Look bleak in the cold wind; full oft we fee Hel. Ay: you have fome ftain of foldier in you; let me afk 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 refistance. 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 yourfelves made, you lose 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 loft; 'tis too cold a companion: away with't. 3 Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as fuperfuus for over-cloath'd. This makes the propriety of the Antithefis. WARBURTON. 4 Stain of foldier.] Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee. WARBURTON. Hel. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To fpeak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mother; which is moft infallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself, and thould 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. Belides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of felf-love, which is the moft prohibited fin in the canon. Keep it not, you cannot chufe but lofe by't. Out with't; within ten years it will make itfelf two, which is a goodly increafe, 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 He, that hangs himself, is a Virgin: But why is he that hangs himself a Virgin? Surely, not for the reason that follows. Virginity murders itself. 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 Shakespeare wrote it thus, As he, that hangs himself, so is a Virgin. And then it follows naturally, Virginity murders itself. By this emendation, the Oxford Editor was enabled to alter the text thus, He that hangs himself is like a 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 fashion richly futed, but unfutable; just 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, yes, 'tis a wither'd pear. Will you any thing with it? 8 7 Hel. Not my virginity yet. There fhall your matter have a thousand loves, 7 For yet, as it ftood 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 thofe 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 mafter, &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. A Phanix, Captain, &c.] The eight lines following friend, 2 I am perfuaded, is the nonfenfe of fome foolish conceited player. What put it into his head was Helen's faying, as it should be read for the future, There hall your Mafter have a thousand loves: A Mother, and a Mistress, and a Friend. I know not, what he shall God fend him well. Where the Fellow finding a thoufand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a Mother's, a Mifirefi'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 nonsense: and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole fuch finished nonefense as is never heard out of Bedlam. WARBURTON. A guide,. A guide, a goddess, and a fovereign, Par. What one, i'faith? Hel. That I wifh well-'tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Might with effects of them follow our friends: And fhew what we alone muft think, which never Returns us thanks. Enter Pagé. 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 tharitable 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 seems 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. 1 And how what we alone must think] And fhew by realities what we now muft only think. Hel. Hel. You go fo much backward, when you fight. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes fafety: 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 businesses, as I cannot answer thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my inftruction fhall ferve to naturalize thee, fo thou wilt be capable of courtier's counfel, and underftand what advice fhall thrust 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 ufe him as he ufes thee: fo farewel. Exit. SCENE IV. Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 3 2 is a virtue of a good WING, and I like the wear well.] The integrity of the metaphor directs us to Shakespeare's true reading; 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 contefs, 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 ftyle of HotSpur, Plick honour from the moon. 3 What power is it, that mounts my love fo high, That make me fee, and cannot feed mine eye? She means, by what influence is my love directed to a perfon fo much above me? why am I made to discern excellence, and left to long after it, without the food of hope? That |
