JUL. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-favour'd. Luc. A round hose, madam, now's not worth a

pin,

Unless you have a cod-piece to stick pins on.

JUL. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have What thou think'st meet, and is most mannerly: But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me, For undertaking so unstaid a journey?

I fear me, it will make me scandaliz'd.

Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and go

not.

JUL. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy, but go.
If Proteus like your journey, when you come,
No matter who's displeas'd, when you are gone :
I fear me, he will scarce be pleas'd withal.

JUL. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear:
A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,

However offensive this language may appear to modern ears, it certainly gave none to any of the spectators in Shakspeare's days. He only used the ordinary language of his contemporaries. Thus in the middle of King James's reign, Lodowick Barry puts the same language into the mouth of a lady, who is disguised in the dress of a page:

Again, ibid. :

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methinks this cod-piece
"Should betray me." RAM ALLEY, 1611.

Sure we never more shall see

"A good leg worne in a long silk stocking,
"With a long cod-piece, of all fashions
"That carried it, father."

Here also the speaker is a lady. MALONE.

8 OUT, OUT, Lucetta! &c.] Dr. Percy observes, that this interjection is still used in the North. It seems to have the same meaning as apage, Lat.

So, in Chapman's version of the thirteenth Iliad :

"Out, out, I hate ye from my heart, ye rotten-minded men!

STEEVENS.

So, in Every Man out of his Humour, Act. II. Sc. VI. :
Out, out! unworthy to speak where he breatheth." REED.

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And instances of the infinite of love,

Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men. JUL. Base men, that use them to so base effect!

But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth:
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud, as heaven from earth.
Luc. Pray heaven, he prove so, when you come
to him!

JUL. Now, as thou lov'st me, do him not that wrong,

To bear a hard opinion of his truth;
Only deserve my love, by loving him;
And presently go with me to my chamber,
To take a note of what I stand in need of,
To furnish me upon my longing journey1.

9 And instances of THE infinite of love,] The old copy hasof infinite of love; from which I have only deviated by the introduction of the before of. We have in other places the infinite used as a substantive. Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing:

"It is past the infinite of thought."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

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The past proportion of his infinite."

Infinites appears even in the latter end of the sixteenth century to have been used as a substantive in the sense of an infinity. Thus in the Memoirs of Lord Lonsdale, written in 1688, and printed in 1808, p. 49:

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Infinites of men prest for the shippes and forces drawn out of Ireland."

The person who revised the second folio gave the reading which has been adopted in all the modern editions. :

"And instances as infinite of love."

But of and as are by no means likely to have been confounded. Besides, as is not supported by the context; for the oaths mentioned in the preceding line were not infinite, their number, though a large one, being specified. MALONE.

I

my LONGING journey.] Dr. Grey observes, that longing is

All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
My goods, my lands, my reputation;
Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
Come, answer not, but to it presently;
I am impatient of my tarriance.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Milan. An Ante-room in the DUKE's Palace.

Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS. DUKE. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile; We have some secrets to confer about.

[Exit THURIO. Now, tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me? PRO. My gracious lord, that which I would dis

cover,

The law of friendship bids me to conceal :
But, when I call to mind your gracious favours
Done to me, undeserving as I am,

My duty pricks me on to utter that

Which else no worldly good should draw from me.
Know, worthy prince, sir Valentine, my friend,
This night intends to steal away your daughter;
Myself am one made privy to the plot.

I know, you have determin'd to bestow her
On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates;
And should she thus be stolen away from you,
It would be much vexation to your age.

Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose

a participle active, with a passive signification; for longed, wished or desired. STEEVENS.

I believe that by her longing journey, Julia means a journey which she shall pass in longing. M. MASON.

To cross my friend in his intended drift,
Than, by concealing it, heap on your head
A pack of sorrows, which would press you down,
Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.

DUKE. Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest

care;

Which to requite, command me while I live.
This love of theirs myself have often seen,
Haply, when they have judg'd me fast asleep;
And oftentimes have purpos'd to forbid
Sir Valentine her company, and my court:
But fearing, lest my jealous aim2 might err,
And so, unworthily, disgrace the man,
(A rashness that I ever yet have shunn'd,)
I gave him gentle looks; thereby to find
That which thyself hast now disclos'd to me.
And, that thou may'st perceive my fear of this,
Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested3,
I nightly lodge her in an upper tower,
The key whereof myself have ever kept;
And thence she cannot be convey'd away.

PRO. Know, noble Lord, they have devis'd a mean
How he her chamber-window will ascend,
And with a corded ladder fetch her down;
For which the youthful lover now is gone,
And this way comes he with it presently;
Where, if it please you, you may intercept him.
But, good my lord, do it so cunningly,
That my discovery be not aimed at*;

2 - jealous AIM-] Aim is guess, in this instance, as in the following. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

"I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd." STEEVENS. So, also, in Othello:

"Yet in these cases, where the aim reports,

""Tis oft with difference." MALONE.

-suggested,] Tempted. This use of the word is frequent in Shakspeare; see before, p. 60. BOSWELL.

4

be not AIMED AT ;] Be not guessed. JOHNSON.

For love of you, not hate unto my friend,
Hath made me publisher of this pretence".

DUKE. Upon mine honour, he shall never know That I had any light from thee of this.

PRO. Adieu, my lord; sir Valentine is coming.

Enter VALENtine.

[Exit.

DUKE. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast? VAL. Please it your grace, there is a messenger That stays to bear my letters to my friends, And I am going to deliver them.

DUKE. Be they of much import?

VAL. The tenor of them doth but signify My health, and happy being at your court.

DUKE. Nay, then no matter; stay with me awhile; I am to break with thee of some affairs,

That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret. 'Tis not unknown to thee, that I have sought To match my friend, sir Thurio, to my daughter. VAL. I know it well, my lord; and sure, the match

Were rich and honourable; besides, the gentle

man

Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities
Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter:
Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?

DUKE. No, trust me; she is peevish, sullen, froward,

Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty;
Neither regarding that she is my child,
Nor fearing me as if I were her father:
And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers,

5

of this pretence.] Of this claim made to your daughter.

Pretence is design. So, in K. Lear: "

JOHNSON.

to my affection to your honour, and no other pretence of danger." Again, in the same play : ―pretence and purpose of unkindness." STEEVENS.

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