5

As all impediments in fancy's course
Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine,
Her infuit coming with her modern grace,
Subdued me to her rate: fhe got the ring;
And I had that, which any inferior might
At market-price have bought.

DIAN.
I must be patient;
You, that turn'd off a first so noble wife,
May justly diet me." I pray you yet,

5-all impediments in fancy's courfe

Are motives of more fancy; &c.] Every thing that obftructs love is an occafion by which love is heightened. And, to conclude, her folicitation

concurring with her fashionable appearance, the got the ring.

I am not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word modern, which, perhaps, fignifies rather meanly pretty.

JOHNSON.

I believe modern means common. The fenfe will then be thisHer folicitation concurring with her appearance of being common, i. e. with the appearance of her being to be had as we fay at prefent. Shak fpeare ufes the word modern frequently, and always in this fenfe. So, in King John:

fcorns a modern invocation."

Again, in As you Like it:

"Full of wife faws and modern instances.

"Trifles, fuch as we prefent modern friends with.” Again, in the prefent comedy, p. 252: to make modern

and familiar things fupernatural and caufelefs."

Mr. M. Mafon fays, that modern grace means, with a tolerable degree of beauty. He queftions alfo the infufficiency of the instances brought in fupport of my explanation, but adduces none in defence of his own. STEEVENS.

See

Dr. Johnfon's laft interpretation is certainly the true one. p. 68, n. 9; and p. 252, n. 9. I think with Mr. Steevens, that modern here, as almoft every where in Shakspeare, means common, ordinary; but do not fuppofe that Bertram here means to call Diana a common gamefter, though he has ftyled her fo in a former paffage. MALONE.

6 May juftly diet me.] May jufly loath or be weary of me, as people generally are of a regimen or prefcribed diet. Such, I imagine, is the meaning. Mr. Collins thinks, the means," May justly make me faft, by depriving me (as Defdemona fays) of the rites for which I love you." MALONE.

(Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband,) Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.

BER.

I have it not.

KING. What ring was yours, I pray you?

DIA.

The fame upon your finger.

Sir, much like

KING. Know you this ring? this ring was his of

late.

DIA. And this was it I gave him, being a-bed. KING. The story then goes falfe, you threw it him Out of a casement.

DIA.

I have spoke the truth.

Enter PAROLLES.

BER. My lord, I do confess, the ring was hers. KING. You boggle fhrewdly, every feather starts you.

Is this the man you speak of?

Ay, my lord.

KING. Tell me, but, firrah, tell me true, I charge

you,

Not fearing the difpleasure of your master,
(Which, on your juft proceeding, I'll keep off,)
By him, and by this woman here, what know you?
PAR. So please your majefty, my master hath

Mr. Collins's interpretation is juft. The allufion may be to the management of hawks, who were half starved till they became tractable. Thus, in Coriolanus:

66 -I'll watch him,

"Till he be dieted to my request.”

"To faft, like one who takes diet," is a comparison that occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. STEEVENS.

VOL. VI.

Bb

been an honourable gentleman; tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.

KING. Come, come, to the purpose: Did he love this woman?

PAR. 'Faith, fir, he did love her; But how?"
KING. How, I pray you?

PAR. He did love her, fir, as a gentleman loves

a woman.

KING. How is that?

'PAR. He loved her, fir, and loved her not.

KING. As thou art a knave, and no knave:What an equivocal companion' is this?

PAR. I am a poor man, and at your majefty's command.

LAF. He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty

orator.

DIA. Do you know, he promised me marriage?
PAR. 'Faith, I know more than I'll speak.

KING. But wilt thou not speak all thou know'st? PAR. Yes, fo please your majefty; I did go between them, as I faid; but more than that, he loved her,-for, indeed, he was mad for her, and talk'd of Satan, and of limbo, and of furies, and I

he did love her; But how?] But bore perhaps belongs to the King's next fpeech:

But how, bow, I pray you?

This fuits better with the King's apparent impatience and folicitude for Helena. MALONE.

Surely, all transfer of these words is needlefs. Hamlet addreffes Tuch another flippant interrogatory to himself: "The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically." STEEVENS,

7

companion-] i. e. fellow. So, in K, Henry VI. P. II: "Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be, "I know thee not." STERVENS.

know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time, that I knew of their going to bed; and of other motions, as promifing her marriage, and things that would derive me ill will to speak of, therefore I will not speak what I know.

KING. Thou haft spoken all already, unless thou canft say they are married: But thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore ftand aside.

8

This ring, you fay was yours?

DIA.

Ay, my good lord. KING. Where did you buy it? or who gave it you? DIA. It was not given me, nor I did not buy it. KING. Who lent it you?

DIA.

It was not lent me neither.

KING. Where did you find it then?

DIA.

I found it not.

KING. If it were yours by none of all these ways, How could you give it him?

DIA. I never gave it him. LAF. This woman's an eafy glove, my lord; fhe goes off and on at pleasure.

KING. This ring was mine, I gave it his first wife. DIA. It might be yours, or hers, for aught I know. KING. Take her away, I do not like her now; To prison with her: and away with him.Unless thou tell'ft me where thou had'st this ring, Thou dieft within this hour.

DIA.

I'll never tell you.

-But thou art too fine in thy evidence;] Too fine, too full of fineffe; too artful. A French expreffion-trop fine.

So, in Sir Henry Wotton's celebrated Parallel: "We may rate this one fecret, as it was finely carried, at 4000l. in prefent money." MALONE.

KING. Take her away.

DIA.

I'll put in bail, my liege.

KING. I think thee now fome common customer." DIA. By Jove, if ever I knew man, 'twas you. KING. Wherefore haft thou accus'd him all this while?

DIA. Because he's guilty, and he is not guilty;
He knows, I am no maid, and he'll fwear to't:
I'll fwear, I am a maid, and he knows not.
Great king, I am no ftrumpet, by my life;
I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.
[Pointing to LAFEU.
KING. She does abuse our ears; to prifon with her.
DIA. Good mother, fetch my bail.-Stay, royal fir;
[Exit Widow.

The jeweller, that owes the ring, is fent for,
And he fhall furety me. But for this lord,
Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself,
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him:
He knows himself, my bed he hath defil'd;'
And at that time he got his wife with child:
Dead though the be, the feels her young one kick;
So there's my riddle, One, that's dead, is quick:
And now behold the meaning.

cuftomer.] i. e. a common woman. So, in Othello: "I marry her!-what?—a customer!" STEEVENS.

2 He knows himself, &c.] The dialogue is too long, fince the audience already knew the whole tranfaction; nor is there any reafon for puzzling the King and playing with his paffions; but it was much easier than to make a pathetical interview between Helen and her husband, her mother, and the King. JOHNSON.