Jul. If you be she, I do entreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am sent on.
Sil. From whom?

Jul. From my master, Sir Proteus, madam.
Sil. Ohe sends you for a picture?
Jul. Ay, madam.

Sil. Ursula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought

Go, give your master this: tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber, than this shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.—
Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd
Deliver'd you a paper that I should not:
This is the letter to your ladyship.

Sil. I pray thee let me look on that again.
Jul. It may not be good madam, pardon me.
Sil. There, hold.

I will not look upon your master's lines:

I know they are stuff'd with protestations,
And full of new-found oaths; which he will break
As easily as I do tear his paper.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.
Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it me;
For, I have heard him say a thousand times,
His Julia gave it him at his departure:

Though his false finger hath profan'd the ring,
Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. She thanks you.

Sil. What say'st thou ?

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her much. Sil. Dost thou know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know myself:

To think upon her woes, I do protest,

That I have wept a hundred several times.

Sil. Belike, she thinks that Proteus hath forsook

her.

Jul. I think she doth, and that's her cause of sorrow. Sil. Is she not passing fair?

Jul. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is: When she did think my master lov'd her well, She, in my judgment, was as fair as you; But since she did neglect her looking-glass, And threw her sun-expelling mask away,* The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face, That now she is become as black as I.

Sil. How tall was she?

Jul. About my stature; for, at Pentecost,
When all our pageants of delight were play'd,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown,
Which served me as fit, by all men's judgments,
As if the garment had been made for me:
Therefore, I know she is about my height.
And at that time I made her weep a-good,
For I did play a lamentable part:
Madam, 'twas Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight;

Alluding, no doubt, to the custom thus noticed by Stubbs in his "Anatomie of Abuses," published in 1595: "When they (the ladies) "use to ride abroad, they have masks or visors made of velvet, wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look."

That is, in good eamest, heartily. The word is met with nerasionally in the old writers. Thus, in Tuberville's Lover, 1567

"And in her arms the naked boy she strain'd,
Whereat the boy began to strive a-gocd:'

and in Drayton's Dowsabell, 1593:

"But then the shepherd pip'd a-good,
That all his sheep forsook their food
To hear his melody."

To passion was used as a verb formerly.

H.

Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and would I might be dead,
If I in though felt not her very sorrow.

Sil. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth. Alas, poor lady! desolate and left! — I weep myself, to think upon thy words. Here, youth, there is my purse: I give thee this For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her Farewell. [Exit SILVIA Jul. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you

know her.

A virtuous gentlewoman, mild, and beautiful.
I hope my master's suit will be but cold,
Since she respects my mistress' love so much.
Alas, how love can trifle with itself!
Here is her picture: Let me see: I think,
If I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of hers;
And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow:
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a colour'd periwig.7

Her eyes are grey as glass; and so are mine:

7 False hair was much worn by ladies in Shakespeare's time; it being then one of the latest fashions," and induced by a gen eral desire to have hair like the Queen's. In "Northward Hoe," 1607, is an allusion to it: "There is a new trade come up for cast gentlewomen, of periwig-making. Let your wife set up in the Strand." The fashion is thus referred to in The Merchant of Venice:

"So are those crisped, snaky, golden locks,

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The scull that bred them in the sepulchre."

H.

"The grey eyes of the Poet's time were the same as the blue

Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high."
What should it be, that he respects in her,
But I can make respective 10 in myself,

If this fond love were not a blinded god?
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form!
Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, lov'd, and ador'd;
And, were there sense in this idolatry,
My substance should be statue " in thy stead.
I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake,
That us'd me so; or else by Jove I vow,

I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes,
To make my master out of love with thee. [Exit

ACT V.

SCENE I. The same.

Enter EGLAMOUR.

An Abbey.

Egl. The sun begins to gild the western sky; And now it is about the very hour

eyes of ours.

Glass was not colourless then as we have it, but of a light-blue tint. So that eyes as grey as glass were of the soft azure or cerulean, such as usually go with the auburn and yellow hair of Silvia and Julia.

H.

9 A high forehead was then accounted a feature eminently beautiful. Our author, in The Tempest, shows that low foreheads were in disesteem: "apes with foreheads villainous low."

10 That is, "What he respects in her has equal relation to my self."

H.

The words statue and picture were often used indiscriminately. Thus Stowe, speaking of Elizabeth's funeral, says: When they beheld her statue or picture lying upon the coffin, there was a general sighing." And in Massinger's "City Madam" Sir John Frugal desires that his daughters "may take leave of their late suitors' statues;" and Luke answers, "There they hang."

H.

That Silvia at friar Patrick's cell should meet me
She will not fail; for lovers break not hours,
Unless it be to come before their time;
So much they spur their expedition.

Enter SILVIA.

See, where she comes: Lady, a happy evening! Sil. Amen, amen! go on, good Eglamour! Out at the postern by the abbey-wall:

I fear I am attended by some spies.

Egl. Fear not the forest is not three leagues off; If we recover that, we are sure enough.

The same.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

A Room in the DUKE's Palace.

Enter THURIO, PROTEUS, and JULIA.

Thu. Sir Proteus, what says Silvia to my suit? Pro. O, sir! I find her milder than she was; And yet she takes exceptions at your person. Thu. What! that my leg is too long?

Pro. No; that it is too little.

Thu. I'll wear a boot, to make it somewhat rounder.

Jul. [Aside.] But love will not be spurr'd to what it loathes.'

Thu. What says she to my face?

Pro. She says it is a fair one.

In all the old copies this speech is given to Proteus, and addressed to Thurio; which is evidently a mistake; for as Proteus is bantering and playing upon Thurio, to speak thus would defeat his own aim. Boswell suggested that it should be set down to Julia, and as spoken aside. This correction seems the more admissible, inasmuch as a similar one just below is generally ad mitted.

H.