Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdúrate,
Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture, that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep:
For, since the substance of your perfect self
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow;

And to your shadow I will make true love.

Jul. If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, deceive it, And make it but a shadow, as I am.

Sil. I am very loth to be your idol, sir;

But, since your falshood shall become you well4
To worship shadows, and adore false shapes,
Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it:
And so, good rest.

Pro.
That wait for execution in the morn.

As wretches have o'er-night,

[Aside.

[Exeunt PRO. and SIL. from above.

4 But, since your falshood shall become you well-] This is hardly sense. We may read, with very little alteration:

"But since your 're false, it shall become you well." Johnson. There is no occasion for any alteration, if we only suppose, that it is understood here, as in several other places:

"But, since your falshood, shall become you well

"To worship shadows and adore false shapes,"

i. e. But, since your falshood, it shall become you well, &c. Or indeed, in this place, To worship shadows, &c. may be considered as the nominative case to shall become. Tyrwhitt.

"I am very loth (says Silvia) to be your idol; but since your falshood to your friend and mistress shall well become you, to worship shadows, and adore false shapes (i. e. will be properly employed in so doing,) send to me, and you shall have my picture." Ritson.

I once had a better opinion of the alteration, proposed by Dr. Johnson, than I have at present. I now believe the text is right, and that our author means, however licentious the expression,But, since your falshood well becomes, or is well suited to, the worshipping of shadows, and the adoring of false shapes, send to me in the morning for my picture, &c. Or, in other words, But, since the worshipping of shadows and the adoring of false shapes shall well become you, false as you are, send, &c. To worship shadows, &c. I consider as the objective case, as well as you. There are other instances in these plays of a double accusative, depending on the same verb. I have, therefore, followed the punctuation of the old copy, and not placed a comma after falshood, as in the modern editions. Since is, I think, here an adverb, not a preposition. Malone.

Jul. Host, will you go?

Host. By my hallidom, I was fast asleep.

Jul. Pray you, where lies sir Proteus?

Host. Marry, at my house: Trust me, I think, 'tis almost day.

Jul. Not so; but it hath been the longest night,

That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest.5 [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

Egl. This is the hour, that madam Silvia
Entreated me to call, and know her mind;
There's some great matter she 'd employ me in.-
Madam, madam!

Sil.

Egl.

SILVIA appears above, at her window.
Who calls?

Your servant, and your friend;

One, that attends your ladyship's command.

Sil. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good-morrow.
Egl. As many, worthy lady, to yourself.
According to your ladyship's impose,"

I am thus early come, to know what service
It is your pleasure to command me in.

Sil. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
(Think not, I flatter, for, I swear, I do not,)
Valiant, wise, remorseful," well accomplish'd.

5 most heaviest.] This use of the double superlative is frequent in our author. So, in King Lear, Act II. sc. iii:

"To take the basest and most poorest shape." Steevens.

6 your ladyship's impose,] Impose is injunction, command. A task set at college, in consequence of a fault, is still called an imposition. Steevens.

7 remorseful,] Remorseful is pitiful. So, in The Maids' Metamorphosis, by Lyly, 1600:

"Provokes my mind to take remorse of thee."

Again, in Chapman's translation of the 2d book of Homer's Iliad, 1598:

"Descend on our long-toyled host with thy remorseful eye." Again, in the same translator's version of the 20th Iliad:

66

he was none of those remorsefull men,

"Gentle and affable; but fierce at all times, and mad then.”

Steevens.

Thou art not ignorant, what dear good will
I bear unto the banish'd Valentine;

Nor how my father would enforce me marry
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhorr'd.
Thyself hast loved; and I have heard thee say,
No grief did ever come so near thy heart,
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.
Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine,

To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode;
And, for the ways are dangerous to pass,
I do desire thy worthy company,
Upon whose faith and honour I repose.
Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief;
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which heaven and fortune still reward with plagues.
I do desire thee, even from a heart

As full of sorrows, as the sea of sands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

Egl. Madam, I pity much your grievances;
Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give consent to go along with you;
Recking as little1 what betideth me,

8 Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity.] It was common in former ages for widowers and widows to make vows of chastity, in honour of their deceased wives or husbands. In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, page 1013, there is the form of a commission by the bishop of the diocese for taking a vow of chastity, made by a widow. It seems that, besides observing the vow, the widow was, for life, to wear a veil and a mourning habit. Some such distinction we may suppose to have been made, in respect of male votarists; and therefore this circumstance might inform the players how Sir Eglamour should be drest; and will account for Silvia's having chosen him as a person in whom she could confide, without injury to her own character. Steevens.

9 grievances;] Sorrows, sorrowful affections. Johnson.
1 Recking as little-] To reck is to care for. So, in Hamlet:
"And recks not his own rede."

Both Chaucer and Spenser use this word with the same signification. Steevens.

As much I wish all good befortune you.
When will you go?

Sil.

This evening coming. Egl. Where shall I meet you?

Sil.

At friar Patrick's cell,

Where I intend holy confession.
Egl. I will not fail your ladyship:
Good-morrow, gentle lady.

Sil. Good-morrow, kind sir Eglamour.

SCENE IV.

The same.

Enter LAUNCE, with his dog.

[Exeunt.

When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one, that I brought up of a puppy: one, that I saved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would say precisely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was sent to deliver him, as a present to mistress Silvia, from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. Oh, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog3 indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me, that he did, I think verily he had been hanged for 't; sure as I live, he had suffered for 't: you shall judge. He thrusts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemen-like dogs, under the duke's table: he had not been there (bless the mark) a pissing-while; but all the chamber smelt him. Out with the dog! says one; What cur is that? says another; Whip him out! says the third; Hang him up! says the duke. I, having been acquainted with the smell before, knew it was Crab; and goes

2 ·keep himself —] i. e. restrain himself. Steevsns. 3 to be a dog-] I believe we should read-I would have, &c. one that takes upon him to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be, &c.

Johnson.

me to the fellow that whips the dogs:4 Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? Ay, marry, do I, quoth he. You do him the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would do this for their servant?5 Nay, I'll be sworn, I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwise he had been executed: I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for 't: thou think'st not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you served me, when I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid thee still mark me, and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave up my leg, and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? Didst thou ever see me do such a trick?

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

6

Pro. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in some service presently. Jul. In what you please;—I will do what I can. Pro. I hope, thou wilt.-How now, you whoreson [TO LAUN. Where have you been these two days loitering? Laun. Marry, sir, I carried mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.

peasant!

4 The fellow, that whips the dogs:] This appears to have been part of the office of an usher of the table. So, in Mucedorus:

"I'll prove my office good: for look you, &c.-When a dog chance to blow his nose backward, then with a whip I give him good time of the day, and strew rushes presently." Steevens. 5 their servant?] The old copy reads-his servant?

Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone.

Steevens.

madam Silvia;] Perhaps we should read of madam Julia. It was Julia only of whom a formal leave could have been taken,

Steevens.

Dr. Warburton, without any necessity, I think, reads-Julia; "alluding to the leave his master and he took when they left Verona." But it appears from a former scene, (as Mr. Heath has observed) that Launce was not present, when Proteus and Julia parted. Launce on the other hand has just taken leave of, i. e. parted from, (for that is all that is meant) madam Silvia.

Malone.

Though Launce was not present, when Julia and Proteus parted, it by no means follows that he and Crab had not likewise their audience of leave. Ritson,