here's my mother's breath up and down: now come I to my fifter; mark the moan fhe makes: now the dog all this while fheds not a tear, nor speaks a word; but fee how I lay the duft with my tears.

Enter PANTHINO.

PAN. Launce, away, away, aboard; thy mafter is fhipped, and thou art to poft after with oars. What's the matter? why weep'ft thou, man? Away, afs; you will lofe the tide, if you tarry any longer.

LAUN. It is no matter if the ty'd were loft;5 for it is the unkindest ty'd that ever any man ty'd.

he has unmeaningly fubftituted ould woman. But it must be writ, or at least understood, wood woman, i. e. crazy, frantic with grief; or diftracted, from any other caufe. The word is very frequently used in Chaucer; and fometimes writ wood, fometimes wode. THEOBALD.

Print thus: "Now come I to my mother, (O, that she could fpeak now!) like a wood woman."

Perhaps the humour would be heightened by reading-(O, that the fhoe could fpeak now!) BLACKSTONE.

I have followed the punctuation recommended by Sir W. Blackftone. The emendation proposed by him was made, I find, by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE.

O that he could speak now like a wood woman!] Launce is defcribing the melancholy parting between him and his family. In order to do this more methodically, he makes one of his thoes ftand for his father, and the other for his mother. And when he has done taking leave of his father, he fays, Now come 1 to my mother, turning to the fhoe that is fupposed to perfonate her. And in order to render the representation more perfect, he expreffes his wish that it could speak like a woman frantic with grief! There could be no doubt about the sense of the paffage, had he faid"O that it could speak like a wood woman!" But he uses the feminine pronoun in speaking of the shoe, because it is fuppofed to represent a woman. M. MASON.

if the ty'd were loft ;] This quibble, wretched as it is, might have been borrowed by Shakspeare from Lyly's Endymion,

PAN. What's the unkindeft tide?

LAUN. Why, he that's ty'd here; Crab, my dog.

PAN. Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lofe the flood; and, in lofing the flood, lose thy voyage; and, in lofing thy voyage, lose thy mafter; and, in losing thy mafter, lofe thy fervice; and, in lofing thy fervice, Why doft thou ftop my mouth?

LAUN. For fear thou should'st lose thy tongue ? PAN. Where should I lose my tongue?

LAUN. In thy tale.

PAN. In thy tail?

LAUN. Lofe the tide,

mafter, and the fervice?

and the voyage, and the The tide !7-Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive the boat with my fighs.

PAN. Come, come away, man; I was fent to call thee.

LAUN. Sir, call me what thou dareft.

PAN. Wilt thou go ?

LAUN. Well, I will go.

[Exeunt.

1591: Epi. You know it is faid, the tide tarrieth for no man.— Sam. True.-Epi. A monftrous lye: for I was ty'd two hours, and tarried for one to unloofe me." The fame play on words occurs in Chapman's Andromeda Liberata, 1614:

6

"And now came roaring to the tied the tide."

STEEVENS. Lofe the tide,] Thus the old copy. Some of the modern editors read-the flood. STEEVENS.

7 The tide !] The old copy reads-" and the tide." I once fuppofed these three words to have been repeated, through fome error of the transcriber or printer; but, pointed as the paffage now is, (with the omiffion of and,) it feems to have fufficient meaning. STEEVENS.

SCENE IV.

Milan. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace.

Enter VALENTINE, SILVIA, THURIO, and SPEED.

8

SIL. Servant

VAL. Miftrefs?

SPEED. Mafter, fir Thurio frowns on you.

VAL. Ay, boy, it's for love.

SPEED. Not of you.

VAL. Of my mistress then.

SPEED. "Twere good, you knocked him.

SIL. Servant, you are fad.

VAL. Indeed, madam, I seem so.

THU. Seem you that you are not?

VAL. Haply, I do.

THU. So do counterfeits.

VAL. So do you.

THU. What feem I, that I am not?
VAL. Wife.

THU. What inftance of the contrary?
VAL. Your folly.

THU. And how quote you my folly ? 8

how quote you my folly ?] To quote is to obferve. So, in Hamlet:

"I am forry that with better heed and judgement

"I had not quoted him." STEEVENS.

Valentine in his answer plays upon the word, which was pronounced as if written coat. So, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

VAL. I quote it in your jerkin.

THU. My jerkin is a doublet.

VAL. Well, then, I'll double your folly.
THU. HOW?

SIL. What, angry, fir Thurio? do you change colour?

VAL. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of cameleon.

THU. That hath more mind to feed on your blood, than live in your air.

VAL. You have said, fir.

THU. Ay, fir, and done too, for this time.

VAL. I know it well, fir; you always end ere you begin.

SIL. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

VAL. 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver. SIL. Who is that, fervant?

VAL. Yourself, fweet lady; for you gave the fire: fir Thurio borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks, and spends what he borrows, kindly in your

company.

THU. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I fhall make your wit bankrupt.

VAL. I know it well, fir: you have an exchequer of words, and, I think, no other treasure to give

the illiterate, that know not how

"To cipher what is writ in learned books,

"Will cote my loathsome trefpafs in my looks."

In our poet's time words were thus frequently fpelt by the ear.

MALONE.

your followers; for it appears by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.

SIL. No more, gentlemen, no more; here comes my father.

Enter DUKE.

DUKE. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard befet. Sir Valentine, your father's in good health: What fay you to a letter from your friends Of much good news?

VAL.

My lord, I will be thankful To any happy meffenger from thence.

DUKE. Know you Don Antonio, your countryman ? 9

VAL. Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman To be of worth, and worthy estimation,

And not without defert fo well reputed.

DUKE. Hath he not a fon?

VAL. Ay, my good lord; a fon, that well deferves The honour and regard of such a father.

DUKE. You know him well?

VAL. I knew him, as myself; for from our infancy We have convers'd, and spent our hours together: And though myself have been an idle truant, Omitting the sweet benefit of time,

To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection;

9 Know you Don Antonio, your countryman ?] The word Don fhould be omitted; as befides the injury it does to the metre, the characters are Italians, not Spaniards. Had the measure admitted it, Shakspeare would have written Signor. And yet, after making this remark, I noticed Don Alphonfo in a preceding scene. But for all that, the remark may be juft. RITSON.

I

not without defert-] And not dignified with so much reputation without proportionate merit. JOHNSON.