SCENE IV. The fame. Another Room in the fame. Enter HELENA and Clown. HEL. My mother greets me kindly: Is the well? CLO. She is not well; but yet she has her health: fhe's very merry; but yet fhe is not well: but thanks be given, fhe's very well, and wants nothing i'the world; but yet she is not well. HEL. If the be very well, what does fhe ail, that she's not very well? CLO. Truly, fhe's very well, indeed, but for two things. HEL. What two things? CLO. One, that she's not in heaven, whither God fend her quickly! the other, that fhe's in earth, from whence God fend her quickly! Enter PAROLLES. PAR. Blefs you, my fortunate lady! HEL. I hope, fir, I have your good will to have mine own good fortunes. 8 PAR. You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them on, have them still.-O, my knave! How does my old lady? CLO. So that you had her wrinkles, and I her money, I would fhe did as you say. 8 fortunes.] Old copy-fortune. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. PAR. Why, I fay nothing. CLO. Marry, you are the wifer man; for many a man's tongue shakes out his mafter's undoing: To fay nothing, to do nothing, to know nothing, and to have nothing, is to be a great part of your title; which is within a very little of nothing. PAR. Away, thou'rt a knave. CLO. You should have faid, fir, before a knave thou art a knave; that is, before me thou art a knave: this had been truth, fir. PAR. Go to, thou art a witty fool, I have found thee. CLO. Did you find me in yourself, fir? or were you taught to find me? The fearch, fir, was profitable; and much fool may you find in you, even to the world's pleasure, and the increase of laughter. PAR. A good knave, i'faith, and well fed.'Madam, my lord will go away to-night; A very serious bufinefs calls on him. The great prerogative and rite of love, Which, as your due, time claims, he does acknow ledge; But puts it off by a compell'd restraint; ' and well fed.] An allufion, perhaps, to the old faying"Better fed than taught;" to which the Clown has himself alluded in a preceding scene:-" I will fhow myself highly fed and lowly taught." STEEVENS. But puts it off by a compell'd reftraint;] The old copy reads to a compell'd reftraint. STEEVENS. The editor of the third folio reads-by a compell'd restraint; and the alteration has been adopted by the modern editors; perhaps without neceffity. Our poet might have meant, in his ufual licentious manner, that Bertram puts off the completion of his wishes to a future day, till which he is compelled to refrain his defires. This, it must be confeffed, is very harth; but our author is often fo licentious in his Whose want, and whofe delay, is ftrew'd with fweets, HEL. What's his will elfe? PAR. That you will take your inftant leave o'the king, And make this hafte as your own good proceeding, HEL. What more commands he? phrafeology, that change on that ground alone is very dangerous. In K. Henry VIII. we have a phrafeology not very different: All-fouls day "Is the determin'd refpite of my wrongs." i. e. the day to which my wrongs are refpited. MALONE. 2 Whofe want, and whofe delay, &c.] The faweets with which that want are frewed, I fuppofe, are compliments and profeffions of kindness. JOHNSON. Johnfon feems not to have understood this paffage; the meaning of which is merely this:-"That the delay of the joys, and the expectation of them, would make them more delightful when they come." The curbed time, means the time of reftraint. Whofe want, means the want of which. So, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, Thefeus says: A day or two "Let us look fadly,-in whofe end, "The vifages of bridegrooms we'll put on." M. MASON. The fweets which are diftilled, by the reftraint faid to be impofed on Bertram, from " the want and delay of the great prerogative of love," are the fweets of expectation. Parolles is here fpeaking of Bertram's feelings during this" curbed time," not, as Dr. Johnfon feems to have thought, of thofe of Helena. The following lines in Troilus and Creffida may prove the beft comment on the prefent paffage: "I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. "The imaginary relish is fo fweet "That it enchants my fenfe. What will it be, •probable need.] A fpecious appearance of neceffity. JOHNSON. PAR. That, having this obtain'd, you presently Attend his further pleasure. HEL. In every thing I wait upon his will. PAR. I fhall report it fo. HEL. I pray you.-Come, firrah. [Exeunt. LAF. But, I hope, your lordship thinks not him. a foldier. BER. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof. LAF. You have it from his own deliverance. BER. And by other warranted testimony. LAF. Then my dial goes not true; I took this lark for a bunting.* BER. I do affure you, my lord, he is very great in knowledge, and accordingly valiant. LAF. I have then finned against his experience, and tranfgrefs'd against his valour; and my ftate that way is dangerous, fince I cannot yet find in my heart to repent. Here he comes; I pray you, make us friends, I will pursue the amity. +4 Enter PAROLLES. PAR.These things fhall be done, fir. [To BERTRAM. a bunting.] This bird is mentioned in Lyly's Love's Metamorphofis, 1601: " -but forefters think all birds to be buntings." Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, gives this account of it: "Terraneola et rubetra, avis alaudæ fimilis, &c. Dicta terraneola quod non in arboribus, fed in terra verfetur et nidificet." The following proverb is in Ray's Collection: "A gofshawk beats not a bunting." STEEVENS. LAF. 'Pray you, fir, who's his tailor? PAR. Sir? LAF. O, I know him well: Ay, fir; he, fir, is a good workman, a very good tailor. BER. I have writ my letters, cafketed my treasure, Given order for our horfes; and to-night, When I should take poffeffion of the bride,And, ere I do begin, LAF. A good traveller is fomething at the latter end of a dinner; but one that lies three thirds,' and ufes a known truth to pafs a thoufand nothings with, should be once heard, and thrice beaten.-God fave you, captain. BER. Is there any unkindness between my lord and you, monfieur? PAR. I know not how I have deserv'd to run into my lord's displeasure. LAF. You have made shift to run into't, boots and fpurs and all, like him that leap'd into the cuftard; and out of it you'll run again, rather than fuffer question for your refidence. 6 5 A good traveller is fomething at the latter end of a dinner; but one that lies three thirds, &c.] So, in Marlowe's King Edward II. 1598: "Gav. What art thou? 66 2 Poor Man. A traveller. "Gav. Let me fee; thou would'ft well "To wait on my trencher, and tell me lies at dinner-time.” MALONE. You have made shift to run into't, boots and fpurs and all, like him that leap'd into the custard;] This odd allufion is not introduced |