And now am I, unhappy messenger,

110

To plead for that which I would not obtain,
To carry that which I would have refused,
To praise his faith which I would have dis-
praised.

I am my master's true-confirmed love;

But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly,
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him
speed.

Enter Silvia, attended.

Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my

mean

120

To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia. Sil. What would you with her, if that I be she? Jul. If you be she, I do entreat your patience

To hear me speak the message I am sent on. Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.
Sil. O, he sends you for a picture.

Jul. Aye, madam.

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there.

Go give your master this: tell him, from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts for-

get,

130

Would better fit his chamber than this shadow. Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.Pardon me, madam; I have unadvised Deliver❜d you a paper that I should not:

This is the letter to your ladyship.
Sil. I pray thee, let me look on that again.
Jul. It may not be; good madam, pardon me.
Sil. There, hold!

I will not look upon your master's lines:

I know they are stuff'd with protestations, 140 And full of new-found oaths; which he will break

As easily as I do tear his paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.
Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it me;
For I have heard him say a thousand times
His Julia gave it him at his departure.

Though his false finger have profaned the ring,
Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What say'st thou?

150

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her. Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much.

Sil. Dost thou know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself:
To think upon her woes I do protest

That I have wept a hundred several times.

Sil. Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her.

Jul. I think she doth; and that 's her cause of sor

row.

Sil. Is she not passing fair?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is: 160 When she did think my master loved her well, She, in my judgment, was as fair as you;

But since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,
The air hath starved the roses in her cheeks,
And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,
That now she is become as black as I.
Sil. How tall was she?

Jul. About my stature: for, at Pentecost,

When all our pageants of delight were play'd, Our youth got me to play the woman's part, 171 And I was trimm'd in Madam Julia's gown; Which served me as fit, by all men's judgments, As if the garment had been made for me: Therefore I know she is about my height. And at that time I made her weep agood, For I did play a lamentable part: Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight; Which I so lively acted with my tears, That my poor mistress, moved therewithal, Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead, If I in thought felt not her very sorrow! Sil. She is beholding to thee, gentle youth. Alas, poor lady, desolate and left!

180

I weep myself to think upon thy words.
Here, youth, there is my purse: I give thee this
For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov-
est her.
Farewell.

[Exit Silvia, with attendants.

164. Alluding, no doubt, to the custom thus noticed by Stubbs in his Anatomie of Abuses, published in 1595: "When they" (the ladies) "use to ride abroad, they have masks or visors made of velvet, wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look."-H. N. H.

Jul. And she shall thank you for 't, if e'er you

know her.

190

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful!
I hope my master's suit will be but cold,
Since she respects my mistress' love so much.
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: let me see; I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers:
And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow. 200
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a color'd periwig.

>Her eyes are gray as glass; and so are mine: Aye, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high.

202. False hair was much worn by ladies in Shakespeare's time; it being then one of the "latest fashions," and induced by a general desire to have hair like the Queen's. In Northward Hoe, 1607, is an allusion to it: "There is a new trade come up for cast gentlewomen, of periwig-making. Let your wife set up in the Strand." The fashion is thus referred to in The Merchant of Venice:

"So are those crisped, snaky, golden locks,

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,

Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The scull that bred them in the sepulchre."—H. N. H.

203. The gray eyes of the Poet's time were the same as the blue eyes of ours. Glass was not colorless then as we have it, but of a light-blue tint. So that eyes as gray as glass were of the soft azure or cerulean, such as usually go with the auburn and yellow hair of Silvia and Julia.-H. N. H.

204. A high forehead was then accounted a feature eminently beautiful. Our author, in The Tempest, shows that low foreheads were in disesteem: "apes with foreheads villainous low."-H. N. H.

What should it be that he respects in her,
But I can make respective in myself,

If this fond Love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form,
Thou shalt be worship'd, kiss'd, loved, and
adored!

210

And, were there sense in his idolatry,
My substance should be statue in thy stead.
I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That used me so; or else, by Jove I vow,
I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes,
To make my master out of love with thee!

[Exit.

205. That is, "What he respects in her has equal relation to myself."-H. N. H.