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XII.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

ACT I.

SCENE Ι.

The Advantages of Travel, &c.

Val. Cease to perfuade, my loving Protheus; 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 fee the wonders of the world abroad, Than (living dully fluggardiz'd at home) Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness: (1) But fince thou lov'st, love still, and thrive therein; Even as I would, when I to love begin.

Pro. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine adieu!
Think on thy Protheus, when thou, haply, seest
Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel.
With 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.

The

(1) With shapeless idleness.] The expreffion is fine, as implying, that idleness prevents the giving any form or character to the manners. w.

To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans, Coy looks, with heart-fore fighs; one fading moment's

mirth,

With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights.
If haply won, perhaps, a hapless gain:
If loft, why then a grievous labour won;
However, but a folly (2) bought with wit;

Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

Love commended and dispraised.

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, e'er it blow;
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blafting in the bud;
Lofing its verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes..

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 (3) with musing weak, heart-fick with

thought..

SCENE

(2) However but a folly.] " This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are wrong to fpend your wit; or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love." J.

(3) Made wit, &c.] For made read make. "Thou Ju-lia, haft made me war with good counsel, and make wit weak with musing." J.

E

SCENE II. Love froward and dissembling.

Maids, in modesty, say No, to that
Which they would have the proff'rer conftrue, Ay.
Fy, fy; how wayward is this foolish love,
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse,
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod !

SCENE III. The Advantages of Travel.

Pant. He wonder'd that your lordship
Would fuffer him to spend his youth at home,
While other men of flender reputation
Put forth their fons to feek preferment out:
Some to the wars, to try their fortunes there;
Some to discover islands (4) far away;
Some to the studious universities.
For any, or for all these exercises,
He said, that Protheus, your fon, was meet :
And did request me to importune you,
To let him spend his time no more at home;
Which would be great impeachment to his age
In having known no travel in his youth.

Ant. Nor need'st thou much importune me to that
Whereon this month I have been hammering.
I have consider'd well his loss of time,
And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tried, and tutor'd in the world:

Experience

(4) Some to discover islands.] In S's time, voyages for he discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the fons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures. Such as the Fortescues, Collitons, Thornbills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Cheßers, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. Warburton.

Experience is by industry atchiev'd,
And (5) perfected by the swift course of time.

Love compared to an April Day.

Oh, how this spring of love resembleth (6)
Th' uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!

ACT II. SCENE I..

A comical Description of a Man in Love.

Marry, (7) by these special marks; first, you have learn'd like Sir Protheus, to wreath your arms like a malecontent; to relish a love-fong like a Robin redbreaft; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to figh, like a school-boy, that had lost his A, B, C; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grand-dam; to faft, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. (8) You were wont, when you laugh'd, to crow like a cock; when you walk'd, to walk like one of the lions; when you fafted, it was presently after dinner; when you look'd fadly,

(5) And, &c.] Antonio says in the next speech, that at: the Emperor's court,

He will practise tilts and tournaments,

Hear sweet discourse, converfe with noblemen;

An i be in eye of every exercise,

Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

(6) Resembleth.] The reader will observe, that S. very often, in this kind of poetry especially, reads the last fyllable as if it were two-refembeleth.

(7) Marry, &c.] See As you like it, Act 5. Sc. 2. and n. (8) Hallowmass.] That is, about the feast of All Saints, when winter begins, s, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable. F

fadly, it was for want of money; and now you are metamorphos'd with a mistress, that when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.

SCENE III. Launce (9) leading a Dog.

I

Nay 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault; I have receiv'd my proportion, like the prodigious fon, and am going with Sir Protheus to the Imperial's court. think Crab my dog be the fourest natur'd dog that lives : my mother weeping, my father wailing, my fifter crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear; he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting.

SCENE IV. An accomplished young Gentleman.

His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe;
And, in a word (for far behind his worth
Come all the praises that I now bestow)
He is compleat in feature and in mind,
With all good grace to grace a gentleman.

Contempt of Love punished.

I have done penance for contemning love; Whose high, (10) imperious thoughts have punish'd

me

With

(9) Launce, &c.] The reader is referred to the remainder of the speech, and to Act 4. Sc. 4. for more of a fimi

lar nature.

(10) Whose high.] For whose I would read those. have contemned love, and am punished:-those high thoughts

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