Whose golden touch could foften steel and stones, Vifit by night your lady's chamber-window Duke. This difcipline fhews thou haft been in love. To fort fome gentlemen well skill'd in musick; Duke. About it, gentlemen. Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, 'till after fupper; And afterwards determine our proceedings. Duke. Even now about it. I will pardon you. [Exeunt. poet only, or lover, the quality given to his lute is unintelligible. But, confidered as a lawgiver, the thought is noble, and the imagery exquifitely beautiful. For by his lute is to be understood his fyftem of laws; and by the poet's finews, the power of numbers, which Orpheus actually employed in those laws to make them received by a fierce and barbarous people. WARBURTON. I will pardon you.] I will excufe you from waiting. JOHNSON. VOL. I. L ACT ACT IV. SCENE I FE A foreft, leading towards Mantua. Enter certain Out-laws. I OUT-LAW. ELLOWS, ftand faft: I fee a paffenger. Enter Valentine and Speed. 3 Out. Stand, Sir, and throw us what you have about you; 'If not, we'll make you fit and rifle you. Speed. Sir, we are undone! thefe are the villains that all the travellers do fear fo much. Val. My friends 1 Out. That's not fo, Sir; we are your enemies. 2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him. 3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we; for he is a pro per man. Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose : A man I am, crofs'd with adverfity; My riches are these poor habiliments, You take the fum and substance that I have. 1 If not, we'll make you fit and rifle you.] The old copy reads as I have printed it. Paltry as the oppofition between ftand and fit may be thought, it is Shakespeare's own. The editors read, we'll make you, Sir, &c, STEEVENS. 3 Out. Have you long fojourn'd there? Val. Some fixteen months; and longer might have ftaid, If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. 1 Out. What, were you banish'd thence? Val. I was. 2 Out. For what offence? Val. For that, which now torments me to rehearse: I kill'd a man, whofe death I much repent; But yet I flew him manfully in fight, Without falfe vantage, or bafe treachery. i Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done fo. But were you banish'd for so small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of fuch a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues? Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy, Or elfe I often had been miferable. 2 3 Out. By the bare fcalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction. 1 Out. We'll have him. Sirs, a word. Speed. Mafter, be one of them: it is an honourable kind of thievery. Val. Peace, villain! 2 Out. Tell us this; have you any thing to take to? Val. Nothing, but my fortune. 3 Out. Know then, that fome of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth Thruft from the company of 3 awful men; 2 Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. JOHNSON. 3 awful men ;] Reverend, worshipful, fuch as magi-. ftrates, and other principal members of civil communities. JOHNSON. I think we should read lawful in oppofition to lawless men. In judicial proceedings the word has this fenfe. HAWKINS. The author of The Revifal has proposed the fame emendation. STEEVENS. For practifing to steal away a lady, 4 An heir, and near allied 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 fuch like petty crimes as these. But to the purpofe ;-(for we cite our faults, That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives ;) And, partly, feeing you are beautify'd With goodly shape, and by your own report A linguift, and a man of fuch perfection, As we do in our quality much want 2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the reft, we parley to you; Are you content to be our general? To make a virtue of neceffity, And live, as we do, in the wilderness? 3 Out. What fay'ft thou? wilt thou be of our confort? Say, ay, and be the captain of us all: We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee; 1 Out. But if thou fcorn our courtesy, thou dy'st. Val. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided, that you do no outrages On filly women, or poor paffengers. 3 Out. No, we deteft fuch vile bafe practices. Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews, And fhew thee all the treafure we have got; Which, with ourselves, all reft at thy difpofe. [Exeunt. All the impreffions, from the firft downwards, An heir and niece allied unto the duke. But our poet would never have expreffed himfelf fo ftupidly, as to tell us, this lady was the duke's niece, and allied to him: for her alliance was certainly fuficiently included in the first term. Our author meant to fay, he was an heiress, and near allied to the duke; an expreffion the most natural that can be for the purpose, and very frequently ufed by the ftage-poets. THEOBALD. SCENE Pro. Already have I been falfe to Valentine, And now I must be as unjust to Thurio. Under the colour of commending him, I have accefs my own love to prefer, 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 falfhood to my friend; When to her beauty I commend my vows, She bids me think, how I have been forfworn In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov'd. And, notwithstanding all her 'fudden quips, The leaft whereof would quell a lover's hope, Yet, fpaniel-like, the more fhe fpurns my love, The more it grows, and fawneth on her ftill. But here comes Thurio: now muft we to her window, And give some evening mufic to her ear. Enter Thurio and Muficians. Thu. How now, Sir Protheus? are you crept before us? Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that love Will creep in fervice where it cannot go. Thu. Ay, but I hope, Sir, that you love not here. Pro. Ay, Silvia, for your fake. Thu. I thank you for your own: now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it luftily a while. 1-fudden quips,] That is, hafly paffionate reproaches and fcoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred fenfe faid to be fuaden; that is, irafcible and impetuous. JOHNSON. |