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! 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; Pro. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal 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 ; But cannot be true servant to my master, 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. Jul. From my master, sir Proteus, madam. Jul. Ay, madam. Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there. [Picture brought, Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.- Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again, 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: Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!- I weep myself, to think upon thy words. know her. A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful. 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 : Her eyes are grey as glass; and so are mine: up, Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, lov'd, and ador'd; My substance should be statue in thy stead." 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. |