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

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

Enter VALENTINE.

[Exit.

DUKE. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast? VAL. Please it your grace there is a meffenger 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 fignify My health, and happy being at your court.

DUKE. Nay, then no matter; stay with me a while; I am to break with thee of fome affairs,

That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret. 'Tis not unknown to thee, that I have fought To match my friend, fir Thurio, to my daughter.

VAL. I know it well, my lord; and, fure, the match Were rich and honourable; befides, the gentleman Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities Beseeming fuch a wife as your fair daughter: Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?

DUKE. No, truft me; she is peevish, fullen, froward, Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty; Neither regarding that the is my child, Nor fearing me as if I were her father: And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers, Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her; And, where I thought the remnant of mine age Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty,

And, where] Where, in this inftance, has the power of whereas. So, in Pericles, Act I. fc. i:

"Where now you're both a father and a fon." STEEVENS

I now am full refolv'd to take a wife,
And turn her out to who will take her in:
Then let her beauty be her wedding-dower;
For me and my poffeffions fhe esteems not.

VAL. What would your grace have me to do in this?

DUKE. There is a lady, fir, in Milan, here," Whom I affect; but fhe is nice, and coy, And nought esteems my aged eloquence: Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor, (For long agone I have forgot to court; Besides, the fashion of the time is chang'd;) How, and which way, I may bestow myself, To be regarded in her fun-bright eye.

8

VAL. Win her with gifts, if the refpect not words; Dumb jewels often, in their filent kind,

More than quick words, do move a woman's mind."

fir, in Milan, here,] It ought to be thus, instead of—in Verona, here for the fcene apparently is in Milan, as is clear from feveral paffages in the first act, and in the beginning of the first fcene of the fourth act, A like mistake has crept into the eighth scene of Act II, where Speed bids his fellow-fervant Launce welcome to Padua. POPE.

8the fabion of the time] The modes of courtship, the acts by which men recommended themselves to ladies. JOHNSON. 9 Win her with gifts, if she refpect not words;

Dumb jewels often, in their filent kind,

More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.] So, in our author's Paffionate Pilgrim:

66

Spare not to spend,

"The strongest caftle, tower, and town,

"The golden bullet beats it down.”

A line of this ftanza

"The ftrongest castle, tower, and town,"

and two in a fucceeding ftanza,

"What though fhe ftrive to try her ftrength,

"And ban and brawl, and fay thee nay,'

remind us of the following verfes in The Hiftorie of Graunde Amoure,

DUKE. But she did scorn a present that I fent her.' VAL. A woman fometime scorns what best contents her:

Send her another; never give her o'er;
For fcorn at first makes after-love the more.
If the do frown, 'tis not in hate of you,
But rather to beget more love in you:
If fhe do chide, 'tis not to have you gone;
For why, the fools are mad, if left alone.
Take no repulse, whatever the doth say;
For, get you gone, the doth not mean, away:
Flatter, and praise, commend, extol their graces;
Though ne'er fo black, fay, they have angels' faces.
That man that hath a tongue, I fay, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

[fign. I 2.] written by Stephen Hawes, near a century before thofe of Shakspeare:

Forfake her not, though that she saye nay;

"A womans guife is evermore delay.
"No caftell can be of fo great a ftrength,
"If that there be a fure fiege to it layed,

"It must yelde up, or els be won at length,

"Though that 'to-fore it hath bene long delayed;
"So continuance may you right well ayde:
"Some womans harte can not so harded be,
"But bufy labour may make it agree.'

Another earlier writer than Shakspeare, fpeaking of women, has alfo the fame unfavourable (and, I hope, unfounded) sentiment: ""Tis wifdom to give much; a gift prevails, "When deep perfuafive oratory fails.'

2

Marlowe's HERO AND LEANDER.

MALONE.

that I fent her.] To produce a more accurate rhime, we

might read:

Mr. M. Mafon obferves that the rhime, which was evidently here intended, requires that we fhould read-" what best content her." The word what may imply those which, as well as that which.

STEEVENS.

That I defpife thee for thy wrongful fuit;
And by and by intend to chide myself,

Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.

PRO. I grant, fweet love, that I did love a lady: But she is dead.

JUL. 'Twere falfe, if I fhould fpeak it; For, I am fure, fhe is not buried.

[Afide.

SIL. Say, that fhe be; yet Valentine, thy friend, Survives; to whom, thyfelf art witness,

I am betroth'd: And art thou not afham'd
To wrong him with thy importúnacy?

PRO. I likewife hear, that Valentine is dead. SIL. And fo, fuppofe, am I; for in his grave1 Affure thyfelf, my love is buried.

PRO. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. SIL. Go to thy lady's grave, and call her's thence; Or, at the leaft, in her's fepulchre thine.

JUL. He heard not that.

[Afide.

PRO. Madam, if your heart be so obdúrate,
Vouchfafe me yet your picture for my love,
The picture that is hanging in your chamber;
To that I'll speak, to that I'll figh and weep:
For, fince the fubftance of your perfect felf
Is elfe devoted, I am but a fhadow;

And to your shadow will I make true love.

JUL. If 'twere a substance, you would, fure, deceive it,

And make it but a fhadow, as I am.

SIL. I am very loth to be your idol, fir;

[Afide.

-in his grave-] The old copy has her grave. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio.

MALONE.

I'll get me one of fuch another length.

VAL. Why, any cloak will ferve the turn, my lord.

DUKE. How fhall I fashion me to wear a cloak?— I pray thee, let me feel thy cloak upon me.— What letter is this fame? What's here?-To Silvia? And here an engine fit for my proceeding! I'll be fo bold to break the feal for once. My thoughts do barbour with my Silvia nightly; And flaves they are to me, that fend them flying: O, could their mafter come and go as lightly,

[reads.

Himfelf would lodge, where fenfeless they are lying. My herald thoughts in thy pure bofom reft them;

While I, their king, that thither them impórtune, Do curfe the grace that with fuch grace hath bless'd them, Becaufe myfelf do want my fervants' fortune:

I curfe myself, for they are fent by me,*

That they should harbour where their lord should be.
What's here?

Silvia, this night I will enfranchise thee:

'Tis fo; and here's the ladder for the purpose.-
Why, Phaeton, (for thou art Merops' fon,)
Wilt thou afpire to guide the heavenly car,
And with thy daring folly burn the world?
Wilt thou reach stars, because they shine on thee?
Go, base intruder! over-weening flave!

5

for they are fent by me,] For is the same as for that, fince.

JOHNSON.

Merops' Jon,)] Thou art Phaëton in thy rafhnefs, but without his pretenfions; thou art not the fon of a divinity, but a terræ filius, a low-born wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaeton was falfely reproached. JOHNSON.

This fcrap of mythology Shak fpeare might have found in the fpurious play of K. John, 1591:

as fometime Phaeton

Miftrufting filly Merops for his fire."

Or in Robert Greene's Orlando Furiofo, 1594:

Why, foolish, hardy, daring, fimple groom,

"Follower of fond conceited Phaeton," &c. STEEVENS,