Except I be by Silvia in the night, 8 Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE. Pro. Run, boy; run, run, and seek him out. Pro. What seest thou? Laun. Him we go to find: there's not a hair' on's head, but 'tis a Valentine. Pro. Valentine ? Val. No. Pro. Who then? his spirit? Val. Neither. Pro. What then? Val. Nothing. Laun. Can nothing speak? master, shall I strike? Pro. Whom wouldst thou strike? Laun. Nothing. Pro. Villain, forbear! Laun. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing: I pray you,― Pro. Sirrah, I say, forbear. Friend Valentine, a word. Val. My ears are stopp'd, and cannot hear good news, So much of bad already hath possess'd them. 8 That is, by flying, or in flying. It is a Gallicism. 9 Launce is still quibbling: he is running down the hare he started when he first entered. Pro. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine, For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad. Val. Is Silvia dead? Pro. No, Valentine. Val. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia! Hath she forsworn me? Val. No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me ! What is your news? Laun. Sir, there is a proclamation that you are vanish'd. Pro. That thou art banish'd-O! that is the From hence, from Silvia, and from me, thy friend. And now excess of it will make me surfeit. Pro. Ay, ay; and she hath offer'd to the doom, them, As if but now they waxed pale for woe: Val. No more; unless the next word that thou Have some malignant power upon my life: Pro. Cease to lament for that thou canst not help, Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, Val. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy, Bid him make haste, and meet me at the north gate. Pro. Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. Val. O my dear Silvia! hapless Valentine! [Exeunt VAL. and PRO. Laun. I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of a knave : but that's all one, if he be but one knave." He lives 10 So in Hamlet: "These to her excellent white bosom." To understand this mode of addressing letters, it should be known that women anciently had a pocket in the forepart of their stays, in which they carried not only love letters and love tokens, but even their money. In many parts of England rustic damsels still continue the practice. A very old lady informed Mr. Steevens, that when it was the fashion to wear very prominent stays it was the custom for stratagem or gallantry to drop its literary favours within the front of them. 11 But one knave, according to Dr. Johnson, here means, but not now, that knows me to be in love: yet I am in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor who 'tis I love, and yet 'tis a woman: but what woman, I will not tell myself; and yet 'tis a milk-maid yet 'tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips; 12 yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's maid, and serves for wages. She hath more quali- · ties than a water spaniel, bare Christian. Here is the a paper] of her conditions. 13 fetch and carry." which is much in a cate-log [Pulling out 66 Imprimis, She can Why, a horse can do no more : nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore is she better than a jade. 66 Item, She can milk;" look you, a sweet virtue in a maid with clean hands. Enter SPEED. Speed. How now, signior Launce? what news with your mastership? Laun. With my master's ship? why, it is at sea. Speed. Well, your old vice still; mistake the word: What news then in your paper ? Laun. The blackest news that ever thou heard'st. Laun. Why, as black as ink. Laun. Fie on thee, jolt-head! thou can'st not read. once a knave, as opposed to twice a knave, or a double knave. But it seems more likely that Launce is simply engaged in his usual occupation of punning; his sense being, "if he be but one knave, that's all one. H. 12 Gossips not only signify those who answer for a child in baptism, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. The quibble is evident. 13 Bare has two senses, mere and naked. Launce, quibbling on, uses it in both senses, and opposes the naked person to the water-spaniel thickly covered with hair. Speed. Thou liest! I can. Laun. I will try thee. got thee? Tell me this: Who be Speed. Marry, the son of my grandfather. Laun. O illiterate loiterer! it was the son of thy grandmother. This proves that thou canst not read. Speed. Come, fool, come: try me in thy paper. Laun. There; and saint Nicholas 11 be thy speed! Speed. "Item, She can milk." Laun. Ay, that she can. Speed. “Item, She brews good ale." Laun. And therefore comes the proverb, Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale. Speed. "Item, She can sew." Laun. That's as much as to say, Can she so? Speed. "Item, She can knit." Laun. What need a man care for a stock with a wench, when she can knit him a stock.15 Speed. "Item, She can wash and scour." Laun. A special virtue; for then she need not be wash'd and scour'd. 14 St. Nicholas had many weighty cares, but was best known as the patron-saint of scholars, in which office he is here invoked. He is said to have gained this honour by restoring to life three scholars, whom a wicked host had murdered while on their way to school. By the statutes of St. Paul's School, London, the scholars are required to attend divine service in the cathedral on the anniversary of St. Nicholas. The parish clerks of London, probably because scholars were called clerks, formed themselves into a guild, with this saint for their patron. In King Henry IV. thieves are called St. Nicholas' clerks; whether from the similarity of the names Nicholas and Old Nick, or from some similarity of conduct in thieves and scholars in the old days of learned beggary, doth not fully appear. St. Nicholas was also the patronsaint of Holland and Russia; and Mr. Verplanck says, "he has long been known in Holland and New York as the special friend of children." H. |