i. The state of your affection; for your passions Hel. Then, I confess, Here on my knee, before high heav'ns and you, My friends were poor, but honeft; fo's my love; That he is lov'd of me; I follow hitn not By any token of prefumptuous fuit; Nor would I have him, 'till I do deferve him; The fun that looks upon his worshipper, Wish chaftly, and love dearly, that your Dian Hel. Madam, I had. Captious and intenible fieve.] The word captious I never found in this fenfe; yet I cannot tell what to fubftitute, unlefs carious for rotten, which yet is a word. more likely to have been miftaken by the copyers than used by the authour. Hel. Hel. I will tell truth; by Grace itself, I swear. For general fov'reignty; and that he will'd me, To cure the defperate languishings, whereof Count. This was your motive for Paris, was it, fpeak? Hel. My lord your fon made me to think of this; Elfe Paris, and the medicine, and the King, Had from the conversation of my thoughts, Haply, been absent then. If Count. But think you, Helen, you should tender your fuppofed aid, He would receive it? he and his physicians Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him: Hel. There's fomething hints More than my father's skill, (which was the great't 9 Notes, whofe faculties in clufive.] Receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed than appeared to obfervation. There's fomething IN'T More than my father's skill-that his good receipt, &c.] Here is an inference, [that] without any thing preceding, to which it refers, which makes the fentence vicious, and fhews that we should read, There's fomething HINTS More than my father's skill,— that his good receipt i. e. I have a fecret premonition or prefage. WARBURTON. By By th' luckiest stars in heav'n; and, would your ho nour But give me leave to try fuccefs, I'd venture The well-loft life of mine on his Grace's Cure, Count. Doft thou believ't? Hel. Ay, Madam, knowingly. Count. Why, Helen, thou fhalt have my leave and love : Means and attendants; and my loving greetings [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. Enter the King, with divers young Lords taking leave for the Florentine war. Bertram and Parolles. Flourish Cornets. KING. Arewel, young Lords. These warlike principles 2 In all the latter copies these lines flood thus: Farewel, young Lords; Do not throw from you. my Lords, farewel; you. You, my Lords, Share The gift doth ftretch itself as 'tis receiv'd.] The third line in that ftate was unintelligi ble. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads thefe You, thus: Share the advice betwixt you ; if both again, Farewel young Lord, these warlike principles De Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 1 Lord. 'Tis our hope, Sir, After well-enter'd foldiers, to return King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart That doth my life befiege; farewel, young Lords; Of the laft Monarchy ;) See, &c.] This is obfcure. Italy, at the time of this fcene, was under three very different tenures. The emperor, as fucceffor of the Reman emperors, had one part; the pope, by a pretended donation from Conftantine, another; and the third was compos'd of free states. Now by the last monarchy is meant the Roman, the laft of the four general monarchies. Upon the fall of this monarchy, in the fcramble, feveral cities fet up for themfelves, and became free states: now these VOL. III. Thofe might be faid properly to inherit the fall of the monarchy. This being premifed, let us now confider fenfe. The King fays, higher Italy; giving it the rank of preference to France; but he corrects himself and says, I except thofe from that precedency, who only inherit the fall of the last monarchy; as all the little petty ftates; for inftance, Florence to whom these voluntiers were going. As if he had faid, I give the place of honour to the emperor and the pope, but not to the free states. WARBURTON. The ancient geographers have divided Italy into the higher and the lower, the Apennine Hills being a kind of natural line of partition; the fide next the Adriatick was denominated the higher Italy, and the other fide the lower and the two Seas followed the fame terms of diftinction, the Adriatick being called the upper Sea, and the Tyrrhene or Tuscan the lower. Now the Sennones or Senois with whom the Florentines are here fuppofed to be at war inhabited the higher X Italy, Those 'bated, that inherit but the Fall 2 Lord. Health at your bidding ferve your Majefty! Both. Our hearts receive your warnings. [Exit. 1 Lord. Oh, my fweet Lord, that you will stay be hind us! Par. 'Tis not his fault; the fpark Italy, their chief town being Sir T. Hanmer reads, Reflecting upon the abject and degenerate condition of the Cities and States which arofe out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, the laft of the four great Monarchies of the World. HANMER. Dr. Warburton's obfervation is learned, but rather too fubtle; Sir Tho. Hanmer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The paffage is confeffedly obfcure, and therefore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet higher is to be underflood of fituation rather than of dignity. The fenfe may then be this, Let upper Italy, where you are to exercife your valour, fee you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the that disgrace and depreffion of these that have now loft their ancient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the loft monarchy. To abate is ufed by Shakespeare in the original fenfe of abatre, to deprefs, to fink, to deje, to fubdue. So in Coriolanus, •'till ignorance deliver you, As moft abated captives to fome nation That won you without blows. And bated is used in a kindred fenfe in the Jew of Venice. -in a bondman's key With bated breath and whif Pring humbleness. The word has till the fame meaning in the language of the law. 4 tives, Beware of being cap Before you ferve.] The word ferve is equivocal; the sense is, Be not captives before you ferve Be not captives bein the war. fore you are foldiers. 2 Lord. |
