Enter PROTHEUS.

Sil. Have done, have done here comes the gentleman.

Val. Welcome, dear Protheus: mistress, I befeech you,

Confirm his welcome with fome special favour.
Sil. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
If this be he you oft have wifhed to hear from.
Val. Miftrefs, it is. Sweet Lady, entertain him
To be my fellow-fervant to your Ladythip.

Sil. Too low a mistress for so high a fervant.
Pro. Not fo, fweet Lady; but too mean a fervant,
To have a look of fuch a worthy mistress.
Val. Leave off difcourfe of disability:

Sweet Lady, entertain him for

your

fervant.

Pro. My duty will I boast of, nothing else.

Sil. And duty never yet did want his meed. Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress. Pro. I'll die on him that fays fo, but yourself. Sil. That you are welcome?

Pro. That you are worthless.

Enter Servant.

Serv. Madam, my Lord your father would speak with you. (10) ́

Sil. I'll wait upon his pleafure: [Exit Serv.] Come, Sir Thurio,

Go with me. Once more, my new fervant, welcome:

(10) Thur. Madam, my Lord your father] This speech, in all the editions, is affigned. improperly to Thurio; but he has been all along upon the ftage, and could not know that the Duke wanted his daughter. Befides, the first line, and half of Silvia's anfwer, is evidently addressed to two perfons. A fervant, therefore, must come in and deliver the melage; and then Silvia goes out with Thurio.

I'll leave you to confer of home-affairs; When you have done, we look to hear from you. Pro. We'll both attend upon your Ladyfhip. [Exe. Sil. and Thu. Val. Now tell me, how do all from whence you came?

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much commended.

Val. And how do yours?

Pro. I left them all in health.

Val. How does your Lady? and how thrives your love?

Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you; I know you joy not in a love-difcourfe.

Val. Ay, Protheus, but that life is altered now; I have done penance for contemning love,

Whofe high imperious thoughts have punished me
With bitter fafts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs.
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chaced fleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's forrow.
O gentle Protheus, Love's a mighty. Lord,
And hath fo humbled me, as, I confefs,

There is no woe to his correction,

Nor to his fervice, no fuch joy on earth.
Now no difcourfe, except it be of love;
Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and fleep
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye. Was this the idol that you worship fo?

Val. Even fhe; and is fhe not a heav'nly faint? Pro. No, but he is an earthly paragon.

Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O, flatter me; for love delights in praife.

Pro. When I was fick, you gave me bitter pills, And I must minifter the like to you.

Val. Then fpeak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

Sov'reign to all the creatures on the earth.
Pro. Except my mifìrefs.

Val. Sweet, except not any,

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reafon to prefer mine own? Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too: She fhall be dignified with this high honour, To bear my Lady's train, leit the base earth Should from her vesture chance to steal a kifs, And, of fo great a favour growing proud, Difdain to root the fummer-fwelling flower, And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what bragadifm is this? Val. Pardon me, Protheus; all I can is nothing, To her whofe worth makes other worthies nothing; She is alone ———

Pro. Then let her alone.

[own;

Val. Not for the world: why, man, fhe is mine
And I as rich in having fuch a jewel,
As twenty feas; if all their fand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou feeft me doat upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes,
Only for his poffeffions are fo huge,
Is gone with her along, and I muit after;"
For love, thou knowell, is full of jealoufy.
Pro. But the loves you? [marriage hour,
Val. Ay, and we are betrothed; nay more, our

With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determined of; how I mult climb her window,
The ladder made of cords, and all the mens
Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.

2

Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I fhall enquire you forth.
I muft unto the road, to difembark
Some neceffaries that I needs must use,
And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make haste?

Pro. I will.

[Exit Val

Even as one heat another heat expels,
Or as one nail by strength drives out another ;
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.
Is it mine eye, or Valentino's praife, (11)
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonlefs, to reason thus?
She's fair; and fo is Julia, that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thawed;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,
Bears no impreffion of the thing it was.
Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold;

(11) Is it mine then, or Valentino's praife,? This fupplemental word, then, was first clapt in by Mr Rowe to help the labouring verfe, and fince embraced by Mr Pope. But let us fee what fenfe refults from it. What is Protheus questioning with himself, whether it is his own praise, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love? But Protheus had not praised Silvia any farther 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 fupplied, as I have reftored in the text. Protheus had just seen Valentine's mistress; Valentine had praised her fo lavishly, that the description heightened Protheus's fentiments of her from the interview; fo that it was the lefs wonder that he should not know certainly, at firft, which made the strongest impreflion, Valentine's praises, or his own view of the original.

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 reafon's light:
But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason bút I shall be blind.
If I can check my erring love I will;
If not, to compafs her I'll ufe my fkill.

SCENE changes to a Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCEST

[Exit

Speed Launce, by mine honefty, welcome to Milan *l

Lawn. Forfwear not thyfelf, sweet youth; for I am not welcome: I reckon this always, that a man is never undone 'till he be hanged, nor never welcome to a place till some certain fhọt be paid, and the hostefs fay, welcome.

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

Laun. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jeft.

Speed. But fhall the marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? fhall he marry her?

Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

*It is Padua in the former editions. See the note on

Mr Pope.

VOL IV.