you; 2 whose worthinefs would ftir it up where it wanted, rather than flack it where there is such abundance.

Count. What hope is there of his Majesty's amendment?

Laf. He hath abandon'd his physicians, Madam, under whofe practices he hath perfecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the procefs, but only the lofing of hope by time.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (0, that bad! how fad a Prefage 'tis!) whofe skill was almost as great as his honefty; had it ftretch'd fo far, it would have made nature immortal, and death fhould have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the King's fake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the King's disease.

Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of,

Madam?

Count. He was famous, Sir, in his profeffion, and it was his great right to be fo: Gerard de Narbon.

Laf. He was excellent, indeed, Madam; the King very lately spoke of him admiringly, and mourningly :

z whofe worthiness would fir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is fuch abundance.] An Opposition of Terms is vifibly defign'd in this fentence; tho' the Oppofition is not fo vifible, as the Terms now ftand. Wanted and Abundance are the Oppofites to one another; but how is lack a Contrast to fir up? The Addition of a fingle Letter gives it, and the very Senfe requires it. Read flack it.

3 This young gentlewoman had a father (0, that had! how fad a PASSAGE tis!] Lafeu was fpeaking of the King's defperate Condition: which makes the Countefs recall to mind the deceafed Gerard de Narbon, who, fhe thinks, could have cured him. But in ufing the word had, which implied his death, she stops in the middle of her fentence, and makes a reflexion upon it, which, according to the prefent reading, is unintelligible. We must therefore believe Shakespear wrote (O that had! how fad a PRESAGE 'tis) i. e. a Prefage that the King must now expect no cure, fince fo skilful a Perfon was himself forced to fubmit to a malignant distemper.

he

he was skilful enough to have liv'd ftill, if knowledge could be fet up against mortality.

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the King languishes of?

Laf. A fistula, my lord.

Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would, it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?

Count. His fole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have thofe hopes of her good, that her education promifes her; difpofition fhe inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for 4 where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there, commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too: in her they are the better for her fimpleness; fhe derives her honefty, and atchieves her goodness.

4 where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there, commendations go with pity; they are Virtues and Traitors too: in her they are the better for THEIR fimpleness; he derives her honefty, and atchieves her goodness.] This obfcure encomium is made still more obfcure by a flight corruption of the text. Let us explain the paffage as it lies. By virtuous qualities are meant qualities of good breeding and erudition; in the fame fenfe that the Italians fay, qualità virtuofa; and not moral ones. On this account it is, she says, that, in an ill mind, these virtuous qualities are virtues and traitors too: i. e. the advantages of education enable an ill mind to go further in wickedness than it could have done without them: But, fays the Countefs, in her they are the better for THEIR fimpleness. But fimpleness is the fame with what is called bonefty, immediately after; which cannot be predicated of the qualities of education. We must certainly read

HER fimpleness

And then the sentence is properly concluded. The Countess had faid, that virtuous qualities are the worfe for an unclean mind, but concludes that Helen's are the better for her fimpleness. i. e. her clean, pure mind. She then fums up the Character, the had before given in detail, in these words, he derives her honefty, and atchieves her goodness, i. e. She derives her honefly, her fimpleness, her moral Character, from her Father and Ancestors: But the atchieves or wins her goodness, her virtue, or her qualities of goodbreeding and erudition, by her own pains and labour.

Laf. Your commendations, Madam, get from her

tears.

Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can feason her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have it.

Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it

too.

Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, exceffive grief the enemy to the living.

Count. If the living be not enemy to the grief, the excess makes it foon mortal.

Ber. Madam, I defire your holy wishes.
Laf. How understand we that?

Count. Be thou bleft, Bertram, and fucceed thy father

In manners as in fhape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birth-right! Love all, truft a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power, than ufe; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for fpeech. What heav'n more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head! Farewel, my lord;

'Tis an unfeafon'd courtier, good my lord,
Advise him.

Laf. He cannot want the best,

That fhall attend his love.

5 If the living be enemy to the grief, the excels makes it foon mortal.] This feems very obfcure; but the addition of a Negative perfectly difpels all the mift. If the living be not enemy, &c. exceffive grief is an enemy to the living, fays Lafeu: Yes, replies the Countefs; and if the living be not enemy to the grief, [i. e. ftrive to conquer it,] the excels makes it foon mortal.

Count. Heav'n blefs him! Farewel, Bertram.

[Exit Countess Ber. [To. Hel.] The beft wishes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be fervants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

Laf. Farewel, pretty lady, you must hold the credit of your father. [Exeunt Bertram and Lafeu.

SCENE

NE II.

Hel. Oh, were that all! I think not on my
father;

And these great tears grace his remembrance more,
Than thofe I fhed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him. My imagination
Carries no favour in it, but my Bertram's.
I am undone; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I fhould love a bright partic'lar star,
And think to wed it; he is fo above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Muft I be comforted, not in his sphere.
Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself;
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, tho' a plague,
To fee him every hour; to fit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table: heart, too capable
Of every line and trick of his fweet favour!
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Muft fanctify his relicks. Who comes here!

6- and collateral light.] collateral for reflected. i. e. in the radiance of his reflected light; not in his fphere, or direct light. Milton ufes the word, in the fame fense, speaking of the Son, Of high collateral Glory. Book 10. v. 86. B 4

Enter

Enter Parolles.

One, that goes with him: I love him for his fake,
"And yet I know him a notorious liar;
"Think him a great way fool, folely a coward;
"Yet these fix'd evils fit fo fit in him,

"That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
"Look bleak in the cold wind;" full oft we fee
7 Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

Hel. Ay: you have some stain of foldier in you; let me ask 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, fetting 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 lofe

7 Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as fuperfluous for over-cloath'd. This makes the propriety of the Antithefis.

8 Stain of foldier] flain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee.

your