Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine, To Mantua, where, I hear, he makes abode ; Which heaven and fortune still reward with plagues. As full of sorrows as the sea of sands, EGL. Madam, I pity much your grievances; SIL. This evening coming. EGL. Where shall I meet you? Where I intend holy confession. inform the players how sir Eglamour should be drest; and will account for Silvia's having chosen him as a person in whom she could confide without injury to her own character. STEEVENS. 8-grievances;] Sorrows, sorrowful affections. JOHNSON. In our author's time griefs frequently signified grievances; and the present instance shews that in return grievance sometimes was used in the sense of grief. MALONE. So, in Hamlet: 9 RECKING as little-] To reck is to care for. "And recks not his own read." Both Chaucer and Spenser use this word with the same signification. STEEVENS. In the old copy the word is written wrecking, but it is only the vulgar and common mode of spelling the word in the text. MALONE. EGL. I will not fail your ladyship: Good morrow, gentle lady. SIL. Good morrow, kind sir Eglamour. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Enter LAUNCE with his dog. LAUNCE. When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I saved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it! I have taught him-even as one would say precisely, thus I would teach a dog. I was sent to deliver him, as a present to mistress Silvia, from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher', and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself2 in all companies! I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog3 indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hang'd for't; sure as I live, he had suffer'd for't: you shall judge. He thrusts me himself into the company of three or four gentleman-like dogs, under the duke's table: he had not to her TRENCHER,] In our author's time, trenchers were in general use even on the tables of the nobility. Hence Shakspeare, who gives to every country the customs of England, has furnished the Duke of Milan's dining table with them. MALONE. KEEP himself-] i. e. restrain himself. STEEVENS. 2 3 -to be a dog —] I believe we should read-I would have, &c. one that takes upon him to be a dog, to be a dog indeed, to be &c. JOHNSON. 4 GENTLEMAN-like dogs,] So the authentick copy; for which the modern editions have-gentlemen like. been there (bless the mark) a pissing while3, but all the chamber smelt him. Out with the dog, says one; What cur is that? says another; Whip him out, says the third; Hang him up, says the duke: I, having been acquainted with the smell before, knew it was Crab; and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs': Friend, quoth I, you mean to whip the dog? Ay, marry, do I, quoth he. You do him the more wrong, quoth I; 'twas I did the thing you wot of. He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would do this for his servant'? Nay, I'll be sworn, I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwise he had been executed: I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath kill'd, otherwise he had suffer'd for't: thou think'st not of this now!-Nay, I remember the trick you served me, when I took my leave of madam Silvia; did not I bid thee still mark me, and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave up my leg, and make water against a gentle 66 S -a PISSING WHILE,] This expression is used in Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady: -have patience but a pissing while." It appears from Ray's Collection, that it is proverbial. STEEVENS. the fellow that WHIPS the dogs:] This appears to have been part of the office of an usher of the table. So, in Mucedorus: 66 : "I'll prove my office good for look you, &c.—When a dog chance to blow his nose backward, then with a whip I give him good time of the day, and strew rushes presently." 7 STEEVENS. - for HIS servant,] So the authentick copy; for which Mr. Pope substituted-their servant; as certainly our poet ought to have written. I have no doubt that the text is correct. His and their never could have been confounded together either by the eye or the ear. MALONE. 8 - madam SILVIA;] Perhaps we should read of madam Julia. It was Julia only of whom a formal leave could have been taken. 66 STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton, without any necessity I think, reads-Julia; alluding to the leave his master and he took when they left Verona." But it appears from a former scene, (as Mr. Heath has observed,) that Launce was not present when Proteus and Julia woman's farthingale? Didst thou ever see me do such a trick? Enter PROTEUS and JULIA. PRO. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, And will employ thee in some service presently. JUL. In what you please ;—I will do what I can. PRO. I hope thou wilt.-How, now, you whoreson peasant ? Where have you been these two days loitering? LAUNCE. Marry, sir, I carry'd mistress Silvia the dog you bade me. PRO. And what says she to my little jewel? LAUNCE. Marry, she says, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currish thanks is good enough for such a present. PRO. But she receiv'd my dog? LAUNCE. No, indeed, did she not: here have I brought him back again. PRO. What, didst thou offer her this from me? LAUNCE. Ay, sir; the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boys in the market-place: and then I offer'd her mine own; who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater. PRO. Go, get thee hence, and find my dog again. Or ne'er return again into my sight. *First folio, I'll do. parted. Launce, on the other hand, has just taken leave of, i. e. parted from (for that is all that is meant) Madam Silvia. Mr. Steevens, it is observable, in his note, in support of Dr. Warburton's notion, has thrown in the word formal [a formal leave] which are not Launce's words. MALONE. 9 the other SQUIRREL, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads,-the other, Squirrel, &c. and consequently makes Squirrel the proper name of the peast. Perhaps Launce only speaks of it as a diminutive animal, more resembling a squirrel in size, than a dog. STEEVENS. It is printed with a capital letter in the first folio. Boswell. The subsequent words,-“ who is a dog as big as ten of yours," shew that Mr. Steeven's interpretation is the true one. MALONEJ Away, I say; Stayest thou to vex me here? Sebastian, I have entertained thee, She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me 3. I JUL. It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token : —an end,] i. e. in the end, at the conclusion of every business he undertakes. STEEVENS. Still an end, and most an end, are vulgar expressions, and mean commonly, generally. So, in Massinger's Very Woman, a Citizen asks the Master, who had slaves to sell, "What will that girl do?" To which he replies: 66 sure no harm at all, sir, "For she sleeps most an end." M. MASON. This interpretation of Mr. M. Mason's is proved to be right by Mr. Gifford in his note on the passage quoted from Massinger. BOSWELL. • Therefore know THEE,] For this the reading of the only authentick copy, the second folio, more correctly reads-know thou; as our poet certainly ought to have written. But he who has so frequently gave us who for whom, and who has him for he, she for her, &c. would in the same licentious way write thee for thou. I have therefore made no change. MALONE. 3 She lov'd me well, deliver'd it to me.] i. e. She, who delivered it to me, lov'd me well. MAlone. It seems, you lov'd her NOT, to LEAVE her token:] Proteus does not properly leave his lady's token, he gives it away. The old edition has it "It seems you loved her not, not leave her token." I should correct it thus: "It seems you loved her not, nor love her token." JOHNSON. |
