But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy .
Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here?

Enter PAROLLES.
One that goes with him : I love him for his sake ;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.'

Par. Save you, fair queen.
Hel. And you, monárch
Par. No.
Hel. And no.
Par. Are you meditating on virginity ?

Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you ; let me ask you a question : Man is enemy to virginity ; how may we barricado it against him ?

Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he assails ; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance.

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up

Hel. Bless 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 quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase ; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found : by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it.

Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedi. ence. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin : virginity mur. ders itself;' and should be buried in high ways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese ; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peeyish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't : Out with’t : within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase ; and the principal itself not much the worse : Away with't.

Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking ?

Par. Let me see : Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. "Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying ; the longer kept, the less worth : off with't, while 'tis vendible : answer the time of request. . Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion ; richly suited, but unsuitable : just like the brooch and tooth-pick, which 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 withered pears ; it looks ill, it eats dryly; marry, 'tis a withered pear ; it was formerly better; marry, yet, 'tis a withered pear • Will you any thing with it?

Hel. Nut my virginity yet.'
There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His järring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms,

17) i. e. he that hangs himself, and a virgin, are in this circumstance alike; they are both self-destroyers. MALONE.

[8] It does not appear that this rapturous effusion of Helena vas designed to be intelligible to Parolles. Its obscurity, therefore, may be its merit. It sufficiently explains what is passing in the mind of the speaker, to every one but him to whom Bne does not mean to explain it. STEEVENS.

19] Traditoria, a traitress, in the Italian language, is generally used as a term of endearment. The meaning of Helena is, that she shall prove every thing to Rertram. Our ancient writers delighted in catalogues, and always characterised luve by contrarieties. STEEVENS.

Vol. II.

That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he
I know not what he shall :—God send him well !
The co'ırt'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 shut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends,
And show what we alone must think ; which never
Returns us thanks.'

Enter a Page.
Page. Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for you.

[Exit Page. Par. Little Helen, farewell : if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court.

Hel. Monsieur. Parolles, you were born under a charitable star.

Par. Under Mars, I.
Hel. I especially think, under Mars.
Par. Why under Mars ?

Hel. The wars have so kept you under, that you must needs be born under Mars.

Par. When he was predominant.
Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather.
Par. Why think you so ?
Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight.
Par. That's for advantage.

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety : But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.

Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee ; else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away : farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers ; when thou hast none, remember thy friends : get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee : so farewell. TĚrit.

(1) And show by realities what we now must only think. JOHNSON.
12) The phrase is taken from falconry. STEEVENS.
A bird of a good wing, is a bird of swift and strong flight. M. MASON.

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven : the fated sky Gives us free scope ; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. What power is it, which mounts my love so high ; That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye ? The mightiest space in fortune pature brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things. Impossible be strange attempts, to those That weigh their pains in sense ; and do suppose, What hath been cannot be : Who ever strove To show 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 II. Paris. A Roorn in the King's Palace. Flourish of Cornets.

Enter the King of France, with letters; Lords and others attending.

King. The Florentines and Senoys are by th' ears,
Have fought with equal fortune, and continue
A braving war.

1 Lord. So 'tis reported, sir.
King. Nay, 'tis most credible ; we here receive it
A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria,
With caution, that the Florentine will move us
For speedy aid ; wherein our dearest friend
Prejudicates the business, and would seem
To have us make denial.

1 Lord. His love and wisdom, Approv'd'so to your majesty, may plead For amplest credence.

King. He hath arm'd our answer,
And Florence is denied before he comes :
Yet, for our gentlemen, that mean to see
The Tuscan service, freely have they leave
To stand on either part.

2 Lord. It may well serve
A nursery to our gentry, who are sick
For breathing and exploit.

King. What's he comes here ?

[3] She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so inuch above me? why am I made to discern excellence, and left to long after it, witlwut the food of hope? JOIINSON.

Enter BERTRAM, Lareu, and Parolles.
1 Lord. It is the count Rousillon, my good lord,
Young Bertram.

King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face;
Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,
Hath well compos’d thee. Thy father's moral parts
May'st thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.

Bert. My thanks and duty are your majesty's.

king. I would I had that corporal soundness now,
As when thy father, and myself, in friendship
First try'd our soldiership! He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest: he lasted 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 observe
To-day in our young lords ; but they may jest,
Till their own scorn return to them unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour.
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharuness; if they were,
His equal had awak'd them ;' and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak, and, at this time,
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,
Making them proud of his humility
In their poor praise he humbled :o Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times ;
Which, follow'd well, would démonstrate them now
But goers backward.

14] I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation :Your father, says the king, had the same airy flights of satirical wit with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit.-This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities. JOHNSON.

[5] He was so like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by some injury, not of a man below him, but of his equal. This is the complete image of a wellbred man, and somewhat like this, Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV.

JOHNSON. [6] Giving them a better opinion of their own importance, by his condescending manner of bebaving to them. M. MASON