pick his teeth, and fing: I know a man that had this trick of melancholy, fold a goodly manor for a fong."

COUNT. Let me fee what he writes, and when he [Opening a Letter.

means to come.

CLO. I have no mind to Ifbel, fince I was at court: our old lings and our Ifbels o'the country are nothing like your old ling and your Ifbels o'the court: the brains of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no ftomach.

COUNT. What have we here?

CLO. E'en that you have there.

[Exit.

COUNT. [Reads.] I have fent you a daughter-inlaw: fhe hath recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and fworn to make the not eternal. You shall hear, I am run away; know it, before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you.

Your unfortunate fon,

BERTRAM.

This is not well, rash and unbridled boy,
To fly the favours of fo good a king;
To pluck his indignation on thy head,
By the mifprizing of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

To this fashion Bishop Earle alludes in his Characters, 1638, Signat. E. 10. "He has learnt to ruffle his face from his boote; and takes great delight in his walk to heare his fpurs gingle."

7

MALONE.

fold a goodly manor for a fong.] Thus the modern editors, The old copy reads-hold a goodly, &c. The emendation, however, which was made in the third folio, feems neceffary. STEEVENS.

8 Clo. E'en that-] Old copy-In that. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

Re-enter Clown.

CLO. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two foldiers and my young lady.

COUNT. What is the matter?

CLO. Nay, there is fome comfort in the news, fome comfort; your fon will not be kill'd fo foon as I thought he would.

COUNT. Why fhould he be kill'd?

CLO. So fay I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does the danger is in standing to't; that's the lofs of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come, will tell you more: for my part, I only hear, your fon was run away. [Exit Clown. Enter HELENA and two Gentlemen.

I GEN. Save you, good madam.

HEL. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone. 2 GEN. Do not say so.

COUNT. Think upon patience.-'Pray you, gentle

men,

I have felt fo many quirks of joy, and grief,
That the first face of neither, on the start,
Can woman me' unto't:-Where is my son, I pray

you?

2 GEN. Madam, he's gone to ferve the duke of Florence:

We met him thitherward; for thence we came,
And, after fome despatch in hand at court,
Thither we bend again.

HEL. Look on his letter, madam; here's my paffport.

9 Can woman me-] i. e. affect me fuddenly and deeply, as my fex are ufually affected. STEEVENS.

[Reads.] When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body, that I am father to, then call me bufband: but in fuch a then I write a never. This is a dreadful fentence.

COUNT. Brought you this letter, gentlemen? I GEN. Ay, madam; And, for the contents' fake, are forry for our pains.

COUNT. I pr'ythee, lady, have a better cheer; If thou engroffeft all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'ft me of a moiety: He was my fon; But I do wash his name out of my blood, And thou art all my child.-Towards Florence is he? 2 GEN. Ay, madam.

COUNT.

And to be a foldier?

2 GEN. Such is his noble purpose: and, believe't, The duke will lay upon him all the honour That good convenience claims.

When thou canst get the ring upon my finger,] i. e. When thou canft get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy poffeffion. The Oxford editor, who took it the other way, to fignify, when thou canst get it on upon my finger, very fagaciously alters it to When thou canst get the ring from my finger. WARBURTON.

I think Dr. Warburton's explanation fufficient; but I once read it thus: When thou canst get the ring upon thy finger, which never fhall come off mine. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton's explanation is confirmed inconteftably by these lines in the fifth act, in which Helena again repeats the substance of this letter:

64 there is your ring;

"And, look you, here's your letter; this it fays:

"When from my finger you can get this ring," &c. MALONE. If thou engroffeft all the griefs are thine,

Thou robb'ft me of a moiety:] We fhould certainly read:

all the griefs as thine,

inftead of-are thine. M. MASON.

This fentiment is elliptically expreffed, but, I believe, means no more than-If thou keepeft all thy forrows to thyself, i, e, "all the griefs that are thine," &c. STEEVENS,

COUNT.

Return you thither?

I GEN. Ay, madam, with the swifteft wing of fpeed. HEL. [Reads.] 'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.

'Tis bitter.

COUNT. Find you that there?

HEL.

Ay, madam.

I GEN. 'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply,

which

His heart was not confenting to.

COUNT. Nothing in France, until he have no wife! There's nothing here, that is too good for him, But only fhe; and fhe deferves a lord,

That twenty fuch rude boys might tend upon,
And call her hourly, mistress. Who was with him?
I GEN. A fervant only, and a gentleman
Which I have fome time known.

COUNT.

Parolles, was't not?

I GEN. Ay, my good lady, he.

COUNT. A very tainted fellow, and full of wick

edness.

My fon corrupts a well-derived nature

With his inducement.

I GEN.

Indeed, good lady,

The fellow has a deal of that, too much,
Which holds him much to have.3

Which holds him much to have.] That is, his vices stand him in ftead. Helen had before delivered this thought in all the beauty of expreffion :

I know him a notorious liar;

"Think him a great way fool, folely a coward;
"Yet thefe fix'd evils fit fo fit in him,

"That they take place, while virtue's fteely bones

"Look bleak in the cold wind." WARBURTON.

COUNT. You are welcome, gentlemen, I will entreat you, when you fee my fon, To tell him, that his fword can never win The honour that he loses: more I'll entreat you Written to bear along.

2 GEN.

We serve you, madam, In that and all your worthiefst affairs.

COUNT. Not fo, but as we change our courtefies.* Will you draw near?

[Exeunt Countefs and Gentlemen.
HEL. Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.
Nothing in France, until he has no wife!
Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France,
Then haft thou all again. Poor lord! is't I
That chafe thee from thy country, and expofe
Those tender limbs of thine to the event
Of the none-fparing war? and is it I

That drive thee from the fportive court, where thou
Waft shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark
Of smoky muskets? O you leaden meffengers,
That ride upon the violent fpeed of fire,
Fly with falfe aim; move the ftill-piecing air,
That fings with piercing, do not touch my lord!

Mr. Heath thinks that the meaning is, this fellow hath a deal too much of that which alone can hold or judge that he has much in him; i. e. folly and ignorance. MALONE.

4 Not fo, &c.] The gentlemen declare that they are fervants to the Countefs; the replies,-No otherwife than as fhe returns the fame offices of civility. JOHNSON.

5 -move the ftill-piecing air,

That fings with piercing,] The words are here oddly fhuffled into nonfenfe. We fhould read:

- pierce the ftill-moving air,

That fings with piercing,

i. e. pierce the air, which is in perpetual motion, and fuffers no injury by piercing. WARBURTON.

The old copy reads-the ftill-peering air.

Perhaps we might better read:

the ftill-piecing air.