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She loved me well, deliver'd it to me.*

Jul. It seems, you loved her not, to leave her token: 5

She's dead, belike.

Pro.

Jul. Alas!

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Not so; I think, she lives.

Pro. Why dost thou cry, alas!

Jul. I cannot choose but pity her.

Pro. Wherefore should'st thou pity her?

Jul. Because, methinks, that she loved you as well As you do love your lady Silvia :

She dreams on him that has forgot her love;
You dote on her, that cares not for your love.
"Tis pity, love should be so contrary;
And thinking on it makes me cry, alas!

Pro. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal
This letter;-that's her chamber.-Tell my lady,
I claim the promise for her heavenly picture.
Your message done, hie home unto my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me sad and solitary.

Exit PROTEUS. Jul. How many women would do such a message? Alas, poor Proteus! thou hast entertain'd A fox, to be the shepherd of thy lambs: Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him That with his very heart despiseth me? Because he loves her, he despiseth me; Because I love him, I must pity him. This ring I gave him, when he parted from me, To bind him to remember my good will: And now am I (unhappy messenger)

4 She loved me well, deliver'd it to me.] i. e. She who delivered it to me, loved me well. MALOne.

5 It seems, you loved her not, to leave her token:] Johnson, not recollecting the force of the word leave, proposes an amendment of this passage, which is unnecessary; for, in the language of the time, to leave means to part with, or give away.

To carry

To plead for that, which I would not obtain ;
that which I would have refus'd;
To praise his faith, which I would have disprais'd,
I am my master's true confirmed love;

But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet I will woo for him; but yet so coldly,
As, heaven, it knows, I would not have him speed,

Enter SILVIA, attended.

Gentlewoman, good day! I

pray you, be my mean To bring me where to speak with madam Silvia. Sil. What would you with her, if that I be she? Jul. If be she, I do entreat your patience

you

To hear me speak the message I am sent on.
Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my master, sir Proteus, madam.
Sil. O-he sends you for a picture?

Jul. Ay, madam.

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought,
Go, give your master this: tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber, than this shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.-
Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd
Delivered you a paper that I should not;
This is the letter to your ladyship.

Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again,
Jul. It may not be; good madam, pardon me,

Sil. There, hold.

I will not look upon your master's lines:

I know, they are stuff'd with protestations,

To carry that, which I would have refus'd; &c.] The sense is, to go and present that which I wish not to be accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be dispraised, JOHNSON.

And full of new-found oaths; which he will break, As easily as I do tear his paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring. Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it me; For, I have heard him say a thousand times, His Julia gave it him at his departure: Though his false finger hath profan'd the ring, Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong. Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What say'st thou?

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much. Sil. Dost thou know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself: To think upon her woes, I do protest,

That I have wept an hundred several times.'

Sil. Belike, she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her.

Jul. I think she doth, and that's her cause of

sorrow.

Sil. Is she not passing fair?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is: When she did think my master lov'd her well, She, in my judgement, was as fair as you; But since she did neglect her looking-glass, And threw her sun-expelling mask away, The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face, That now she is become as black as I.

Sil. How tall was she?7

Jul. About my stature: for, at Pentecost, When all our pageants of delight were play'd, Our youth got me to play the woman's part, And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown; Which served me as fit, by all men's judgement,

7 How tall was she?] We should read—" How tall is she?” 10

As if the garment had been made for me:
Therefore, I know she is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a-good,
For I did play a lamentable part;
Madam, 'twas Ariadne, passioning9
For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight;
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow!

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!-
Alas, poor lady! desolate and left!-

I weep myself, to think upon thy words.
Here, youth, there is my purse; I give thee this
For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her.
Farewell.
[Exit SILVIA.
Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you

know her.

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful.
I hope my master's suit will be but cold,
Since she respects my mistress' love so much.'
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: Let me see; I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers:
And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.

8

9

weep a-good,] i. e. in good earnest. Tout de bon. Fr. 'twas Ariadne, passioning.] To passion is used as a

verb, by writers contemporary with Shakspeare.

'twas Ariadne, passioning-] On her being deserted by Theseus in the night, and left on the island of Naxos.

1

my mistress' love so much.] She had in her preceding speech called Julia her mistress; but it is odd enough that she should thus describe herself, when she is alone. Sir T. Hanmer reads-"his mistress ;" but without necessity. Our author knew that his audience considered the disguised Julia in the present scene as a page to Proteus, and this, I believe, and the love of antithesis, produced the expression. MALONE.

Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow :
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.2

Her eyes are grey as glass; and so are mine:
Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high.
What should it be, that he respects in her,
But I can make respective in myself,
If this fond love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form,

up,

Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, lov'd, and ador'd;
And, were there sense in his idolatry,

My substance should be statue in thy stead."
I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That us'd me so; or else, by Jove I vow,
I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes,
To make my master out of love with thee. [Erit.

I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.] It should be remembered, that false hair was worn by the ladies, long before wigs were in fashion. These false coverings, however, were called periwigs.

3 Her eyes are grey as glass;] So Chaucer, in the character of his Prioress:

"Ful semely hire wimple y-pinched was;

"Hire nose tretis; hire eyen grey as glas." THEOBALD. her forehead's low,] A high forehead was in our author's time accounted a feature eminently beautiful.

5

respective-] i. e. respectable.

6 My substance should be statue in thy stead.] It appears from hence, and a passage in Massinger, that the word statue was formerly used to express a portrait. Statue here, should be written statua, and pronounced as it generally, if not always, was in our author's time, a word of three syllables. Alterations have been often improperly made in the text of Shakspeare, by supposing statue to be intended by him for a dissyllable.

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