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Enter feveral Lords.

Fair maid, fend forth thine eye: this youthful parcel Of noble bachelors ftand at my bestowing,

O'er whom both fovereign power and father's voice* I have to use: thy frank election make;

Thou haft power to choose, and they none to forfake.

HEL. To each of you one fair and virtuous miftrefs

Fall, when love please!-marry, to each, but one!3

LAF. I'd give bay Curtal, and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken' than these boys', And writ as little beard.

KING.

Perufe them well: Not one of those, but had a noble father.

2 O'er whom both fovereign power and father's voice-] They were his wards as well as his fubjects. HENLEY.

3

marry, to each, but one!] I cannot understand this paffage in any other fenfe, than as a ludicrous exclamation, in confequence of Helena's with of one fair and virtuous miftrefs to each of the lords. If that be fo, it cannot belong to Helena; and might properly enough be given to Parolles. TYRWHITT.

Tyrwhitt's obfervations on this paffage are not conceived with his ufual fagacity. He mistakes the import of the words but one, which does not mean one only, but except one.

Helena wishes a fair and virtuous mistress to each of the young lords who were prefent, one only excepted; and the perfon excepted is Bertram, whofe miftrefs the hoped the herfelf fhould be; and the makes the exception out of modefty: for otherwise the defcription of a fair and virtuous miftrefs would have extended to herself. M. MASON.

4

bay Curtal,] i. e. a bay, dock'd horfe. STEEVENS.

5 My mouth no more were broken] A broken mouth is a mouth which has loft part of its teeth. JOHNSON.

[blocks in formation]

HEL. Gentlemen,

Heaven hath, through me, reftor'd the king to

health.

ALL. We understand it, and thank heaven for

you.

HEL. I am a fimple maid; and therein wealthiest, That, I proteft, I simply am a maid:— Please it your majefty, I have done already: The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me, We blush, that thou should't choofe; but, be refus'd, Let the white death fit on thy cheek for ever; We'll ne'er come there again."

KING.

Make choice; and, fee, Who fhuns thy love, fhuns all his love in me.

HEL. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly; And to imperial Love, that god most high, Do my fighs ftream.-Sir, will you hear my fuit? I LORD. And grant it.

HEL.

Thanks, fir; all the rest is mute."

We blush, that thou should't choose; but, be refus'd, Let the white death, &c.] In the original copy, these lines are pointed thus:

We blush that thou should't choose, but be refus'd;

Let the white death fit on thy cheek for ever; &c. This punctuation has been adopted in all the fubfequent editions. The prefent regulation of the text appears to me to afford a much clearer fenfe. My blufhes, (fays Helen,) thus whisper me. blush that thou fhould't have the nomination of thy hufband. However, choose him at thy peril. But, if thou be refused, let thy cheeks be for ever pale; we will never revifit them again.”

The blufhes, which are here perfonified, could not be fuppofed to know that Helena would be refufed, as, according to the former punctuation, they appear to do; and, even if the poet had meant this, he would furely have written "—and be refused," not 66 - but be refused."

Be refus'd means the fame as thou refused." MALONE.

thou being refused,"-or,

The white death is the chlorofis. JOHNSON.

"be

LAF. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life.

HEL. The honour, fir, that flames in your fair

eyes,

Before I fpeak, too threatningly replies:

Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that fo wishes, and her humble love!

2 LORD. No better, if you please.

HEL. My wifh receive, Which great love grant! and so I take my leave. LAF. Do all they deny her?? An they were fons of mine, I'd have them whipp'd; or I would fend them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of.

HEL. Be not afraid [To a Lord.] that I your hand fhould take;

I'll never do you wrong for your own fake:
Bleffing upon your vows! and in your bed
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

LAF. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her: fure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them.

HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a fon out of my blood.

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4 LORD. Fair one, I think not fo.

all the reft is mute.] i. e. I have no more to say to you. So, Hamlet: “ the reft is filence," STEEVENS.

8 ames-ace-] i. e. the lowest chance of the dice. So, in The Ordinary, by Cartwright: " may I at my last stake, &c. throw ames-aces thrice together." STEEVENS.

9 Laf. Do all they deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The fcene must be fo regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may fee what paffes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refufal is made.

JOHNSON.

LAF. There's one grape yet,2-I am fure, thy father drank wine.-But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already.

HEL. I dare not fay, I take you; [To BERTRAM.] but I give

Me, and my service, ever whilst I live,

Into your guiding power.

This is the man.

KING. Why then, young Bertram, take her, fhe's

thy wife.

BER. My wife, my liege? I fhall befeech your highnefs,

In fuch a business give me leave to use

The help of mine own eyes.

KING.

Know'st thou not, Bertram,

What she has done for me?

BER. Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I fhould marry her. KING. Thou know'ft, fhe has rais'd me from my fickly bed.

BER. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raifing? I know her well; She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor physician's daughter my wife!-Difdain Rather corrupt me ever!

There's one grape yet,] This fpeech the three laft editors [Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton,] have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of fenfe. I have restored the old reading, and fhould have thought no explanation necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it.

Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refufed, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is one yet into whom his father put good blood but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an afs. JOHNSON.

KING. 'Tis only title3 thou disdain'st in her, the

which

I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound diftinction, yet stand off
In differences fo mighty: If fhe be

All that is virtuous, (fave what thou dislik'st,
A poor physician's daughter,) thou dislik'st
Of virtue for the name: but do not fo:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,'
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions fwell, and virtue none,
It is a dropfied honour: good alone
Is good, without a name; vileness is so:"
The property by what it is should go,

3 'Tis only title-] i. e. the want of title. MALONE.

Of colour, weight, and heat,] That is, which are of the fame colour, weight, &c. MALONE.

5 From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,] The old copy has-whence, This eafy correction [when] was prefcribed by Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD.

6 Where great additions fwell,] Additions are the titles and descriptions by which men are distinguished from each other.

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good alone

MALONE.

Is good, without a name; vilenefs is fo:] Shakspeare may mean, that external circumftances have no power over the real nature of things. Good alone (i. e. by itself) without a name (i. e. without the addition of titles) is good. Vileness is fo (i. e. is itself.) Either of them is what its name implies:

"The property by what it is should go,

"Not by the title."

"Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,

"Tis not the devil's creft." Measure for Measure.

STEEVENS.

Steevens's laft interpretation of this paffage is very near being right; but I think it should be pointed thus:

-good alone

Is good; without a name, vileness is fo.

Meaning that good is good without any addition, and vilene's

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