Val. Now tell me, how do all from whence you came?

Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much

commended.

Val. And how do yours?

Pro. I left them all in health.

[love ?
Val. How does your lady? and how thrives your
Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you?
I know, you joy not in a love-discourse.

Val. Ay, Protheus, but that life is alter'd now?
I have done penance for contemning love;
Whofe high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
With bitter fafts, with penitential groans;
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs.
For, in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chac'd fleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of mine own heart's forrow.
O gentle Protheus, love's a mighty lord;

And hath fo humbled me, as, I confefs,

There is no wo to his correction;

Nor to his fervice, no fuch joy on earth,

Now no difcourfe, except it be of love;

Now can I break my faft, dine, fup, and sleep
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough: I read your fortune in your eye.

Was this the idol, that you worship fo?

Val. Even fhe; and is fhe not a heav'nly faint?
Pro. No; but fhe is an earthly paragon.

Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

Val. O, flatter me; for love delights in praife. Pro. When I was fick, you gave me bitter pills; And I must minister the like to you.

Val. Then fpeak the truth by her; if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

Sov❜reign

Sov'reign to all the creatures on the earth.
Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any;

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too:
She fhall be dignify'd with this high honour,
To bear my lady's train, left the base earth
Should from her vefture chance to fteal a kifs;
And, of fo great a favour growing proud,
Difdain to root the fummer-fwelling flower;
And make rough winter everlaftingly,

Pro. Why, Valentine, what bragadism is this?
Val. Pardon me, Protheus; all I can, is nothing
To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing;
She is alone

Pro. Then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world: why, man, fhe is mine own; And I as rich in having fuch a jewel,

As twenty feas, if all their fand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou feeft me doat upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes,
Only for his poffeffions are fo huge,
Is gone with her along, and I must after ;
For love, thou know'ft, is full of jealousie.
Pro. But fhe loves you ?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage-hour,

With all the cunning manner of our flight,

Determin'd of; how I must climb her window,
The ladder made of cords; and all the means
Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness.
Good Protheus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I fhall enquire you forth.

I must unto the road, to disembark
Some neceffaries that I needs must use;
And then I'll presently attend you.
Val. Will you make hafte?
Pro. I will.

Ev'n as one heat another heat expels,

[Exit Val.

Or as one nail by ftrength drives out another;
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.

Is it mine Eye, or Valentino's Praise,
Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonlefs, to reason thus?
She's fair; and fo is Julia, that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,
Bears no impreffion of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold;
And that I love him not, as I was wont.
O! but I love his lady too, too, much;
And that's the reafon, I love him fo little.
How fhall I doat on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her?
'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that has dazled fo my reafon's light:

2 Is it mine THEN, or Valentino's Praife,] Here Protheus queftions with himself, whether it is his own praife, or Valentine's, that makes him fall in love with Valentine's miftrefs. Bat not to infift on the abfurdity of falling in love through his own praifes, he had not indeed praised her any farther than giving his opinion of her in three words, when his friend asked it of him. In all the old editions, we find the line printed thus,

Is it mine, or Valentino's praise?

A word is wanting. The line was originally thus,

Is it mine E Y E, or Valentino's praife?

Protheus had juft feen Valentine's mistress, whom her lover had been lavishly praifing. His encomiums therefore heightening Protheus's idea of her at the interview, it was the lefs wonder he fhould be uncertain which had made the strongest impression, Valentine's praises, or his own view of her.

But

But when I look on her perfections,
There is no reason, but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

S

CENE

Changes to a Street.

Enter Speed and Launce.

VIII.

[Exit.

Speed. LAUNCE, by mine honesty, welcome to

3Milan.

Launce. Forfwear not thy felf, fweet youth; for I am not welcome: I reckon this always, that a man is never undone, 'till he be hang'd; nor never welcome to a place, till fome certain fhot be paid, and the hoftefs fay, welcome.

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap; I'll to the alehouse with you prefently, where, for one shot of fivepence, thou fhalt have five thousand welcomes. But, Sirrah, how did thy mafter part with madam Julia? Laun. Marry, after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very fairly in jeft.

Speed. But fhall fhe marry him?

Laun. No.

Speed. How then? shall he marry her?
Laun. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Laun. No, they are both as whole as a fish. Speed. Why then how stands the matter with them? Laun. Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it ftands well with her.

Speed. What an afs art thou? I understand thee not. Laun. What a block art thou, that thou canst not? My staff understands me.

Speed. What thou fay'st?

3 It is Padua in the former editions. See the note on

A& 3.

Mr. Pope.

Laun.

Laun. Ay, and what I do too? look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff underftands me.

Speed. It ftands under thee indeed.

Laun. Why, ftand-under, and understand, is all one. Speed. But tell me true, will't be a match?

Laun. Ask my dog: if he fay, ay, it will; if he fay, no, it will, if he shake his tail, and fay nothing,

it will.

Speed. The conclufion is then, that it will.

Laun. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me, but by a parable.

Speed. 'Tis well, that I get it fo; but Launce, how fay't thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover? Laun. I never knew him otherwise.

Speed. Than how?

Laun. A notable Lubber, as thou reporteft him to be. Speed. Why, thou whorfon afs, thou mistak'st me. Laun. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master.

Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover. Laun. Why, I tell thee, I care not tho' he burn himself in love: If thou wilt go with me to the alehouse, fo; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Chriftian.

Speed. Why?

Laun. Because thou haft not fo much charity in thee, as to go to the ale-house with a Chriftian: wilt thou go?

Speed. At thy fervice.

SCENE IX.

Enter Protheus folus.

[Exeunt.

Pro. To leave my Julia, fhall I be forfworn; To love fair Silvia, fhall I be forsworn;

To wrong my friend, I fhall be much forfworn: And ev❜n that pow'r, which gave me firft my oath, Provokes me to this threefold perjury.