Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain! Have some unhappy passenger' in chase. They love me well; yet I have much to do Withdraw thee, Valentine: who's this comes Enter Proteus, Silvia, and Julia. Pro. Madam, this service I have done for you, Though you respect not aught your servant doth, 20 To hazard life, and rescue you from him Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look; 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, 40 Would I not undergo for one calm look! Sil. When Proteus cannot love where he 's beloved. For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two, 50 And that's far worse than none; better have none Than plural faith which is too much by one: 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 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 perjury. To Discandied into perjury. To love Can no way change you to a milder form, 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, Pro. Valentine! 60 Val. Thou common friend, that 's without faith or love, For such is a friend now; treacherous man! Could have persuaded me: now I dare not say 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. Then I am paid; 79 Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleased. 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- 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. 90 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, 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. |