Enter feveral Lords. Fair maid, fend forth thine eye: this youthful parcel Of noble bachelors ftand at my bestowing, O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice2 I have to use: thy frank election make; Thou haft power to choose, and they none to forfake. HEL. To each of you one fair and virtuous miftrefs Fall, when love please !-marry, to each, but one! 3 LAF. I'd give bay Curtal,+ and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken' than thefe boys', And writ as little beard. KING. Perufe them well: Not one of those, but had a noble father. 2 O'er whom both fovereign power and father's voice-] They were his wards as well as his fubjects. HENLEY. 3 marry, to each, but one!] 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 miftrefs 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 miftakes 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 the hoped the herself fhould be; and the makes the exception out of modefty: for otherwise the defcription of a fair and virtuous miftrefs would have extended to herself. M. MASON. 4 bay Curtal,] i. e. a bay, dock'd horfe. STEEVENS. 5 My mouth no more were broken-] A broken mouth is a mouth which has loft part of its teeth. JOHNSON. 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 : KING. HEL. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly; And to imperial Love, that god most high, Do my fighs stream.-Sir, will you hear my fuit? I LORD. And grant it. HEL. Thanks, fir; all the reft is mute." We blush, that thon fhould't choofe; but, be refus'd, Let the white death, &c.] In the original copy, these lines are pointed thus: We blush that thou should't choose, but be refus'd; Let the white death fit on thy cheek for ever; &c. This punctuation has been adopted in all the fubfequent editions. The prefent regulation of the text appears to me to afford a much clearer fenfe. My blufhes, (fays Helen,) thus whifper me. We blush that thou fhould't have the nomination of thy hufband. However, choose him at thy peril. But, if thou be refufed, let thy cheeks be for ever pale; we will never revifit them again." The blufhes, which are here perfonified, could not be fuppofed to know that Helena would be refused, as, according to the former punctuation, they appear to do; and, even if the poet had meant this, he would furely have written "—and be refused," not - but be refused." Be refus'd means the fame as" thou being refused,”—or, “ be thou refused." MALONE. The white death is the chlorofts. JOHNSON. LAF. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life. HEL. The honour, fir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I fpeak, too threatningly replies: Love make your fortunes twenty times above 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: LAF. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her: fure, they are baftards to the English; the French ne'er got them. HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood. 4 LORD. Fair one, I think not fo. 7 all the reft is mute.] i. e. I have no more to fay to you. So, Hamlet: "" the reft is filence." STEEVENS. 8 ames-ace- -] i, e. the loweft chance of the dice. So, in The Ordinary, by Cartwright: " may I at my last stake, &c. throw ames-aces thrice together." STEEVENS. 9 Laf. Do all they deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be fo regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, 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. LAF. There's one grape yet,'-I am fure, thy father drank wine.-But if thou be'ft 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 fervice, 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 highnefs, In fuch a business give me leave to use The help of mine own eyes. KING. Know'st thou not, Bertram, What fhe has done for me? BER. Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I should marry her. KING. Thou know'ft, fhe has rais'd me from my fickly bed. BER. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Muft anfwer for your raising? I know her well; She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor physician's daughter my wife!-Difdain Rather corrupt me ever! * There's one grape yet,] This fpeech the three laft editors [Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton,] have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of fenfe. I have reftored the old reading, and fhould have thought no explanation neceffary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it. Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refused, 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 blood—but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an afs. JOHNSON. KING. 'Tis only title3 thou difdain'st in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, All that is virtuous, (fave what thou dislik'st, 3 'Tis only title-] i, e. the want of title. MALONE. Of colour, weight, and heat,] That is, which are of the fame colour, weight, &c, MALONE. 5 From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,] The old copy has-whence. This eafy correction [when] was prescribed by Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD. 6 Where great additions fwell,] Additions are the titles and defcriptions by which men are diftinguished from each other. 7 good alone MALONE. Is good, without a name; vileness is fo:] Shakspeare may mean, that external circumftances have no power over the real nature of things. Good alone (i. e. by itself) without a name (i. e. without the addition of titles) is good. Vilenefs is fo (i. e. is itself.) Either of them is what its name implies: "The property by what it is should go, "Not by the title." "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn, "Tis not the devil's creft," Mcafure for Measure, 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 vileness |