Wer't not, affection chains thy tender days PRO. Wilt thou begone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! When thou dost meet good hap; and, in thy danger, Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, VAL. And on a love-book pray for my success. PRO. Upon some book I love, I'll pray for thee. VAL. That's on some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont. has the same play on words, in his Masque at Ludlow Castle: "It is for homely features to keep home, 66 They had their name thence.' STEEVENS. SHAPELESS IDLENESS.] The expression is fine, as implying that idleness prevents the giving any form or character to the manners. WARBURTON. 6 some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.] The poem of Musæus, entitled Hero and Leander, is meant. Marlowe's translation, or rather imitation, of this piece was entered on the Stationers' books, Sept. 18, 1593; but it did not appear till 1598, when the first two Sestiads, which were all that Marlowe had finished, were published by Edward Blount, for whom, in conjunction with Isaac Jaggard, our author's plays were afterwards printed. The remainder of this poem was added by Chapman, in 1600. Marlowe's production was extremely popular, and deservedly so, many of his lines being as smooth as those of Dryden. Our author has quoted one of them in As You Like It. He had probably read this poem in manuscript recently before he wrote the present play; for he again alludes to it in the third act: PRO. That's a deep story of a deeper love; For he was more than over shoes in love. VAL. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never swom the Hellespont. PRO. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots". VAL. No, I will not, for it boots thee not. PRO. What? VAL. To be in love where scorn is bought with 66 groans; Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords, "Would serve to scale another Hero's tower, "So bold Leander would adventure it." MALONE. 7- nay, give me not the BOOTS.] A proverbial expression, though now disused, signifying, don't make a laughing stock of me; don't play upon me. The French have a phrase, Bailler foin en corne; which Cotgrave_thus interprets, To give one the boots; to sell him a bargain. THEOBALD. Perhaps this expression took its origin from a sport the countrypeople in Warwickshire use at their harvest-home, where one sits as judge to try misdemeanors committed in harvest, and the punishment for the men is to be laid on a bench, and slapped on the breech with a pair of boots. This they call giving them the boots. I met with the same expression in the old comedy called Mother Bombie, by Lyly: 66 What do you give mee the boots?" Again, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, a comedy, 1618: Nor your fat bacon can carry it away, if you offer us the boots." 66 In The boots, however, were an ancient engine of torture. MS. Harl. 6999-48, Mr. T. Randolph writes to Lord Hunsdon, &c. and mentions in the P. S. to his letter, that George Flecke had yesterday night the boots, and is said to have confessed that the E. of Morton was privy to the poisoning the E. of Athol, 16 March, 1580: and in another letter, March 18, 1580: that the Laird of Whittingham had the boots, but without torment confess'd," &c. STEEVENS. 66 The boot was an instrument of torture used only in Scotland. Bishop Burnet in The History of his own Times, Vol. I. 332, edit. 1754, mentions one Maccael, a preacher, who, being suspected of treasonable practices, underwent the punishment so late as 1666: He was put to the torture, which, in Scotland, they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between these and the leg. The common 66 Coy looks, with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth, With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: PRO. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. prove. PRO. 'Tis love you cavil at; I am not love. VAL. Love is your master, for he masters you; And he that is so yoked by a fool, Methinks should not be chronicled for wise. VAL. And writers say; as the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow; Even so by Love the young and tender wit Once more adieu: my father at the road torture was only to drive these in the calf of the leg: but I have been told they were sometimes driven upon the shin bone." REED. 8 However, but a FOLLY, &c.] This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. JOHNSON. 9 So by your CIRCUMSTANCE.] Circumstance is used equivocally. It here means, conduct; in the preceding line, circumstantial deduction. MALONE. The eating CANKER dwells,] So, in our author's 70th Sonnet : "For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love." MALONE. PRO. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine. VAL. Sweet Proteus no; now let us take our leave. To Milan, let me hear from thee by letters2, Of thy success in love, and what news else Betideth here in absence of thy friend; And I likewise will visit thee with mine. PRO. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! VAL. As much to you at home! and so, farewell! [Exit VALENTIne. PRO. He after honour hunts, I after love: He leaves his friends, to dignify them more ; I leave myself3, my friends, and all for love. Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought; Made wit* with musing weak, heart sick with thoughts. 2 To Milan, let me hear from thee by letters.] Thus the only authentick edition, for which the modern editors following the second folio of 1632, have substituted—At Milan, &c. But there is no occasion for departing from the original copy. The construction is-Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan, i. e. directed or addressed to Milan. In Act. IV. Sc. I.: 66 you use this dalliance to excuse Your breach of promise to the Porcupine." i. e. to meet me at the Porcupine. 3 I LEAVE myself, my friends, and all for love.] The old copy has-I love myself. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. In Antony and Cleopatra, Act. V. Sc. I., we have in the old copy-For Cæsar cannot leave to be ungentle-for live to be ungentle. MALONE. 4 MADE wit with musing weak,] The construction is-Thou hast made me neglect-thou hast made wit with musing weak. MALONE. 5 This whole scene, like many others in these plays (some of which, I believe, were written by Shakspeare, and others interpolated by the players,) is composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the gross taste of the age he lived in; Populo ut placerent. I wish I had authority to leave them out; but I have done all I could, set a mark of reprobation upon them throughout this edition. POPE. That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players, Enter SPEED. SPEED. Sir Proteus, save you: saw you my master? PRO. But now he parted hence to embark for Milan. SPEED. Twenty to one then, he is shipp'd already; And I have play'd the sheep, in losing him. PRO. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, An* if the shepherd be awhile away. SPEED. You conclude, that my master is a shepherd then, and I a sheep'? PRO. I do. SPEED. Why then my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep. PRO. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep. * First folio, And. seems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticism. JOHNSON. Mr. Pope, when he published his edition of these plays, was, I believe, very little acquainted with the ancient dramatick writers that immediately preceded Shakspeare. In his earliest plays something of their manner may be traced. The notion that this and other scenes were interpolated, is so wild and capricious, as not to deserve a moment's consideration. MALONE. 6 And I have play'd the SHEEP-] The jest, such as it is, may escape the reader, unless he recollect that in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Hertfordshire, and probably in some other counties, a sheep is pronounced a ship. The two words seem, in consequence of this communication, to have been used indiscriminately, and confounded. Thus in Playford's "Dancing-Master," 10th edition, 1698, in the table we have as the name of a dance, "Three sheep skins, p. 215; and in the page referred to we find "Three ship skins.' MALONE. 7 And I A sheep.] The article which is wanting in the only authentick copy, 1623, was added in the second folio. MALONE. |