King. Go, call before me all the lords in court.

Sit, my preferver, by thy patient's fide;

[Exit an Attendant.

And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou haft repeal'd, a fecond time receive
The confirmation of my promis'd gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

Enter feveral Lords.

Fair maid, fend forth thine eye: this youthful parcel
Of noble bachelors ftand at my bestowing,

O'er whom both fovereign power and father's voices
I have to afe; thy frank election make;

Thou haft power to choose, and they none to forfake.
Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when love please!-marry, to each, but one!4
Laf. I'd give bay Curtal, and his furniture,
My mouth no more were broken " than these boys',
And writ as little beard.

King.

Perufe them well: Not one of thofe, but had a noble father.

Hel, Gentlemen,

Heaven hath, through me, reftor'd the king to health.
All. We understand it, and thank heaven for you.
Hel. I am a fimple maid; and therein wealthiest,
That, I proteft, I fimply am a maid :

Please it your majefty, I have done already :

The

3 They were his wards as well as his fubjects. HENLEY. 4 I cannot understand this paffage in any other fenfe, than as a ludicrous exclamation, in confequence of Helena's wifh of one fair and virtuous mistress to each of the lords. If that be fo, it cannot belong to Helena; and might properly enough be given to Parolles. TYRWHITT.

Tyrwhitt's obfervations on this paffage are not conceived with his ufual fagacity. He mistakes the import of the words but one, which does not mean one only, but except one.

Helena wishes a fair and virtuous miftrefs to each of the young lords who were prefent, one only excepted; and the perfon excepted is Bertram, whofe miftrefs fhe hoped fhe herself should be; and the makes the exception out of modefty: for otherwife the defcription of a fair and virtuous mistress would have extended to herfelf. M. MASON. 5 i. e. a bay, dock'd horfe. STEEVENS.

• A broken mouth is a mouth which has loft part of its teeth.

3

JOHNSON,

The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,
We blufb, that thou should't choofe; but be refus'd,
Let the white death fit on thy cheek for ever;
We'll ne'er come there again.

King.
Make choice; and, fee,
Who fhuns thy love, fhuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly;
And to imperial Love, that god moft high,

Do my fighs ftream.-Sir, will you hear my fuit?
1 Lord. And grant it.

for

Hel.

Thanks, fir; all the reft is mute.

Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-aces

my

life.

Hel. The honour, fir, that flames in your fair eyes,
Before I fpeak, too threatningly replies:

Love made your fortunes twenty times above
Her that fo wishes, and her humble love!
2 Lord. No better, if you please.

Hel.

My with receive, Which great love grant! and fo I take my leave.

Laf. Do all they deny her? An they were fons of mine, I'd have them whipp'd; or I would fend them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of.

Hel. Be not afraid [To a Lord.] that I your hand fhould

take;

I'll never do you wrong for your own fake:
Bleffing upon your vows! and in your bed
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

Laf. Thefe boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her : fure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them.

Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a fon out of my blood.

7 The chlorofis. JOHNSON.

8 i. e. I have no more to say to you. STEEVENS.

9 i. e. the loweft chance of the dice. STEEVENS.

tram.

4

Lord.

2 None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but BerThe scene must be fo regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a diftance, where they may fee what paffes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, fo that they know not by whom the refufal is made. JOHNSON.

4 Lord. Fair one, I think not fo.

Laf. There's one grape yet,3—I am fure, thy father drank wine.—But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already.

Hel. I dare not fay, I take you; [To BERTRAM.] but I give

Me, and my service, ever whilst I live,

Into your guiding power.-This is the man.

King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, she's thy wife. Ber. My wife, my liege? I fhall befeech your highness, In fuch a bufinefs give me leave to use

The help of mine own eyes.

King.

What the has done for me?

Ber.

Know'st thou not, Bertram,

Yes, my good lord;

But never hope to know why I should marry her.

King. Thou know'ft, she has rais'd me from my fickly

bed.

Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Muft answer for your raifing? I know her well;
She had her breeding at my father's charge:
A poor phyfician's daughter my wife !—Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!

King. 'Tis only title + thou difdain'ft in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat,5 pour'd all together,
Would quite confound diftinction, yet stand off
In differences fo mighty: If the be

All that is virtuous, (fave what thou diflik'ft,
A poor phyfician's daughter,) thou dislik'st

3 This fpeech the three laft editors [Theobald, Hanmer, and Warbur ton,] have perplexed themfelves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of fenfe. I have reftored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation neceffary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it.

Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refufed, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is one yet into whom his father put good bloodbut I bave known thee long enough to know thee for an ass. JOHNSON. 4 'Tis only title-] i. e. the want of title. MALONE.

5 That is, which are of the fame colour, weight, &c. MALONE. VOL. III.

D

Of

Of virtue for the name: but do not fo:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed':
Where great additions fwell, and virtue none,
It is a dropfied honour: good alone

Is good, without a name; vileness is so : 7
The property by what it is fhould go,
Not by the title. She is young, wife, fair;
In these to nature he's immediate heir ; 8
And these breed honour: that is honour's fcorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the fire: 9 Honours beft thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a flave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb,

Where duft, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be faid?
If thou canft like this creature as a maid,

I can create the reft: virtue, and fhe,

Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from me.
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.

King. Thou wrong'ft thyfelf, if thou should'ft ftrive to choofe.

Hel.

6 Additions are the titles and defcriptions by which men are diftinguish• ed from each other.. MALONE.

7 Shakspeare may mean, that external circumstances have no power over the real nature of things. Good alone (i. e. by itself) without a name (i. c. without the addition of titles) is good. Vilenefs is fo (i. e. is itself.) STEEVENS.

Steevens's laft interpretation of this paffage is very near being right; but I think it should be pointed thus:

good alone

Is good; without a name, vileness is fo.

Meaning that good is good without any addition, and vilenefs would ftill be vilenefs, though we had no fuch name to distinguish it by.

M. MASON. 8.To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus fhe inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is tranfmitted by ancestors. JOHNSON.

9 Honour's born, is the child of honour. Born is here ufed, as bairn still is in the North. HENLEY.

44

h

Hel. That you are well reftor'd, my lord, I am glad;
Let the reft go.

King. My honour's at the ftake; which to defeat,
I must produce my power: 2 Here, take her hand,
Proud fcornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
That doft in vile mifprifion fhackle up

My love, and her defert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective scale,

Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour, where

We please to have it grow: Check thy contempt:
Obey our will which travails in thy good:
Believe not thy difdain, but prefently

Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which both thy duty owes, and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever,
Into the staggers,3 and the carelefs lapfe

Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate,
Loofing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity: Speak; thine answer.
Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I fubmit

My fancy to your eyes: When I confider,
What great creation, and what dole of honour,

D 2

Flies

2 The poor King of France is again made a man of Gotham, by our unmerciful editors. For he is not to make ufe of his authority to defeat, but to defend, his honour. THEOBALD.

Had Mr. Theobald been aware that the implication or clause of the fen tence (as the grammarians fay) ferved for the antecedent Which danger to defeat," there had been no need of his wit or his alteration.

FARMER. Notwithstanding Mr. Theobald's pert cenfure of former editors for retaining the word defeat, I fhould be glad to fee it reftored again, as I am perfuaded it is the true reading. The French verb defaire (from whence our defeat) fignifies to free, to difembarras, as well as to deftroy. Defaire un naud, is to untie a knot; and in this fenfe, I apprehend, defeat is here ufed. It may be obferved, that our verb undo has the fame varieties of fignification; and I fuppofe even Mr. Theobald would not have been much puzzled to find the fenfe of this paffage, if it had been written ;→→→→ My bonour's at the stake, which to unio I must produce my power.

TYRWHITT.

3 One fpecies of the faggers, or the borse's apoplexy, is a raging impati ence which makes the animal dish himfelf with deftructive violence against pofts or walls. To this the allufion, I fuppole, is made. JOHNSON.