7

Launce. Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself in love. If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, so; if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.

8

Speed. Why?

Launce. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee, as to go to the ale 9 with a Christian. Wilt thou go?

Speed. At thy service.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

The Same. An Apartment in the Palace.

Enter PROTEUS.

Pro. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn;

To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn;

To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn;
And even that power which gave me first my oath,
Provokes me to this threefold perjury:

Love bade me swear, and love bids me forswear.
O sweet-suggesting love! if thou hast sinn'd,

1

Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it.
At first I did adore a twinkling star,

But now I worship a celestial sun.

Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken;

2

And he wants wit that wants resolved will
To learn 3 his wit to exchange the bad for better.
Fie, fie, unreverend tongue! to call her bad,
Whose sovereignity so oft thou hast preferr'd
With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths. *
I cannot leave to love, and yet I do;

But there I leave to love, where I should love.
Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose:

7) Wenn Du mit mir in ein Wirthshaus gehen willst, so ist es gut. Das so, das in diesem Sinne bei Sh. häufig elliptisch gebraucht wird (Vgl. A. 2, Sc. 1, Anm. 24) ist in der Fol. zufällig ausgelassen, aber von der zweiten Folioausg. von 1632 richtig ergänzt. Die Interpunction der Fol. zeigt, dass if thou wilt go etc. nicht mit dem vorhergehenden Satze zu verbinden ist.

8) So in K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 2, Sc. 4) or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew. 9) ale = Bier, Bierhaus, und christliches Volksfest, an dem sich folglich ein Jude nicht betheiligen mag.

1) sweet-suggesting

=

süss verlockend, durch süsse Einflüsterungen verführend. Diese Verlockung ist die Sünde, welche die Liebe sich hat zu Schulden kommen lassen: if thou hast sinn'd.

2) Gelübde, die man unachtsam geleistet hat, dürfen gebrochen werden, wenn man achtsamer geworden ist.

3) to learn für to teach.

*) soul-confirming oath ein Eidschwur, den man aus oder mit ganzer Seele bekräftigt.

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself;
If I lose them, thus find I, by their loss,
For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia.
I to myself am dearer than a friend,

For love is still most precious in itself;

And Silvia, (witness heaven that made her fair!)
Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiop. 5

I will forget that Julia is alive,
Remembering that my love to her is dead;
And Valentine I'll hold an enemy,
Aiming at Silvia, as a sweeter friend.

I cannot now prove constant to myself
Without some treachery used to Valentine:
This night, he meaneth with a corded ladder
To climb celestial Silvia's chamber-window;
Myself in counsel, his competitor. 6

Now, presently I'll give her father notice
Of their disguising, and pretended

flight;

Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine,
For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter:
But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross
By some sly trick blunt Thurio's dull proceeding.
Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,
As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!

Verona.

SCENE VII.

A Room in JULIA'S House.

Enter JULIA and LUCETTA.

Jul. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me:

And, e'en in kind love, I do conjure thee, 1

=

[Exit. 8

5) Ethiop Negerin, als Repräsentantin weiblicher Hässlichkeit, hat Sh. öfter; so in Much Ado about Nothing (A. 5, Sc. 4) I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiop, und in Love's Labour's Lost (A. 4, Sc. 3) Thou for whom Jove would swear || Juno but an Ethiop were.

6) indem ich als sein Genosse im Geheimniss, im Vertrauen bin. haber, Genosse, ist Sh.'sch.

gewöhnlichen Bedeutung

=

competitor TheilJohnson fasst, weniger plausibel, das Wort in seiner Nebenbuhler, und nimmt einen Gegensatz zwischen in

counsel und his competitor an.

7) to pretend einen Anschlag machen zu Etwas, projectiren.

5) Mit der folgenden Scene wollte Johnson den dritten Akt beginnen. Indess ist es rathsam, die Abtheilung der Fol. beizubehalten.

1) to conjure = beschwören, dringend bitten, betont Sh. auf der ersten Sylbe; to conjure Geister beschwören, bald auf der ersten, bald auf der zweiten Sylbe.

jure thee ist mit to lesson me zu verbinden.

1 do con

Luc. Alas! the way is wearisome and long.
Jul. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary
To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps,
Much less shall she, that hath love's wings to fly;
And when the flight is made to one so dear,

Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus.

Luc. Better forbear, till Proteus make return.

Jul. O! know'st thou not, his looks are my soul's food?

Pity the dearth that I have pined in,

By longing for that food so long a time.

Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,

Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow,

As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

Luc. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,

But qualify the fire's extreme rage, 5

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.

Jul. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns.

The current, that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But, when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enamel'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so by many winding nooks he strays

With willing sport to the wild ocean.

6

Then, let me go, and hinder not my course.

I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,

And make a pastime of each weary step,

Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil, 7
A blessed soul doth in Elysium.

2) table Schreibtafel, synonym mit table-book = Notizenbuch, gebraucht Sh. häufig in diesem übertragenen Sinne, so in All's well that ends well (A. 1, Sc. 1) in our heart's table, und Troilus and Cressida (A. 4, Sc. 5) and wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts || To every ticklish reader.

3) to character einschreiben, eingraben, betont Sh. auf der zweiten Sylbe.

4) unbeschadet meiner Ehre, im Einklang mit meinem guten Rufe.

5) fire ist auch hier zweisylbig zu lesen und extreme auf der ersten Sylbe zu betonen.

6) wild ocean ist dem gentle stream entgegengesetzt.

7) turmoil = Plackerei, Erdennoth, welche der Mensch auszustehen hat, ehe er als seligor Geist (blessed soul) im Elysium ausruht.

Luc. But in what habit will you go along?

Jul. Not like a woman; for I would prevent
The loose encounters of lascivious men.
Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds

As may beseem some well-reputed page.

Luc. Why, then your ladyship must cut your hair.
Jul. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings,

With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots: 8

To be fantastic, 9 may become a youth

Of greater time than I shall show to be.

Luc. What fashion, Madam, shall I make your breeches? Jul. That fits as well, as Tell me, good my lord, What compass will you wear your farthingale?"

Why, even what fashion 10 thou best lik'st, Lucetta.

Luc. You must needs have them with a codpiece, Madam.
Jul. Out, out, Lucetta! that will be ill-favour'd.

Luc. A round hose, Madam, now 's not worth a pin,

Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.

Jul. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have

What thou think'st meet, and is most mannerly.

But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me

For undertaking so unstaid 12 a journey?,

I fear me, it will make me scandaliz'd.

Luc. If you think so, then stay at home, and go not.
Jul. Nay, that I will not.

Luc. Then never dream on infamy,

13 but go. If Proteus like your journey, when you come, No matter who 's displeas'd, when you are gone.

I fear me, he will scarce be pleas'd withal.

Jul. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear.

A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears,

B) true-love knots sind hier die Bandschleifen, welche das Haar zusammenfassen und in künstlicher Verschlingung symbolisch die innige Liebesverbindung zwischen Proteus und Julia andeuten sollen.

9 fantastic

= von der Wirklichkeit abweichend, der Einbildung, namentlich der Liebe hingegeben, hier in Bezug auf die äussere Erscheinung und Tracht. So in Winter's Tale (A. 4, Sc. 3) he seems to be more noble, in being fantastical. 10) So die Fol. Manche Hgg. ändern ohne Noth that fashion.

-

Für lik'st hat die Fol.,

einer nachlässigen und bequemeren Aussprache gemäss, likes. wie sie öfter das st der zweiten Person abschleift, um eine zu grosse Consonantenhäufung zu vermeiden.

11) Bei Sh.'s Zeitgenossen wird die Mode, einen so dick ausgestopften Hosenlatz zu tragen, dass er füglich als Nadelkissen dienen könnte, mehrfach persiflirt. So in Tyro's Roaring Meg (1598) Tyro's round breeches have a cliff behind; || And that same perking longitude before | Which for a pin-case antique plowmen wore. 12) unstaid unsolide, leichtsinnig.

And instances of infinite of love, 14

Warrant me welcome to my Proteus.

Luc. All these are servants to deceitful men.

Jul. Base men, that use them to so base effect;

But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth:

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;

His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate;
His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart;
His heart as far from fraud, as heaven from earth.

Luc. Pray heaven, he prove so, when you come to him!
Jul. Now, as thou lov'st me, do him not that wrong,

To bear a hard opinion of his truth:

Only deserve my love by loving him,

And presently go with me to my chamber,

To take a note of what I stand in need of,
To furnish me upon my longing journey. 15
All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
My goods, my lands, my reputation;
Only, in lieu thereof, 16 dispatch me hence.
Come, answer not, but to it presently:
I am impatient of my tarriance.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

Milan. An Ante-chamber in the DUKE'S Palace.

Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS.

Duke. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile:

We have some secrets to confer about.

Now, tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me?

Pro. My gracious lord, that which I would discover,

The law of friendship bids me to conceal;

But, when I call to mind your gracious favours

[Exeunt.

[Exit THURIO.

14) infinite = unendliche Zahl oder Grösse, Unendlichkeit, gebraucht Sh. auch sonst substantivisch. So in Much Ado about Nothing (A. 2, Sc. 3) the infinite of thought, und ohne bestimmten Artikel steht es bei Chaucer: although the life of it be stretched with infinite of time; also: und Beweise von unendlich vieler oder grosser Liebe. Viele Hgg. lesen mit der zweiten Folioausg. von 1632 dafür instances as infinite, und Malone instances of the infinite of love.

15) Nach Steevens' Meinung stände longing für longed, ein Particip für das andre. Richtiger erklärt M. Mason a journey which she shall pass in longing.

16) auf Grund dessen, was ich Dir zur Verfügung zurücklasse.