affected sorrow was for the death of her father; her real grief for the lowness of her situation, which she feared would for ever be a bar to her union with her beloved Bertram. MALONE. 59. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.] Lafeu says, excessive grief is the enemy of the living: the countess replies, If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal: that is, if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess. By the word mortal I understand that which dies. JOHNSON. A passage in The Winter's Tale, in which our author again speaks of grief destroying itself by its own excess, adds some support to Dr. Johnson's interpretation: "Did ever live so long; no sorrow, "But kill'd itself much sooner." In Romeo and Juliet, act i. we meet with a kindred thought: "These violent delights have violent ends, "And in their triumph die." MALONE. -] That may help 71. That thee may furnish,thee with more and better qualifications. JOHNSON. 78. The best wishes, &c.] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring them to effect. JOHNSON. 85. these great tears- -] The tears which the king and countess shed for him. JOHNSON. 93. In his bright radiance, &c.] I cannot be united with him and move in the same sphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all sides from him. Milton, B. X. line 85: 97. -from his radiant seat he rose "Of high collateral glory.” 'Twas pretty, though a plague JOHNSON. STEEVENS. To see him every hour; to sit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, In our heart's table :-] So in our author's 24th Sonnet: "Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steel'd "Thy beauty's form in table of my heart.” A table was in our author's time a term for a picture, in which sense it is used here. Tableu, Fr. MALONE. 101. trick of his sweet favour!] So, in King John: "he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face." Trick seems to be some peculiarity or feature. JOHNSON. Trick is an expression taken from drawing, and is so explained in another place. The present instance explains itself: -to sit and draw His arched brows, &c. --and trick of his sweet favour. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's explanation of this word is supported by a passage in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, 1600: "OI have it in writing here of purpose; it cost me two shillings the tricking.” MALONE. 104. PAROLLES.] I suppose we should write his name Paroles, i. e. a creature made up of empty words. STEEVENS. 112. 110. Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as superfluous for over-clothed. This makes the propriety of the antithesis. WARBURTON. And you, monarch.] Perhaps here is some allusion designed to Monarcho, a ridiculous fantastical character of the age of Shakspere. Concerning this person, see the Notes on Love's Labour's Lost, act iv. STEEVENS. sc. 1. 116. stain of soldier] Shakspere writes some stain of soldier, meaning in one sense, that he had red breeches on (which is sufficiently evident from calling him afterwards red-tail'd humble-bee), and in another, that he was a disgrace to soldiery. Stain is used in an adverse sense by Shakspere, in Troilus and Cressida: "nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it." STEEVENS. Stain rather for what we now say tinilure, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. JOHNSON. 132. -Loss of virginity is rational increase ;—] Rational increase may mean the regular increase by which rational beings are propagated. STEEVENS. inhibited sin] i. e. forbidden. So, -a practiser "Of arts inhibited and out of warrant." So, in the first folio. Theobald reads prohibited. 152. —within ten years it will make itself two, which is goodly increase ;—] Instead of two, Mr. Tollet would read twelve. STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we ought to read-" Out with it: within ten months it will make itself two." Part with it, and within ten months time it will double itself; it will produce a child. ८ When we recollect that our author's imagery is here borrowed from the practice of laying out money at interest, there can, I think, be no doubt of this emendation. "Cent. per cent. (says Parolles, as the text now stands) in ten years, is a goodly increase." Nothing very extraordinary; for the common interest of money being in Shakspere's time ten per cent. [see his will], a hundred pounds in ten years (without taking compound interest into the account) would double itself: but if it doubled itself in ten months, then indeed it might very properly be called " a goodly increase." Add to this, that the term of ten months agrees with the principal subject of which Parolles is speaking; whereas, that of ten years has no relation whatever to it. "Out with it," is used equivocally.-Applied to virginity, it means, give it away; part with it: considered in another light, it signifies, put it out to interest. In The Tempest we have-" Each putter out on five for one," &c. MALONE. There is no reason for altering the text. A wellknown observation of the noble earl, to whom the horses of the present generation owe the length of their tails, contains the true explanation of the original reading. HENLEY. 157. —Marry, ill, to like him that neʼer it likes.—] Parolles, in answer to the question, how one shall lose virginity to her own liking? plays upon the word liking, and says, she must do ill, for virginity, to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity. JOHNSON. 163. which wear not now :- -] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Shakspere often uses the active for the passive. TYRWHITT. 164. -Your date is better-] Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a kind of candied fruit much used in our author's time. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "They call for dates and quinces in the pastry." The same quibble occurs in Troilus and Cressida : ❝and then to be bak'd with no date in the pye, for then the man's date is out." STEEVENS. 170. Not my virginity yet.] This whole speech is. abrupt, unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it supposititious. I would be glad to think so 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, seems to be wanting. Hanmer has. made a fair attempt by reading, Not my virginity yet-You're for the court, Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection. Perhaps Parolles, |