Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass; Hel. Tax of impudence, A ftrumpet's boldness, a divulged fħame With vileft torture let my life be ended. King. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed fpirit doth fpealt In common fenfe, fenfe faves another ways Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die, And well deferv'd! not helping, death's my fee Hels (13) Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all &c.] This verfe is too fhort by a foot; and apparently fome diffyllable is drop'd out by mifchance. Mr. Warburton concurr'd with me in conjecture to fupply the verse thus: Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all &c. Helena had laid a particular stress on her maiden reputation; and the King, afterwards, when he comes to speak of her to Bertram, fays; -If the be All that is virtuous, (fave, what thou dislik’ft, A poor phyfician's daughter ;) thou dislik'ft Of virtue for her name: (14) King. Make thy demand. Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my fcepter and my hopes of help.] The Hel. But will you make it even?' King. Ay, by my fcepter, and my hopes of heav'n. To chufe from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand, the premises obferv'd, Count. SCENE changes to Roufillon. Enter Countess, and Clown OME on, Sir; I' fhall now put you to the Cheight of your breeding. Clo. I will fhew myfelf highly fed, and lowly taught; I know, my business is but to the court. Count. But to the court? why, what place make you Special, when you put off that with fuch contempt ? but to the court! Clo. Truly, Madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may eafily put it off at court: he that The King could have but a very flight hope of belp from her, fcaree enough to fwear by: and therefore Helen might fufpect, he meant to equivocate with her. Befides, obferve, the greateft part of the fcene is ftrictly in rhyme: and there is no fhadow of reafon why it fhould be interrupted here. I rather imagine, the poet wrote; Ay, by my scepter, and my hopes of heav'n. Dr. Thirlby. cannot cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kifs his hand, and fay nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, fuch a fellow, to fay precifely, were not for the court: but for me, I have an answer will ferve all men. هم Count. Marry, that's a bountiful anfwer that fits all questions. Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. Count. Will your anfwer ferve fit to all queftions? Cla. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffaty punk, as Tib's. rufh for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for ShroveTuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a fcolding quean to a. wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I fay, an answer of fuch fitnefs for all questions? Clo. From below your Duke, to beneath your conftable, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of moft monftrous fize, that muft fit all demands. Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned fhould fpeak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't. Afk me, if I am a courtier ;-it shall do you no harm to learn. Count. To be young again, if we could: I will be a fool in a queftion, hoping to be the wifer by your anfwer. I pray you, Sir, are you a courtier ? Clo. O Lord, Sir,-there's a fimple putting off: more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you. Clo. O Lord, Sir,-thick, thick, fpare not me. Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely. meat. Clo. O Lord, Sir,-nay, put me to't, I warrant you. Count. You were lately whip'd, Sir, as I think. Clo Clo. O Lord, Sir-fpare not me. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, Sir, at your whipping, and fpare not me? indeed, your O Lord, Sir, is very fequent to your whipping: you would anfwer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't. Clo. I ne'er had worfe luck in my life, in my-O Lord, Sir; I fee, things may ferve long, but not serve ever. Count. I play the noble hufwife with the time, to entertain it fo merrily with a fool. Clo. O Lord, Sir-why, there't ferves well again. Count. An end,, Sir; to your bufinefs: give Helen this,, And urge her to a prefent answer back. Commend me to my kinfmen, and my fon :: Clo. Not much commendation to them? Count. Not much imployment for you, you under ftand me.. Clo. Moft fruitfully, I am there before my legs. [Exeunti SCENE changes to the Court of France.. Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles.. Laf. (15) THEY fay, miracles are paft; and we have our philofophical perfons to make modern, and familiar, things fupernatural and causelefs. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors;: enfconfing ourselves into feeming knowledge, when we fhould fubmit ourselves to an unknown fear. Par. Why, 'tis the rareft argument of wonder that hath fhot out in our later times, Ber. And fo 'tis. (15) They fay miracles are paft, and we have our philofophical perfons: to make modern and familiar things fupernatural and caufelefs.] This, as it has hitherto been pointed, is directly oppofite to our poet's, and his fpeaker's, meaning. As I have ftop'd it, the fenfe quadrates with the context: and, furely, it is one unalterable property of philofophy, to make feeming firange and preternatural Phænomena familiar, and reducible to cause and reason, B. 5 Laf.. Laf. To be relinquifh'd of the artists- Laf. That him out incurable, gave Par. Why, there 'tis, fo fay I too. Par. Right, as 'twere a man affur'd of an- Par. Juft, you fay well: fo would I have faid. Laf. A fhewing of a heav'nly effect in an earthly actor. Par. That's it, I would have faid the very fame. Laf. (16) Why, your dolphin is not luftier: for me, I fpeak in refpect Par. Nay, 'tis ftrange, 'tis very ftrange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a moft facinerious fpirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the-Laf. Very hand of heav'n. Par. Ay, fo I fay. Lef. In a most weak (16) Why, your dolphin is not luftier :] I have thought it very prebable, that, as 'tis a French man fpeaks, and as 'tis the French King he is fpeaking of, the poet might have wrote, Why, your Dauphin is not luftier i. e. the King is as hale and hearty as the Prince his fon. And that the King in this play is fuppofed to have a fon, is plain from what he fays to Bertram in the first act. My fon's no dearer. -Welcome, Count, Befides, Dauphin in the old impreffions is conflantly fpelt as the fish, dolphin. But then confidering on the other hand, As found as a roach, As whole as a fifh, are proverbial expreffions: and confidering too that our author eife where makes the dolphin an instance or emblem of Juftihood and activity. -his delights Were dolphin-like, they fhew'd his back above Anto, and Cleop I have not thought proper to difturb the text. Nor would, indeed, che fenfe of the paffage be affected by any alteration, |