And thefe great tears 5 grace his remembrance more, Of every line and trick of his fweet favour: B 4 But 5 The tears which the King and Countefs fhed for him. JOHNSON. Johnfon fuppofes that by thefe great tears, Helena means the tears which the King and the Countess fhed for her father; but it does not appear that either of those great perfons had shed tears for him, though they fpoke of him with regret. By thefe great tears. Helena does not mean the tears of great people, but the big and copious tears the then fhed herself, which were caufed in reality by Bertram's departure, though attributed by Lafeu and the Countefs, to the lofs of her father; and from this mifapprehenfion of theirs, graced his remembrance more than those she actually fhed for him. What the calls gracing bis remembrance, is what. Lafeu had styled before, up bolding his credit, the two passages tending to explain each other.It is fcarcely neceffary to make this grammatical obfervation-That if Helena had alluded to any tears fuppofed to have been thed by the King, fhe would have faid those tears,.not thefe as the latter pronoun must neceffarily refer to fomething prefent at the time. M. MASON. 6 I cannot be united with him and move in the fame fphere, but must be. comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all fides from him. JOHNSON. 7 A table was in our author's time a term for a picture, in which fenfe it is ufed here. Tableau, Fr. MALONE. Table here only fignifies the board on which any picture was painted.. Helena would not have talked of drawing Bertram's picture in her beart's picture; but confiders her heart as the tablet or furface on which his refemblance was to be pourtrayed. STEEVENS. So, in Kingbn:" he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face." Trick feems to be fome peculiarity or feature. JOHNSON. & Shake. seems often to us trick as for the French trait for the Italian Fraccia Tricks But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy One that Enter PAROLLES. goes with him: I love him for his fake; And yet I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, folely a coward; That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Par. Save you, fair queen. Hel. And you, monarch.2 Par. No. Hel. And no.3 Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. Ay. You have fome ftain of foldier 4 in you; let me ask you a queftion: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Trick is an expreffion taken from drawing, and is fo explained in King Jobn, A&t 1. fc. i. The prefent inftance explains itself : { to fit and draw His arched brows, &c. and trick of his fweet favour. Trick, however, on the prefent occation, may mean neither tracing nor outline, but peculiarity. STEEVENS. Tricking is ufed by heralds for the delineation and colouring of arms, &c. MALONE. 9 Cold for naked; as fuperfluous for over-cloathed. This makes the propriety of the antithefis. WARBURTON. 2 Perhaps here is fome allufion defigned to Monarcho, a ridiculous fantaftical character of the age of Shak fpeare. Concerning this perfon, see the notes on Love's Labour's Loft, A&t IV. fc. i. STEEVENS.. 3 I am no more a queen than you are a monarch, or Monarcho. MALONE. 4 Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd bumble-bee. WARBURTON. It does not appear from either of these expreffions, that Parolles was entirely dreft in red. Shakspeare writes only fome ftain of foldier, meaning in one fenfe, that he had red breeches on, (which is fufficiently evident from calling him afterwards red-tail'd humble-bet,) and in another, that he was a difgrace to foldiery. Stain is ufed in an adverfe fenfe by Shak fpeare, Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he affails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us fome warlike refiftance. Par. There is none; man, fitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up. Hel. Blefs our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men? Par. Virginity being blown down, man will be quicklier blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lofe your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Lofs of virginity is rational increafe ;5 and there was never virgin got, till virginity was firft loft. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once loft, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever loft: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accufe your mothers; which is moft infallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin virginity murders itself; and fhould be buried in highways, out of all fanctified limit, as a defperate offendrefs against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; confumes itself to the very paring, and B. 5 t fo fpeare, in Troilus and Creffida: " — nor any man an attaint, but he carries feme ftain of it." Mr. M. Mafon obferves on this occafion that though a red coat is now the mark of a foldier in the British fervice, it was not fo in the days of Shakspeare, when we had no standing army, and the use of armour still prevailed." To this I reply, that the colour red has always been annexed to foldiership. Chaucer, in his Knight's Tale, v. 1749, has "Mars de rede," and Boccace has given Mars the fame epithet in the opening of his Thefeida: O rubicondo Marte." STEEVENS. Stain rather for what we now say tincture, fome qualities, at least superficial, of a foldier. JOHNSON. 5 I believe we should read, national. TYRWHITT. Rational increafe may mean the regular increase by which rational beings are propagated. STEEVENS. i. e. he that hangs himself, and a virgin, are in this circumstance alike; they are both felf-deftroyers. MALONE. fo dies with feeding his own ftomach. Refides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of felf-love, which is the most inhibited fin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lofe by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itfelf ten, which is a goodly increafe; and the principal itself not much the worfe: Away with't. Hel. How might one do, fir, to lofe it to her own liking? Par. Let me fee: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes.* 'Tis a commodity will lofe the glofs with lying; the longer kept, the lefs worth off with't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of requeft. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fafhion; richly fuited, but unfuitable: juft inhibited in i. e. forbidden. STEEVENS. like 7 The old copy reads-within en years it will make itfelf two." The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer, It was alfo fuggested by Mr. Steevens, who likewife propofed to read" within two years it will make itself two." Mr. Tollet would read" within ten years it will make itself twelve." I formerly propofed to read-Out with it: within ten months it wilk make itself two." Part with it, and within ten months' time it will double itself; i. e. it will produce a child. I now mention this conjecture (in which I once had fome confidence) only for the purpose of acknowledging my error. I had not fufficiently attended to a former paffage in this fcene, Virginity by being once loft, may be ten times found," .e. may produce ten virgins. Thofe words likewife are spoken by Parolles, and add fuch decifive fupport to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation, that I have not hesitated to adopt it. The text, as exhibited in the old copy, is undoubtedly corrupt. It has already been obferved, that many paffages in thefe plays in which numbers are introduced, are printed incorrectly. MAEONE. There is no reafon for altering the text. A well-known obfervation of the noble earl, to whom the horses of the prefent generation owe the length of their tails, contains the true explanation of this paffage. HENLEY. I cannot help repeating on this occafion, Juftice Shallow's remark: "Give me pardon, fir,-if you come with news, I take it there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them." With this noble earl's notorious remark, I am quite unacquainted. But perhaps the critick Twith a flippancy in which he has fometimes indulged himself at my expence) will reply, like Piftol, "Why then lament therefore ;" or obferve, like Hamlet, that "a knavish fpeech fleeps in a foolith ear." " STEEVENS • Parolles, in answer to the queftion, "How one shall lofe virginity to her own liking?" plays upon the word liking, and fays, foe must do ill, for virginity, to be fo loft, must like bim that likes not virginity. JOHNSON? like the brooch and tooth-pick, which wear not now ;9 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 dryly; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet, 'tis a wither'd pear; Will you any thing with it? Hel. Not my virginity yet.3 There fhall your matter have a thousand loves, B 6 A pho 9 Thus the old copy, and rightly. Shakspeare often uses the active for the paffive. The modern editors read, which we wear not now.' TYRWHITT. 2 Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a candied fruit much used in our author's time. STEEVENS. 3 Not my virginty yet.] This whole fpeech is abrupt, unconnected, and obfcure. Dr Warburton thinks much of it fuppofititious. I would be glad to think fo of the whole, for a commentator naturally withes to rejea what he cannot understand. Something, which should connect He-lena's words with those of Parolles, feems to be wanting. Hanmer has made a fair attempt by reading: Not my virginity yet. You're for the court, There fhail your mafter, &c. Some fuch claufe has, I think, dropped out, but ftill the first words want connection. Perhaps Paroles, ging away after his harangue, faid, will you any thing with me to which Helen may reply.Iknow not what to do with the paffage. JOHNSON. I do not perceive fo great a want of connection as-my pr deceffors have apprehended; nor is that connect on always to be fought for, in fo careless a writer as ours, from the thought im nediately preceding the reply of the peaker. Parolies has been laughing at the unprofitableness of virginity, efpecially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. He lena property enough replies, that hers is not yet in that state; but that in the enjoyment of her, his mafter should find the gratification of all his moft romantic withes. What Dr. Warburton fays afterwards is faid at random, as all p fitive declarations of the fame kind muft of neceflity be. Were I to propofe any change, i would reads fhould init d of fhall. It does not however appear that this rapturous effufion of Helena was defigned to be intelligible to Parolles. Its obfcurity, therefore, may be its merit. It fufficiently explains what is patfing in the mind of the speaker, to every one but him to whom she does not mean to explain it. STEEVENSO Perhaps we should read: "Will you any thing with us ?" i. c. will you fend any thing with us to court? to which Helena's anfwer would be proper enough "Not my virginity yet." TXRWHITT. L Suppon zeid thing witherd?" "Will you an |