Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

Pro. In love,

Who refpects friend?

Sil. All men but Protheus.

Pro. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words
Can no way change you to a milder form,
I'll woo you like a foldier, at arms' end;

And love you 'gainst the nature of love, force you.
Sil. O heaven!

Pro. I'll force thee yield to my defire.

Val. Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch;

Thou friend of an ill fashion!

Pro. Valentine!

Val. Thou common friend, that's without faith or love"; (For fuch is a friend now,) treacherous man!

Thou haft beguil'd my hopes; nought but mine eye
Could have perfuaded me: Now I dare not fay,
I have one friend alive; thou would't difprove me.
Who should be trufted, when one's own right hand
Is perjur'd to the bofom? Protheus,

I am forry, I must never trust thee more,

But count the world a stranger for thy fake.

The private wound is deepest: O time moft accurft2!
'Mongft all foes, that a friend fhould be the worst!
Pro. My fhame and guilt confounds me.-
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty forrow

Be a fufficient ranfom for offence,

I tender it here; I do as truly fuffer,

As e'er I did commit.

9-that's without faith or love;] That's is perhaps here used, not for who is, but for id eft, that is to fay. MALONE.

Who fhall be trufted, when one's own right band] The old copy has not own; which was introduced into the text by Sir T. Hanmer. The fecond folio, to complete the metre, reads:

Who fhall be trusted now, when one's right hand.

The addition, like all thofe made in that copy, appears to have been merely arbitrary; and the modern word is, in my opinion, more likely to have been the author's than the other. MALONE.

2 The private wound is deepest, O time most accurft!] Deepeft, bigbeft, and other fimilar words, were fometimes ufed by the poets of Shakspeare's age as monofyllables. See p. 76. n. 2. MALONE.

Val. Then I am paid;

And once again I do receive thee honeft:-
Who by repentance is not fatisfy'd,

Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd;
By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeas'd:-
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee 3.
Jul. O me unhappy!

Pro. Look to the boy.

[faints.

Val. Why, boy! why wag! how now? what is the

matter?

Look up; fpeak.

Jul. O good fir, my mafter charg'd me

To deliver a ring to madam Silvia;

Which, out of my neglect, was never done.
Pro. Where is that ring, boy?

Jul. Here 'tis : this is it.

Pro. How! let me fee:

Why this is the ring I gave to Julia.

[gives a ring.

3 All, that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.] It is, I think, very odd, to give up his mistress thus at once, without any reafon alledged. But our author probably followed the ftories just as he found them in his novels as well as hiftories. POPE.

This paffage either hath been much fophifticated, or is one great proof that the main parts of this play did not proceed from Shakspeare; for it is impoffible he could make Valentine act and fpeak fo much out of character, or give to Silvia fo unnatural a behaviour, as to take no HANMER. notice of this ftrange conceflion, if it had been made.

Valentine, from feeing Silvia in the company of Protheus, might conceive the had efcaped with him, from her father's court, for the purposes of love, though the could not forcfee the violence which his villainy might offer, after he had feduced her under the pretence of an honeft paffion. If Valentine, however, be fuppofed to hear all that paffed between them in this scene, I am afraid I have only to fubfcribe to the opinion of my predeceffors. STEEVENS.

And, that my love &c.] Transfer thefe two lines to the end of Thurio's fpeech in page 185, and all is right. Why then fhould Julia faint? It is only an artifice, feeing Silvia given up to Valentine, to discover herself to Protheus, by a pretended mistake of the rings. One great fault of this play is the haftening too abruptly, and without due preparation, to the denouement, which fhews that, if it be Shakfpeare's, (which I cannot doubt) it was one of his very early performBLACKSTONE.

ances.

N 4

Jul.

Jal. O, cry your mercy, fir, I have miftook;

This is the ring you fent to Silvia. [foews another ring. Pro. But, how cam'ft thou by this ring? at my depart I gave this unto Julia.

Jal. And Julia herself did give it me ;
And Julia herself hath brought it hither.
Pro. How! Julia!

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,
And entertain'd them deeply in her heart:
How oft haft thou with perjury cleft the root+?
O Protheas, let this habit make thee blush!
Be thou afham'd, that I have took upon me
Such an immodeft raiment; if fhame live
In a difguife of love 5:

It is the leffer blot, modefty finds,

Women to change their shapes, than men their minds, Pro. Than men their minds! 'tis true: O heaven!

were man

But conftant, he were perfect: that one error

Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the fins:
Inconftancy falls off, ere it begins:

What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's with a conftant eye?

Val. Come, come, a hand from either:
Let me be bleft to make this happy close;
"Twere pity two fuch friends fhould be long foes,

Pro. Bear witness, heaven,

I have my wifh for ever.

Jul. And I mine.

Enter Out-laws, with Duke and THURIO.

Out. A prize, a prize, a prize!

Val. Forbear, forbear, I fay; it is my lord the duke. Your grace is welcome to a man disgrac'd,

Banith'd Valentine?

Duke. Sir Valentine!

4 How oft baft thou with perjury cleft the root?] i. e. of her heart.

5

MALONE.

- if fhame live &c.] That is, if it be any shame to wear a difguife for the purposes of love. JOHNSON.

Thu.

Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.
Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure of my wrath":

Do not name Silvia thine; if once again,
Milan fhall not behold thee. Here the ftands,
Take but poffeffion of her with a touch ;-
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.
Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:
I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.
Duke. The more degenerate and base art thou,
To make fuch means for her as thou haft done,
And leave her on fuch flight conditions.-
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy fpirit, Valentine,

And think thee worthy of an emprefs' love.
Know then, I here forget all former griefs 3,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.-
Plead a new flate in thy unrival'd merit,
To which I thus fubfcribe,-fir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd;
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou haft deferv'd her.

Val. I thank your grace; the gift hath made me happy. I now befeech you, for your daughter's fake,

To grant one boon that I fhall afk of you.

Duke. I grant it, for thine own, whate'er it be.
Val. Thefe banish'd men, that I have kept withal,
Are men endued with worthy qualities;

Forgive them what they have committed here,

6

the measure of my wrath:] The length of my fword, the reach of my anger. JOHNSON.

7 Milan fhall not behold thee.] The old copy reads-Verona fhall not bold thee. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald, who obferves, that Thurio was a Milanefe, and therefore the threat muft be, " Milan, i. e. thy country, fhall never fee thee again; thou shalt not live to go back thither." This emendation having been adopted by all the fubfequent editors, I have not difplaced it; yet, I fufpect, the mistake was our MALONE. author's own.

8- all former griefs,] Griefs in old language frequently fignified grievances, wrongs. MALONE.

And

And let them be recall'd from their exile:
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

Duke. Thou haft prevail'd: I pardon them, and thee;
Difpofe of them, as thou know't their deserts.
Come, let us go; we will include all jars 9
With triumphs, mirth, and rare folemnity.
Val. And, as we walk along, I dare be bold
With our difcourfe to make your grace to smile :
What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes.
Val. I warrant you, my lord; more grace than boy.
Duke. What mean you by that faying?

Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we país along,
That you will wonder, what hath fortuned.
Come, Protheus; 'tis your penance, but to hear
The story of your loves discovered:

That done, our day of marriage fhall be yours;
One feaft, one houfe, one mutual happiness'.

[Exeunt.

9- include all jars-] To include is to fhut up. So, in Macbeth: and fout up

"In measureless content." STEEVENS.

In this play there is a ftrange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The verfification is often excellent, the allufions are learned and juft; but the author conveys his heroes by fea from one inland town to another in the fame country; he places the emperor at Milan, and fends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, fay he has only feen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by mistaking places, left his scenery inextricable. The reafon of all this confufion feems to be, that he took his ftory from a novel, which he fometimes followed, and fometimes forfook, fometimes remembered, and fometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shakspeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom fhall it be given? This question may be asked of all the difputed plays, except Titus Andronicus; and it will be found more credible, that Shakspeare might sometimes fink below his highest flights, than that any other should rife up to his lowest.

JOHNSON.

This is a flight mistake of this most Judicious critick, founded on a misapprehension of a paffage in Act II. See p. 137. MALONE.