The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare

SPEED. Marry, sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no man 'counts of her beauty.

VAL. How esteem'st thou me? I account of her beauty.

SPEED. You never saw her since she was deform'd.
VAL. How long hath she been deform'd?
SPEED. Ever since you loved her.

VAL. I have loved her ever since I saw her; and still I see her beautiful.

SPEED. If you love her, you cannot see her.
VAL. Why?

SPEED. Because love is blind. O, that

you had mine eyes; or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to have, when you chid at sir Proteus for going ungartered1!

VAL. What should I see then?

SPEED. Your own present folly, and her passing deformity: for he, being in love, could not see to garter his hose; and you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose."

VAL. Belike, boy, then you are in love; for last morning you could not see to wipe my shoes.

SPEED. True, sir; I was in love with my bed: I thank you, you swinged me for my love, which makes me the bolder to chide you for yours.

VAL. In conclusion, I stand affected to her. SPEED. I would you were set 2; so, your affection would cease.

for going UNGARTERED!] This is enumerated by Rosalind in As You Like It, Act. III. Sc. II. as one of the undoubted marks of love : "Then your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, &c." MALONE.

2 I would you were SET;] Set for seated, in opposition to stand in the preceding line. M. MASON.

I believe the opposition above-mentioned was intended; but the meaning was surely of a very different nature from any thing connected with being seated. How being seated would diminish Valentine's affection, Mr. Mason has not told us. The poet more probably used set metaphorically, with a view to the sense in which

VAL. Last night she enjoin'd me to write some lines to one she loves.

SPEED And have you?

VAL. I have.

SPEED. Are they not lamely writ?

VAL. No, boy, but as well as I can do them :Peace, here she comes.

Enter SILVIA,

SPEED. O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet3! Now will he interpret to her.

VAL. Madam and mistress, a thousand good

morrows.

SPEED. O, 'give ye good even! here's a million of manners. [Aside. SIL. Sir Valentine and servant, to you two thousand.

it is employed when applied to the sun, when it falls below the horison in the west. MALONE.

3 O excellent MOTION! &c.] Motion, in Shakspeare's time, signified puppet. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair it is frequently used in that sense, or rather perhaps to signify a puppetshow; the master whereof may properly be said to be an interpreter, as being the explainer of the inarticulate language of the actors. The speech of the servant is an allusion to that practice, and he means to say, that Silvia is a puppet, and that Valentine is to interpret to or rather for her. SIR J. HAWKINS.

So, in The City Match, 1639, by Jasper Maine:

his mother came,

"Who follows strange sights out of town, and went
"To Brentford for a motion.".

Again, in The Pilgrim :

Nothing but a motion?

"A puppet pilgrim?"

STEEVENS.

A motion certainly signified a puppet-show, not a puppet. See the extracts from Sir Henry Herbert's Office Book, vol. iii. Speed means to say, what a fine puppet-show shall we have now? Here is the principal puppet to whom my master will be the interpreter. The master of the puppet-show, or the person appointed by him to speak for his mock actors, was in Shakspeare's time frequently denominated the interpreter to the puppets. MALONE. 4 Sir Valentine and SERVANT,] Here Silvia calls her lover

SPEED. He should give her interest; and she gives it him.

VAL. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter, Unto the secret nameless friend of yours;

Which I was much unwilling to proceed in,
But for my duty to your ladyship.

SIL. I thank you, gentle servant: 'tis very clerkly done 5.

VAL. Now trust me, madam, it came hardly off"; For, being ignorant to whom it goes,

I writ at random, very doubtfully.

SIL. Perchance you think too much of so much pains?

VAL. No, madam; so it stead you, I will write, Please you command, a thousand times as much : And yet,

SIL. A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel; And yet I will not name it :-and yet I care

not;

And yet take this again;-and yet I thank you; Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more. SPEED. And yet you will; and yet another yet.

[Aside.

servant, and again below, her gentle servant. This was the language of ladies to their lovers at the time when Shakspeare wrote. SIR J. HAWKINS.

So, in Marston's What You Will, 1607 : "Sweet sister, let's sit in judgement a little; faith upon my servant Monsieur Laverdure.

Mel. Troth, well for a servant; but for a husband!" Again, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour :

Every man was not born with my servant Brisk's features."
STEEVENS.

5 - 'tis very CLERKLY done.] i. e. like a scholar. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor :

"Thou art clerkly, sir John, clerkly." STEEVENS.

it CAME hardly OFF;] A similar phrase occurs in Timon of Athens, Act I. Sc. I.:

This comes off well and excellent." STEEVENS.

VAL. What means your ladyship? do you not like it ?

SIL. Yes, yes! the lines are very quaintly writ: But since unwillingly, take them again; Nay, take them.

VAL. Madam, they are for you.

SIL. Ay, ay; you writ them, sir, at my request; But I will none of them; they are for you: I would have had them writ more movingly.

VAL. Please you, I'll write your ladyship another. SIL. And, when it's writ, for my sake read it

over:

And, if it please you, so; if not, why, so.

VAL. If it please me, madam; what then? SIL. Why, if it please you, take it for your labour; And so good-morrow, servant.

[Exit SILVIA. SPEED. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a

steeple!

My master sues to her; and she hath taught her suitor,

He being her pupil, to become her tutor.

O excellent device! was there ever heard a better? That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter?

VAL. How now, sir? what are you reasoning with yourself' ?

SPEED. Nay, I was rhiming; 'tis you that have the reason.

VAL. To do what?

SPEED. To be a spokesman from madam Silvia. VAL. To whom?

7 - reasoning with yourself?] That is, discoursing, talking. An Italianism. JOHNSON.

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday." STEEVens.

SPEED. To yourself: why, she wooes you by a

figure.

VAL. What figure?

SPEED. By a letter, I should say.

VAL. Why, she hath not writ to me?

SPEED. What need she, when she hath made you write to yourself? Why, do you not perceive the jest?

VAL. No, believe me.

SPEED. No believing you indeed, sir: But did you perceive her earnest ?

VAL. She gave me none, except an angry word. SPEED. Why, she hath given you a letter.

VAL. That's the letter I writ to her friend. SPEED. And that letter hath she deliver'd, and there an end 8.

VAL. I would, it were no worse.

SPEED. I'll warrant you, 'tis as well:

For often have you writ to her; and she, in modesty, Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply; Or fearing else some messenger, that might her mind discover,

Her self hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.

All this I speak in print; for in print I found it.Why muse you, sir? 'tis dinner time.

8 and there an end.] i. e. there's the conclusion of the

matter.

"That when the brains were out the man would die,

"And there an end." STEEVENS.

9 All this I speak IN PRINT;] In print means with exactness. So, in the comedy of All Fooles, 1605:

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The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: With the Corrections and ..., Том 4