The state of

your affection; for your paffions Have to the full appeach'd.

Hel. Then, I confefs,

Here on my knee, before high heav'ns and you,
That before you, and next unto high heav'n,
I love your fon:

My friends were poor, but honeft; fo's my love;
Be not offended; for it hurts not him,

That he is lov'd of me; I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous fuit;

Nor would I have him, 'till I do deserve him;
Yet never know, how that desert shall be.
I know, I love in vain: ftrive against hope ;.
Yet, in this captious and intenible fieve,
1 ftill pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lofe ftill; thus, Indian like;
Religious in mine error, I adore

The fun that looks upon his worshipper,

But knows of him no more. My deareft Madam;
Let not your hate encounter with my love,
Fo loving where you do; but if yourself,
Whofe aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever in fo true a flame of liking
With chaftly, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and Love; O then, give pity
To her, whofe ftate is fuch, that cannot chufe
But lend, and give, where fhe is fure to lofe;
That feeks not to find that, which fearch implies ;
But, riddle-like, lives fweetly where the dies.

Το

Count. Had you not lately an intent, speak truly, go to Paris?

Hel. Madam, I had.

Count. Wherefore? tell true.

Captious and intenille fieve.] The word captious I never found in this fenfe; yet I cannot tell what to fubftitate, unless 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. You know, my father left me fome prefcriptions Of rare and prov'd effects; fuch as his reading And manifeft experience had collected

For general fov'reignty; and that he will'd me,
In heedfull'ft refervation to bestow them,
As notes, whofe faculties inclufive were,
More than they were in note: amongst the reft,
There is a remedy, approv'd, fet down,

To cure the defperate languishings, whereof
The King is render'd loft.

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.

If

Count. But think you, Helen,

you should tender your fuppofed aid,

He would receive it? he and his phyficians

Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him:
They, that they cannot help. How fhall they credit
A poor unlearned virgin, when the fchools,
Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off
The danger to itself?

Hel. There's fomething hints

More than my father's fkill (which was the great'st Of his Profeffion) that his good receipt

Shall for my legacy be fanctified

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,
By fuch a day and hour.

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
To thofe of mine in Court. I'll ftay at home,
And pray God's bleffing into thy attempt:
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 divers young Lords taking leave

for the Florentine war.

F

Bertram and Parolles.

Flourish Cornets.

KING.

Arewel, young Lords. Thefe warlike principles Do not throw from you. You, my Lords, farewel;

2 In all the latter copies these lines flood thus:

Farewel, young Lords; thefe
warlike principles
Do not throw from you. You,
my Lords, farewel;
Share the advice betwixt you;
if both again,

Share

The gift doth ftretch itself as 'tis receiv'd.] The third line in that ftate was unintelligible. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads thus:

Farewel young Lord, these warlike principles

D.

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

1 Lord. 'Tis our hope, Sir,

After well-enter'd foldiers, to return
And find your Grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my

Will not confefs, it owns the malady

heart

That doth my life befiege; farewel, young Lords:
Whether I live or die, be you the fons
Of worthy Frenchmen 3; let higher Italy

Of the loft Monarchy ;) fee, &c.] This is obfcure. Italy, at the time of this fcene, was under three very different tenures. The. emperor, as fucceffot 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 laft inonarchy 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 themselves, and became free ftates: 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 laft 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 ftates.

Thofe 'bated, that inherit but the Fall
Of the laft Monarchy; fee, that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when

The brave St. Queftant fhrinks, find what you feek,
That Fame may cry you loud: I fay, farewel.

2 Lord. Health at your bidding ferve your Majesty ! King. Thofe girls of Italy, -- take heed of them;, They lay, cur French lack language to deny, If they demand. Beware of being captives, Before you ferve.

Both. Our hearts receive your warnings.

King. Farewel. Come hither to me. [To Bertram.

[Exit. 1 Lord. Oh, my fweet Lord, that you will stay behind us!

Par. 'Tis not his fault; the fpark

Italy, their chief town being Ariminum, now called Rimini, upon the Adriatick HANMER.

Sir T. Hanmer reads, Thefe baftards that inherit, &c. with this note.

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 fubile; Sir Tho. Hammer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The paffage is confcffedly 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 exercile your valour, jee that you come to gain konur, to the abatement, that is, to the 4

disgrace and depression of these that have now loft their ancient 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 deject, to fuldue. So in Coriolanus,

'till ignorance deliver you, As most abated captives to feme

nation

That xon you without blows. And bated is ufed in a kindred fenfe in the Jew of Venice, in a bondman's kiy With bated breath and whif p'ring humbleness.

The word has fill the fame meaning in the language of the law.

4

tives,

Beware of being cap

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. 2 Lord.