1

COUNT. Do you cry, O Lord, fir, at your whipping, and Spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, fir, is very fequent to your whipping; you would anfwer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.

CLO. I ne'er had worfe luck in my life, in myO Lord, fir: I fee, things may ferve long, but not ferve ever.

COUNT. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it fo merrily with a fool.

CLO. O Lord, fir,-Why, there't ferves well again.
COUNT. An end, fir, to your business: Give Helen
this,

And urge her to a present answer back:
Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son;
This is not much.

CLO. Not much commendation to them.

COUNT. Not much employment for you: You understand me?

CLO. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs.
COUNT. Hafte you again.

[Exeunt feverally.

SCENE III.

Paris. A Room in the King's Palace.

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.

LAF. They fay, miracles are past; and we have our philofophical perfons, to make modern and

9 — modern—] i. e. common, ordinary. So, in As you Like it:

"Full of wife faws, and modern inftances.” Again, in another play: [All's well, &c. A&t V, fç. iii.] “—with her modern grace-

MALONE,

familiar things, fupernatural and caufelefs. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors; enfconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should fubmit ourselves to an unknown fear."

PAR. Why, 'tis the rareft argument of wonder, that hath fhot out in our latter times.

BER. And fo 'tis.

LAF. To be relinquifh'd of the artists,

PAR. So I fay; both of Galen and Paracelfus.
LAF. Of all the learned and authentick fellows,3-

9 — enfconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge,] To ensconce literally fignifies to fecure as in a fort. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "I will enfconce me behind the arras." Into (a frequent practice with old writers) is used for in. STEEVENS.

2

unknown fear.] Fear is here an object of fear. JOHNSON. 3 Par. So I fay; both of Galen and Paracelfus.

Laf. Of all the learned and authentick fellows,] Shakspeare, as I have often obferved, never throws out his words at random. Paracelfus, though no better than an ignorant and knavish enthufiaft, was at this time in fuch vogue, even amongst the learned, that he had almoft juftled Galen and the ancients out of credit. On this account learned is applied to Galen, and authentick or fashionable to Paracelfus. Sancy, in his Confeffion Catholique, p. 301. Ed. Col. 1720, is made to fay: Je trouve la Riviere premier medecin, de meilleure humeur que ces gens-la. Il eft bon Galenifte, & tres bon Paracelfifte. Il dit que la doctrine de Galien eft honorable, & non mefprifable pour la pathologie, & profitable pour les boutiques. L'autre, pourveu que ce foit de vrais preceptes de Paracelfe, eft bonne à fuivre pour la verité, pour la fubtilité, pour l'efpargne; en fomme pour la Therapeutique." WARBURTON.

As the whole merriment of this fcene confifts in the pretenfions of Parolles to knowledge and fentiments which he has not, I believe here are two paffages in which the words and fenfe are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafeu. I read this paffage thus:

Laf. To be relinquifbed of the artifis

Par. So I fay.

Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelfus, of all the learned and authentick fellows

Par. Right, fo I fay. JOHNSON.

PAR. Right, so I say.

LAF. That gave him out incurable,—
PAR. Why, there 'tis; fo fay I too.
LAF. Not to be help'd,-

PAR. Right; as 'twere, a man affur'd of an—
LAF. Uncertain life, and sure death.

PAR. Juft, you fay well; fo would I have faid. LAF. I may truly fay, it is a novelty to the world.

PAR. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in,—What do you call there?

LAF. A fhowing of a heavenly effect in an earthly

actor."

PAR. That's it I would have faid; the very fame. LAF. Why, your dolphin is not luftier:" 'fore me I fpeak in refpect

authentick fellows,] The phrafe of the diploma is, authenticè licentiatus. MuSGRAVE.

The epithet authentick was in our author's time particularly applied to the learned. So, in Drayton's Owle, 4to. 1604:

"For which those grave and still authentick fages,
"Which fought for knowledge in thofe golden ages,
"From whom we hold the science that we have," &c.
MALONE.

4 Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, &c.] We fhould read, I think: It is, indeed, if you will have it a showingyou fall read it in what do you call there. TYRWHITT.

Does not, if you will have it IN showing, fignify IN a demonftration or statement of the cafe? HENLEY.

A fhowing of a heavenly effect, &c.] The title of fome pamphlet here ridiculed. WARBURTON.

6 Why, your dolphin is not luftier:] By dolphin is meant the dauphin, the heir apparent, and the hope of the crown of France. His title is fo translated in all the old books. STEEVENS.

PAR. Nay, 'tis ftrange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he is of a moft facinorous fpirit,' that will not acknowledge it to be the

LAF. Very hand of heaven.
PAR. Ay, so I say.

LAF. In a moft weak

PAR. And debile minifter, great power, great tranfcendence: which fhould, indeed, give us a further use to be made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to be—

8

LAF. Generally thankful.

What Mr. Steevens obferves is certainly true; and yet the additional word your induces me to think that by dolphin in the paffage before us the fish so called was meant. Thus in Antony and Cleopatra:

His delights

"Were dolphin-like; they fhow'd his back above
"The element he liv'd in."

Lafeu, who is an old courtier, if he had meant the king's fon, would furely have faid—" the dolphin." I use the old spelling. MALONE.

In the colloquial language of Shakspeare's time your was frequently employed as it is in this paffage: So, in Hamlet, the Gravedigger obferves, that "your water is a fore decayer of your whorfon dead body." Again, in As you Like it: "Your if is the only peacemaker." STEEVENS.

7-facinorous Spirit,] This word is ufed in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633:

"And magnified for high facinorous deeds."

Facinorous is wicked, The old copy fpells the word facinerious; but as Parolles is not defigned for a verbal blunderer, I have adhered to the common spelling. STEEVENS.

8 which should, indeed, give us a further ufe to be made, &c.] I believe Parolles has again ufurped words and fenfe to which he has no right; and I read this paffage thus:

Laf. In a most weak and debile minifter, great power, great tranfcendence; which should, indeed, give us a further ufe to be made than the mere recovery of the king.

Par. As to be.

Laf. Generally thankful. JOHNSON.

Enter King, HELENA, and Attendants.

PAR. I would have faid it; you say well: Here comes the king.

LAF. Luftick, as the Dutchman fays: I'll like a maid the better, whilft I have a tooth in my head: Why, he's able to lead her a coranto.

PAR. Mort du Vinaigre! Is not this Helen?
LAF. 'Fore God, I think fo.

KING. Go, call before me all the lords in court.—

[Exit an Attendant. Sit, my preferver, by thy patient's fide;

And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou haft repeal'd, a fecond time receive
The confirmation of my promis'd gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

When the parts are written out for players, the names of the characters which they are to reprefent are never fet down; but only the last words of the preceding fpeech which belongs to their partner in the scene. If the plays of Shakspeare were printed (as there is good reafon to fufpect) from thefe piece-meal tranfcripts, how eafily may the mistake be accounted for, which Dr. Johnson has judiciously ftrove to remedy? STEEVENS.

9 Luftick, as the Dutchman fays:] Luftigh is the Dutch word for lufty, chearful, pleafant. It is ufed in Hans Beer-pot's Invisible Comedy, 1618:

can walk a mile or two "As luftique as a boor."

Again, in The Witches of Lancashire, by Heywood and Broome, 1634:

"What all luftick, all frolick fome!"

The burden alfo of one of our ancient Medleys is

"Hey Lufticke." STEEVENS.

In the narrative of the cruelties committed by the Dutch at Amboyna, in 1622, it is faid, that after a night spent in prayer, &c. by fome of the prifoners, "the Dutch that guarded them offered them wine, bidding them drink luftick, and drive away the forrow, according to the custom of their own nation." REED.