ANTONIO, Father to Proteus.

THURIO, a foolish rival to Valentine.
EGLAMOUR, agent for Silvia in her escape.
SPEED, a clownish Servant to Valentine.
LAUNCE, the like to Proteus.

PANTHINO, Servant to Antonio.

Host, where Julia lodges.

Outlaws with Valentine.

JULIA, beloved of Proteus.

SILVIA, beloved of Valentine.

LUCETTA, Waiting-woman to Julia.

Servants, Musicians.

SCENE: sometimes in Verona; sometimes in Milan, and on the frontiers of Mantua.

This list of characters, with the heading, "The names of all the Actors," is printed at the end of the play in the folio, 1623; but no information is given as to the places where the scene is laid.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN

OF

VERONA.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An open Place in Verona.

Enter VALENTINE and PROTEUS.

Val. Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:
Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
Wer't not, affection chains thy tender days
To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love,
I rather would entreat thy company
To see the wonders of the world abroad,
Than, living dully sluggardiz'd at home,
Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.
But since thou lov'st, love still, and thrive therein,

Even as I would, when I to love begin.

Pro. Wilt thou begone? Sweet Valentine, adieu. Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel:

Wish me partaker in thy happiness,

When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger,
If ever danger do environ thee,

Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
For I will be thy bead's-man, Valentine.

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.
Pro. That's a deep story of a deeper love,
For he was more than over shoes in love.

Val. 'Tis true; but you are over boots in love',
And yet you never swam the Hellespont.

Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots 2.
Val. No, I will not, for it boots thee not.

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:
However, but a folly bought with wit,
Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
Val. So, by your circumstance, I fear, you'll 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.

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
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,

Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly; blasting in the bud3,
Losing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.
But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee,
That art a votary to fond desire?

1 'Tis true; BUT you are over boots in love,] "But" is for in the old copies, and amended in the corr. fo. 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 needless.

:

Once more adieu. My father at the road
Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd.
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 letters,
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.
Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love:
He leaves his friends to dignify them more;
I leave myself, 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 thought.

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.

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.

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

Pro. But what said she? did she nod1?

your lover.

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.