Bestow thy fawning fmiles on equal mates;
And think, my patience, more than thy defert,
Is privilege for thy departure hence:

Thank me for this, more than for all the favours,
Which, all too much, I have bestow'd on thee.
But if thou linger in my territories,
Longer than fwifteft expedition

Will give thee time to leave our royal court,
By heaven, my wrath fhall far exceed the love
I ever bore my daughter, or thyself.

Be

gone, I will not hear thy vain excufe,

But, as thou lov'ft thy life, make speed from hence. [Exit DUKE. VAL. And why not death, rather than living tor

ment?

To die, is to be banish'd from myself;
And Silvia is myself: banish'd from her,
Is felf from felf; a deadly banishment!
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be, to think that she is by,
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no mufick in the nightingale ;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon :
She is my effence; and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence

Fofter'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom: "

• And feed upon the shadow of perfection.]

Animum picturâ pafcit inani. Virg. HENLEY.

"I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:] To fly his doom, ufed for by flying, or in flying, is a gallicifm. The fenfe is, By avoid

(Think not, I flatter, for, I fwear, I do not,)
Valiant, wife, remorfeful,' well accomplish'd.
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 foul abhorr'd.
Thyself haft lov'd; and I have heard thee say,
No grief did ever come fo near thy heart,
As when thy lady and thy true love died,
Upon whose grave thou vowd'ft 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 defire thy worthy company,

Upon whofe 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 moft unholy match,
Which heaven and fortune ftill reward with plagues.

6 -remorfeful,] Remorfeful is pitiful. So, in The Maids Metamorphofis by Lyly, 1600:

"Provokes my mind to take remorse of thee." Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the 2d book of Homer's Iliad, 1598:

"Defcend on our long-toyled host with thy remorseful eye.' STEEVENS.

Upon whofe grave thou vow'dft pure chastity.] It was common in former ages for widowers and widows to make vows of chastity in honour of their deceased wives or hufbands. In Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, page 1013, there is the form of a commiffion by the bishop of the diocefe for taking a vow of chastity made by a widow. It feems that, befides obferving the vow, the widow was, for life, to wear a veil and a mourning habit. Some fuch distinction we may fuppofe to have been made in refpect of male votarifts; and therefore this circumftance might inform the players how fir Eglamour should be dreft; and will account for Silvia's having chofen him as a perfon in whom she could confide without injury to her own character. STEEVENS.

I do defire thee, even from a heart
As full of forrows as the fea of fands,
To bear me company, and go with me:
If not, to hide what I have faid to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone.

EGL. Madam, I pity much your grievances;
Which fince I know they virtuously are plac'd,
I give confent to go along with you;
Recking as little what betideth me,

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

SIL.

This evening coming.

EGL. Where fhall I meet you?

SIL.

At friar Patrick's cell,

Where I intend holy confeffion.

EGL. I will not fail your ladyfhip:

Good-morrow, gentle lady.

SIL. Good-morrow, kind fir Eglamour. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The fame.

Enter LAUNCE, with his dog.

When a man's fervant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I faved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it! I

8-grievances;] Sorrows, forrowful affections. JOHNSON, Recking as little-] To reck is to care for. So, in Hamlet: "And recks not his own read."

Both Chaucer and Spenfer ufe this word with the fame fignification. STEEVENS.

have taught him-even as one would fay precisely, Thus I would teach a dog. I was fent to deliver him, as a present to mistress Silvia, from my master; and I came no fooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one fhould fay, one that takes upon him to be a dog' 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 hang'd for't; fure as I live, he had fuffer'd for't: you fhall judge. He thrufts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemen-like dogs, under the duke's table: he had not been there (blefs the mark) a piffing while, but all the chamber fmelt him. Out with the dog, fays one; What cur is that? fays another; Whip him out, fays the third; Hang him up, fays the duke. I, having been acquainted with the fmell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs: 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

3

4

. keep himfelf-] i. e. reftrain himself. STEEVENS. to be a dog-] I believe we fhould read-I would have, &c. one that takes upon him to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be, &c. JOHNSON.

4 a piffing while,] This expreffion is used in Ben Jonfon's Magnetic Lady: "-have patience but a piffing while." It ap pears from Ray's Collection, that it is proverbial. STEEVENS.

5 The fellow that whips the dogs:] This appears to have been part of the office of an uber 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 ftrew rufhes prefently." STEEVENS.

do this for their fervant?" Nay, I'll be fworn, I have fat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwife he had been executed: I have stood on the pillory for geefe he hath kill'd, otherwise he had fuffer'd for't: thou think'ft not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you ferved me, when I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid thee ftill mark me, and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave up my leg, and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didft thou ever fee me do fuch a trick?

Enter PROTEUS and JULIA.

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 whorefon peasant? [TO LAUNCE. Where have you been these two days loitering?

LAUN. Marry, fir, I carry'd miftrefs Silvia the dog you bade me.

6 their fervant?] The old copy reads-bis fervant?

7

Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

STEEVENS,

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

Dr. Warburton, without any neceffity I think, reads Julia; "alluding to the leave his mafter and he took when they left Verona." But it appears from a former fcene, (as Mr. Heath has obferved,) that Launce was not prefent 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 prefent when Julia and Proteus parted, it by no means follows that he and Crab had not likewife their audience of leave. RITSON.