PRO. JUL. Alas! Not fo; I think, she lives. PRO. Why doft thou cry, alas? JUL. I cannot choose but pity her. PRO. Wherefore should'st thou pity her? JUL. Because, methinks, that she lov'd 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 fo 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 meffage done, hie home unto my chamber, Where thou shalt find me fad and folitary. Exit PROTEUS, JUL. How many women would do fuch a message? To plead for that, which I would not obtain; 5 To carry that, which I would have refus'd; &c.] The fenfe is, to go and prefent that which I wish to be not accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be difpraised. JOHNSON. I am my master's true confirmed love; Enter SILVIA, attended. Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean JUL. From my master, fir Proteus, madam. SIL. Urfula, bring my picture there. [Picture brought. SIL. I pray thee, let me look on that again. I will not look upon your master's lines: JUL. Madam, he fends your lady ship this ring. SIL. The more fhame for him that he fends it me; For, I have heard him say a thousand times, His Julia gave it him at his departure: Though his falfe finger hath profan'd the ring, Mine shall not do his Julia fo much wrong. JUL. She thanks you. SIL. What fay'st thou? JUL. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my mafter wrongs her much. SIL. Doft thou know her? JUL. Almost as well as I do know myself: SIL. Belike, fhe thinks that Proteus hath forfook her. JUL. I think fhe doth; and that's her cause of forrow. SIL. Is the not paffing fair? JUL. She hath been fairer, madam, than fhe is: When she did think my master lov'd her well, She, in my judgement, was as fair as you; But fince the did neglect her looking-glafs, And threw her fun-expelling mafk away, The air hath ftarv'd the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face," That now she is become as black as I. 6 And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,] The colour of a part pinched, is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly faid to pinch when it produces the fame vifible effect. I believe this is the reafon why the cold is faid to pinch. JOHNSON. Cleopatra fays of herfelf: 66 think on me, "That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black.” STEEVENS, SIL. How tall was fhe?' JUL. About my ftature: for, at Pentecoft, Sil. How tall was be?] We fhould read-" How tall is she ?" For that is evidently the queftion which Silvia means to ask. RITSON. -weep a-good,] i. e. in good earneft. Tout de bon. Fr. So, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633: "And therewithal their knees have rankled fo, 'twas Ariadne, paffioning STEEVENS, For Thefeus' perjury, and unjuft flight;] The hiftory of this twice-deferted lady is too well known to need an introduction here; nor is the reader interrupted on the bufinefs of Shakspeare: but I find it difficult to refrain from making a note the vehicle for a conjecture which I may have no better opportunity of communicating to the public. The fubject of a picture of Guido (commonly fuppofed to be Ariadne deferted by Thefeus and courted by Bacchus) may poffibly have been hitherto miftaken. Whoever will examine the fabulous hiftory critically, as well as the performance itfelf, will acquiefce in the truth of the remark. Övid, in his Fafti, tells us, that Bacchus (who left Ariadne to go on his Indian expedition) found too many charms in the daughter of one of the kings of that country. "Interea Líber depexos crinibus Indos "Flebat amans conjux, fpatiataque littore curvo Which I fo lively acted with my tears, SIL. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!- I weep myself, to think upon thy words. Here, youth, there is my purfe; I give thee this For thy fweet mistress' fake, because thou lov'ft her. Farewell. [Exit SILVIA. JUL. And the fhall thank you for't, if e'er you know her. Quid me defertis perituram, Liber, arenis "Aufus es ante oculos, adducta pellice, noftros In this picture he appears as if juft returned from India, bringing with him his new favourite, who hangs on his arm, and whofe prefence only causes thofe emotions fo vifible in the countenance of Ariadne, who had been hitherto represented on this occafion:. as paffioning "For Thefeus' perjury and unjuft flight." From this painting a plate was engraved by Giacomo Freij, which is generally a companion to the Aurora of the fame mafter. The print is fo common, that the curious may eafily fatisfy themfelves concerning the propriety of a remark which has intruded itself among the notes on Shakspeare. To paffion is ufed as a verb, by writers contemporary with Shakfpeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the fame expreffion: 66 what, art thou paffioning over the picture of Cleanthes?" Again, in Eliofto Libidinofo, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606: if thou gaze on a picture, thou must, with Pigmalion, be paffionate." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. 2: "Some argument of matter passioned." STEEVENS. 'twas Ariadne, paffioning-] On her being deferted by Thefeus in the night, and left on the Island of Naxos. MALONE. |