Enter a gentle Aftringer."

This man may help me to his majesty's ear,
If he would fpend his power.-God fave you, fir.
GENT. And you.

HEL. Sir, I have seen you in the court of France.
GENT. I have been sometimes there.

HEL. I do prefume fir, that you are not fallen From the report that goes upon your goodness; And therefore, goaded with moft fharp occafions, Which lay nice manners by, I put you to The ufe of your own virtues, for the which I fhall continue thankful.

GENT.

What's your will?

HEL. That it will please you

To give this poor petition to the king;
And aid me with that ftore of power you have,
To come into his prefence.

9 Enter a gentle Aftringer.] Perhaps a gentle ftranger, i. e. a ftranger of gentle condition, a gentleman. The error of this conjecture, (which I have learned, fince our firft edition made its appearance, from an old book of Falconry, 1633,) should teach diffidence to those who conceive the words which they do not understand, to be corruptions. An oftringer or aftringer is a falconer, and fuch a character was probable to be met with about a court which was famous for the love of that diverfion. So, in Hamlet:

"We'll e'en to it like French Falconers.”

A gentle aftringer is a gentleman falconer. The word is derived from eftercus or auftercus, a gofhawk; and thus, fays Cowell in his Law Dictionary: "We ufually call a falconer, who keeps that kind of hawk, an auftringer." Again, in The Book of Hawking, &c. bl. 1. no date: "Now bicaufe I fpoke of oftregiers, ye shall understand that they ben called ofregiers that keep gofshauks or tercels," &c. I learn from Blount's Antient Tenures, that a gofshawk is in our records termed by the feveral names Oftercum, Hoftricum, Eftricum, Afturcum, and Anflurcum," and all from the French Auftour. STEEVENS,

GENT. The king's not here.

HEL.

Not here, fir?

GENT.

Not, indeed:

He hence remov'd last night, and with more haste

Than is his ufe.

WID.

Lord, how we lose our pains!

HEL. All's well that ends well, yet;

Though time seem so advérse, and means unfit.— I do beseech you, whither is he gone?

GENT. Marry, as I take it, to Roufillon;
Whither I am going.

HEL.
I do befeech you, fir,
Since you are like to see the king before me,
Commend the paper to his gracious hand;
Which, I prefume, fhall render you no blame,
But rather make you thank your pains for it:
I will come after you, with what good speed
Our means will make us means."

GENT.

This I'll do for you.

HEL. And you fhall find yourself to be well

thank'd,

Whate'er falls more.-We must to horse again;Go, go, provide. [Exeunt..

• Our means will make us means.] Shakspeare delights much in this kind of reduplication, fometimes fo as to obfcure his meaning. Helena fays, they will follow with fuch speed as the means which they have will give them ability to exert. JOHNSON.

SCENE II.

Roufillon. The inner Court of the Countefs's Palace.

Enter Clown and PAROLLES.

·PAR. Good monfieur Lavatch, give my lord Lafeu this letter: I have ere now, fir, been better known to you, when I have held familiarity with fresher clothes; but I am now, fir, muddied in fortune's moat, and smell somewhat strong of her strong difpleasure.❜

2

Lavatch,] This is an undoubted and perhaps irremediable corruption of fome French word. STEEVENS.

3 but I am now, fir, muddied in fortune's moat, &c.] In former editions:-but I am now, fir, muddied in fortune's mood, and smell fomewhat ftrong of her ftrong difpleasure. I believe the poet wrotein fortune's moat; because the Clown in the very next fpeech replies" I will henceforth eat no fb of fortune's buttering;" and again, when he comes to repeat Parolles's petition to Lafeu, That hath fallen into the unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he says, is muddied withal." And again" Pray you, fir, ufe the carp as you may," &c. In all which places, it is obvious a moat or a pond is the allufion. Befides, Parolles fmelling ftrong, as he fays, of fortune's ftrong difpleafure, carries on the fame image; for as the moats round old feats were always replenished with fish, fo the Clown's joke of holding his nofe, we may prefume, proceeded from this, that the privy was always over the moat; and therefore the Clown humouroufly fays, when Parolles is preffing him to deliver his letter to Lord Lafeu," Foh! pr'ythee ftand away; a paper from fortune's clofeftool, to give to a nobleman!" WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's correction may be fupported by a paffage in The Alchemift:

"Subtle. Come along fir,

"I must now fhew you Fortune's privy lodgings.
"Face. Are they perfum'd, and his bath ready?
"Sub, All.

"Only the fumigation fomewhat ftrong." FARMER.

CLO. Truly, fortune's difpleasure is but fluttish, if it fmell fo ftrong as thou fpeak'ft of: I will henceforth eat no fifh of fortune's buttering. Pr'ythee, allow the wind."

PAR. Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I fpake but by a metaphor.

CLO. Indeed, fir, if your metaphor stink, I will ftop my nofe; or against any man's metaphor." Pr'ythee, get thee further.

By the whimsical caprice of Fortune, I am fallen into the mud, and fmell fomewhat ftrong of her difpleasure. In Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609, we meet with the fame phrase:

but Fortune's mood

" Varies again."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"When fortune, in her fhift and change of mood,
Spurns down her late belov'd."

Again, in Julius Cæfar:

"Fortune is merry,

"And in this mood will give us any thing."

Mood is again ufed for refentment or caprice, in Othello: " You are but now caft in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice."

Again, for anger, in the old Taming of a Shrew, 1607:

66

This brain-fick man,

"That in his mood cares not to murder me."

Dr. Warburton in his edition changed mood into moat, and his emendation was adopted, I think, without neceffity, by the fubfequent editors. All the expreffions enumerated by him," I will eat no fish,"-" he hath fallen into the unclean fishpond of her difpleasure," &c.-agree fufficiently well with the text, without any change. Parolles having talked metaphorically of being muddy'd by the difpleasure of fortune, the clown to render him ridiculous, fupposes him to have actually fallen into a fishpond.

MALONE.

Though Mr. Malone defends the old reading, I have retained Dr. Warburton's emendation, which, in my opinion, is one of the luckieft ever produced. STEEVENS.

allow the wind.] i. e. ftand to the leeward of me.

STEEVENS.

5 Indeed, fir, if your metaphor flink, I will stop my nose; or against any man's metaphor.] Nothing could be conceived with greater

PAR. Pray you, fir, deliver me this

paper.

CLO. Foh, pr'ythee, stand away; A paper from fortune's close-ftool to give to a nobleman! Look, here he comes himself.

Enter LAFEU.

Here is a pur of fortune's, fir, or of fortune's cat," (but not a mufk-cat,) that has fallen into the unclean fishpond of her difpleasure, and, as he fays, is muddied withal: Pray you, fir, ufe the carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decay'd,ˆingenious, foolish, rafcally knave. I do pity his diftress

humour or juftnefs of fatire, than this fpeech. The use of the finking metaphor is an odious fault, which grave writers often commit. It is not uncommon to fee moral declaimers against vice, defcribe her as Hefiod did the fury Triftitia:

Τῆς ἐκ οίνων μύξαι ρέον.

Upon which Longinus juftly obferves, that, inftead of giving a terrible image, he has given a very nasty one. Cicero cautions well against it, in his book de Orat." Quoniam hæc, fays he, vel fumma laus eft in verbis transferendis ut fenfum feriat id, quod tranflatum fit, fugienda eft omnis turpitudo earum rerum, ad quas eorum animos qui audiunt trahet fimilitudo. Nolo morte dici Âfricani caftratam effe rempublicam. Nolo fturcus curiae dici Glauciam. Our poet himself is extremely delicate in this refpect; who, throughout his large writings, if you except a paffage in Hamlet, has scarce a metaphor that can offend the moft fqueamish reader.

WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's recollection must have been weak, or his zeal for his author extravagant. Otherwife, he could not have ventured to countenance him on the fcore of delicacy; his offenfive metaphors and allufions being undoubtedly more frequent than thofe of all his dramatick predeceffors or contemporaries. STEEVENS.

6 Here is a pur of fortune's, fir, or of fortune's cat,] We should read-or fortune's cat; and indeed I believe there is an error in the former part of the fentence, and that we ought to read-Here is a pufs of fortune's, inftead of pur. M. MASON.