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Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain!
What halloing and what stir is this to-day?
These are my mates, that make their wills their
law,

Have some unhappy passenger' in chase.

They love me well; yet I have much to do
To keep them from uncivil outrages.

Withdraw thee, Valentine: who's this comes
here?

Enter Proteus, Silvia, and Julia.

Pro. Madam, this service I have done for you, Though you respect not aught your servant doth,

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To hazard life, and rescue you from him
That would have forced your honor and your
love;

Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look;
A smaller boon than this I cannot beg,

And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give. Val. [Aside] How like a dream is this I see and hear!

Love, lend me patience to forbear awhile. Sil. O miserable, unhappy that I am!

Pro. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came;

But by my coming I have made you happy. 30 Sil. By thy approach thou makest me most unhappy.

Jul. [Aside] And me, when he approacheth to your

presence.

Sil. Had I been seized by a hungry lion,

I would have been a breakfast to the beast,

Rather than have false Proteus rescue me. O, Heaven be judge how I love Valentine, Whose life's as tender to me as my soul! And full as much, for more there cannot be, I do detest false perjured Proteus. Therefore be gone; solicit me no more. Pro. What dangerous action, stood it next to

death,

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Would I not undergo for one calm look!
O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved,
When women cannot love where they 're be-
loved!

Sil. When Proteus cannot love where he 's beloved.
Read over Julia's heart, thy first, best love,

For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy
faith

Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths
Descended into perjury, to love me.

Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst

two,

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And that's far worse than none; better have

none

Than plural faith which is too much by one:
Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

Pro.

Sil.

Who respects friend?

In love

All men but Proteus.

Pro. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words

47-50. "Rend thy faith

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perjury, to love me. Thou

The lines seem clear as they stand; a suggestion by Mr. Daniel is perhaps worthy of mention:-"rain love me Thou," or "hail

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perjury. To Discandied into perjury. To love

Can no way change you to a milder form,
I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms' end,

And love you 'gainst the nature of love,-force

ye.

Sil. O heaven!

Pro.

I'll force thee yield to my desire.

Val. Ruffian, let go that rude uncivil touch,
Thou friend of an ill fashion!

Pro.

Valentine!

60

Val. Thou common friend, that 's without faith or love,

For such is a friend now; treacherous man!
Thou hast beguiled my hopes; nought but mine
eye

Could have persuaded me: now I dare not say
I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove

me.

Who should be trusted now, when one's right hand

Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,

I am sorry I must never trust thee more,

But count the world a stranger for thy sake. 70 The private wound is deepest: O time most accurst,

'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

Pro. My shame and guilt confounds me.

Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow

71. A difficult line to scan; Johnson proposed "O time most curst"; others omit "most" or "O"; perhaps we have here an Alexandrine, “O” counting as a monosyllabic foot; the second syllable of “deepest" being an extra syllable before the pause:

The pri'/vate wou'nd/ is de'epest;|| O'-/ time mo'st/ accur'st,/~I. G.

Val.

Be a sufficient ransom for offense,

I tender 't here; I do as truly suffer.
As e'er I did commit.

Then I am paid;
And once again I do receive thee honest.
Who by repentance is not satisfied

79

Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleased.
By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased:
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.

83. This is a strange passage. Collier and Knight have tried hard, in different ways, to make it look reasonable; but there is an extravagance about it that will not yield to editorial skill. The best comment we have seen upon it is in Tales from Shakespeare: “Proteus expressed such a lively sorrow for the injuries he had done to Valentine, that Valentine, whose nature was noble and generous even to a romantic degree, not only forgave and restored him to his former place in his friendship, but in a sudden flight of heroism he said, 'I freely do forgive you; and all the interest I have in Silvia I give it up to you!" Which shows what Charles Lamb and his sister, “two highly-gifted and simple-minded persons who had been reading Shakespeare together all their lives," regarded as the true sense of the text. Mr. Dyce, speaking of "this overstrained and too generous act of friendship," says: "Nor would Shakespeare probably, if the play had been written in his maturer years, have made Valentine give way to such ‘a sudden flight of heroism': but The Two Gentlemen of Verona was evidently an early production of the great Poet; and in many a volume, popular during his youth, he had found similar instances of romantic generosity." This explanation seems much better than the ingenious efforts of Knight and Collier to bring the representation within the lines of nature and reason. How hard it is for them to get round the plain sense of the passage, may be seen in that Knight makes all refer to wrath in the second line above, construes in by on account of, and understands give in the sense of give up or forego; so that the meaning turns out to be: "All the wrath that was mine on account of Silvia I forego"; which convicts Julia of a gross blunder in taking on so at what Valentine says. Collier's more plausible method is, to withdraw Valentine, so that he does not hear what passes between Proteus and Silvia just before, and so, from seeing her thus with his friend, he infers that she is unfaithful or indifferent towards himself.-H. N. H.

Jul O me unhappy!

Pro. Look to the boy.

[Swoons.

Val. Why, boy! why, wag! how now! what's

the matter? Look up; speak.

Jul. O good sir, my master charged me to de-
liver a ring to Madam Silvia, which, out of
my neglect, was never done.
Pro. Where is that ring, boy?
Jul.

Pro. How! let me see:

Here 'tis; this is it.

Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook:

This is the ring you sent to Silvia.

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Pro. But how camest thou by this ring? At my depart

I gave this unto Julia.

Jul. And Julia herself did give it me;

And Julia herself hath brought it hither.

Pro. How! Julia!

100

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,
And entertain'd 'em deeply in her heart.
How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root!
O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush!
Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me
Such an immodest raiment, if shame live
In a disguise of love:

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,

Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

106. That is, if it be a shame to wear a disguise in such a cause.H. N. H.

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