Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no musick in the nightingale;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon;
She is my essence; and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom':
Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But fly I hence, I fly away from life.

Entr Protheus and Launce.

Pro. Run, boy, run, run, and seek him out.
Laun. So-ho! so-ho!

Pro. What seest thou?

But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die.
Besides, her intercession chaf'd him so,
When she for thy repeal was suppliant,
That to close prison he commanded her,

5 With many bitter threats of 'biding there. [speak'st,
Val. No more; unless the next word that thou
Have some malignant power upon my life:
If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear,
As ending anthem of my endless dolour.
Pro.Ceaseto lament for that thou can'st not help,
And study help for that which thou lament'st.
Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.
Here if thou stay, thou can'st not see thy love;
Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life.

10

Laun. Him we go to find: there's not an hair 15 Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that,

on's head, but 'tis a Valentine.

And manage it against despairing thoughts.
Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.
20The time now serves not to expostulate:
Come, I'll convey thee through the city-gate;
And, ere I part with thee, confer at large
Of all that may concern thy love affairs:
As thou lov'st Silvia, though not for thyself,
Regard thy danger, and along with me.

25

30

Val.I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest myboy, Bid him make haste,and meet me at the north-gate. Pro.Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! hapless Valentine! [Exeunt Valentine and Protheus. Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think, my master is a kind of a knave: but that's all one, if he be but one knave'. He lives not now, that knows me to be in love: yet I

Val. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia!-35 am in love: but a team of horse shall not pluck Hath she forsworn me?

Pro. No, Valentine.

Val.No Valentine, if Silvia bave forsworn me!-
What is your news?

[vanish'd.
Laun. Sir, there's a proclamation that you are
Pro.That thou art banish'd, oh, that is the new
From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend.
Val. Oh, I have fed upon this woe already,
And now excess of it will make me surfeit.
Doth Silvia know that I am banished?

Pro. Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom,
(Which unrevers'd, stands in effectual force)
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears;
Those at her father's churlish feet she tenderd;
With them, upon her knees, her humble self;
Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became
As if but now they waxed pale for woe: [them,
But neither bended knees, pure hands held up,
Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears,
Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire;

40

that from me: nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman, I will not tell myself, and yet 'tis a milk-maid: yet 'tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips: yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's maid, and serves for wages.-She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel—which is much in a bare christan. Here is the cat-log [pulling out a paper] of her conditions.-Imprimis, She can fetch and carry. Why, a horse 45 can do no more; nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore, is she better than a jade.— Item, She can milk, look you; a sweet virtue in Ja maid with clean hands.

The phrase of, to fly his doom used here for by flying, or in flying, is a gallicism. The sense is, By avoiding the execution of his sentence I shall not 2 death. escape Before the meaning of this address of letters to the bosom of a mistress can be understood, it should be known that women antiently had a pocket in the fore part of their stays, in which they not only carried love-letters and love-tokens, but even their money and materials for needle-work. In many parts of England the country girls still observe the same practice. One knave may signify a knave on one occasion, a single knave. We still use a double villain for a villain beyond the common rate of guilt. Gossips, not only signify those who are sponsors for a child in baptism, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. bure has two senses; mere and naked. Launce uses it in both, and opposes the naked female to the waterspaniel cover'd with hairs of remarkable thickness. D 2

5

Speed.

Speed. Why, man, how black?

Laun. Why, as black as ink.
Speed. Let me read them.

[read.

Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head; thou can'st not
Speed. Thou lyest, I can.

[thee? 5 Laun. I will try thee: Tell me this: Whobegot Speed. Marry, the son of my grandfather. Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the son of thy grandmother': this proves, that thou can't not read.

Speed. Come, fool, come; try me in thy paper.
Laun. There; and St. Nicholas' be thy speed!
Speed. Imprimis, She can milk.
Laun. Av, that she can.

Speed. Tiem, She brews good ale.

Laun. And therefore comes the proverb,-
Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale.
Speed. Item, She can sew.

Laun. That's as much as to say, Can she so?
Speed. Item,. She can knit.

Laun. What need a man care for a stock with

a wench,, when she can knit him a stock??
Speed. Item, She can wash and scour.
Laun. A special virtue; for then she need not
to be wash'd and scour'd.

Speed. Item, She can spin.

Laun. Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for her living.

Speed. Item, She will often praise her liquor. Laun. If her liquor be good, she shall: if she will not, I will; for good things should be praised, Speed. Item, She is too liberal.

Laun. Of her tongue she cannot; for that's writ down, she is slow of: of her purse she shall not; for that I'll keep shut: now of another thing she may; and that I cannot help. Well, proceed.

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit, and 10morefultsthanhairs, and more wealththanfaults.

15

20

Laun. Stop there; I'll have her: she was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that last article: Rehearse that once more.

Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit,— Laun. More hair than wit,-it may be; I'll prove it: The cover of the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt: the hair, that covers the wit, is more than the wit; for the greater hides the less. What's next?

Speed.And more faults than hairs,

Laun. That's monstrous: Oh, that that were out!

Speed. And more wealth than faults.

Laun. Why, that word makes the faults gra25cious: Well, I'll have her: And if it be a match, as nothing is impossible,—

Speed. Item, She hath many nameless virives. Laun. That's as much as to say, bastard vir- 30 tues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.

Speed. Here follow her vices.

Laun. Close at the heels of her virtues. Speed. Item, She is not to be kiss'd fusting, 35 in respect of her breath.

Luun. Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast; Read on.

Speed. Item, She hath a sweet mouth'.
Laun. That makes amends for her sour breath. 40
Speed. Item, She doth talk in her sleep.
Laun. It's no matter for that, so she sleep not

in her talk.

Speed. Item, She is slow in words.

Laun. O villain! that set down among her 45 vices? To be slow in words, is a woman's only virtue: I pray thee, out with't; and place it for her chief virtue.

Speed. Item, She is proud.

Speed. What then?

Laun. Why, then will I tell thee,-that thy master stays for thee at the north-gate. Speed. For me?

Laun. For thee? ay; who art thou? he hath staid for a better man than thee.

Speed. And must I go to him?

Laun. Thou must run to him, for thou hast staid so long, that going will scarce serve thy turn. Speed. Why didst not tell me sooner? pox on your love-letters!

Laun. Now will he be swing'd for reading my letter; an unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into secrets!-I'll after, to rejoice in the boy's correction. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Enter Duke and Thurio, and Protheus behind.
Duke. Sir Thurio, fear not, but that she will

love you,

Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight,

Thu. Since his exile she hath despised me most, Forsworn my company, and rail'd at me,

Laun. Out with that too; it was Eve's legacy, 50 That I am desperate of obtaining her. and cannot be taken from her.

Speed. Item, She hath no teeth.

Laun. I care not for that neither, because I love crusts.

Speed. Item, She is curst.

Laun. Well; the best is, she hath no teeth to bite.

Duke. This weak impress of love is as a figure
Trenched' in ice; which with an hour's heat
Dissolves to water, and doth lose his form.
A little time will melt her frozen thoughts,
55 And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.
How now, sir Protheus? Is your countryman,
According to our proclamation, gone?

It is undoubtedly true that the mother only knows the legitimacy of the child. Launce probably infers, that if he could read, he must have read this well-known observation. 2 St. Nicholas presided over scholars, who were therefore call'd St. Nicholas's clerks. That is, a stocking. * Dr. Johnson is of opinion that sweet mouth implies the same with what is now vulgarly called a sweet tooth, a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats; while Mr. Steevens believes, that by a sweet mouth is meant that she sings sweetly. Liberal, is licentious and gross in language. Gracious, in old language, means graceful. That is, cut, carv'd in ice.

7

Pro.

Pro. Gone, my good lord.

Duke. My daughter takes his going heavily.
Pro. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke. So I believe, but Thurio thinks not so.-
Protheus, the good conceit I hold of thee,
(For thou hast shewn some sign of good desert)
Makes me the better to confer with thee.

Pro. Longer than I prove loyal to your grace,
Let me not live to look upon your grace. [effect
Duke. Thou know'st, how willingly I would
The match between sir Thurio and my daughter.
Pro. I do, my lord.

Duke. And also, I do think, thou art not ignorant How she opposes her against my will.

10

Duke. And, Protheus, we dare trust you in this
Because we know, on Valentine's report, [hind;
You are already love's firm votary,

And cannot soon revolt and change your mind.
5 Upon this warrant shall you have access,
Where you with Silvia may confer at large,
For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,
And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her, by your persuasion,
To hate young Valentine, and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect:-
But you, sir Thurio, are not sharp enough;
You must lay lime, to tangle her desires,
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhimes
Should be full fraught with serviceable vows.
Duke. Ay,much is the force of heaven-bred poesy.
Pro. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty
You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart:
Write, till your ink be dry; and with your tears
20 Moist it again; and frame some feeling line,
That may discover such integrity:-

Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. 15
Duke. Ay, and perversely she perseveres so.
What might we do to make the girl forget
The love of Valentine, and love sir Thurio?

Pro. The best way is, to slander Valentine
With falshood, cowardice, and poor descent;
Three things that women highly hold in hate.
Duke. Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.
Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it:

Therefore it must, with circumstance, be spoken
By one, whom she esteemeth as his friend.

Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him.
Pro. And that, my lord, I shall be loth to do:
'Tis an ill office for a gentleman;
Especially, against his very 1 friend.

[him,

For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tygers tame, and huge leviathans

25 Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
After your dire-lamenting elegies,

Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage 30
Your slander never can endamage him;
Therefore the office is indifferent,
Being intreated to it by your friend.

Visit by night your lady's chamber-window
With some sweet concert: to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump*; the night's dead silence
Will well become such sweet complaining grievance.
This, or else nothing, will inherit her'. [love.

Duke. This discipline shews thou hast been in
Thu. Andthyadvice this night I'll put in practice:

Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, Therefore, sweet Protheus, my direction-giver,

By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not long continue love to him.
But say, this weed her love from Valentine,

"It follows not that she will love sir Thurio. [him,
Thu. Therefore as you unwind her love from
Lest it should ravel, and be good to none,
You must provide to bottom it on me2:
Which must be done, by praising me as much
As you in worth dispraise sir Valentine,

33 Let us into the city presently

40

6

To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in musick:

I have a sonnet, that will serve the turn,
To give the onset to thy good advice.
Duke. About it gentlemen.

[per,

Pro. We'll wait upon your gracetill after sup-
And afterwards determine our proceedings.
Duke. Even now about it; Iwill pardon you.
[Exeunt.

'Very is immediate. 'The meaning of this allusion is, As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The women's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of thread. 'That is, birdlime. A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy. 'To inherit, is here used for to obtain possession of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. That is, to chuse out, ? That is, I will excuse you from waiting.

My

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? Val. From Milan.

3 Out. Have you long sojourn'd there?

Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Out. What, were you banish'd thence? Val. I was.

2 Out. For what offence?

[hearse.

Enter Protheus.

Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine,
And now I must be as unjust to Thurio.
Under the colour of commending him,

Val. For that which now torments me to re-15I have access my own love to prefer;

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 l'often had been miserable.

[triar, 3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat This fellow were a king for our wild faction. 1 Out. We'll have him: sirs, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them;

It is a kind of honourable thievery.

Val. Peace, villain!

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 falshood to my friend;
20 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 quips3,
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.

25

[to: 30

2 Out. Tell us this; have you any thing to take Val. Nothing but my fortune.

3 Out. Know then, that some of us are gentlemen,

Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth

Thrust from the company of awful' men:
Myself was from Verona banished,

For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and niece ally'd 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 beautify'd
With goodly shape; and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want,-

2

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 the wilderness!

3 Out. What say'st thou? wilt thou be our
consort?

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 dy'st.
2 Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have
offer'd.

Val. I take your offer, and will live with you;

Reverend, worshipful, such as magistrates. is, hasty passionate reproaches and scoffs,

35

40

But here comes Thurio: now must we to her

window,

And give some evening music to her ear.

Enter Thurio and Musicians.

Thu. How now, sir Protheus: are you crept
before us?
[love
Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that
Will creep in service where it cannot go.

Thu. Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here,
Pro. Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence.
Thu. Whom? Silvia?

Pro. Ay, Silvia,-for your sake.

Thu. I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it lustily a while.

Enter Host at a distance; and Juliain boy's cloaths. Host. Now, my young guest! methinks you're allycholly; I pray you, why is it?

Jul. Marry, mine host, because I cannot be 45 merry.

50

55

[60]

2

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

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 heavens such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.

Quality is nature relatively considered.

3

3

That

How do you, man? the music likes you not.
Jul. You mistake; the musician likes me not. 15
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

Jul. Peace! stand aside, the company parts.
Pro. Si Thurio, fear not you; I will so plead, 40
That you shall say, my cunning drift excels.
Thu. Where meet we?

Pro. At Saint Gregory's well.
Thu. Farewell. [Exeunt Thurio and musick.
Silvia appears above, at her window.
Pro. Madam, good even to your ladyship.
Sil. I thank you for your musick, gentlemen:
Who is that, that spake?

[truth,
heart's

Pro. One, lady, if you knew his
You'd quickly learn to know him by his voice. 50
Sil. Sir Protheus, as I take it.

Pro. Sir Protheus, gentle lady, and your servant.
Sil. What is your will?

Pro. That I may compass yours.

Sil. You have your wish; my willis even this,-55

That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!

Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckonings are kept upon nicked or notched sticks or tallies. Impose is injunction, command,