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

Enter Host, at a distance; and JULIA, in boy's clothes.

Host. Now, my young guest! methinks you're allycholly I pray you, why is it?

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

[Music plays.

The heavens such grace did lend her,

That she might admired be.

Is she kind, as she is fair?

For beauty lives with kindness:
Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;
And, being help'd, inhabits there.

Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing,
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

Host. How now! are you sadder than you were

before?

How do you, man? the music likes you not.

Jul. You mistake: the musician likes me not. 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 my very heart-strings.

Host. You have a quick ear.

Jul. Ay, I would I were deaf! it makes me have a slow heart.

Host. I perceive, you delight not in music.
Jul. Not a whit, when it jars so.

Host. Hark! what fine change is in the music!
Jul. Ay; that change is the spite.

Host. You would have them always play but one thing?

Jul. I would always have one play but one thing. But, host, doth this Sir Proteus, that we talk on, often resort unto this gentlewoman?

Host. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me, he lov'd her out of all nick.2

Jul. Where is Launce?

Host. Gone to seek his dog; which, to-morrow, by his master's command, he must carry for a present to his lady.

Jul. Peace! stand aside the company parts.

:

2 That is, beyond all reckoning. Accounts were formerly kept by cutting nicks or notches in a tally-stick. Thus in an old play, "A Woman Never Vexed," an innkeeper says: "I have carried the tallies at my girdle seven years together; for I did ever love to deal honestly in the nick." It is but few years since these tallies were used in the English Exchequer; being laid aside, no doubt, because the accounts grew to be out of all nick. H.

Pro. Sir Thurio, fear not you: I will so plead, That you shall say my cunning drift excels. Thu. Where meet we?

Pro. At saint Gregory's well.3

Thu. Farewell. [Exeunt THU. and Musicians.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.

Pro. Madam, good even to your ladyship. Sil. I thank you for your music, gentlemen. Who is that, that spake ?

Pro. One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth, You would quickly learn to know him by his voice. Sil. Sir Proteus, as I take it.

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

Pro. That I may compass yours.

Sil. You have your wish: my will is even this,
That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!
Think'st thou, I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be seduced by thy flattery,

That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me,
by this pale queen of night I swear,
I am so far from granting thy request,
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit;
And by and by intend to chide myself,

Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.

Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady; But she is dead.

3 This was probably one of the "holy wells" to which popular belief attributed supernatural virtues, and which were visited something as our fashionable watering-places are, but with how different feelings! The place of St. Winifred's well in Flintshire is called Holywell; but of course the ancient virtue has all been enlightened out of its waters.

H.

Jul. [Aside.] "Twere false, if I should speak it; For, I am sure, she is not buried.

Sil. Say that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives; to whom, thyself art witness,

I am betroth'd and art thou not asham'd
To wrong him with thy importúnacy?

Pro. I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.
Sil. And so suppose am I; for in his grave,
Assure thyself, my love is buried.

Pro. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. Sil. Go to thy lady's grave, and call hers thence; Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine.

Jul. [Aside.] He heard not that.

Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love, The picture that is hanging in your chamber; To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep For, since the substance of your perfect self Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;

And to your shadow will I make true love.

Jul. [Aside.] If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, deceive it,

And make it but a shadow, as I am.

Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, sir; But, since your falsehood shall become you well To worship shadows, and adore false shapes, Send to me in the morning and I'll send it : And so, good rest.

Pro.

As wretches have o'ernight,

That wait for execution in the morn.

[Exeunt PROTEUS; and SILVIA, from above.

Jul. Host, will you go?

Host. By my halidom,* I was fast asleep.

4 Several interpretations have been given of this word; but the one offered by Nares seems the most probable. He says it is

Jul. Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus?
Host. Marry, at my house.

'tis almost day.

Trust me, I think

Jul. Not so; but it hath been the longest night That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest." [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

Egl. This is the hour that madam Silvia Entreated me to call and know her mind: There's some great matter she'd employ me in. Madam, madam!

SILVIA appears above, at her window.

Sil. Who calls?

Egl. Your servant, and your friend ;

One that attends your ladyship's command.

Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow. Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself.

According to your ladyship's impose,1

I am thus early come, to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not,)
Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd.
Thou art not ignorant, what dear good-will

2

composed of holy and dom, like kingdom; thus meaning the same as faith. Another interpretation makes it refer to the Holy Dame, that is, the Virgin Mother. A third derives it from the

Saxon halig, sacred, and dome, a house.

H.

5 The double superlative was often used in Shakespeare's time. It occurs frequently in the Liturgy of the "Reformed Catholic Church."

H.

1 Impose is injunction, command; a task set at college in consequence of a fault is still an imposition.

2 That is, pitiful.