ACT I. SCENE I. An open place in Verona. Enter VALENTINE and PROTEUS, Val. Ceafe to perfuade, my loving Proteus ; Pro. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! When thou doft meet good hap; and, in thy danger, Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, Val. And on a love-book pray for my fuccefs. Val. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never fwam the Hellefpont. Pro. 4 The expreffion is fine, as implying that idleness prevents the giving any form or character to the manners. WARBURTON. 5 The poem of Mufæus, entitled HERO AND LEANDER, is meant, MALONE. Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots. Pro. What? To be In love, where fcorn is bought with groans; coy looks, Pro. So, by your circumftance, you call me fool. Methinks fhould not be chronicled for wife. Val. And writers fay, As the most forward bud 1 Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, Even fo by love the young and tender wit But 6 A proverbial expreffion, though now difufed, fignifying, don't make a laughing stock of me; don't play with me. The French have a phrase, Bailler foin en corne; which Cotgrave thus interprets, To give one the boots, to fell him a bargain. THEOBALD. Perhaps this expreffion took its origin from a fport the country people in Warwickshire ufe at their harveft home, where one fits as judge to try misdemeanors committed in harveft, and the punishment for the men is to be laid on a bench, and flapped on the breech with a pair of boots. This they call giving them the boots. The boots, however, were an ancient engine of torture. STEEVENS. The boot was an inftrument of torture used only in Scotland. Bishop Burnet in The Hiftory of his own Times, Vol. I. p. 332, edit. 1754, mentions one Maccal, a preacher, who, being fufpected of treasonable prac tices underwent the punishment fo late as 1666. REED. 7 This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the lofs of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. JOHNSON. But wherefore wafte I time to counsel thee, Once more adieu: my father at the road Val. Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave. [Exit VALENTINE. Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love : Speed. Sir Proteus, fave you : Saw you my mafter? Pro. But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan. Speed. Twenty to one then, he is fhipp'd already; And I have play'd the sheep, in lofing him. Pro. Indeed a fheep doth very often stray, An if the fhepherd be awhile away. Speed. You conclude, that my mafter is a fhepherd then; and I a sheep? Pro. I do. Speed. Why then my horns are his horns, whether I wake or fleep. Pro. This whole scene, like many others in these plays (fome of which I believe were written by Shakspeare, and others interpolated by the players) is compofed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the grofs tafte of the age he lived in; Populo ut placerent. I wish I had authority to leave them out. POPE. That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will be univerfally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players feems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticifm. JOHNSON. Pro. A filly anfwer, and fitting well a fheep. Pro. True; and thy mafter a fhepherd. Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumftance. Speed. The thepherd feeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I feek my mafter, and my matter feeks not me: therefore, I am no sheep. Pro. The fheep for fodder follow the fhepherd, the fhepherd for food follows not the fheep; thou for wages followest thy mafter, thy mafter for wages follows not thee: therefore, thou art a sheep. Speed. Such another proof will make me cry baa. Pro. But doft thou hear? gav'ft thou my letter to Julia ? Speed. Ay, fir: I, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton; 9 and fhe, a laced mutton, gave me, a loft mutton, nothing for my labour. Pro. Here's too small a pasture for fuch a store of muttons. Speed. If the ground be overcharg'd, you were best stick her. Pro. Nay, in that you are aftray; 2 'twere beft pound you. Speed. Nay, fir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter. Pro. You miftake; I mean the pound, a pinfold. Speed. From a pound to a pin? fold it over and over, "Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover. Pro. But what faid fhe? did the nod. Speed. I. Pro. Nod, I? why, that's noddy.3 [SPEED nods. Speed. 9 Speed calls himself a loft mutton, because he had loft his master, and because Proteus had been proving him a fheep. But why does he call the lady a laced mutton? Wenchers are to this day called mutton-mongers; and confequently the object of their paffion must, by the metaphor, be the mutton. THEOBALD. A laced mutton was in our author's time fo eftablished a term for a courtezan, that a street in Clerkenwell, which was much frequented by women of the town, was then called Mutton-lane. MALONE. 2 From the word aftray here, and loft mutton above, it is obvious that the double reference was to the firft fentence of the General Confettion in the Prayer-book. HENLEY. 3 Noddy was a game at cards. STEEVENS. Speed. You mistook, fir; I fay, fhe did nod: and you afk me, if she did nod; and I fay, I. Pro. And that fet together, is-noddy. Speed. Now you have taken the pains to fet it together, take it for your pains. Pro. No, no, you shall have it for bearing the letter. Speed. Well, I perceive, I must be fain to bear with you. Pro. Why, fir, how do you bear with me? Speed. Marry, fir, the letter very orderly; having nothing but the word, noddy, for my pains. Pro. Befhrew me, but you have a quick wit. Speed. And yet it cannot overtake your flow purfe. fhe? Speed. Open your purfe, that the money, and the matter, be both at once deliver'd. may Pro. Well, fir, here is for your pains: What faid fhe? Pro. Why? Could'ft thou perceive fo much from her? Speed. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter: And being fo hard to me that brought your mind, I fear, fhe'll prove as hard to you in telling her mind. Give her no token but ftones; for fhe's as hard as fteel. Pro. What, faid fhe nothing? Speed. No, not fo much as-take this for thy pains. To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have teftern'd me; 4 in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself: and fo, fir, I'll commend you to my master. Pro. Go, go, be gone, to fave your fhip from wreck ; Which cannot perish, having thee aboard, Being deftin'd to a drier death on shore :- I muft 4 You have gratified me with a tefter, teftern, or teften, that is, with a fixpence. JOHNSON. By the fucceeding quotation from the Fruitful Sermons preached by Hugh Latimer, 1584. fol. 94. it appears that a tefter was of greater value than our fixpence: They brought him a denari, a piece of their current coyne that was worth ten of our ufual pence, fuch another piece as our tefterne." HOLT WHITE. 5 The fame proverb has already been alluded to in the firit and last fcenes of The Tempeft. REED. |