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 And love you 'gainst the nature of love, force you, 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 I am forry, I must never truft thee more, But count the world a ftranger for thy fake. The private wound is deepeft: O time most accurft! 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 shall be trufied, 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 trufted 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 moft 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:- Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for thefe are pleas'd; 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. ful. 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 speak fo much out of character, or give to Silvia fo unnatural a behaviour, as to take no notice of this ftrange conceffion, if it had been made. HANMER. Valentine, from feeing Silvia in the company of Protheus, might conceive he had efcaped with him, from her father's court, for the purposes of love, though he could not foresee the violence which his villainy might offer, after he had feduced her under the pretence of an honeft paflion. If Valentine, however, be fuppofed to hear all that paffed between them in this fcene, 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 should Julia faint? It is only an artifice, feeing Silvia given up to Valentine, to difcover 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 performances. BLACKSTONE. N 4 Jul. Jul. O, cry your mercy, fir, I have mistook ; This is the ring you fent to Silvia. [fhews another ring. Pro. But, how cam'ft thou by this ring? at my depart gave this unto Julia. I Ful. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, It is the leffer blot, modefty finds, Women to change their fhapes, 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: What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy Val. Come, come, a hand from either: I have my wish 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, Banifh'd Valentine? Duke. Sir Valentine! 4 How oft baft thou with perjury cleft the root?] i. c. of her heart. 5 MALONE. if fhame live &c.] That is, if it be any shame to wear a disguise for the purposes of love. JOHNSON. Tha. 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 stands, 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 hast done, And leave her on such 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, Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.Plead a new state 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 meafure 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 author's own. MALONE. 8 all former griefs,] Griefs in old language frequently fignified grievances, wrongs. MALONE. And And let them be recall'd from their exile: Duke. Thou haft prevail'd: I pardon them, and thee; Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes. Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass along, That done, our day of marriage fhall be yours; [Exeunt. 9- include all jars-] To include is to shut up. So, in Macbeth; and fout up "In meafurelefs 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 reason of all this confufion feems to be, that he took his story 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 shall 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 fometimes fink below his highest flights, than that any other should rife up to his lowest. JOHNSON. *This is a flight mistake of this molt judicious critick, founded on a misappre. henfion of a paffage in Act H. See p. 137. MALONE. |