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Wish me partaker in thy happinefs,

When thou doft 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 fuccefs. PRO. Upon fome book I love, I'll pray for thee. VAL. That's on fome fhallow ftory of deep love, How young Leander crofs'd the Hellefpont.

4

PRO. That's a deep flory of a deeper love; For he was more than over fhoes in love.

VAL. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never fwam the Hellefpont.

4

PRO. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.'

-Some Shallow Story of deep love,

How young Leander cross'd the Hellefpont.] The poem of Mufæus, entitled HERO AND LEANDER, is meant. Marlowe's tranflation of this piece was entered on the Stationers' books, Sept. 18, 1793, and the first two Seftiads of it, with a small part of the third, (which was all that he had finifhed,) were printed, I imagine, in that, or the following year. Sce Blount's dedication to the edition of 1637, by which it appears that it was originally published in an imperfe&t ftate. It was extremely popular, and defervedly fo, many of Marlowe's lines being as fmooth as those of Dryden. Our author has quoted one of them in As you like it. He had probably read this poem recently before he wrote the present play; for he again alludes to it in the third a&¦:

"Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords,
"Would ferve to fcale another Hero's tower,
"So bold Leander would adventure it."

Since this note was written, I have feen the edition of Marlowe's Hero and Leander, printed in 1598. It contains the first two Seftiads only. The remainder was added by Chapman. MALONE.

S -nay, give me not the boots.]. A proverbial expreffion though now difufed, fignifying don't make a laughing flock of me; don't play with me. The French have a phrafe, Bailler foin en corne; which Cotgrave thus interprets, To give one the boots; to fell him a bargain. THEOBALD.

VAL. No, I'll not, for it boots thee not.

PRO.

VAL.

What?

To be

In love, where fcorn is bought with groans: coy

looks,

With feart-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 bought with wit,
Or elfe a wit by folly vanquished.

Perhaps this expreffion took its origin from a fport the countrypeople in Warwickshire ufe at their harveft-home, where one fits as judge to try mifdemeanors committed in harveft, and the punishment for the men is to be laid on a bench, and flapped on the breech with a pair of boots. This they call giving them the boots. I meet with the fame expreffion in the old comedy called Mother Bombie, by Lylly:

"What do you give me the boots ?"

Again, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, a comedy, 1618 :

66

Nor your fat bacon can carry it away, if you offer us the boots.

In

The boots, however, were an ancient engine of torture. MS. Harl. 6999-48, Mr. T. Randolph writes to lord Hunsdon, &c. and mentions, in the P. S. to his letter, that Geo. Flecke had yefterday night the boots, and is faid to have confeffed that the E. of Morton was privy to the poifoning the E. of Athol. 16 March, 1580 and in another letter, March 18, 1580, t : -that the laird of Whittingham had the boots, but without torment confefs'd," &c. STEEVENS,

The boot was an inftrument of torture ufed ouly in Scotland. Bishop Burnet in The hiftory of his own Times, Vol. I. p. 332, edit. 1754, mentions one Maccael, a preacher, who, being fufpe&ed of treasonable pra&ices, underwent the punishment fo late as 1666: He was put to the torture, which, in Scotland, they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots clofe on the leg, and drive wedges between thefe and the leg. The common torture was only to drive these in the calf of the leg: but I have been told they were fometimes driven upon the fhin bone." REED.

6 However, but a folly, &.) This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are long to fpend your wit, or it will end

PRO. So, by your circumftance, you call me fool. VAL. So, by your circumftance, I fear, you'll prove. PRO. 'Tis Love you cavil at; I am not love. VAL. Love is your mafter, for he mafters you; And he that is so yoked by a fool,

Methinks fhould not be chronicled for wife.

PRO. Yet writers fay, As in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, 7 fo eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

VAL. And writers fay, As the moft forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even fo by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly; blafting in the bud,
Lofing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes.
But wherefore wafte I time to counsel thee,`
That art a votary to fond defire?

Once more adieu: my father at the road
Expects my coming, there to fee me fhipp'd..
PRO. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.
VAL. Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our
leave.

At Milan, let me hear from thee by letters,

in the lofs of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love. JOHNSON.

17 As in the fweetest bud

The eating canker dwells, ) So, in our author's 70th Sonnet: "For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love.”

MALONE.

8 At Milan,) The old copy has To Milan. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. The firft copy how. ever may be right. "To Milan, - may here be intended as an imperfect fentence. I am now bound for Milan.

Or the conftruction intended may have been-Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan, i. e. addreffed to me there.

MALONE,

Of thy fuccefs in love, and what news elfe
Betideth here in abfence of thy friend;
And I likewife will vifit thee with mine.

PRO. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan ! VAL. As much to you at home! and fo, farewell! (Exit VALENTINE.

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 haft metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my ftudies, lofe my time, War with good counfel, fet the world at nought; Made wit with mufing weak, heart fick with thought.

Enter SPEED. 2

9

SPEED. Sir Proteus, fave you: Saw you my ma-
fter ?

PRO. But now he parted hence to embark for
Milan.

9 Made wit with mufing weak,) For made read make. Thou Julia, haft made me war with good counfel, and make wit weak with mufing. JOHNSON.

Surely there is no need of emendation.

It is Julia, who “has

already made wit weak with mufing," &c. STEEVENS.

2 This whole fcene, like many others in these plays (fome of which I believe written by Shakspeare, and others interpolated by the players) is compofed of the loweft and moft trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the grofs tafte of the age he lived in ; Populo ut placerent. I wish I had authority to leave them out; but I have done all I could, fet a mark of reprobation upon them throughout this edition. POPE.

That this, like many other fcenes, is mean and vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players seems advanced without any proof, only to give a greater licence to criticifm. JOHNSON.

SPEED. Twenty to one then, he is fhipp'd al

ready;

And I have play'd the fheep, in losing him.
PRO. Indeed afheep doth very often ftray,
An if the fhepherd be awhile away.

SPEED. You conclude, that my mafter is a fhepherd then, and I a fheep? 3

PRO. I do.

SPEED. Why then my horns are his horns, whether I wake or fleep.

PRO. A filly anfwer, and fitting well a fheep. SPEED. This proves me flill a fheep.

PRO. True; and thy mafler a fhepherd.

SPEED. Nay, that I can deny by a circumflance. PRO. It fhall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. SPEED. The fhepherd feeks the sheep, and not the fheep the fhepherd; but I feek my mafter, and my mafler feeks not me: therefore, I am no fheep.

PRO. The fheep for fodder follow the fhepherd, the fhepherd for food follows not the fheep; thou for wages followeft thy mafter, thy mafter for wages follows not thee: therefore, thou art a fheep.

SPEED. Such another proof will make me cry baa. PRO. But doft thou hear? gav'st thou my letter to Julia ?

SPEED. Av. fir: I, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton; 4 and fhe, a laced mut

3 -a Sheep?) The article, which is wanting in the original copy, was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

4 I, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton; Speed calls himfelf a loft mutton, because he had loft his mafter, and

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