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To-morrow be in readiness to go.

Excufe it not, for I am peremptory.

Pro. My lord, I cannot be fo foon provided; Please you deliberate a day or two.

Ant. Look, what thou want'ft fhall be fent after thee:

No more of stay; to-morrow thou must go.
Come on, Panthino; you shall be employ'd

To haften on his expedition. [Exeunt Ant. and Pant.
Pro. Thus have I fhunn'd the fire for fear of burn-

ing;

And drench'd me in the fea, where I am drown'd:
I fear'd to fhew my father Julia's letter,
Left he should take exceptions to my love;
And with the vantage of mine own excufe
Hath he excepted most against my love.
4 Oh, how this fpring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now fhews all the beauty of the fun,
And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!

Re-enter Panthino.

Pant. Sir Protheus, your father calls for you; He is in hafte, therefore, I pray you, go.

Pro. Why, this it is! my heart accords thereto : And yet a thousand times it anfwers, No.

[Exeunt.

4 Oh, how this fpring of love refembleth] At the end of this. verfe there is wanting a fyllable, for the fpeech apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme to jun, and therefore fhall leave it to fome happier critic. But I fufpect that the author might write thus:

Oh, how this fpring of love refembleth right,
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now fhews all the glory of the light,

And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!

Light was either by negligence or affectation changed to fun, which, confidered without the rhyme, is indeed better. The next tranfcriber, finding that the word right did not rhyme to fun, fuppofed it erroneoufly written, and left it out. JOHNSON,

ACT

ACT II. SCENE I.

Changes to Milan.

An apartment in the duke's palace.

Enter Valentine and Speed.

IR, your glove

SIR

SPEED.

Val. Not mine; my gloves are on.

Speed. Why then this may be yours, for this is but

one.

Val. Ha! let me fee: ay, give it me, it's mine:
Sweet ornament, that decks a thing divine!
Ah Silvia! Silvia!

Speed. Madam Silvia! madam Silvia !
Val. How now, firrah?

Speed. She is not within hearing, Sir.
Val. Why, Sir, who bad you call her?
Speed. Your worship, Sir; or else I mistook.
Val. Well, you'll ftill be too forward.

Speed. And yet I was laft chidden for being too flow. Val. Go to, Sir; tell me, do you know madam 'Silvia?

Speed. She that your worship loves?

Val. Why, how know you that I am in love?

Speed. Marry, by these special marks: First, you have learn'd, like Sir Protheus, to wreath your arms like a male-content; to relish a love-fong, like a Robin-red-breaft; to walk alone, like one that had the peftilence; to figh, like a school-boy that had loft his A. B. C; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam; to faft, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to fpeak puling,

like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock; when you walk'd, to walk like one of the lions; when you fafted, it was presently after dinner; when you look'd fadly, it was for want of money: and now you are metamorphos'd with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.

Val. Are all these things perciv'd in me?
Speed. They are all perceiv'd without ye.
Val. Without me? they cannot.

2

Speed. Without you? nay, that's certain; for without you were so fimple, none else would: but you are fo without these follies, that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal; that not an eye that fees you, but is a physician to comment on your malady.

Val. But tell me, doft thou know my lady Silvia? Speed. She, that you gaze on fo as fhe fits at fupper? Val. Haft thou obferv'd that? even fhe I mean. Speed. Why, Sir, I know her not.

Val. Doft thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet know'ft her not?

Speed. Is fhe not hard-favour'd, Sir?

Val. Not fo fair, boy, as well-favour'd.、
Speed. Sir, I know that well enough.
Val. What doft thou know?

Speed. That fhe is not fo fair, as (of you) well-
favour'd.

Val, I mean, that her beauty is exquifite, but her favour infinite.

Speed. That's because the one is painted, and the other out of all count.

Val. How painted? and how out of count?

Hallowmas. That is, about the feaft of All-Saints, when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes lefs comfortable. JOHNSON.

2

none else would: -] None elfe would be fo Fimple. JOHNSON,

Speed.

Speed. Marry, Sir, fo painted to make her fair, that no man counts of her beauty,

Val. How efteem'ft thou me? I account of her beauty.

Speed. You never faw her fince fhe was deform'd. Val. How long hath fhe been deform'd?

Speed. Ever fince you lov'd her.

Val. I have lov'd her, ever fince I saw her; and still I fee her beautiful.

Speed. If you love her, you cannot see her.

Val. Why?

Speed. Because love is blind. O, that you had mine eyes; or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to have, when you chid at Sir Protheus for going ungarter'd !

Val. What fhould I fee then?

Speed: Your own prefent folly, and her paffing deformity for he, being in love, could not fee to garter his hofe; and you, being in love, cannot fee to put on your hose.

Val. Belike, boy, then you are in love; for last morning you could not fee to wipe my shoes.

Speed. True, Sir, I was in love with my bed: I thank you, you fwing'd me for my love; which makes me the bolder to chide you for yours.

Val. In conclufion, I ftand affected to her.

Speed. I would you were fet, so your affection would cease.

Val. Laft night fhe injoin'd me to write some lines to one fhe loves.

Speed. And have you?

Val. I have.

Speed. Are they not lamely writ?

Val. No, boy, but as well as I can do them: Peace, here fhe comes.

Enter

Enter Silvia.

Speed. 3 Oh excellent motion! Oh exceeding puppet! Now will he interpret to her.

Val. Madam and mistress, a thousand good morrows. Speed. Oh! 'give ye good even; here's a million of

manners

Sil. 4 Sir Valentine and fervant, to you two thousand. Speed. He fhould give her intereft; and fhe gives it him.

Val. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter, Unto the fecret, namnelefs friend of yours; Which I was much unwilling to proceed in, But for my duty to your ladyship.

3 Ob excellent motion, &c.] Motion, in Shakespeare's time, fignified puppet. In Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair it is frequently used in that fenfe, or rather perhaps to fignify a puppetfhow; the mafter whereof may properly be faid to be an interpreter, as being the explainer of the inarticulate language of the actors. The fpeech of the fervant is an allufion to that practice, and he means to fay, that Silvia is a puppet, and that Valentine is to interpret to, or rather for her. HAWKINS. So, in The City Match, 1639, by Jafper Maine,

66

his mother came,

"Who follows ftrange fights out of town, and went "To Brentford for a motion."

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Rule a Wife, &c. let me fee him,

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"And if he be that motion that thou speak'st of."

Again, in The Pilgrim,

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Nothing but a motion?

"A puppet pilgrim ?".

4 Sir Valentine and fervant,

STEEVENS.

-] Here Silvia calls her lover

Jervant, and again below her gentle fervant. This was the language of ladies to their lovers at the time when Shakespeare

wrote.

HAWKINS.

So in Marston's What you will, 1607,

"Sweet fifter, let's fit in judgment a little, faith upon my fervant Monfieur Laverdure.

"Mel. Troth, well for a fervant, but for a husband!" Again, in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour,

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Every man was not born with my fervant Brifk's "features." STEEVENS.

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