How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont. Val. 'Tis true; but you are over boots in love', Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots 2. Pro. What? Val. To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; Coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If haply won, perhaps, a hapless gain; If lost, why then a grievous labour won: Or else a wit by folly vanquished. Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise. Pro. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all. Val. And writers say, as the most forward bud Even so by love the young and tender wit 1 'Tis true; BUT you are over boots in love,] "But" is for in the old copies, and amended in the corr. fó. 1632. Mr. Singer not only accepts, but acknowledges the change; and we are happy to give him credit for judgment, as well as conscientiousness. There is no emendation in our corr. fo. 1632, to which he would not be heartily welcome on the same terms: we never complain of fairly borrowing, but of silently appropriating. 2 nay, give me not the BOOTS.] A proverbial expression, not unfrequently met with in our old dramatists, signifying, don't make a laughing-stock of me. It seems to have no connexion whatever with the punishment of the boots in Scotland, to which the commentators refer. 3 BLASTING in the bud,] The corr. fo. 1632 has the passive for the active participle, blasted for "blasting," but the change is needless, even if it be not injurious: any change may be called injurious, that is reedless. Once more adieu. My father at the road Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine. Pro. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan. 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. 6 Pro. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, An if the shepherd be awhile away. [Exit. 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. 4 To Milan let me hear from thee by letters,] This is merely an inversion of "Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan." The first folio reads "To Milan," which the second folio erroneously changes to "At Milan," &c. 5 I LEAVE myself,] It was "I love myself" till Pope's day: he printed "leave" for love, and most properly, as appears not only by the sense, but by the corr. fo. 1632 love is there erased, and "leave" written in the margin. It has been the bad practice, in modern times,, to print "leave," as if it had so stood in the old impressions: they all read love. 6 And I have play'd the SHEEP] The point depends upon the resemblance in sound between the words "ship" and "sheep." In many parts of the country "sheep" is pronounced "ship." This joke (so to call it) is employed again in "The Comedy of Errors." In writings of the time "Sheep-street," in Stratfordupon-Avon, is often spelt Ship-street. 7 and I A sheep?] The indefinite article was added in the second folio. Speed. This proves me still a sheep. Pro. True, and thy master a shepherd. Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. Pro. It shall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. Speed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me: therefore, I am no sheep. Pro. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, the shepherd for food follows not the sheep; thou for wages followest thy master, thy master for wages follows not thee: therefore, thou art a sheep. Speed. Such another proof will make me cry "baa.” Pro. But, dost thou hear? gav'st thou my letter to Julia ? Speed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton"; and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour. Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons. Speed. If the ground be overcharg'd, you were best stick her. Pro. Nay, in that you are a stray', 'twere best pound you. Speed. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter. Pro. You mistake: I mean the pound, the pinfold. Speed. From a pound to a pin? fold it over and over, 'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover. Pro. But what said she? did she nod1? 8 - a LACED MUTTON;] Many authorities prove that "mutton" and courtezan were synonymous terms in the time of Shakespeare, and long afterwards; and hence (as Malone tells us) the place called Mutton-lane in Clerkenwell. The question is, what was meant by a "laced mutton," for the participle and substantive are often found together. "Laced" probably meant dressed or adorned; and in Deloney's "Thomas of Reading," chap. ii., we read this passage: “No meat pleased him so well as mutton, such as was laced in a red petticoat." Speed's jest, such as it is, may have reconciled Proteus to the ill compliment to his mistress. The Rev. Mr. Dyce never thinks a point sufficiently established, as long as the word in question, however familiar, can be quoted from any other author: therefore here ("Few Notes," p. 17) we have a farther illustration of "laced mutton," as in the preceding page we have had another proof that "sheep" and ship of old were confounded. Surely this is wasted time and space. 9 Nay, in that you are a STRAY,] Usually printed astray, but the joke requires the emendation introduced into the corr. fo. 1632: Speed being a stray, i. e. a stray sheep, was to be pounded. 1 - did she nod ?] These words are supplied by Theobald, and seem to be necessary: they are not in the old copies; but it is clear from what Speed afterwards says that Proteus had asked the question. In Speed's answers the old spelling of the affirmative particle, viz. "I" for ay, has necessarily been retained. Speed. I. Pro. Nod, I? why that's noddy 2. [SPEED nods. Speed. You mistook, sir: I say she did nod, and you ask me, if she did nod? and I say I. Pro. And that, set together, is noddy. Speed. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for your pains. Pro. No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter. Speed. Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you. Pro. Why, sir, how do you bear with me? Speed. Marry, sir, the letter very orderly; having nothing but the word noddy for my pains. Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit. Speed. And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse. Pro. Come, come; open the matter in brief: what said she? Speed. Open your purse, that the money and the matter may be both at once deliver❜d. Pro. Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she? [Giving him money. Speed. Truly, sir, I think you'll hardly win her. Pro. Why? Couldst thou perceive so much from her? Speed. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her better; No, not so much as a dueat for delivering your letter; And being so hard to me that brought to her your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling you her mind. Give her no token but stones, for she's as hard as steel'. Pro. What! said she nothing? Speed. No, not so much as-" take this for thy pains." To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me*; 2- that's NODDY.] 66 99 'Noddy was a game at cards, and to call a person a "Noddy" was the same as to call him a fool. Noddy was the Knave or Fool in a pack of cards; and the practice of calling the knave Nod, or Noddy (sometimes corrupted to Nob and Nobby), is not yet entirely discontinued. 3 for she's as hard as steel.] This speech is given as rhyming verse in the corr. fo. 1632, whereas it stands as mere printed prose in the old copies. We may suspect that, after the words "No, not so much as" in Speed's next speech, he made a pause, as if a rhyme to "steel" were to be understood; but as he could not venture to pronounce it, he followed it up by the harmless words "take this for thy pains:" he then reverts to his prose. Malone had difficulty in making sense out of the passage, but the meaning seems now sufficiently obvious. 4 you have TESTERN'D me;] You have given me a testern, that is sixpence. In the time of Henry VIII. a tester, testern, or teston, was of the value of a shilling it was so called from having a teste, i. e. head, upon it. In the folio, 1623, "testern'd" is misprinted cestern'd. in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself. And so, sir, I'll commend you to my master. Pro. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck, [Exeunt SCENE II. The Same. Julia's Garden. Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. Jul. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, That every day with parle encounter me, Luc. Please you, repeat their names, I'll show my mind According to my shallow simple skill, Jul. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? Jul. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio? That I, unworthy body, as I can, Should censure thus a loving gentleman ". 5 AS OF A knight] In Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, it is "As our knight," &c., showing how easy even now are errors of mishearing. 6 That I, unworthy body, as I CAN, Should censure thus A LOVING GENTLEMAN.] The whole of this part of the scene is in rhyme, excepting these two lines; and as they are made to jingle in the corr. fo. 1632, we may be sufficiently sure that they originally did so. We are by no means confident that the first line of the couplet might not run, as in the folios, "That I, unworthy body as I am," am being here considered an unobjectionable rhyme to "man," as in various other |