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

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes safety: but the compofition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, 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 counfel, and underftand what advice fhall thruft upon thee; elfe thou dieft in thine unthankfulness, 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 use him as he ufes thee: so farewel [Exit.

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heav'n. The fated sky Gives us free fcope; only, doth backward pull Our flow designs, when we ourselves are dull.

3

3 What power is it, which mounts my love so high,

2 is a virtue of a good WING, and I like the wear well.] The integrity of the metaphor directs us to Shakespear's true read ing; which, doubtlefs, was

a good MING, i, e. mixture, compofition, a word common to ShakeSpear and the writers of this age; and taken from the texture of cloth. The M. was turn'd the wrong way at prefs, and from thence came the blunder.

WARBURTON.

This conjecture I could wish to fee better proved. This common word ming I have never found. The first edition of this play ex

hibits wing without a capital: yet, I confefs, that a virtue of a good wing is an expreffion that I cannot understand, unless by a metaphor taken from falconry, it may mean, a virtue that will fly high, and in the style of Hotfpur, Pluck honour from the moon.

3 What power is it, that mounts my love fo high,

That makes me fee, and cannot

feed mine eye?] She means, by what influence is my love directed to a person so much above me, why am I made to difcern excellence, and left to long after it, without the food of hope.

That

That makes me fee, and cannot feed mine eye?
• The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes; and kifs, like native things.
Impoffible be strange attempts, to those

That weigh their pain in fense; and do suppose,
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.

SCENE V.

Changes to the Court of France.

[Exit.

Flourish Cornets. Enter the King of France, with letters, and divers Attendants.

King. T

HE Florentines and Senoys are by th' ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue

That is, Nature brings like qualities and difpofitions to meet through any distance that fortune may have fet between them; fhe joins them, and makes them kifs like things born together,

The next lines I read with Hanmer.

Impoffible be ftrange attempts to thofe

That weigh their pain in senst, and do fuppofe

What ha'nt been, cannot be. New attempts feem impoffible to thofe, who eftimate their labour or enterprifes by fenfe, and believe that nothing can be but what they fee before them.

I Lord.

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 bufinefs, and would feem To have us make denial.

I Lord. His love and wisdom,

Approv❜d so to your Majefty, may plead
For ample credence.

King. He hath arm'd our answer;

And Florence is deny'd, before he comes:
Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to fee
The Tuscan 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. What's he comes here?

Enter Bertram, Lafeu and Parolles.

I 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
May'st thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.
Ber. My thanks and duty are your Majefty'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
Discipled of the brav'ft. He lafted long;
But on us both did haggish age fteal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father; in his youth
VOL. III.

U

He

" He had the wit, which I can well observe
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.
"So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness, if they were,
His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,

5 He had the wit, which I can
avell obferve

To day in our young Lords: but they may jeft,

Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted

Ere they can hide their levity in honour.] i. e. Ere their titles can 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 vye their levity with his honour.

WARBURTON. I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, fays the King, had the fame airy flights of fatirical wit with the young lords of the prefent time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit.

This is an excellent obfervation. Jocofe follies, and flight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities.

6 So like a Courtier, no Con-
tempt or Bitterness
Were in his Pride or Sharpness;

and Stops are reform'd, these are most beautiful Lines, and the Senfe is this" He had no

Contempt or Bitterness; if he "had any thing that look'd "like Pride or Sharpness, (of "which Qualities Contempt and "Bitternels are the Exceffes,) "his Equal had awak'd them, "not his Inferior: to whom he "fcorn'd to discover any thing "that bore the Shadow of Pride "or Sharpness."

WARBURTON. The original edition reads the first line thus,

So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness.

The fenfe is the fame. Nor was used without reduplication. So in Measure for Meafure,

More nor lefs to others paying,

Than by felf-offences weighing. The old text needs to be explained. He was fo like a courtier, that there was in bis dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of avit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by fome injury, not of a man below him, but of his Equal. This is the complete image of a well brod man, and fomewhat like this eltaire has exhibited his hero Lezuis XIV.

Clock

Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exceptions bid him fpeak; and at that time

7 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;
9 Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times;

Which, follow'd well, would now demonstrate 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 speech.

7 His tongue obeyed his hand.] We should read,

His tongue obeyed the hand. That is, the band of his honour's clock, fhewing the true minute when exceptions bad him speak.

8 He us'd as creatures of another place.] i. e. He made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford Editor, not underftanding the Sense, has altered another place, to a Brother-race.

WARBURTON. 9 Making them proud of bis humility,

In their poor praife, he hum

bled] But why were they proud of his Humility? It fhould be read and pointed thus. -Making them proud; AND bis Humility,

In their poor praife, he humbled

i.e. by condescending to ftoop to his Inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in

U