vendible. Answer the time of requeft. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion: richly futed, but unfutable; just like the brooch and the toothpick, which we wear not now: your date is better in your pye and your porridge, than in your cheek; and your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears; it looks ill, it eats drily; márry, 'tis a wither'd pear: it was formerly better: mar

ry, yet 'tis a wither'd pear. Will you any thing with

it ?

Hel. Not my virginity yet.

There fhall your mafter have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a miftrefs, and a friend,.
[A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddefs, and a fovereign,
A counsellor, a traitrefs, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility;
His jarring concord; and his difcord dulcet ;,
His faith, his fweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty fond adoptious christendoms,
That blinking Cup d goffips. Now fhall he
I know not, what he fhall - God fend him well!
The court's a learning place

and he is one—

Par. What one, i'faith?
Hel.. That I wish well 'tis pity
Par. What's pity?

-

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Which might be felt; that We, the poorer born, Whose baser stars do fhut us up in wishes,.

1 APhoenix, Captain, &c.] The eight following lines between the hooks, I am perfuaded is the nonfenfe of fome foolish conceited Player. What put it into his head, was Helen's faying, as it should be read for the future,

There fhall your mafter have a thousand loves;

A Mother, and a Mifrefs, and a Friend.

Iknow not, what he fall God fend bim well. Where the fellow finding a thousand loves fpoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a Mother's, a Miflrefs's, and a Friend's, (which, by the way, were all a judicious writer could mention; for there are but these three fpecies of love in Nature) he would help out the number, by the intermediate nonfenfe: and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole fuch finished nonfenfe as is never heard out of Bedlam.

B 5

Might

Might with effects of them follow our friends :
And fhew what we alone must think, which never
Returns us thanks.

Enter Page.

Page. Monfieur Parolles,

My lord calls for you.

[Exit Page.

Par. Little Helen, farewel; if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court.

Hel, Monfieur Parolles, you were born under a. charitable ftar.

Par. Under Mars, I.

Hel. I especially think, under Mars.

Par. Why under Mars?

Hel. The wars have kept you fo under, that you muft needs be born under Mars.

Par. When he was predominant.

Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather..
Par. Why think you fo?

Hel. You go fo much backward when you fight.
Par. That's for advantage,

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes fafety = but the compofition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good ming, and I like the wear well.

Par. I am fo full of bufineffes, as I cannot anfwer thee acutely I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my inftruction shall serve to naturalize thee, fo thou wilt be capable of courtier's counsel, and underftand what advice fhall thruft upon thee; elfe thou dieft in thine unthankfulnefs, and thine ignorance makes thee away; farewel. When thou haft leifure, fay thy prayers; when thou haft none, remember thy friends; get thee a good husband, and ufe him as he ufes thee; fo farewel.

[Exit.

2 is a virtue of a good wING, and I like the wear quall.] The integrity of the metaphor directs us to Shakespear's true reading; which, doubtless, was a good MING, i. e. mixture, composition, a word common to Shakespear and the writers of this age; and ta ken from the texture of cloth. The M was turn'd the wrong way as the prefs, and from thence came the blunder.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we afcribe to heav'n. The fated sky
Gives us free fcope; only, doth backward pull
Our flow defigns, when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it, which mounts my love fo high,
That makes me fee, and cannot feed mine eye?
The mightieft fpace in fortune nature brings
To join like likes; and kifs, like native things.
Impoffible be strange attempts, to those
That weigh their pain in fenfe; and do fuppofe,
What hath been, cannot be. Who ever ftrove
To fhew her merit, that did miss her love?
The King's disease - my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me.

[Exit SCENE V. Changes to the Court of France. Flourish Cornets. Enter the King of France with let ters, and divers Attendants.

King. Have fought with equal fortune, and continue.

HE Florentines and Senoys are by the ears;

A braving war.

1 Lord. So 'tis reported, Sir..

King. Nay, 'tis moft credible; we here receive it, A certainty vouch'd from our coufin Austria ; With caution, that the Florentine will move us For fpeedy aid; wherein our dearest friend Prejudicates the bufinefs, and would feem To have us make denial..

1 Lord. His love and wifdom, Approv'd fo to your Majefty, may plead For ample credence.

King. He hath arm'd our anfwer;"
And Florence is deny'd, before he comes: "
Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to fee
The Tufcan fervice, freely have they leave
To ftand on either part.

2 Lord. It may well ferve

A nursery to our gentry, who are fick
For breathing and exploit.

King

King. What's he comes here?

Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles.

1 Lord. It is the count Roufillon, my good lord, Young Bertram.

King. Youth, thou bear'ft thy father's face.

Frank nature, rather curious than in hafte,

Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts
Welcome to Paris.
May'st thou inherit too.

Ber. My thanks and duty are your Majesty's.
King. I would, I had that corporal foundness now,
As when thy father and myself in friendship
First try'd our foldiership. He did look far
Into the fervice of the time, and was
Difcipled of the brav'ft. He lafted long ;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father; in his youth
He had the wit, which I can well obferve
To day in our young lords; but they may jeft,
Till their own fcorn return to them unnoted,
✦ Ere they can hide their levity in honour :
5 So like a courtier, no contempt or bitterness
Were in him; pride or sharpness, if there were,
His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exceptions bid him speak; and at that time

3 · baggish age steal on,] age, which debilitates; alluding to the fuperftitions of being hag-idden in the Epialtis ; which coming gradually on, it was faid, the witch fole upon them.

4 Ere they can bide their levity in bonour :] i.e. ere their titles ean cover the levity of their behaviour, and make it pafs for defert The Oxford Editor, not understanding this, alters the line to Ere they can wye their levity with bis bonour. 5 So like a Courtier, no Contempt or Bitterness Were in his Pride on Sharpness; if they were, His Equal bad awak'd them.

this

This paffage is fo very As the text incorrectly pointed, that the author's meaning is loft. and ftops are reformed, thefe are moft beautiful lines, and the fenfe is He had no Contempt or Bitterness; if he had any thing that looked like Pride or Sharpness (of which qualities Contempt and Bitterness are the exceffes,) his Equal had awak'd them, not "his Inferior; to whom he fcorned to difcover any thing that bore the Shadow of Pride or Sharpness."

His

His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below him
He us❜d as creatures of another place,

And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks;
7 Making them proud; and his humility,
In their poor praife, he humbled: Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times;

Which, follow'd well, would now demonftrate them
But goers backward.

Ber. His good remembrance, Sir,

Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph,

As in your royal fpeech.

[fay

King. Would. I were with him; he would always. (Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them

To grow there, and to bear ;) Let me not live,-
(Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of paftime,
When it was out,) let me not live, (quoth he,)
After my flame lacks oil; to be the fnuff
Of younger fpirits, whofe apprehenfive fenfes
All but new things difdain; whofe judgments are
Meer fathers of their garments; whose constancies
Expire before their fashions: this he wish'd.

I, after him, do after him with too,

(Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home,) I quickly were diffolved from my hive,

To give some 9 labourer room.

6 He us'd as creatures of another place,] i. e. he made allowan ces for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one. of his own rank. The Oxford Editor, not understanding the fenfe, has altered another place, to a brother-race.

7 Making them proud or bis Humility,
In their poor praife, be bumbled

-] But why were they

proud of his humility? It fhould be read and pointed thus.

Making them proud; AND bis bumility,

In their poor praife, be bumbled.

e. by condescending to floop to his Inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he bumbled even his bumility. The fentiment is fine.

8 lives not bis epitaph,] epitaph for character.

2

9 labourers room.] We fhould read labourer, i, e, an active suc• ceffor.