Whose golden touch could foften steel and stones, Tune a deploring dump; the night's dead silence Duke. This discipline shews thou hast been in love. Thu. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice. Duke. About it, gentlemen. Pro. We'll wait upon your grace, 'till after supper; [Exeunt. poet only, or, lover, the quality given to his lute is unintel. ligible. But, considered as a lawgiver, the thought is noble, and the imagery exquisitely beautiful. For by his lute is to be understood his system of laws; and by the poet's finews, the power of numbers, which Orpheus actually employed in those laws to make them received by a fierce and barbarous people. WARBURTON. " I will pardon you.] I will excuse you from waiting. JOHNSON, not, but down A CT IV. SCENE I. A forest, leading towards Mantua. 1 OUT-L AW. TELLOWS, stand fast: I see a passenger. T 2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but dowa with 'em. Enter Valentine and Speed. 3 Out. Stand, Sir, and throw us what you have about you; 'If not, we'll make you fit and rifle you. Speed. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains that all the travellers do fear so much. Val. My friendsi Out. That's not so, Sir; we are your enemies. 2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him. 3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we ; for he is a proper man. Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose: 2 Out. Whither travel you? "If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.] The old copy reads as I have printed it. Paltry as the opposition between fland and fit may be thought, it is Shakespeare's own. The editors read, we'll make you, Sir, &c Steevens. 3 Out. Have you long sojourn’d there? Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid, 1 Out. What, were you banilh'd thence ? Val. For that, which now torments me to rehearse: i Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so. But were you banish'd for so small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. i Out. Have you the tongues ? Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy, . Or else I often had been miserable. 3 Out. By the bare scalp of · Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction. i Out. We'll have him. Sirs, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them : it is an honourable kind of thievery. Val. Peace, villain ! 2 Out. Tell us this; have you any thing to take to? Val. Nothing, but my fortune. 3 Out. Know then, that some of us are gentlemen, Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth Thrust from the company of 3 awful men ; Myself was from Verona banished, ? Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. JOHNSON. 3- awful men;] Reverend, worshipful, such as magi- , strates, and other principal members of civil communities. JOHNSON. I think we should read lawful in opposition to lawless men. In judicial proceedings the word has this sense. HAWKINS. The author of The Revisal has proposed the same emendation. STEEVENS. L 2 For For practising to steal away a lady, 2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart. i Out. And I for such like petty crimes as these. But to the purpose ;-(for we cite our faults, That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives ;) And, partly, seeing you are beautify'd With goodly shape, and by your own report A linguist; and a man of such perfection, As we do in our quality much want 2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you; Are you content to be our general ? To make a virtue of necessity, And live, as we do, in the wilderness ? 3 Out. What fay'st thou? wilt thou be of our con fort ? i Out. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou dy'ít. offer'd. 3 Out. No, we detest such vile base practices. 4 All the impr. lions, from the first downwards, An heir and nicce allied unto the cuke. But our poct would never have expreiled himself fo stupidly, as to tell us, this lady was the duke's ni??, and allied to him: for her alliance was certainly fudicicn:ly included in the first term. Our author meant to fily', he was an heiress, and near allied to the duke; an exprellion the most natural that can be for the purpose, and very frequently used by the ilage-poets. THEOBALD. · SCENE s CE NE II. Under Silvia's apartment in Afilan. Enter Protheus. Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine, And now I must be as unjust to Thurio. Under the colour of commending him, I have access my own love to prefer, But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. When I protest true loyalty to her, She twits me with my falfhood to my friend; When to her beauty I commend my vows, She bids me think, how I have been forsworn In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov’d. And, notwithstanding all her 'sudden quips, The least whereof would quell a lover's hope, Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love, The more it grows, and fawneth on her still. But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window, And give some evening music to her ear. Will creepbut I hopeor eile I would be Enter Thurio and Musicians. fore us ? Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that love Will creep in service where it cannot go. Thu. Ay, but I hope, Sir, that you love not here. Thu. I thank you for your own: now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it luftily a while. sudden quips,] That is, haliy patienate reproaches and scoffs. So Macbeth is in a kindred sense said to be fundin; thias is, irascible and impetuous. JOHNSON. Enter L 3 |