Clo. A prophet I, madam; and I fpeak the truth the next way.7 For I the ballad will repeat, Count. Get you gone, fir; I'll talk with you more anon. Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you; of her I am to speak. Count. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman, I would speak with her; Helen I mean. Clo. Was this fair face the caufe, quoth foe, Fond done, done fond, Was this king Priam's joy. [Singing. With 7 It is a fuperftition, which has run through all ages and people, that natural fools have fomething in them of divinity. On which account they were esteemed facred: Travellers tell us in what efteem the Turks now hold them; nor had they lefs honour paid them heretofore in France, as appears from the old word benet, for a natural fool. Hence it was that Pantagruel, in Rabelais, advised Panurge to go and confult the fool Triboulet as an oracle; which gives occafion to a fatirical stroke upon the privy council of Francis the First-Par l'avis, confeil, prediction des fols vos fcavex quants princes, &c. ont efté confervex, &c.- -The phrafe-speak "the truth the next way, means directly; as they do who are only the inftruments or canals of others; fuch as infpired perfons were fuppofed to be. WARBURTON. See the popular story of Nixon the Idiot's Chefbire Prophecy. Doucz. Next way, is neareft way. So, in K. Henry IV. Part I: 'Tis the next way to turn tailor," &c. STEEVENS. Next way is a phrafe still used in Warwickshire, and fignifies without circumlocution, or going about. HENLEY. 8 The name of Helen, whom the Countefs has juft called for, brings an old ballad on the facking of Troy to the Clown's mind. MALONE. This is a ftanza of an old ballad, out of which a word or two are dropt, equally neceffary to make the fenfe and alternate rhyme. For it was not Helen, who was King Priam's joy, but Paris. The third line therefore fhould be read thus: Fond done, fond done, for Paris, he WARBURTON. If this be a stanza taken from any ancient ballad, it will probably in time be found entire, and then the restoration may be made with authority. STEEVENS. 9 Fond done,] Is foolishly done. STIEVINS With that fbe fighed as foe food, Count. What, one good in ten? you corrupt the fong, firrah. Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the fong: 'Would God would ferve the world fo all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe-woman, if I were the parfon : One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but every blazing ftar, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one. Count. You'll be gone, fir knave, and do as I command you? Cle. That man fhould be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done -Though honefty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the furplice of humility over the black of gown a big heart.3-I am going, forfooth; the bu finefs is for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown. Count. 2 This fecond stanza of the ballad is turned to a joke upon the women: a confeffion, that there was one good in ten. Whereon the Countess obferved, that he corrupted the fong; which shows the fong faid-nine good in ten. If one be bad among ft nine good, There's but one bad in ten. This relates to the ten fons of Priam, who all behaved themselves well but Paris. For though he once had fifty, yet at this unfortunate period of his reign he had but ten; Agathon, Artiphon, Deiphobus, Dius, Hector, Helenus, Hippotbous, Pammon, Paris, and Polites. WARBURTON. 3 Clo. That man, &c.] The Clown's anfwer is obfcure. His lady bids him do as he is commanded. He anfwers with the licentious petulance of his character, that if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely be will do amifs; that he does not amifs, being at the command of a wɔman, he makes the effect, not of his lady's goodness, but of his own bonefty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no burt; and will not only do no hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of fuperiors, and wear the furplice of bumility ever the black gown of a big beart; will obey commands, though not much pleafed with a state of fubjection. Here Count. Well, row. Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeath'd her to me; and she herself, without other advantange, may lawfully make title to as much love as fhe finds: there is more owing her, than is paid; and more shall be paid her, than she'll demand. Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her than, I think, the wifh'd me alone fhe was, and did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; fhe thought, I dare vow for her, they touch'd not any ftranger fenfe. Her matter was, the loved your fon: Fortune, the faid, was no goddefs, that had put fuch difference betwixt their two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; 4 Diana, no queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight to be furprised, without refcue, in the firft affault, or ranfom afterward: This the deliver'd in the moft bitter touch of forrow, that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in which I held my duty, fpeedily to acquaint you withal; fithence, in the lofs that may happen, it concerns you fome thing to know it. Count. You have difcharged this honeftly; keep it to yourfelf many likelihoods informed me of this before, which hung fo tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe, nor mifdoubt: Pray you, leave me: ftall this in your bofom, and I thank you for your honest care: I will fpeak with you further anon. [Exit Steward. Here is an allufion, violently enough forced in, to fatirize the obftinacy with which the puritans refufed the ufe of the ecclefiaftical habits, which `was, at that time, one principal cause of the breach of the union, and perhaps, to infinuate, that the modeft purity of the furplice was fometimes a cover for pride. JOHNSON. The averfion of the puritans to a furplice is alluded to in many of the old comedies. STEEVENS. I cannot help thinking we fhould read-Though bonefly be a puritan. TYRWHITT. Mr. Tyrwhitt's correction is right. MALONE. 4 The meaning may be, where qualities only, and not fortunes or condi>tions, were level. Or perhaps only is used for except. MALONE. Enter HELENA. Count. Even fo it was with me, when I was young: Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; It is the fhow and feal of nature's truth, Where love's strong paffion is imprefs'd in youth: Such were our faults;-or then we thought them none.“ Hel. What is your pleasure, madam? I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Count. You know, Helen, Nay, a mother; Why not a mother? When I faid, a mother, That were enwombed mine: 'Tis often seen, 5 That is, according to our recollection. So we fay, he is old ly my reckoning. JOHNSON. 6 We should read: -- -O! then we thought them none. A motive for pity and pardon, agreeable to fact, and the indulgent character of the speaker. This was fent to the Oxford editor, and he altered O, to though. WARBURTON. Such were the faulty weakneffes of which I was guilty in my youth, or 'fuch at leaft were then my feelings, though perhaps at that period of my life I did not think they deserved the name of faults. Dr. Warburton, without neceffity, as it feems to me, reads "O! then we thought them none;"—and the fubfequent editors adopted the alteration. MALONE. 7 And our choice furnishes us with a flip propagated to us from foreign feeds, which we educate and treat, as if it were native to us, and fprung from ourselves. HEATH, VOL. III. C The The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye? 8 Hel. Count. I fay, I am your mother. That I am not. Hel. Count. Nor I your mother? So I were not his fister : • Can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother? 2 Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law; Your falt tears' head. Now to all fenfe 'tis grofs, See $ There is fomething exquifitely beautiful in this representation of that fuffufion of colours which glimmers around the fight when the eye-lashes are wet with tears. HENLEY. 9 There is a defigned ambiguity: I care no more for, is, I care as much for.I wish it equally. FARMER. 2 The meaning is obfcured by the elliptical diction. Can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter, be must be my brother? JOHNSON. 3 To frive is to contend. STEEVENS. 4 The late Mr. Hall had corrected this, I believe, rightly,-your low liefs. TYRWHITT. 5 The fource, the fountain of your tears, the cause of your grief. JOHNSON |