Hel. Oh, were that all !—I think not on my father; And these great tears grace his remembrance more, Than those I fhed for him. What was he like? I have forgot him. My imagination Carries no favour in it, but my Bertram's. I am undone! there is no living, none, If Bertram be away. It were all one, That I fhould love a bright partic'lar ftar, And think to wed it; he is fo above me : In his bright radiance and collateral light Muft I be comforted, not in his fphere. Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself; The hind, that would be mated by the lion, Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, tho' a plague, To see him every hour; to fit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, In our heart's table: heart, too capable 2 Of every line and trick of his fweet favour! and Enter Parolles. One that goes with him: I love him for his fake, Think him a great way fool, folely a coward; That they take place, when virtue's steely bones 9 Thefe great tears.] The tears which the King and Countess thed for him. In his bright radiance, &c.] I cannot be united with him and move in the fame jphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots en all fides from him. 2 Trick of his fweet favour.] So in King John; he hath a trick of Coeur de Lion's face. Trick feems to be fome peculiarity of look or feature. Look Look bleak in the cold wind; full off we fee 3 Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly. SCENE III. Par. Save you, fair Queen. Hel. And you, Monarch.. Par. No. Hel. And, no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity? 4 Hel. Ay you have fome ftain of foldier in you; let me ask you a queftion. Man is enemy to virginity, how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him, out. Hel. But he affails; and our virginity, tho' valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us fome warlike resistance. 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 quicklier be 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 preferve virginity. Lofs of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, 'till virginity was first 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 lost; 'tis too cold a companion: away with't. 3 Cold wifdem waiting on fuperfluous folly Cold for naked; as fuperfluous for over-cloath'd. This makes the propriety of the Antithefis. 4 Stain of foldier.] Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble WARBURTON. bee. WARBURTON. Hel. Hel. I will ftand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. 5 Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mother; which is most infallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin : virginity murders itself, and should be buried in highways out of all fanctified limit, as a defperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; confumes itself to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding its own ftomach. Befides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most prohibited fin in the canon. Keep it not, you cannot chufe but lose by't. Out with't; within ten years it will make itself two, 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 fee. Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lofe the glofs with 5 He, that hangs himself, is a Virgin: But why is he that hangs himself a Virgin? Surely, not for the reafon that follows. Virginity murders itfelf. For tho' every Virgin be a Suicide, yet every Suicide is not a Virgin." A word or two are dropt, which introduced a comparifon in this place; and Shakespear wrote it thus, As he, that hangs himself, so is a Virgin. And then it follows naturally, Virginity murders itfef. By this emendation, the Oxford Editor was enabled to alter the text thus, He that hangs himself is like a 3 Virgin. And this is his ufual way of be coming a Critick at a cheap expence. WARBURTON. I believe most readers will fpare both the emendations, which I do not think much worth a claim or a conteft. The old reading is more fpritely and equally juft. Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes, &c.] Parolles, in answer to the question, how one ball lofe virginity to her own lik ing, plays upon the word liking, and fays, he must do ill, for virginity, to be fo loft, must like bim that likes not virginity. lying. lying. The longer kept, the lefs worth: off with't, while 'tis vendible. Anfwer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fafhion: richly futed, but unfutable; juft like the brooch and the tooth-pike, 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 dryly; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear it was formerly better; marry, 7 yes, 'tis a wither'd pear. Will you any thing with it? 8 Hel. Not my virginity yet. There fhall your mafter have a thousand loves, 7 For yet, as it stood before, Sir T. Hanmer reads yes. Not my virginity yet.] This whole fpeech is abrupt, unconnected and obfcure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it fuppofititious. I would be too glad to think fo of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something which should connect Helena'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 fhall your master, &c. Some fuch claufe has, I think, dropped out, but ftill the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, faid, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply.-I know not what to do with the paffage. 9 A Phoenix, Captain, &c.] The eight lines following friend, I am perfuaded is the nonfenfe of fome foolish conceited player. What put it into his head was Helen's faying, as it fhould be read for the future, There fhall your Mafter have a thousand loves; A Mother, and a Mistress, and a Friend. I know not, what he fhall God fend him well. Where the Fellow finding a boufand loves fpoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a Mother's, a Miftrefs'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 nonfense: and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole fuch finished nonsense as is never heard out of Bedlam. WARBURTON. A A guide, a goddefs, and a fovereign, Hel. That I wifh well-'tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, 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 efpecially 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. -a traitress,] It feems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the king, he fays You look like a tray tor, but fuch traytors his majefty does not much fear. • And Shew what we alone muft think] And fhew by realities what we now muft only think. Hel. |