Ber. If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly, I 'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly. Hel. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Laf. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon:- All yet seems well; and, if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. [Flourish. ? Advancing. 'The king's a beggar, now the play is done: : [Exeunt.9 7 The king's a beggar, now the play is done:] Though these lines are sufficiently intelligible in their obvious sense, yet perhaps there is some allusion to the old tale of The King and the Beggar, which was the subject of a ballad, and, as it should seem from the following lines in King Richard II, of some popular interlude also: "Our scene is altered from a serious thing, "And now chang'd to the beggar and the king." Malone. 8 Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;] The e meaning is: Grant us then your patience; hear us without interruption. And take our parts; that is, support and defend us. Johnson. 9 This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakspeare. I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate: when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness. The story of Bertram and Diana had been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time. Johnson. END OF VOL. V. T. S. Manning, Printer, No. 143 N. Third Street. |