Her true perfection, or my falfe tranfgreffion,
That makes me, reafonlefs, to reason thus?
She's fair; and fo is Julia, that I love;-
That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd;
Which, like a waxen image 'gainst a fire,2
Bears no impreffion 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 fo little.
How fhall I dote on her with more advice,"

A word is wanting in the first folio. The line was originally

thus:

"Is it mine EYE, or Valentino's praife?”

Proteus had juft feen Valentine's miftrefs, whom her lover had been lavishly praifing. His encomiums therefore heightening Proteus's ideas of her at the interview, it was the lefs wonder he fhould be uncertain which had made the frongeft impreffion. Valentine's praifes, or his own view of her.

The firft folio reads:

"It is mine or Valentine's praise."

The fecond:

WARBURTON.

"Is it mine then or Valentinean's praife?" RITSON.

I read, as authorized, in a former inftance, by the old copy,Valentinus. See A& I. fc. iii. STEEVENS.

2

a waxen image 'gainst a fire,] Alluding to the figures made by witches, as reprefentatives of those whom they defigned to torment or destroy. See my note on Macbeth, A&t 1. fc. iii.

STEEVENS.

King James afcribes thefe images to the devil, in his treatife of Daemonologie: "to fome others at thefe times he teacheth how to make pictures of waxe or claye, that by the roafting thereof the perfons that they bear the name of may be continually melted, and dried away by continual fickneffe." See Servius on the 8th Eclogue of Virgil, Theocritus Idyl. 2. 22. Hudibras, p. 2. c. 2. v. 331. S. W.

3

with more advice,] With more advice, is on further knowledge on better confideration. So, in Titus Andronicus:

"The Greeks, upon advice, did bury Ajax."

The word, as Mr. Malone obferves, is fill current among mer

That thus without advice begin to love her?
'Tis but her picture* I have yet beheld,
And that hath dazzled my reafon's light;
But when I look on her perfections,'
There is no reafon but I fhall be blind.
If I can check my erring love, I will;
If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.

[ Exit.

cantile people, whofe conftant language is, "we are advised by letțers from abroad," meaning informed. So in the bills of exchange the conclufion always is- Without further advice." So in this very play:

"This pride of hers, upon advice,"

Again, in Meajure for Measure:

Yet did repent me, after more advice."

STEEVENS.

4 'Tis but her picture] This is evidently a flip of attention, for he had feen her in the last scene, and in high terms offered her his fervice. JOHNSON.

I believe Proteus means, that, as yet, he had feen only her outward form, without having known her long enough to have any acquaintance with her mind.

So, in Cymbeline:

"All of her, that is out of door, most rich!

"If the be furnish'd with a mind fo rare," &c.

Again, in The Winter's Tale, A& II. fc. i:

"Praise her but for this her without-door form."

Perhaps Proteus, is mentally comparing his fate with that of Pyrocles, the hero of Sydnev's Arcadia, who fell in love with Philoclea immediately on feeing her portrait in the house of Kalander. STEEVENS.

And that hath dazzled my reafon's light;

But when I look, &c.] Our author ufes dazzled as a trifyllable. The editor of the fecond folio not perceiving this, introduced fo, (" "And that hath dazzled fo," &c.) a word as hurtful to the fenfe as unneceffary to the metre. The plain meaning is, Her mere outfide has dazzled me; when I am acquainted with the perfections of her mind, I fhall be flruck blind.

MALONE.

SPEED. Launce! by mine honefty, welcome to Milan."

LAUN. Forfwear not thyfelf, fweet 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 fome certain fhot be paid, and the hoftefs fay, welcome.

SPEED. Come on, you mad-cap, I'll to the alehouse with you prefently; where, for one fhot of five pence, thou fhalt have five thoufand welcomes. But, firrah, how did thy mafter part with madam Julia?

LAUN. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jeft.

SPEED. But fhall fhe marry him?

LAUN, No.

SPEED. How then? Shall he marry her?

LAUN. No, neither.

SPEED. What, are they broken?

LAUN. No, they are both as whole as a fifh.

SPEED. Why then, how ftands the matter with

them?

LAUN. Marry, thus; when it ftands well with him, it stands well with her.

6

to Milan.] It is Padua in the former editions. See the note on A& III. POPE.

SPEED. What an afs art thou? I understand thee

not.

LAUN. What a block art thou, that thou canst not?

Mv ftaff underftands me.7

SPLED. What thou fay'ft?

LAUN. Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my ftaff underflands me.

SPEED. It ftands under thee, indeed.

LAUN. Why, fland under and underfland is all one. SPEED. But tell me true, will't be a match?

LAUN. Afk my dog: if he fay, ay, it will; if he fay, no, it will; if he thake his tail, and say nothing, it will.

SPEED. The conclufion is then, that it will.

LAUN. Thou fhalt never get fuch a secret from me, but by a parable.

SPEED. 'Tis well that I get it fo. But, Launce, how fay't thou, that my master is become a notable lover?

7 My faff understands me. ] This equivocation, miserable as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great poem, B. VI:

-The terms we fent were terms of weight,

"Such as, we may perceive, amaz'd them all,
"And flagger'd many; who receives them right,
"Had need from head to foot well understand;

"Not understood, this gift they have befides,

"To fhew us when our foes ftand not upright." JOHNSON. The fame quibble occurs likewife in the fecond part of The Three Merry Coblers, an ancient ballad.:

8

"Our work doth the owners underfland,

"Thus ftill we are on the mending hand."

STEEVENS.

-how fay't thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover?] i. e. (as Mr. M. Mafon has elfewhere obferved ( What say'st thou to this circumftance, namely, that my malter is become a notable lover? MALONE.

be.

LAUN. I never knew him otherwife.

SPEED. Than how?

LAUN. A notable lubber, as thou reporteft him to

SPEED. Why, thou whorfon afs, thou mistakest me. LAUN. Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy

mafter.

SPEED. I tell thee, my mafter is become a hotlover.

LAUN. Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himfelf in love. If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, fo;' if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Chriflian.

SPEED. Why?

LAUN. Becaufe thou haft not fo much charity in thee, as to go to the ale' with a Chriftian: Wilt thou go?

9

SPEED. At thy fervice.

[Exeunt.

fo;] So, which is wanting in the firft folio, was fupplied by the editor of the fecond. MALONE.

2

the ale] Ales were

merry meetings inftituted in

country places. Thus Ben Jonfon:

And all the neighbourhood, from old records
"Of antique proverbs drawn from Whitfon lords,
"And their authorities at wakes and ales,

"With country precedents, and old wives' tales,
"We bring you now.

Again, as Mr. M. Mafon obferves, in the play of Lord Cromwell? "O Tom, that we were now at Putney, at the ale there!" See alfo Mr. T. Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. III.

p. 128. STEEVENS.