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 converfation of my thoughts,
Haply, been absent then.

Count. But think you, Helen,

If you should tender your fuppofed aid,

He would receive it? He and his phyficians
Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help hini,
They, that they cannot help. How fhall they credit
A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,
Embowell'd of their doctrine 3; have left off
The danger to itself?

Hel. There's fomething hints

More than my father's skill, (which was the greatest Of his profeffion,) that his good receipt

Shall, for my legacy, be fanctified

By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour

But give me leave to try fuccefs, I'd venture
The well-loft life of mine on his grace's cure,
By fuch a day, and hour.

Count. Doft thou believ't?

Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly.

3 Emberwell'd of their doctrine.] i. e. exhaufted of their skill.

4 There's fomething IN'T
More than my father's fkill-

-that his good receipt, &c.]

STEEVENS.

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 fkill,
-that his good receipt-

i. e. I have a fecret premonition or prefage.

WARBURTON.

Count,

Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave and love,

Means, and attendants; and my loving greetings
To thofe of mine in court :-I'll ftay at home,
And pray God's bleffing into thy attempt 5:
Begone, to-morrow; and be fure of this,
What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The court of France.

Enter the King, with young lords taking leave for the Florentine war. Bertram and Parolles.

FAR

Flourish cornets.

KING.

ARE WEL, young lords: thefe warlike principles

5-into thy attempt.] So the old copy. We might better "unto thy attempt."

read

In all the latter copies thefe lines flood thus:

STEEVENS.

Farewel, young lords; thefe warlike principles
Do not throw from you. You, my lords, farewell;
Share the advice betwixt you; if both again,
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd.

The third line in that state was unintelligible. Sir Thomas
Hanmer reads thus :

Farewel young lord, thefe warlike principles

Do not throw from you; you, my lord, farewel;
Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,
The gift doth ftretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,
And is enough for both.

The first edition, from which the paffage is reftored, was fufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter editors preferred a reading which they did not understand.

JOHNSON.

Do

7

Do not throw from you; and you, my lords, farewel :

Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,
And is enough for both.

1 Lord. 'Tis our hope, fir,

After well-enter'd foldiers, to return

And find your grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart Will not confefs, he owes the malady

That doth my life besiege. Farewel, young lords; Whether I live or die, be you the fons

Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy

7and you my lords farewel.]

(Thofe

It does not any where appear that more than two French lords (befides Bertram) went to ferve in Italy; and therefore I think the king's fpeech fhould be corrected thus,

"Farewel, young lord; these warlike principles

"Do not throw from you; and you my lord, farewel;" what follows, fhews the connection to be neceffary:

"Share the advice between you; if both gain all, &c."

T. T.

This is obfcure. Italy, at the time of this fcene, was under three very different tenures. The emperor, as fucceffor of the Roman emperors, had one part; the pope, by a pretended donation from Conftantine, another; and the third was compofed of free ftates. Now by the last menarchy 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 ftates: now thefe might be faid properly to inberit 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 fays, I except those from that precedency, who only inherit the fall of the last monarchy; as all the little petty flates; for inftance, Florence, to whom these voluntiers were going. As if he had

(Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy) fee, that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
'The bravest queftant fhrinks, find what you feek,
That Fame may cry you loud: I fay, farewel.

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 feas followed the fame terms of diftinction, the Adriatick being called the upper fea, 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 Italy, their chief town being Ariminum, now called Rimini, upon the Adriatick. HANMER. Sir T. Hanmer reads,

Those bastards that inherit, &c.

with this note:

Reflecting upon the abject and degenerate condition of the cities and flates 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. Hannaer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The paffage is confeffedly obfcure, and therefore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet bigher is to be understood of fituation rather than of dignity. The fenfe may then be this, Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the disgrace and depreffion of those that have now loft their antient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the last monarchy. To abate is used by Shakespeare in the original fenfe of abatre, to deprefs, to fink, to deje, to fubdue. So in Coriolanus,

'till ignorance deliver you, ·

As most abated captives to fome nation
That won you without blows.

And bated is ufed in a kindred fenfe in the Jew of Venice.

in a bondman's key

With bated breath and whifp'ring bumbleness.

The word has ftill the fame meaning in the language of the

law.

JOHNSON.

2 Lord.

2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, ferve your ma

jefty!

King. Thofe girls of Italy,

-take heed of them;

They fay, our French lack language to deny,

If they demand.

Beware of being captives,

receive your warnings.

[The King retires to a couch.

King. Farewel. Come hither to me.

I Lord. Oh, my fweet lord, that you will stay behind us!

Par. 'Tis not his fault; the fpark

2 Lord. Oh, 'tis brave wars!

Par. Moft admirable: I have seen those wars. Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with, Too young, and the next year, and 'tis too early-Par. An thy mind ftand to it, boy, fteal away bravely.

Ber. I fhall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my fhoes on the plain masonry,

'Till honour be bought up, and no fword worn But one to dance with! by heaven, I'll steal away. I Lord. There's honour in the theft.

Par. Commit it, Count.

2 Lord. I am your acceffary; and fo farewel. Ber. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body.

9

-Beware of being captives,
Before you ferve.]

The word ferve is equivocal; the fenfe is, Be not captives before you ferve in the war. Be not captives before you are foldiers.

JOHNSON.

1 I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body.] I read thus, Our parting is the parting of a tortured body. Our parting is as the difruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the caufe of mistakes, the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the fentence is omitted.

JOHNSON.