Pro. My duty will I boast of, nothing else.
Sil. And duty never yet did want his meed.
Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.
Pro. I'll die on him 14 that says so, but yourself.
Sil. That you are welcome?

Pro.

That you are worthless.

Enter a Servant. 15

Ser. Madam, my lord, your father, would speak with you.
Sil. I wait upon his pleasure. [Exit Servant.] Come, Sir Thurio,
Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome:

I'll leave you to confer of home-affairs;

When you have done, we look to hear from you.
Pro. We'll both attend upon your ladyship.

[Exeunt SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED. Val. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came? Pro. Your friends are well, and have them much commended. 16 Val. And how do yours?

Pro.

I left them all in health.

Val. How does your lady, and how thrives your love?

Pro. My tales of love were wont to weary you:

I know, you joy not in a love-discourse.

Val. Ay, Proteus, but that life 17 is alter'd now:

I have done penance for contemning love;

Whose 18 high imperious thoughts have punish'd me
With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs;

For, in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes,

And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.

0, gentle Proteus! love 's a mighty lord,

And hath so humbled me, as, I confess,
There is no woe to his correction, 19

1) Ich will mich in einen tödtlichen Kampf einlassen mit Jedem, der das sagt, ausser Euch selbst.

15) Die Fol. lässt hier statt des Dieners Thurio auftreten, ohne vorher dessen Weggang zu bezeichnen. Wahrscheinlich ist das ungehörige Auftreten Thurio's als eines Boten hier eine blosse Bühnenconvenienz, mit der man einen Schauspieler sparen wollte, Sh. selbst wollte offenbar Silvia's erste Worte I wait upon his pleasure nicht an Thurio gerichtet wissen. Die Umänderung rührt von Theobald her.

16) und sie lassen sich Dir sehr empfehlen.

17) jenes Leben, in welchem ich nichts von Liebe hören mochte.

18) whose, wofür Johnson those lesen wollte, bezieht sich auf das personificirte love. Der Liebesgott hat in seinem stolzen gebieterischen Sinn es nicht ertragen, dass ich ihn verschmähte, sondern hat mich gestraft.

19) es ist kein Schmerz zu vergleichen der Züchtigung, der Amor mich unterworfen hat und keine Freude auf Erden der Freude an seinem Dienste.

Nor to his service no such joy on earth!
Now, no discourse, except it be of love;
Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.

Pro. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye.
Was this the idol that you worship so?

Val. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint?

Pro. No, but she is an earthly paragon.

Val. Call her divine.

Pro. I will not flatter her.

20

Val. O! flatter me, for love delights in praises.
Pro. When I was sick you gave me bitter pills,

And I must minister the like to you.

Val. Then speak the truth by her: if not divine, Yet let her be a principality,

21

Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth.

Pro. Except my mistress.

Val. Sweet, except not any,

Except thou wilt except against my love.

Pro. Have I not reason to prefer mine own?
Val. And I will help thee to prefer her too:
She shall be dignified with this high honour,
To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss,
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling 22 flower,
And make rough winter everlastingly.

Pro. Why, Valentine, what braggardism 23 is this?
Val. Pardon me, Proteus: all I can, is nothing
To her, 24 whose worth makes other worthies nothing.
She is alone.

Pro. Then let her alone.

Val. Not for the world. Why, man,

And I as rich in having such a jewel

she is mine own,

20) So in Cymbeline (A. 3, Sc. 6) By Jupiter, an angel, or if not, || An earthly paragon.

21) principality Fürstlichkeit, Herrlichkeit, eine bestimmte Klasse in der Hierarchie der Engel und himmlischen Heerschaaren. Steevens citirt dazu aus der Englischen Bibel, aus dem Römerbrief (Cap. 8, V. 38) nor angels nor principalities.

22) Steevens, der einmal an summer-smelling gedacht hatte, behält doch die alte Lesart bei und erklärt sie mit the flower which swells in summer, till it expands itself into bloom.

23) braggardism

=

Grossprahlerei, Gebrauch von pomphaften Wörtern und Bildern.
Fol. hat Braggadisme. Sh.'s Zeitgenossen kennen ein synonymes braggardise.

Die

24) Das elliptische all I can ist aus dem Zusammenhange zu vervollständigen: Alles was ich zu ihrem Lobe sagen kann, ist nichts im Vergleich mit ihr.

As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Forgive me, that I do not dream on thee,
Because thou seest me dote upon my love.
My foolish rival, that her father likes,
Only for his possessions are so huge, 25
Is gone with her along, and I must after,
For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy.
Pro. But she loves you?

Val. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay, more, our marriage hour,
With all the cunning manner of our flight,
Determin'd of: how I must climb her window,
The ladder made of cords, and all the means
Plotted, and 'greed on, for my happiness. 26
Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber,
In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel.
Pro. Go on before; I shall enquire you forth.
I must unto the road, 27 to disembark

Some necessaries, 28 that I needs must use,
And then I'll presently attend you.

Val. Will you make haste?

Pro. I will.

Even as one heat another heat expels,

Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love

Is by a newer object quite forgotten.

Is it mine eye, or Valentinus' praise, 29
Her true perfection, or my false transgression,
That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus?
She 's fair, and so is Julia that I love;
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd,

[Exit VALENTINE.

25) lediglich deshalb, weil seine d. h. Thurio's Besitzthümer so gross sind.

26) for my happiness ist mit all the means zu verbinden.

27) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 15.

28) So in Hamlet (A. 1, Sc. 3) my necessaries are embarked.

29) Dieser Vers lautet, offenbar entstellt und unvollständig, in der Fol. It is mine, or Valentine's praise?, woraus die zweite Folioausg. von 1632 machte: Is it mine then, or Valentinean's praise. Dieser Lesart am nächsten kommt Capell's Conjectur Is it mine own, or Valentino's praise. Besser empfiehlt sich Warburton's Vermuthung, dass hinter mine ein Wort wie eye verloren gegangen, als Malone's Annahme, mine sei für mien geschrieben und vor dem Worte sei her, scil. Silvia's, zu suppliren. Die Antithese zwischen Silvia und Proteus kommt erst in dem folgenden Verse; in diesem erwartet man eine zwischen Proteus und Valentin. Zu Valentinus für Valentine

vgl. A. 1, Sc. 3, Anm. 14.

Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire, 30
Bears no impression of the thing it was.
Methinks, my zeal to Valentine is cold,
And that I love him not, as I was wont:
O! but I love his lady too, too much;
And that's the reason I love him so little.
How shall I dote on her with more advice, 31
That thus without advice begin to love her?
"T is but her picture I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled 32 my reason's light;
But when I look on her perfections, 33
There is no reason 34 but I shall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her 35 I'll use my skill.

SCENE V.

The Same. A Street.

Enter SPEED and LAUNCE.

Speed. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Milan. 1

[Exit.

Launce. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I reckon this always that a man is never undone, till he be hang'd; nor never welcome to a place, till some certain shot be paid, and the hostess say, welcome.

Speed. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the ale-house with you presently; where for one shot of five pence thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with Madam Julia?

30) Dasselbe Bild in K. John (A. 5, Sc. 4) Even as a form of wax || Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire. Man dachte dabei an solche Wachsfiguren, durch deren Schmelzen Zauberer und Hexen die Personen, welche in den Bildern dargestellt waren, hinschwinden liessen.

31) more advice bessere Ueberlegung, Nachdenken, als Compositum zu fassen, ist Gegensatz zu without advice

=

unüberlegt.

32) dazzled ist dreisylbig (dazzeled) zu lesen. Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 3, Anm. 19.

33) her perfections = ihre inneren Vorzüge und Gaben, ist entgegengesetzt dem her picture das Bild ihres Aeussern, ihre Aussenseite. Ebenso stehen to dazzle und to be blind einander gegenüber.

34) Collier meint: reason sei hier doubt. Gewiss aber ist hier reason in dem gewöhnlichen Sinne zu fassen und elliptisch zu erklären: es ist kein Grund anzunehmen, dass ich nicht erblinden werde, d. h. ich werde jedenfalls erblinden.

35) my erring love

meine von Julia zu Silvia abschweifende Liebe; her bezieht sich der Gegenstand meiner Liebe, d. h. Silvia.

dann auf my love allein

1) to Padua in der Fol.

ein Versehen, das gewiss Sh. selbst sich zu Schulden kommen liess, wie im Verlaufe des Stückes noch mehrere ähnliche Ortsverwechslungen sich finden.

R

Launce. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly

Speed. How then? Shall he marry her?

Launce. No, neither.

Speed. What, are they broken?

Launce. No, they are both as whole as a fish. 3

Speed. Why then, how stands the matter with them?

Launce.

with her.

Speed. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.

Launce.

stands me.

Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it stands well

What a block art thou, that thou canst not. My staff under

and my

Speed. What thou say'st?

Launce. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean,

staff understands me.

Speed. It stands under thee, indeed.

Launce. Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.

Speed. But tell me true, will 't be a match?

Launce. Ask my dog: if he say, ay, it will; if he say, no, it will; if

he shake his tail, and say nothing, it will.

Speed. The conclusion is then, that it will.

6

Launce. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me, but by a parable. § Speed. "T is well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover? Launce. I never knew him otherwise. Speed. Than how?

1

Launce. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.
Speed. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistak'st me.
Launce. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master.
Speed. I tell thee, my master is become a hot lover.

2) to close = eins werden, abschliessen mit Jemandem, steht dem to part auseinandergehen, so gegenüber wie in earnest dem in jest.

=

3) are they broken = haben sie miteinander gebrochen, missversteht Launce geflissentlich sind sie verwundet, und whole ist ganz, heil, und = gesund. as a fish gesund wie ein Fisch im Wasser."

*) to understand knüpft an das vorhergehende, mit einem obscönen Nebensinne gebrauchte to stand an und ist ebenfalls doppelsinnig = verstehen, und =3 unter Jemandem

stehen.

5) by a parable. Darunter versteht Launce die Verweisung auf seinen Hund, der statt seiner selbst Speed's Frage beantworten soll. Speed scheint das Wort nicht zu verstehen.

6) Was sagst Du dazu, dass mein Herr u. s. W. So in Macbeth (A. 3, Sc. 4) How say'st thou that Macduff denies his person || At our great bidding.