The match between sir Thurio and my daughter. Duke. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant Pro. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. Therefore it must, with circumstance, be spoken Duke. Then you must undertake to slander him. Especially, against his very friend. Duke. Where your good word cannot advantage him, Your slander never can endamage him ; Therefore the office is indifferent, Being intreated to it by your friend. Pro. You have prevail'd, my lord: if I can do it, Thu. Therefore, as you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel, and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me :3 Which must be done by praising me as much As you in worth dispraise sir Valentine. Duke. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind: Because we know, on Valentine's report, You are already love's firm votary, And cannot soon revolt and change your mind. And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you; [3] As you wind off her love from him, make me the bottom on which you wind it. The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a bottom of thread. JOHNSON. Where you may temper her, by your persuasion, For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews;5 Visit by night your lady's chamber-window, Duke. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music : To give the onset to thy good advice. [4] That is, birdlime. JOHNSON. [5] This shews Shakspeare's knowledge of antiquity. He here assigns Or. pheus his true character of legislator. For under that of a poet only,or lover, the quality given to his lute is unintelligible. But, considered as a lawgiver, the thought is noble, and the imagery exquisitely beautiful. For by his lute is to be understood his system of laws; and by the poet's sinews, the power of numbers, which Orpheus actually employed in those laws to make them received by a fierce and barbarous people. WARBURTON. Proteus is describing to Thurio the powers of poetry; and gives no quali. ty to the lute of Orpheus, but those usually and vulgarly ascribed to it. It would be strange indeed if, in order to prevail upon the ignorant and stupid Thurio to write a sonnet to his mistress, he should enlarge upon the legislative powers of Orpheus, which were nothing to the purpose. Warburton's observations frequently tend to prove Shakspeare more profound and learned than the occasion required, and to make the Poet of Nature the most unnatural that ever wrote. M. MASON. [6] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy. 18 VOL. I. STEEVENS. Pro. We'll wait upon your grace till after supper: And afterward determine our proceedings. Duke. Even now about it; I will pardon you. [Exe. ACT IV. SCENE I-A Forest, near Mantua. Enter certain Outlaws. 1 Outlaw. FELLOWS, stand fast; I see a passenger. 2 Out. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em. Enter VALENTINE and SPEED. 3 Out. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you; If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you. Speed. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains That all the travellers do fear so much. Val. My friends,— 1 Out. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies. 2 Out. Peace; we'll hear him. 3 Out. Ay, by my beard, will we; For he's a proper man. Val. Then know, that I have little wealth to lose ; A man I am, cross'd with adversity : My riches are these poor habiliments, Of which, if you should here disfurnish me, You take the sum and substance that I have. 2 Out. Whither travel you? Val. To Verona. 1 Out. Whence came you? Val. From Milan. 3 Out. Have you long sojourn'd there? Val. Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid, If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. 1 Out. What, were you banish'd thence? Val. I was. 2 Out. For what offence ? Val. For that which now torments me to rehearse : I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent; But yet I slew him manfully in fight, 1 Out. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so : But were you banish'd for so small a fault? Val. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 Out. Have you the tongues? Val. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or else I often had been miserable. 3 Out. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, 7 This fellow were a king for our wild faction. 1 Out. We'll have him: sirs, a word. Speed. Master, be one of them; It is an honourable kind of thievery. 2 Out. Tell us this: Have you any thing to take to? Val. Nothing, but my fortune. 3 Out Know then, that some of us are gentlemen, An heir, and near allied unto the duke. 2 Out. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, Whom, in my mood, 8 I stabb'd unto the heart. 1 Out. And I, for such like petty crimes as these. As we do in our quality much want; 2 Out. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you: Are you content to be our general? To make a virtue of necessity, And live, as we do, in this wilderness? 3 Out. What say'st thou ? wilt thou be of our consórt ? Say, ay, and be the captain of us all : We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee, Love thee as our commander, and our king. [7] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson seems to have misunderstood this passage. The speaker does not swear by the scalp of some churchman who had been plundered, but by the shaven crown of Robin Hood's chaplain.-"We will live and die together, (says a personage in Peele's Edward I. 1593,) like Robin Hood, little John, friar Tucke, and Maide Marian." MALONE. [8] Mood is anger or resentment. MALONE. 1 Out. But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou dy'st. 2 Out. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd. Val. I take your offer, and will live with you; Provided that you do no outrages On silly women, or poor passengers.9 3 Out. No, we detest such vile, base practices. Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews, And shew thee all the treasure we have got ; Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Milan. Court of the Palace. Enter PROTEUS. Pro. Already have I been false to Valentine, She twits me with my falsehood to my friend; But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window, Enter THURI0, and Musicians. Thu. How now, sir Proteus? are you crept before us? Pro. Ay, gentle Thurio; for, you know, that love Will creep in service where it dare not go. Thu. Ay, but, I hope, sir, that you love not here. Thu. Whom? Silvia? Pro. Ay, Silvia,-for your sake. Thu. I thank you for your own.-Now, gentlemen, Let's tune, and to it lustily a while. [9] This was one of the rules of Robin Hood's government. STEEV. |