COUNT. Ah, what sharp ftings are in her mildeft words! Rinaldo, you did never lack advice fo much,' Which thus fhe hath prevented. STEW. Pardon me, madam: If I had given you this at over-night, She might have been o'erta'en; and yet fhe writes, Purfuit would be but vain. COUNT. What angel fhall Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive, Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear, And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath Of greatest juftice.-Write, write, Rinaldo, To this unworthy husband of his wife; Let every word weigh heavy of her worth, That he does weigh too light: my greatest grief, Though little he do feel it, fet down fharply. Despatch the most convenient meffenger:When, haply, he shall hear that the is gone, He will return; and hope I may, that she, Hearing fo much, will speed her foot again, Led hither by pure love: which of them both Is dearest to me, I have no skill in fenfe To make distinction:-Provide this meffenger :My heart is heavy, and mine age is weak; Grief would have tears, and forrow bids me fpeak. [Exeunt. 3 lack advice fo much,] Advice, is difcretion or thought. So in King Henry V: JOHNSON. "And, on his more advice we pardon him." STEEVENS. 4 That he does weigh too light:] To weigh here means to value, or efleem. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "You weigh me not, O, that's you care not for me." MALONE. SCENE V. Without the Walls of Florence. A tucket afar off. Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and other Citizens. WID. Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we fhall lofe all the fight. DIA. They fay, the French count has done most honourable fervice. WID. It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander; and that with his own hand he flew the duke's brother. We have loft our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may know by their trumpets. MAR. Come, let's return again, and suffice ourfelves with the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is fo rich as honesty. WID. I have told my neighbour, how you have been folicited by a gentleman his companion. MAR. I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles a filthy officer he is in thofe fuggeftions for the young earl.'-Beware of them, Diana; their promifes, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of luft, are not the things they go under: " 5 thofe fuggeftions for the young earl.] Suggestions are temptations. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: 6 "Suggestions are to others as to me." STEEVENS. —are not the things they go under:] They are not really fo true and fincere, as in appearance they feem to be. THEOBALD. To go under the name of any thing is a known expreffion. The meaning is, they are not the things for which their names would make them pafs. JOHNSON. many a maid hath been feduced by them; and the mifery is, example, that fo terrible fhows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that diffuade fucceffion, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten them. I hope, I need not to advise you further; but, I hope, your own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no further danger known, but the modefty which is fo lost. DIA. You fhall not need to fear me. Enter HELENA, in the drefs of a Pilgrim. WID. I hope fo.- -Look, here comes a pilgrim: I know fhe will lie at my houfe: thither they send one another: I'll queftion her.— God fave you pilgrim! Whither are you bound? HEL. To Saint Jaques le grand. Where do the palmers' lodge, I do beseech you? WID. At the Saint Francis here, befide the port. HEL. Is this the way? WID. Ay, marry, is it.—Hark you! [A march afar off. They come this way:-If you will tarry, holy pil grim,3 But till the troops come by, 7 -palmers- Pilgrims that vifited holy places; fo called from a ftaff, or bough of palm they were wont to carry, especially fuch as had vifited the holy places at Jerufalem. "A pilgrim and a palmer differed thus: a pilgrim had fome dwelling-place, a palmer had none; the pilgrim travelled to fome certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim muft go at his own charge, the palmer muft profefs wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profeffion, the palmer must be conftant." See Blount's Gloffography. ANONYMOUS. 8 holy pilgrim,] The interpolated epithet holy, which adds nothing to our author's fenfe, and is injurious to his metre, may be fafely omitted. STEEVENS. I will conduct you where you fhall be lodg'd; WID. If you fhall please fo, pilgrim. HEL. I thank you, and will stay upon your lei fure. WID. You came, I think, from France? HEL. I did fo. WID. Here you fhall fee a countryman of yours, That has done worthy fervice. HEL. His name, I pray you. DIA. The count Roufillon: Know you fuch a one? HEL. But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him: His face I know not. DIA. Whatfoe'er he is, 8 He's bravely taken here. He ftole from France, As 'tis reported, for the king had married him Against his liking: Think you it is fo? HEL. Ay, furely, mere the truth; I know his lady, DIA. There is a gentleman, that ferves the count, Reports but coarfely of her. HEL. DIA. Monfieur Parolles. What's his name? O, I believe with him, In argument of praife, or to the worth Of the great count himself, fhe is too mean 8 for the king, &c.] For, in the prefent inftance, fignifies becaufe. So, in Othello: and great bufinefs fcant, "For fhe is with me." STEEVENS. mere the truth;] The exact, the entire truth. MALONE. To have her name repeated; all her deserving I have not heard examin'd.' DIA. Alas, poor lady! 'Tis a hard bondage, to become the wife. Of a detefting lord. WID. A right good creature: wherefoe'er fhe is, Her heart weighs fadly: this young maid might do her A fhrewd turn, if the pleas'd. How do you mean? HEL. WID. He does, indeed; And brokes 3 with all that can in fuch a fuit But fhe is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard 9-examin'd.] That is, queftioned, doubted. JOHNSON. 2A right good creature:] There is great reafon to believe, that when these plays were copied for the prefs, the tranfcriber trusted to the ear, and not to the eye; one perfon dictating, and another tranfcribing. Hence probably the error of the old copy, which reads-I write good creature. For the emendation now made I am anfwerable. The fame expreffion is found in The Two Noble Kinfmen, 1634: A right good creature more to me deferving," &c. Perhaps, Shakspeare wrote— I weet, good creature, wherefoe'er he is, i. e. I know, I am well affured. He uses the word in Antony and Cleopatra. Thus alfo, Prior: "But well I weet, thy cruel wrong "Adorns a nobler poet's fong." STEEVENS. 3brokes] Deals as a broker. JOHNSON. To broke is to deal with panders. A broker in our author's time meant a bawd or pimp. See a note on Hamlet, A&t I. fc. iii. MALONE. |