Duke. My daughter takes his going grievously.
Pro. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.
Duke. So I believe; but Thurio thinks not fo.-
Protheus, the good conceit I hold of thee,
(For thou haft fhewn fome fign of good defert,)
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.

Duke. Thou know'ft, how willingly I would effec The match between fir Thurio and my daughter. Pro. I do, my lord.

Duke. And alfo, I think, thou art not ignorant
How the opposes her against my will.

Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here.
Duke. Ay, and perverfely the perfévers fo.
What might we do to make the girl forget
The love of Valentine, and love fir Thurio?
Pro. The best way is, to flander Valentine
poor defcent;
With falfhood, cowardice, and
Three things that women highly hold in hate.

Duke. Ay, but fhe'll think, that it is spoke in hate.
Pro. Ay, if his enemy deliver it:

Therefore it muft, with circumftances, be fpoken
By one, whom the efteemeth as his friend.

Duke. Then you must undertake to flander him.
Pro. And that, my lord, I fhall be loth to do:
'Tis an ill office for a gentleman;

Especially, against his very friend".

Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage him, Your flander never can endamage him;

Therefore the office is indifferent,

Being entreated to it by your friend.

Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it,

grievously.] So fome copies of the firft folio; others have, beavily. The word therefore must have been corrected, while the fheet was working off at the prefs. The word laft, p. 155, l. 23, was inferted MALONE. in fome copies in the fame manner.

with circumftance,] With the addition of fuch incidental par

ticulars as may induce belief. JOHNSON.

9- bis very friend. Very is immediate. So, in Macbeth:

"And the very points they blow." STEEVENS.

By

By aught that I can speak in his difpraise,
She shall not long continue love to him.
But fay, this weed her love from Valentine,
It follows not that fhe will love fir Thurio.

Thu. Therefore as you unwind her love from him,
Left it should ravel, and be good to none,

You must provide to bottom it on me :

Which must be done, by praifing me as much

As you in worth difpraife fir Valentine.

Duke. And, Protheus, we dare truft you in this kind; Because we know, on Valentine's report,

You are already love's firm votary,

And cannot foon revolt and change your mind.
Upon this warrant fhall you have accefs,
Where you with Silvia may confer at large;
For fhe is lumpish, heavy, melancholy,

And, for your friend's fake, will be glad of you;
Where you may temper her 2, by your perfuafion,
To hate young Valentine, and love my friend.
Pro. As much as I can do, I will effect:
But you, fir Thurio, are not fharp enough;
You muft lay lime, to tangle her defires,
By wailful fonnets, whofe composed rhimes
Should be full fraught with ferviceable vows.
Duke. Ay, Much is the force of heaven-bred poefy.
Pro. Say, that upon the altar of her beauty
You facrifice your tears, your fighs, your heart:
Write, till your ink be dry; and with your tears
Moift it again; and frame fome feeling line,
'That may discover such integrity 4 :-

1- as you unwind her love-] As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of thread. JOHNSON.

you may temper ber-] Mould her, like wax, to whatever shape you pleafe. So, in King Henry IV. P. 11: "I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb; and fhortly will I feal with him." MALONE.

3 lime] That is, birdlime. JOHNSON.

4

•fuch integrity :-] I suspect that a line following this has been loft; the import of which perhaps was

As her obdurate heart may penetrate.

MALONE.

For

For Orpheus' lute was ftrung with poets' finews;
Whofe golden touch could foften steel and stones,
Make tygers tame, and huge leviathans
Forfake unfounded deeps to dance on fands.
After your dire-lamenting elegies,

Vifit by night your lady's chamber-window
With fome fweet concert 5: to their inftruments
Tune a deploring dump; the night's dead filence
Will well become fuch fweet-complaining grievance.
This, or elfe nothing, will inherit her 7.

Duke. This difcipline fhews thou hast been in love.
Thu. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice:
Therefore, fweet Protheus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently

To fort fome gentlemen well fkill'd in mufick:
I have a fonnet, that will ferve the turn,

To give the onset to thy good advice.

Duke. About it, gentlemen.

Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, till after fupper; And afterward determine our proceedings.

Duke. Even now about it; I will pardon you 9.

5

[Exeunt.

with fome fweet concert :] The old copy has confort, which I once thought might have meant in our author's time a band or company of muficians. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Tyb. Mercutio, thou confort ft with Romeo.

"Mer. Confort! what, doit thou make us minfrels "

The fubfequent words, " To their inftruments," seem to favour this interpretation; but other inftances, that I have fince met with, in books of our author's age, have convinced me that confort was only the old fpelling of concert, and I have accordingly printed the latter word in the text. The epithet fweet, annexed to it, feems better adapted to the mufick itself than to the band. Confort, when accented on the first fyllable, (as here) had, I believe, the former meaning; when on the fecond, it fignified a company. So, in the next scene:

"What fay'ft thou? Wilt thou be of our confort ?" MALONE. 6 Tune a deploring dump ;] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy. STEEVENS.

7 will inherit ber.] To inherit, is by our author, fometimes ufed, as in this inftance, for to obtain poffeffion of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. STEEVENS.

To fort- i. e. to choose out. So, in K. Richard III: "Yet I will fort a pitchy hour for thee." STEEVENS. 9- I will pardon you.] I will excufe you from waiting. JOHNSON.

ACT

ACT

IV.

SCENE I.

A Foreft near Mantua.

Enter certain Oat-laws.

1 Out. Fellows, ftand faft; I fee a paffenger. 2 Out. If there be ten, fhrink not, but down with 'em. Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 Out. Stand, fir, and throw us that 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, fir; we are your enemies.

2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him.

3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we;

For he's a proper man'.

Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lofe; A man I am, crofs'd with adverfity:

My riches are thefe poor habiliments,

Of which if you fhould here disfurnish me,

You take the fum and fubftance that I have. 2 Out. Whither travel you?

Val. To Verona.

1 Out. Whence came you?

Val. From Milan.

3 Out. Have you long fojourn'd there?

Val. Some fixteen months; and longer might have ftaid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

2 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, whose death I much repent;

a proper man.] i. e. a well-looking man; he has the appearance of a gentleman. So, afterwards:

"And partly, feeing you are beautified

With goodly fape”....

Again, in another play," thou waft the propereft man in Italy." MALONE.

But

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 so:
But were you banish'd for fo fmall 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.

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: firs, 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

Thrust from the company of awful men 3:

2- Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. JOHNSON.

By Robin Hood's fat friar, I believe, Shakspeare means Friar Tuck, who was confeffor and companion to this noted outlaw. See figure III. in the plate at the end of the first part of K. Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS.

Dr. Johníon feems to have misunderstood this paffage. The fpeaker does not fwear by the fcalp of fome churchman who had been plundered, but by the shaven crown of Robin Hood's chaplain." We will live and die together, (fays a perfonage in Peele's Edward I. 1593,) like Robin Hood, little John, friar Tucke, and Maide Marian." MALONE. - awful men:] Reverend, worshipful, fuch as magiftrates, and other principal members of civil communities. JOHNSON.

3

Awful is ufed by Shakspeare, in another place, in the fenfe of lawful. Second part of Henry IV. A&t IV. fc. ii.

"We come within our awful banks again." TYRWHITT. So, in K. Henry V. 1600:

66

creatures that by awe ordain

"An af of order to a peopled kingdom." MALONE.

I think we should read lawful in oppofition to lawless men. In judicial proceedings the word has this fenfe. SIR J. HAWKINS.

I believe we should read lawful men; i. e. legales homines. So, in the Newe Boke of Juftices, 1560:-" commaundinge him to the fame to make an inqueft and pannel of lawful men of his countie." For this remark I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS.

Myfelf