Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, Enter PANTHINO. PAN. Launce, away, away, aboard; thy master is shipped, and thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter?, why weep'st thou, man? Away, ass; you'll lose the tide if you tarry any longer. LAUN. It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever man tied. PAN. What's the unkindest tide? LAUN. Why, he that 's tied here; Crab, my dog. PAN. Tut, man, I mean thou 'lt lose the flood: and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage; and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy master; and, in losing thy master, lose thy service; and, in losing thy service,-Why dost thou stop my mouth? LAUN. For fear thou shouldst lose thy tongue. PAN. Where should I lose my tongue? LAUN. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service, and the tied! Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive the boat with my sighs. * Wood-mad, wild. This quibble, according to Steevens, is found in Lyly's 'Endymion,' 1591. We give the punctuation of the original edition. Malone prints the passage thus: "Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service: and the tide!" Steevens omits the and, completing the sentence at "service;" and adding "The tide !" as inter PAN. Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee. LAUN. Sir, call me what thou darest. PAN. Wilt thou go? LAUN. Well, I will go. SCENE IV.-Milan. A Room in the Duke's Palace. Enter VALENTINE, SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. SIL. Servant! VAL. Mistress. SPEED. Master, sir Thurio frowns on you. VAL. Ay, boy, it's for love. SPEED. Not of you. VAL. Of my mistress then. SPEED. T were good you knocked him. SIL. Servant, you are sad. VAL. Indeed, madam, I seem so. THU. Seem you that you are not? VAL. Haply I do. THU. So do counterfeits. VAL. So do you. THU. What seem I that I am not? VAL. Wise. THU. What instance of the contrary? VAL. Your folly. THU. And how quote a you my folly? VAL. I quote it in your jerkin. THU. My jerkin is a doublet 16. VAL. Well, then, I'll double your folly. THU. HOW? SIL. What, angry, sir Thurio? do you change colour? [Exeunt. VAL. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of cameleon. THU. That hath more mind to feed on your blood, than live in VAL. You have said, sir. THU. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. VAL. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin. SIL. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off. jectional. Both editors appear to forget the quibble of Launce on his tied dog; to which quibble, it appears to us, he returns in this passage. In the first instance he says, "It is no matter if the tied were lost;"-he now says, "Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service, and the tied." In the original there is no difference in the orthography of the two words. Quote-to mark. Quote was pronounced cote, from the old French coter. Hence the quibble, I coat it in your jerkin, your short-coat, or jacket. SIL. Who is that, servant? VAL. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire: Sir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks, And spends what he borrows, kindly in your company. THU. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt. VAL. I know it well, sir: you have an exchequer of words, And, I think, no other treasure to give your followers; For it appears, by their bare liveries, That they live by your bare words. SIL. No more, Gentlemen, no more; here comes my father. Enter DUKE. DUKE. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. VAL. My lord, I will be thankful To any happy messenger from thence. DUKE. Know you Don Antonio, your countryman? VAL. Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman To be of worth, and worthy estimation, DUKE. Hath he not a son? VAL. Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves VAL. I knew him, as myself; for from our infancy We have convers'd, and spent our hours together: To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection, We have again a metrical arrangement in the original of this and the preceding speech of Valentine, which scarcely looks like accident. (See p. 18.) It is not, however, the versification of Shakspere's early plays; but, if not meant for verse, it is a measured prose, full of a spirited, harmonious movement. Feature (form or fashion) was applied to the body as well as the face. Thus, in Gower, DUKE. Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good, He is as worthy for an empress' love, VAL. Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he. Silvia, I speak to you: and you, sir Thurio:— Had come along with me, but that his mistress VAL. Nay, sure I think she holds them prisoners still. VAL. Why, lady, love hath twenty pair of eyes. Enter PROTEUS. SIL. Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman. SIL. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither, VAL. Leave off discourse of disability: Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant. PRO. My duty will I boast of, nothing else. "Like to a woman in semblance Of feature and of countenance." And later, in 'All Ovid's Elegies, by C. M.' (Christopher Marlowe)— "I fly her lust, but follow beauty's creature, I loath her manners, love her body's feature." " 'Cite-incite. [Exit DUKE. SIL. And duty never yet did want his meed; Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress. PRO. I'll die on him that says so, but yourself. SIL. That you are welcome? PRO. No; that you are worthless. THU. Madam, my lord your father would speak with you". Go with me:-Once more, new servant, welcome: When you have done, we look to hear from you. [Exeunt SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. VAL. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came? VAL. How does your lady? and how thrives your love? PRO. My tales of love were wont to weary you; I know you joy not in a love-discourse. VAL. Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now; I have done penance for contemning love; Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes, And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. O, gentle Proteus, love 's a mighty lord; And hath so humbled me, as, I confess, There is no woe to his correction b, Nor to his service no such joy on earth! Now, no discourse, except it be of love; Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep, PRO. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye: VAL. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint? In the original this line is given to Thurio; and we are not sure that Theobald's change, of bringing a servant on to deliver the message, is right. We may imagine Thurio fidgeting during the dialogue between Silvia, Proteus, and Valentine; and then hastily coming forward to interrupt it with a real or pretended message. It is characteristic that he should wish to break off this talk in which he is neglected. He may be supposed to step to the door, and receive a message. We restore the original reading. b There is no woe compared to his correction. The idiom was not uncommon. |