The great neceffity and benefit of Travel are properly recommended, and marked by apt phrafe, in the first fpeech here; which opening, with the addition of a few other paffages, feems to promife more than, I am forry to fay, the rest of the piece is refponfible for. And it is this circumstance which has induced the critics to fufpect this Play not to have been originally one of Shakespeare's, but only revised and enriched with fragments, by him; as it may be deemed to be not a jewel, but only a lump of paste, fet round with sparks,

Valentine. Ceafe to perfuade, my loving Protheus;
Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits
Were't not affection chains thy tender day's
To the sweet glances of thy honoured love,
I rather would intreat thy company
To fee the wonders of the world abroad,
Than (living dully fluggardized, at home)
Wear out thy youth in shapeless idleness".

The tenderness and folicitudes of friendship are well and fondly expreffed in the reply

Protheus. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu ;-
Think on thy Protheus, when thou haply feeft

Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel

With me partaker in thy happiness,

When thou doft meet good hap; and in thy danger,
If ever danger do environ thee,

Commend thy grievance to my holy prayer;

For I will be thy bead's-man, Valentine.

If ever danger do environ thee-This line ftrikes me with a peculiar beauty. Protheus defires to be confidered as a fharer in his friend's weal or woe, during absence; the first he mentions without any reserve,

Wish me partaker in thy happiness,

When thou doft meet good hap

But when he comes to speak of the latter, he appears to catch himself up, as if alarmed even at the idea of his danger, and feems to have begun his prayers for him, already.

• Forming neither manners, nor character.

But

But not to quit the first subject hinted above, only to re-affume it again, I fhall introduce a speech from the fourth Scene following, though fomewhat out of its place, here; where Panthion, fpeaking to the father of Protheus, tells him the opinion of another perfon about him and his fon.

Panthion. He wondered that your lordship

Would suffer him to fpend his life 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 iflands far away:
Some to the ftudious Universities.
For any, or for all these exercises,

He faid that Protheus, your fon, was meet;
And did requeft me to importune you

To let him fpend his time no more at home;
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth.
Anthonio. Nor need'st thou mach importune me to that,
Whereon this month I have been hammering.

I have confidered well his lofs of time,

And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tried and tutored in the world,
Experience is by induftry achieved,

And perfected by the fwift courfe of time.

But to return to the firft Scene, again. In this and many of the fubfequent ones, the feveral parts of which fhall be quoted as they follow in order, to prevent the interruption of the fubject, our Author has truly defcribed the nature, the effects, the anxieties, the weakneffes, the extravagancies, and the miseries, of the paffion of love, moft philofophically, poetically, and experimentally.

Valentine, perfuading Protheus to quit his mif
trefs, and accompany him on his travels, fays:
To be in love, where fcorn 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 an hapless gain;
If loft, why then a grievous labour won;
However, but a folly bought with wit;
Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

Would not flow be a fitter word, in this place

Love is your mafter, for he masters you ;
And he that is fo yoked by a fool,

Methinks should not be chronicled for wife.
Protheus. Yet writers fay, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, fo eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all..

Valentine. And writers fay, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker, ere it blows;
Even fo by love the young and tender wit
Is turned to folly, blafting in the bud;
Lofing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes..

Protheus, alone.

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

Valentine, after his falling in love, to Protheus:

I have done penance for contemning love;
Thofe high imperious thoughts have punished me
With bitter fafts, with penitential groans;
With nightly tears, and daily heart-fore fighs-
For in revenge of my contempt of love,

Love hath chaced fleep from my enthralled eyes,
And made them watchers of my own heart's forrow.
O, gentle Protheus, love's a mighty lord,
And hath fo humbled me, as I confess

There is no woe to his correction;

Nor to his fervice, no fuch joy on earth.
Now no difcourfe, except it be of love;

Now can I break my faft, dine, fup, and fleep,
Upon the very naked name of love.

Call her divine.

Julia and Lucetta.

A true devoted Pilgrim is not weary

To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps;

Much lefs fhall fhe, who hath love's wings to fly.
Oh, knoweft thou not his looks are my foul's food?
Pity the dearth that I have pined in,

By longing for that food fo long a time.
Didft thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou would't as foon go kindle fire with fnow,
As feek to quench the fire of love with words.

[Scene vii.

Lucetta. I do not feek to quench your love's hot fire,
But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

Left it should burn above the bounds of reason.

Julia. The more thou damm'ft it up, the more it barns→→→
The current that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou knoweft, being flopped, impatiently doth rage;

But when his fair courfe is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enamelled ftones, -
Giving a gentle kiss to every fedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage

And fo by many winding nooks he ftrays,
With willing sport to the wide ocean.

[Scene *.

There are two other paffages in this Play, which I have not included among the above number of quotations; because, though they relate to the fame fubject, yet not falling within the description of the paffion, but the artful or finifter conduct of it, only, I have reserved to a place by themselves.

The first is, where Valentine replies to the Duke, who afks his advice how to gain a coy mistress.

Win her with gifts, if the refpe&t not words;

Dumb jewels often, in their filent kind,

More than quick words do move a woman's mind.

[A& iii. Scene ii.

The second is in the fifth Scene following the above, where the most effectual, but baseft method for curing a woman's love, that can be devised, is there pointed

out:

Duke to Protheus.

What might we do to make the girl forget
The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?
Protheus. The best way is to flander Valentine
With falfehood, cowardice, and poor descent;
Three things that women highly hold in bate.
Duke. Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate.
Protheus. True, if his enemy deliver it.

Therefore it must with circumftance be spoken,
By one whom fe efteemeth as his friend.

ACT V.

SCENE IV.

In the first speech here, Valentine makes a reflec tion, which cannot be too often marked to us, upon the powerful effect of use or habit over the mind

of

of man. Second nature is more than a match even for the firft. In this philofophy lie the manifeft and manifold advantages of a good education, which alone forms the different manners allotted to the sexes, rendering men brave, and preserving women chafte. Exchange but the point of honour between them, and you fill the world with amazons and daftards.

How ufe doth breed a habit in a man!

This fhadowy defart, unfrequented woods,

I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
Here can I fit alone, unfeen of any,

And to the nightingale's complaining notes
Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes.

In the fame Scene he expreffes himself moft af fectingly, upon difcovering the faithlefsnefs of his friend, and displays a noble and a generous nature, in his ready forgiveness, on the other's as prompt penitence.

Thou treacherous man!

Thou haft beguiled my hopes; nought but mine ye
Could bave perfuaded me.-Now, I dare not fay
I have one friend alive-thou would'st difprove me.
Who fhould be trufted, when one's own right hand
Is perjured to the bofom? Protheus,

I'm forry I must never trust thee more,
But count the world a firanger, for thy fake.
The private wound is deepest. Ob time accurft!
'Mong ft all foes, that a friend should be the worst.
Protheus. My fhame and guilt confound me-
Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty forrow
Be a fufficient ranfom for offence,

I tender it here; I do as truly fuffer,
As e'er I did commit.

Valentine. Then I am paid;

And once again I do receive thee honest.
Who by repentance is not satisfied,

Is nor of beaven, nor earth.

SCENE V. and laft.

The Duke. Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy fpirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an Empress' love.

Know