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PRO.

JUL. Alas!

Not fo; I think, she lives.

PRO. Why doft thou cry, alas?

JUL. I cannot choose but pity her.

PRO. Wherefore should'st thou pity her? JUL. Because, methinks, that she lov'd you as well As you do love your lady Silvia :

She dreams on him, that has forgot her love; You dote on her, that cares not for your love. 'Tis pity, love should be fo contrary;

And thinking on it makes me cry, alas!

PRO. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal This letter; that's her chamber.-Tell my lady, I claim the promise for her heavenly picture. Your meffage done, hie home unto my chamber, Where thou shalt find me fad and folitary. Exit PROTEUS,

JUL. How many women would do fuch a message?
Alas, poor Proteus! thou haft entertain'd
A fox, to be the fhepherd of thy lambs:
Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he despiseth me;
Because I love him, I must pity him.
This ring I gave him, when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will:
And now am I (unhappy meffenger)

To plead for that, which I would not obtain;
To carry that, which I would have refus'd;
To praise his faith, which I would have difprais'd.'

5 To carry that, which I would have refus'd; &c.] The fenfe is, to go and prefent that which I wish to be not accepted, to praise him whom I wish to be difpraised. JOHNSON.

I am my master's true confirmed love;
But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove falfe traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him; but yet fo coldly,
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed.

Enter SILVIA, attended.

Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean
To bring me where to fpeak with madam Silvia.
SIL. What would you with her, if that I be she?
JUL. If you be fhe, I do entreat your patience
To hear me speak the message I am fent on.
SIL. From whom?

JUL. From my master, fir Proteus, madam.
SIL. O!-he fends you for a picture?
JUL. Ay, madam.

SIL. Urfula, bring my picture there.

[Picture brought.
Go, give your mafter this: tell him from me,
One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget,
Would better fit his chamber, than this fhadow.
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 ladyfhip.

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 proteftations,
And full of new-found oaths; which he will break,
As cafily as I do tear his paper.

JUL. Madam, he fends your lady ship this ring.

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SIL. The more fhame for him that he fends it me; For, I have heard him say a thousand times, His Julia gave it him at his departure: Though his falfe finger hath profan'd the ring, Mine shall not do his Julia fo much wrong. JUL. She thanks you.

SIL. What fay'st thou?

JUL. I thank you, madam, that you tender her: Poor gentlewoman! my mafter wrongs her much. SIL. Doft thou know her?

JUL. Almost as well as I do know myself:
To think upon her woes, I do protest,
That I have wept an hundred feveral times.

SIL. Belike, fhe thinks that Proteus hath forfook her.

JUL. I think fhe doth; and that's her cause of forrow.

SIL. Is the not paffing fair?

JUL. She hath been fairer, madam, than fhe is: When she did think my master lov'd her well, She, in my judgement, was as fair as you; But fince the did neglect her looking-glafs, And threw her fun-expelling mafk away, The air hath ftarv'd the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face," That now she is become as black as I.

6 And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face,] The colour of a part pinched, is livid, as it is commonly termed, black and blue. The weather may therefore be justly faid to pinch when it produces the fame vifible effect. I believe this is the reafon why the cold is faid to pinch. JOHNSON.

Cleopatra fays of herfelf:

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think on me,

"That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black.”

STEEVENS,

SIL. How tall was fhe?'

JUL. About my ftature: for, at Pentecoft,
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 ferved me as fit, by all men's judgement,
As if the garment had been made for me:
Therefore, I know fhe is about my height.
And, at that time, I made her weep a-good,
For I did play a lamentable part:
Madam, 'twas Ariadne, paffioning
For Thefeus' perjury, and unjuft flight;"

Sil. How tall was be?] We fhould read-" How tall is she ?" For that is evidently the queftion which Silvia means to ask.

RITSON.

-weep a-good,] i. e. in good earneft. Tout de bon. Fr.

So, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"And therewithal their knees have rankled fo,
"That I have laugh'd a-good." MALONE.

'twas Ariadne, paffioning

STEEVENS,

For Thefeus' perjury, and unjuft flight;] The hiftory of this twice-deferted lady is too well known to need an introduction here; nor is the reader interrupted on the bufinefs of Shakspeare: but I find it difficult to refrain from making a note the vehicle for a conjecture which I may have no better opportunity of communicating to the public. The fubject of a picture of Guido (commonly fuppofed to be Ariadne deferted by Thefeus and courted by Bacchus) may poffibly have been hitherto miftaken. Whoever will examine the fabulous hiftory critically, as well as the performance itfelf, will acquiefce in the truth of the remark. Övid, in his Fafti, tells us, that Bacchus (who left Ariadne to go on his Indian expedition) found too many charms in the daughter of one of the kings of that country.

"Interea Líber depexos crinibus Indos
"Vincit, et Eoo dives ab orbe redit.
Inter captivas facie præftante puellas
"Grata nimis Baccho filia regis erat.

"Flebat amans conjux, fpatiataque littore curvo
"Edidit incultis talia verba fonis.

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Which I fo lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very forrow!

SIL. She is beholden to thee, gentle youth!-
Alas, poor lady! defolate and left!-

I weep myself, to think upon thy words. Here, youth, there is my purfe; I give thee this For thy fweet mistress' fake, because thou lov'ft her. Farewell. [Exit SILVIA. JUL. And the fhall thank you for't, if e'er you know her.

Quid me defertis perituram, Liber, arenis
"Servabas? potui dedoluiffe femel.-

"Aufus es ante oculos, adducta pellice, noftros
"Tam bene compofitum follicitare torum," &c.
Ovid. Faft. 1. iii. v. 465.

In this picture he appears as if juft returned from India, bringing with him his new favourite, who hangs on his arm, and whofe prefence only causes thofe emotions fo vifible in the countenance of Ariadne, who had been hitherto represented on this occafion:.

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as paffioning

"For Thefeus' perjury and unjuft flight."

From this painting a plate was engraved by Giacomo Freij, which is generally a companion to the Aurora of the fame mafter. The print is fo common, that the curious may eafily fatisfy themfelves concerning the propriety of a remark which has intruded itself among the notes on Shakspeare.

To paffion is ufed as a verb, by writers contemporary with Shakfpeare. In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, printed 1598, we meet with the fame expreffion:

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what, art thou paffioning over the picture of Cleanthes?" Again, in Eliofto Libidinofo, a novel, by John Hinde, 1606: if thou gaze on a picture, thou must, with Pigmalion, be paffionate." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. 2:

"Some argument of matter passioned." STEEVENS. 'twas Ariadne, paffioning-] On her being deferted by Thefeus in the night, and left on the Island of Naxos.

MALONE.

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