is pitiful. So in the Maid's Metamorphofis, by Lilly, 1600:

"Provokes my mind to take remorse of thee."

Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the 2d Book of Homer, 1598: "Defcend on our long-toyled hoft with thy remorseful eye." STEEVENS.

4 Upon whofe grave thou vow'dft pure chastity.] It was common in former ages for widowers and widows to make vows of chastity in honour of their deceased wives or hufbands. In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, page 1013, there is the form of a commiffion by the bishop of the diocefe for taking a vow of chastity made by a widow. It feems that, befides obferving the vow, the widow was, for life, to wear a veil and a mourning habit. The fame distinction we may fuppofe to have been made in refpect of male votarists; and therefore this circumftance might inform the players how fir Eglamour fhould be dreft; and will account for Silvia's having chofen him as a perfon in whom he could confide without injury to her own character. STEEVENS.

And, for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do defire thy worthy company,
Upon whofe faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief;
And on the juftice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which heaven, and fortune, ftill reward with plagues.
I do defire thee, even from a heart

As full of forrows as the fea of fands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have faid to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

Egl. Madam, I pity much your grievances;
Which fince I know they virtuoufly are plac'd,
I give confent to go along with you;
Recking as little what betideth me,
As much I wifh all good befortune you.
When will you go?

Sil. This evening coming.

Egl. Where fhall I meet you?
Sil. At friar Patrick's cell,

Where I intend holy confeffion.

Egl. I will not fail your ladyship:

Good morrow, gentle lady.

Sil. Good morrow, kind fir Eglamour. [Exeunt.

Enter Launce with his dog.

When a man's fervant fhall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I fav'd from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would fay precifely,

5-grievances;] Sorrows, forrowful affections. JOHNSON. • Recking as little] To reck is to care for. So in Hamlet: "And recks not his own read."

Both Chaucer and Spenfer use this word with the fame fignification. STEEVENS.

Thus

Thus I would teach a dog. I was fent to deliver him, as a prefent to mistress Silvia, from my mafter; and I came no fooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher, and fteals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one fhould fay, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hang'd for't; fure as I live, he had fuffer'd for't: you fhall judge. He thrufts me himself into the company of three or four gentleman-like dogs, under the duke's table he had not been there (blefs the mark) a piffing while, but all the chamber fmelt him. Out with the dog, fays one; What cur is that? fays another; Whip him out, fays the third; Hang him up, fays the duke: I, having been acquainted with the fmell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs': Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? Ay, marry, do I, quoth.he. You do him the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many mafters would do this for their fervant? nay, I'll be fworn I have fat in the stocks for puddings he hath ftolen, other

7

8

2

·keep himfelf] i. e. reftrain himself. STEEVENS,
to be a dog.

-] I believe we should read, I would have, &c. one that takes upon him to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be, &c. JOHNSON.

9 a piffing while,] This expreffion is used in Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady: have patience but a piffing while." It appears from Ray's Collection, that it is proverbial. STEEVENS. The fellow that whips the dogs:] This appears to have been part of the office of an uber of the table. So in Mucedorus:

"I'll prove my office good; for look you, &c. -- When a dog chance to blow his nofe backward, then with a whip I give him good time of the day, and ftrew rufhes prefently." STEEVENS. their fermant ?. The old copy reads, -bis fervant? STEEVENS.

2

wife he had been executed: I have ftood on the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, otherwise he had fuffer'd for't: thou think'ft not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you ferv'd me, when I took my leave of madam Silvia'; did not I bid thee ftill mark me, and do as I do? when didst thou see me heave up my leg, and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale ? didft thou ever fee me do fuch a trick?

Enter Protheus and Julia,

Pro. Sebaftian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in fome fervice presently. Jul. In what you please ;-I'll do, fir, what I can. Pro. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whore

fon peasant,

[To Launce. Where have you been these two days loitering? Laun. Marry, fir, I carry'd miftrefs Silvia the dog you bade me.

Pro. And what fays fhe to my little jewel?

Laun, Marry, the fays, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currifh thanks is good enough for fuch a present.

Pro. But the receiv'd my dog?

Laun. No, indeed, fhe did not: here I have brought him back again.

4

Pro. What, didst thou offer her this from me? Laun. Ay, fir; the other squirrel + was ftol'n from me by the hangman's boy in the market-place: and then I offer'd her mine own; who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater.

3

Pro. Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again,

-madam Silvia;] Perhaps we fhould read of madam Julia. It was Julia only of whom a formal leave could have been taken. STEEVENS.

4 -the other fquirrel, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, the other, Squirrel, &c. and confequently makes Squirrel the proper name of the beaft. Perhaps Launce only fpeaks of it as a diminutive animal, more resembling a squirrel in fize, than a dog, STEEVENS.

Or

Or ne'er return again into my fight.

Away, I fay; Stay'ft thou to vex me here?

A flave, that, ftill an end, turns me to shame.

Sebaftian, I have entertained thee,

[Exit Launce

Partly, that I have need of fuch a youth,
That can with fome difcretion do my bufinefs,
For 'tis no trufting to yon foolish lowt;
But, chiefly, for thy face, and thy behaviour
Which (if my augury deceive me not)
Witnefs good bringing up, fortune, and truth:
Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go prefently, and take this ring with thee,
Deliver it to madam Silvia :

She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me..

Jul. It feems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token:

She's dead, belike.

Pro. Not fo; I think, fhe lives.

ful. Alas!

Pro. Why do'st thou cry, alas?

ful. I cannot chufe but pity her.

Pro. Wherefore fhould'st thou pity her?

Jul. Because, methinks, that the lov'd you as well

As you do love your lady Silvia :

She dreams on him, that has forgot her love; You doat on her, that cares not for your love. 'Tis pity love fhould be fo contrary,

And, thinking on it, makes me cry, alas!

Pro. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal

S an end,] i. e. in the end, at the conclufion of every bufinefs he undertakes. STEEVENS.

It feems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token:] Protheus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it away. The old

edition has it:

It seems you lov'd her not, not leave her token.

I should correct it thus:

It seems you lov'd her not, nor love her token. JOHNSON.