was almost as great as his honefty; had it stretch'd fo far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's fake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. LAF. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam? COUNT. He was famous, fir, in his profeffion, and it was his great right to be fo: Gerard de Narbon. LAF. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly he was skilful enough to have liv'd ftill, if knowledge could be fet up against mortality. BER. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? LAF. A fistula, my lord.* So, in The Gamefter, by Shirley, 1637: "I'll not be witness of your passages myself:" i. e. of what passes between you. Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: Again: never lov'd these prying liftening men "That ask of others' states and passages." "I knew the passages 'twixt her and Scudamore." Again, in The Dumb Knight, 1633: "Your vile and most lafcivious passages," Again, in The English Intelligencer, a tragi-comedy, 1641: "-two philofophers that jeer and weep at the paffages of the world." STEEVENS. 4 A fiftula, my lord.] Perhaps Shakspeare was induced by a paffage in Puttenham's Arte of English Poefie, 1589, p. 251, to afflict the King of France with this inelegant diforder. Speaking of the neceffity which princes occafionally find to counterfeit maladies, our author has the following remark :-" And in diffembling of difeafes, which I pray you? for I have obferued it in the Court of Fraunce, not a burning feuer, or a plurifie, or a palfie, or the hydropick and fwelling gowte, &c.-But it must be either a dry dropfic, or a megrim or letarge, or a fiftule in ano, or some such I BER. I heard not of it before. LAF. I would, it were not notorious.-Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? COUNT. His fole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have thofe hopes of her good, that her education promifes: her difpofitions The inherits, which make fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities,' there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their fimplenefs; fhe derives her honefty, and achieves her goodness. 5 other fecret difeafe as the common conuerfant can hardly discouer, and the phyfitian either not speedily heale, or not honeftly bewray." STEEVENS. virtuous qualities,] By virtuous qualities are meant qualities of good breeding and erudition; in the fame fense that the Italians fay, qualità virtuofa; and not moral ones. On this account it is, fhe fays, that, in an ill mind, these virtuous qualities are virtues and traitors too: i. e. the advantages of education enable an ill mind to go further in wickedness than it could have done without them. WARBURTON. Virtue, and virtuous, as I am told, ftill keep this fignification in the north, and mean ingenuity and ingenious. Of this fenfe perhaps an inftance occurs in the Eighth Book of Chapman's Verfion of the Iliad: "Then will I to Olympus' top our virtuous engine bind, "And by it every thing fhall hang," &c. Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, p. 1, 1590: 6 "If these had made one poem's period, "One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least, they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their fimpleness;] Her virtues are the better for their fimpleness, that is, her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without defign. The learned commentator has well explained virtues, but has not, I think, reached the force of the word traitors, and therefore has not fhown the full extent LAF. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. COUNT. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have.' 8 HEL. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too.2 of Shakspeare's mafterly obfervation. Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too. Eftimable and useful qualities, joined with an evil difpofition, give that evil difpofition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The Tatler, mentioning the fharpers of his time, obferves, that fome of them are men of fuch elegance and knowledge, that a young man who falls into their way, is betrayed as much by his judgement as his paffions. JOHNSON. In As you Like it, virtues are called traitors on a very different ground: 7 66 to fome kind of men "Their graces serve them but as enemies; "No more do yours; your virtues, gentle mafter, "Are fanctified and holy traitors to you. "O what a world is this, when what is comely "Envenoms him that bears it!" MALONE. can feafon her praife in.] To feafon has here a culinary fenfe; to preferve by falting. A paffage in Twelfth Night will best explain its meaning: 9 all this to feafon "A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh, all livelihood—] i. e. all appearance of life. STEEVENS. left it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have.] Our author fometimes is guilty of fuch flight inaccuracies; and concludes a sentence as if the former part of it had been conftructed differently. Thus, in the prefent inftance, he seems to have meant-left you be rather thought to affect a forrow, than to have. MALONE. 2 I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too.] Helena has, I believe, a meaning here, that she does not wifh fhould be under LAF. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, exceffive grief the enemy to the living. COUNT. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excefs makes it foon mortal.3 BER. Madam, I defire your holy wishes. COUNT. Be thou blest, Bertram! and fucceed thy father ftood by the countefs. Her affected forrow was for the death of her father; her real grief for the lowness of her fituation, which fhe feared would for ever be a bar to her union with her beloved Bertram. Her own words afterwards fully fupport this interpretation: The forrow that Helen affected, was for her father; that which fhe really felt, was for Bertram's departure. This line should be particularly attended to, as it tends to explain some fubfequent paffages which have hitherto been misunderstood. M. MASON. 3 If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it foon mortal.] Lafeu fays, exceffive grief is the enemy of the living: the counters replies, If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess foon makes it mortal: that is, If the living do not indulge grief, grief deftroys itself by its own excess. By the word mortal I understand that which dies; and Dr. Warburton [who reads-be not enemy-] that which deftroys. I think that my interpretation gives a fentence more acute and more refined. Let the reader judge. JOHNSON. A paffage in The Winter's Tale, in which our author again fpeaks of grief deftroying itself by its own excefs, adds fupport to Dr. Johnson's interpretation : fcarce any joy "Did ever live fo long; no forrow, In Romeo and Juliet we meet with a kindred thought: "Thefe violent delights have violent ends, "And in their triumph die." MALONE. In manners, as in shape! thy blood, and virtue, Contend for empire in thee; and thy goodness Share with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence, But never tax'd for fpeech. What heaven more will, That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, Fall on thy head! Farewell.-My lord, 'Tis an unfeafon'd courtier; good my lord, Advise him. LAF. He cannot want the best That shall attend his love. COUNT. Heaven bless him!-Farewell, Bertram, [Exit Countefs. your BER. The best wishes, that can be forged in thoughts, [To HELENA.] be fervants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. LAF. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your father. [Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU. HEL. O, were that all!-I think not on my fa ther; That thee may furnish,] That may help thee with more and better qualifications. JOHNSON. The best wishes, &c.] That is, may you be mistress of your wifes, and have power to bring them to effect. JOHNSON. 6 Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your father. Hel. O, were that all!-I think not on my father;] This paffage has been paffed over in filence by all the commentators, yet it is evidently defective. The only meaning that the fpeech of Lafeu will bear, as it now ftands, is this: That Helena, who was a |