SPEED. You mistook, sir; I say she did nod: and you ask me, if she did nod; and I say I. PRO. And that set together, is noddy.

SPEED. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for your pains.

PRO. No, no, you shall have it for bearing the letter.

SPEED. Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you.

PRO. Why, sir, how do you bear with me? SPEED. Marry, sir, the letter very orderly; having nothing but the word, noddy, for my pains.

PRO. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit. SPEED. And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse.

PRO. Come, come, open the matter in brief: What said she?

SPEED. Open your purse, that the money, and the matter, may be both at once deliver'd.

PRO. Well sir, here is for your pains: What said she?

SPEED. Truly, Sir, I think you'll hardly win her. PRO. Why? Couldst thou perceive so much from her?

SPEED. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter: And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind 3. Give her no token but stones; for she's as hard as steel.

3 -in telling YOUR mind.] The editor of the second folio, not understanding this, altered your to her, which has been followed in all the subsequent editions. The old copy is certainly right. The meaning is,-She being so hard to me who was the bearer of your mind, I fear she will prove no less so to you in the act of telling your mind, i. e. when you address her in person.

VOL. IV.

с

PRO. What, said she nothing?

SPEED. No, not so much as-take this for thy pains. To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself: and so, sir, I'll commend you to my master.

PRO. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck ;

Which cannot perish, having thee aboard",
Being destin'd to a drier death on shore :-
I must go send some better messenger;
I fear, my Julia would not deign my lines,
Receiving them from such a worthless post.

[Exeunt.

The opposition is between brought and telling. Though Mr. Steevens had before him this easy and clear explanation of the words found in the only authentick copy of this play, he adhered to the sophisticated reading of the second folio, the words which are above explained being "to him unintelligible."

MALONE.

4 -you have TESTERN'D me;] You have gratified me with a tester, testern, or testen, that is, with a sixpence. JOHNSON.

The old reading is-cestern'd. STEEVENS.

This typographical error was corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

Mr. H. White, in Mr. Steevens's edition of 1803, quotes a passage from one of Latimer's sermons [preached at Stamford in 1750] to show that a tester was in Latimer's time of the value of tenpence: the truth is, that it had a different value at different times. See Fleetwood's Chronicon Pretiosum, p. 32. “Testens, or as we now commonly call them, testers, from a head that was upon them, were coined (as is before said) 36 Hen. VIII. [1542]. Sir H. Spelman says they were French coin of the value of 18d.; and he does not know but they might have gone for as much in England: he says it was brass, and covered over with silver; and in Henry the Eighth's days, for 12d.; but 1 Edw. VI. [1547], it was brought down to 9d. and then to 6d. (which still retains the name)." MALONE.

5 Which cannot perish, &c.] The same proverb has been already alluded to in the first and last scenes of The Tempest.

REED.

SCENE II.

The Same. The Garden of JULIA'S House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

JUL. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, Would'st thou then counsel me to fall in love?

Luc. Ay, madam; so you stumble not unheedfully. JUL. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen, That every day with parle encounter me, In thy opinion, which is worthiest love?

Luc. Please you, repeat their names, I'll shew my mind

According to my shallow simple skill.

JUL. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? Luc. As our knight well-spoken, neat and fine; But, were I you, he never should be mine.

JUL. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio ? Luc. Well, of his wealth; but of himself, so, so JUL. What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus? Luc. Lord, lord! to see what folly reigns in us! JUL. How now, what means this passion at his name?

Luc. Pardon, dear madam; 'tis a passing shame, That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen,

6-he SIR EGLAMOUR never should be mine.] Perhaps Sir Eglamour was once the common cant term for an insignificant inamorato. So, in Decker's Satiromastix :

"Adieu, Sir Eglamour; adieu lute-string, curtain-rod, goosequill," &c. Sir Eglamour of Artoys indeed is the hero of an ancient metrical romance, Imprinted at London, in Foster-lane, at the sygne of the Harteshorne, by John Walley," bl. 1. no date. STEEVENS.

66

7 Should CENSURE thus-] To censure, in our author's time,

JUL. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest?
Luc. Then thus,—of many good I think him best.
JUL. Your reason?

Luc. I have no other but a woman's reason;
I think him so, because I think him so.

JUL. And would'st thou have me cast my love on
him?

Luc. Ay, if you thought your love not cast away.
JUL. Why, he of all the rest hath never mov'd me.
Luc. Yet he of all the rest, I think, best loves ye.
JUL. His little speaking shows his love but small.
Luc. Fire that's closest kept, burns most of all®.
JUL. They do not love, that do not show their love.
Luc. O, they love least, that let men know their
love.

JUL. I would, I knew his mind.

Luc. Peruse this

paper, madam.

JUL. To Julia,-
Say, from whom?

Luc. That the contents will show.

JUL. Say, say; who gave it thee?

Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus :

He would have given it you, but I, being in the way,

generally signified to give one's judgment or opinion. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act II. Sc. I.:

66

-How blest am I

"In my just censure? in my true opinion?" See the note there. MALONE.

FIRE that's closest kept, burns most of all.] The second and third words in this line are thus abbreviated in the only authentick copy of this play; and hence it appears that fire is here, as in many other places in these plays, used as a dissyllable. So, in the "Letting of Humour's Blood," 8vo. 1600:

"O rare compound, a dying horse to choke,
"Of English fyer and of Indie smoke."

If it should be urged, that "Fire that is closest " is a smoother line, I answer that we are not to re-write our author's plays.

MALONE.

Did in your name receive it; pardon the fault, I pray.
JUL. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker9!
Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines?
To whisper and conspire against my youth?
Now, trust me, 'tis an office of great worth,
And you an officer fit for the place.
There, take the paper, see it be return'd;
Or else return no more into my sight.

Luc. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate.

JUL. Will you be
* gone ?

Luc. That you may ruminate.

Exit.

JUL. And yet, I would I had o'erlook'd the letter.
It were a shame, to call her back again,
And pray her to a fault for which I chid her.
What fool is she, that knows I am a maid,
And would not force the letter to my view?
Since maids, in modesty, say No, to that'
Which they would have the profferer construe, Ay.
Fie, fie! how wayward is this foolish love,
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse,
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod!
How churlishly I chid Lucetta hence,
When willingly I would have had her here!

*First folio, ye.

9-a goodly BROKER!] A broker was used for matchmaker, sometimes for a procuress. JOHNSON.

So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1599:

"And flie (o flie) these bed-brokers unclean,
"The monsters of our sex," &c. STEEVENS.

Again, more appositely, in "Look to 't, for I'le stab ye," a collection of satirical verses by S. R. i. e. Samuel Rowlands, 8vo. 1604:

"You scurvie fellow in the broker's suite
"A sattin doublet fac'd with greace and ale,
"That of the art of bawdry can'st dispute,

*

*

*

*

*

"Thou that within thy table hast set down

The names of all the squirrils in the towne," &c.

MALONE.

say No, to that, &c.] A paraphrase on the old proverb, "Maids say nay, and take it." STEEVENS.