Enter PROTEUS. PRO. Sweet love! sweet lines! sweet life! ANT. How now? what letter are you reading PRO. May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two Of commendations sent from Valentine, Deliver❜d by a friend that came from him. ANT. Lend me the letter; let me see what news. Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune. ANT. My will is something sorted with his wish: What maintenance he from his friends receives, when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the French say, à propos. JOHNSON. So, in King Richard III. : 2 "And in good time here comes the sweating lord." STEEVENS. now will we BREAK with him.] That is, break the matter to him. The same phrase occurs in Much Ado About Nothing, Act I. Sc. I. M. MASON. 3 - EXHIBITION-] i. e. allowance. So, in Othello : "Due reference of place and exhibition." To-morrow be in readiness to go: Excuse it not, for I am peremptory. PRO. My lord, I cannot be so soon provided; Please you, deliberate a day or two. ANT. Look, what thou want'st, shall be sent after thee: No more of stay; to-morrow thou must go.- [Exeunt ANTONIO and PANTHINO. PRO. Thus have I shunn'd the fire, for fear of burning; And drench'd me in the sea, where I am drown'd: Again, in The Devil's Law Case, 1623: 66 in his riot does far exceed the exhibition I allowed him.” STEEVENS. The term is still in use at Oxford. Boswell. 4 O, how this spring of love resembleth.] It was not always the custom among our early writers to make the first and third lines rhime to each other; and when a word was not long enough to complete the measure, they occasionally extended it. Spenser, in his Faery Queen, B. II. c. 12: "Formerly grounded, and fast setteled." Again, B. II. c. 12: Thus Many "The while sweet Zephirus loud whisteled, &c." From this practice, I suppose our author wrote resembeleth, which, though it affords no jingle, completes the verse. poems have been written in this measure, where the second and fourth lines only rhime. STEEVENS. Resembleth is here used as a quadrisyllable, as if it was written resembeleth. See Com. of Errors, Act V. Sc. the last : "And these two Dromios, one in semblance.” So, in As You Like It, Act II. Sc. II. : "The parts and graces of the wrestler." Re-enter PANTHINO. PANT. Sir Proteus, your father calls for you; He is in haste, therefore, I pray you, go. PRO. Why, this it is! my heart accords thereto; And yet a thousand times it answers, no. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. Milan. A Room in the DUKE'S Palace. Enter VALENTINE and SPEED. SPEED. Sir, your glove. VAL. Not mine; my gloves are on. SPEED. Why then this may be yours, for this is but one 5. And it should be observed, that Shakspeare takes the same liberty with many other words, in which , or r, is subjoined to another consonant. See Com. of Errors, next verse but one to that cited above: "These are the parents to these children." Where some editors, being unnecessarily alarmed for the metre, have endeavoured to help it by a word of their own: "These plainly are the parents to these children." See the notes at the end of this play. BOSWELL. 5 Val. Not mine, my gloves are ON. TYRWHITT. Speed. Why then, this may be yours; for this is but ONE.] It should seem from this passage, that the word one was anciently pronounced as if it were written on. The quibble here is lost by the change of pronunciation; a loss, however, which may be very patiently endured. In Shakspeare's time, probably in consequence of this similar pronunciation, the two words are frequently confounded. In some manuscript letters of Lord Burghley's, about the year 1585, he very generally writes on for one. See a note in King John, Act III. Sc. III. on the words"Sound one into the drowsy car of night," where various instances of the two words one and on being confounded are accumulated. MALONE. VAL. Ha! let me see: ay, give it me, it's mine:- SPEED. Madam Silvia! madam Silvia! SPEED. She is not within hearing, sir. VAL. Why, sir, who bad you call her? SPEED. And yet I was last chidden for being too slow. VAL. Go to, sir; tell me, do you know madam Silvia ? SPEED. She that your worship loves? VAL. Why, how know you that I am in love? SPEED. Marry, by these special marks: First, you have learn'd like sir Proteus, to wreath your arms like a male-content; to relish a love-song, like a Robin-red-breast; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had lost his A B C; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam ; to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas". You 6 -TAKES DIET;] To take diet was the phrase for being under a regimen for a disease mentioned in Timon: 7 66 bring down the rose cheek'd youth "To the tub-fast and the diet." STEEVENS. Hallowmas.] That is, about the feast of All-Saints, when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable. JOHNSON. It is worth remarking, that on All-Saints-Day the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a souling as they call it; i. e. begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Dict. explains puling) for soul-cakes, or any good thing to make them merry? This custom is mentioned by Peck, and seems a remnant of Popish superstition to pray for departed souls, particularly those of friends. The souler's song, in Staffordshire, is different from that which Mr. Peck mentions, and is by no means worthy publication. TOLLET. were wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock; when you walk'd, to walk like one of the lions; when you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you look'd sadly, it was for want of money: and now you are metamorphos'd with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master. VAL. Are all these things perceived in me? SPEED. They are all perceived without ye. VAL. Without me? they cannot. SPEED. Without you? nay, that's certain; for, without you were so simple, none else would: but you are so without these follies, that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal; that not an eye, that sees you, but is a physician to comment on your malady. VAL. But, tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia ? SPEED. She, that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper? VAL. Hast thou observed that? even she I mean. SPEED. Why, sir, I know her not. VAL. Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet know'st her not? SPEED. Is she not hard-favour'd, sir? SPEED. That she is not so fair, as (of you) wellfavour'd. VAL. I mean, that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour infinite. SPEED. That's because the one is painted, and the other out of all count. VAL. How painted? and how out of count? 8 like one of the lions ;] If Shakspeare had not been thinking of the lions in the Tower, he would have written "like a lion." RITSON. 9 - none else would :] None else would be so simple. JOHNSON. |