4

Laf. There's one grape yet,—I am fure, thy father drunk wine.--But if thou be'ft not an afs, I am a youth of fourteen. I have known thee already.

Hel. I dare not say, I take you; but I give Me and my fervice, ever whilft I live,

Into your guided power: this is the man. [To Bertram. King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, she's thy wife.

Ber. My wife, my Liege? I fhall beseech your
Highness,

In fuch a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.

King. Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What the hath done for me?.

Ber. Yes, my good Lord,

But never hope to know why I fhould marry her. King. Thou know'ft, fhe has rais'd me from my fickly bed.

Ber. But follows it, my Lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raifing? I know her well: She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor phyfician's daughter my wife !-Difdain Rather corrupt me ever!

King. 'Tis only title thou difdain'ft in her, the which
I can build up: ftrange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound diftinction, yet stand off
In differences, fo mighty. If the be

All that is virtuous, (fave what thou dislik'st,
A poor physician's daughter,) thou diflik'st

]derstood it.

4 There's one grape yet, This fpeech the three last editors have perplexed themfelves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of fenfe. I have reftored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation neceflary, but that Mr. Theol ald apparently mifun

Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refufed, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is one yet into lo his father put good blood, but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an ofs.

Of

Öf virtue for the name: but do not fo.
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignify'd by th' doer's deed.

Where great addition fwells, and virtue noné,
It is a dropfied honour; good alone

Is good, without a name vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wife, fair;
In these, to nature fhe's immediate heir;

Is good without a name; Helen

is fo; The reft follows eafily by this change.

7—She is YOUNG, wife; fair; In thefe, to nature she's immediate heir;

And thefe breed honour ;~~~] The objection was, that Helen

And these breed honour: That is honour's fcorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the fire. Honours beft thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a flave
Debaucht on every tomb, on every grave;
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb,
Where duft and damn'd oblivion is the tomb

Of honour'd bones, indeed. What should be faid?
If thou can't like this creature as a maid,

I can create the reft: virtue and fhe,

Is her own dow'r; honour and wealth from me.
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will ftrive to do't.
King. Thou wrong'ft thyfelf, if thou should'st strive
to chufe.

Hel. That you are well reftor'd, my lord, I'm glad: Let the reft go..

King.

My honour's at the stake; which to defend,

For the greatest part of her encomium turned upon her virtue. To omit this therefore in the recapitulation of her qualities, had been against all the rules of good fpeaking Nor let it be objected that this is requiring an exactnefs in our author which we should not expect. For he who could reason with the force our author doth here, (and we ought always to diftinguish between Shakespeare on his guard and in his rambles) and illuftrate that reafoning with fuch beauty of thought and propriety of expreffion, could never make ufe of a word which quite destroyed the exactnefs of his reafoning, the propriety of his thought, and the elegance of his expreffion.

WARBURTON. Here is a long note which I with had been forter. Gord is

better than young, as it refers to honour. But he is more the immediate heir of nature with refpect to youth than goodness. To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening tranf mitter: thus the inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is tranfmitted by ancestors; youth is received immediately from nature, but goodness may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore lofes on one fide what it gains on the other.

9 My honour's at the Stake;

which to defeat

I must produce my Power.-] The poor King of France is again made a Man of Gotham, by our unmerciful Editors. For he is not to make use of his Authority to defeat, but to defend, his Honour. THEOBALD. I must

I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud fcornful boy, unworthy this good gift!
That doft in vile mifprifion fhackle up

My love, and her defert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective scale,

Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour, where

We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt:
Obey our will, which travels in thy good;
Believe not thy difdain, but prefently

Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which both thy duty owes, and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
Into the staggers, and the carelefs lapfe

I

Of youth and ignorance; my revenge and hate
Loofing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity. Speak, thine answer.

Ber. Pardon, my gracious Lord; for I fubmit
My fancy to your eyes. When I confider,
What great creation, and what dole of honour
Flies where you bid; I find, that fhe, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the King;* who, fo enobled,
Is, as 'twere, born fo.

King. Take her by the hand,

And tell her, fhe is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoize; if not in thy eftate,

A balance more repleat.

Ber. I take her hand.

King. Good fortune, and the favour of the King Smile upon this contract! whofe ceremony Shall feem expedient on the new-born brief,

Into the ftaggers, One fpecies of the flaggers, or the borfes apoplexy, is a raging impatience which makes the animal dash himself with deftructive violence against pofts or walls.

2

And

Shal feem expedient on the new-
barn brief,
And be perform'd to night;-]
Y 3

This,

And be perform'd to night; the folemn feafl
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting abfent friends. As thou lov'ft her,
Thy love's to me religious; elfe does err.

[Exeunt.

Laf. Do you hear, Monfieur? a word with you. Par. Your pleasure, Sir?

Laf. Your Lord and Mafter did well to make his recantation,

Par. Recantation ?-my Lord? my Mafter?
Laf. Ay, is it not a language I fpeak?

Par. A moft harsh one, and not to be understood without bloody fucceeding. My master?

Laf. Are you companion to the Count Roufillon? Par. To any Count; to all Counts; to what is

man.

Laf. To what is Count's man; Count's mafter is of another ftile.

Par. You are too old, Sir; let it fatisfy you, you are too old.

Laf. I must tell thee, Sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee.

Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wife fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pafs; yet the scarfs and the ban