world so all the year! We'd find no fault with the tithe-woman, if I were the parson. One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born, but one1 every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one. Count. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you? Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.2-I am going, forsooth; the business is for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown. Count. Well, now. Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds. There is more owing her, than is paid; and more shall be paid her, than she'll demand. Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her than, I think, she wished me. Alone she was, and did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they touched not any stranger sense. Her matter was, she loved your son. Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would 1 Malone proposes to substitute on for one; but this would not materially improve the passage. 2 The clown answers, with the licentious petulance allowed to the character, that "if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amiss;" that he does not amiss, he makes the effect not of his lady's goodness, but of his own honesty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of superiors; and wear the "surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart;" will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection. 3 The old copies omit Diana. Theobald inserted the word. suffer her poor knight to be surprised, without rescue, in the first assault, or ransom afterward. This she delivered in the most bitter touch of sorrow that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in; which I held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal; sithence,' in the loss that may happen, it concerns you something to know it. Count. You have discharged this honestly; keep it to yourself. Many likelihoods informed me of this before, which hung so tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe, nor misdoubt. Pray you, leave me stall this in your bosom, and I thank you for your honest care. I will speak with you further anon. Enter HELENA. [Exit Steward. Even so it was with me, when I was young. Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong; Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; It is the show and seal of nature's truth, Where love's strong passion is impressed in youth. Such were our faults;—or then we thought them none. Hel. What is your pleasure, madam? Count. I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honorable mistress. Count. You know, Helen, Nay, a mother; Why not a mother? When I said, a mother, put you in the catalogue of those You ne'er oppressed me with a mother's groan, 1 Since. 2 The old copy reads, "If ever we are nature's." The correction is Pope's. Yet I express to you a mother's care:- Count. I say, I am your mother. Hel. That I am not. Pardon, madam. The count Rousillon cannot be my brother: Count. Nor I your mother? Hel. You are my mother, madam. 'Would you were (So that my lord, your son, were not my brother) Indeed my mother!-Or were you both our mothers, I care no more for,' than I do for Heaven, So I were not his sister. Can't no other,2 Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-inlaw; God shield, you mean it not! daughter and mother 4 Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 'tis gross, To say, thou dost not. Therefore, tell me true; 1 There is a designed ambiguity; i. e. I care as much for; I wish it equally. 2 i. e. "Can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter, he must be my brother?" 3 Contend. 4 The old copy reads loveliness. The emendation is Theobald's. It has been proposed to read lowliness. Confess it, one to the other; and thine eyes That truth should be suspected. Speak, is't so? To tell me truly. Hel. Good madam, pardon me! Count. Do you love my son? Your pardon, noble mistress! Count. Love you my son? Do not you love him, madam? Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a bond, Whereof the world takes note. Come, come, disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Have to the full appeached. Hel. Then, I confess, My friends were poor, but honest: so's my love. That he is loved of me. I follow him not 1 In their language, according to their nature. 2 Johnson is perplexed about this word captious, "which (says he) I never found in this sense, yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless carious, for rotten." Farmer supposes captious to be a contraction of capacious! Steevens believes that captious meant recipient! capable of receiving! and intenible incapable of holding or retaining:-he rightly explains the latter word, which is printed in the old copy intemible by mistake. The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, Hel. Madam, I had. Wherefore? Tell true. For general sovereignty; and that he willed me More than they were in note. Amongst the rest, To cure the desperate languishes, whereof The king is rendered lost. Count. For Paris, was it? speak. This was your motive Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this; Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, Had, from the conversation of my thoughts, Haply, been absent then. Count. But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid, He would receive it? He and his physicians 1 Receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed than appeared to observation. |