Laf. + There's one grape yet,-I am fure, thy father drunk wine. But if thou be'ft not an afs, I am a youth of fourteen. I have known thee already. Hel. I dare not fay, I take you; but I give

Me and my fervice, ever whilft I live,

Into your guided power: this is the man. [To Bertram. King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, fhe's thy wife.

Ber. My wife, my Liege? I fhall beseech your
Highness,

In fuch a bufinefs give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.

King. Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What the hath done for me?

Ber. Yes, my good Lord,

But never hope to know why I should marry her. King. Thou know'ft, fhe has rais'd me from my fickly bed.

Ber. But follows it, my Lord, to bring me down Must answer for your railing? I know her well : She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor phyfician's daughter my wife !-Difdain Rather corrupt me ever!

King. 'Tis only title thou difdain'ft in her, the which
I can build up: ftrange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound diftinction, yet ftand off
In differences, fo mighty. If fhe be

All that is virtuous, (fave what thou dislik'st,
A poor physician's daughter,) thou dislik'st

4 There's one grape yet,] This fpeech the three last editors have perplexed themfeives by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copics, or any improvement of fenfe. I have restored the old reading, and fhou'd have thought no explanation neceffary, but that Mir. Theobald apparently mifun

derstood it.

Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refufed, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram who remained, cries out, There is one yet into bom his father put good blood, but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an afs.

Of

Of virtue for the name: but do not fo.

5 From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignify'd by th' doer's deed.
Where great addition fwells, and virtue none,
It is a dropfied honour"; good alone
Is good, without a name vileness is so :
The property by what it is fhould go,
Not by the title. She is young, wife, fair ';
In thefe, to nature fhe's immediate heir;

5 Whence from lowest place virtuous things proceed,] This eafy Correction was prescribed by Dr. Thrilly. THEOBALD. good alone,

6

Is good without a name. Vile nefs is fo:] The text is here corrupted into nonfenfe. We fhould read,

good alone

Is good; and, with a name, vilenefs is fo.

i.è. good is good, tho' there be no addition of title; and vilenefs is vilenefs, tho' there be. The Oxford Editor, understanding nothing of this, ftrikes out vilenes and puts in its place, in'tfelf. WARBURTON. The prefent reading is certainly wrong, and, to confefs the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation right; yet I have nothing that I can propofe with much confidence. Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which leaft difpleafes me is this: virtue alone,

Is good without a name; Helen

is fo; The reft follows eafily by this change.

7

She is YOUNG, wife, fair; In thefe, to nature he's imme. diate heir;

And

had neither riches nor title: To
this the King replies, fhe's the
immediate heir of nature, from
whom the inherits youth, wif-
dom, and beauty. The thought
is fine. For by the immediate heir
to nature, we muft underfiand
one who inherits wifdom and
beauty in a fupreme degree. From
hence it appears that young is a
faulty reading, for that does not,
like wisdom and beauty, admit
of different degrees of excellence;
therefore the could not, with re-
gard to that, be faid to be the
immediate heir of nature; for in
that he was only joint-heir with
all the reft of her fpecies. Be-
fides, tho' wisdom and beauty may
breed honour, yet youth cannot be
faid to do fo. On the contrary,
it is age which has this advantage.
It feems probable that fome fool-
ifh player, when he transcribed
this part, not apprehending the
thought, and wondring to find
youth not reckoned amongst the
good qualities of a woman when
fhe was propofed to a lord, and
not confidering that it was com-
prifed in the word fair, foifted
in young, to the exclufion of a
word much more to the purpose.
For I make no question but
Shakespeare wrote,

She is GOOD, wife, fair.
Y 2

For

And these breed honour: That is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the fire. Honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a flave
Debaucht on every tomb, on every grave;
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb,
Where duft and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
Of honour'd bones, indeed. What should be faid?
If thou can't like this creature as a maid,

I can create the reft: virtue and fhe,

Is her own dow'ry; honour and wealth from me,
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.

King. Thou wrong'ft thy felf, if thou should'st strive to chufe.

Hel. That you are well reftor'd, my lord, I'm glad : Let the reft go.

9

King. My honour's at the stake; which to defend,

For the greatest part of her encomium turned upon her virtue. To omit this therefore in the recapitulation of her qualities, had been against all the rules of good fpeaking. Nor let it be objected that this is requiring an exact nefs in our author which we fhould not expect. For he who could reafon with the force our author doth here (and we ought always to diftinguish between Shakspeare on his guard and in his rambles), and illuftrate that reasoning with fuch beauty of thought and propriety of expreffion, could never make use cf a word which quite destroyed the exactness of his reafoning, the propriety of his thought, and the elegance of his expreffion.

WARBURTON.

Here is a long note, which I wih had been thorter. Good is

I

better than young, as it refers to honour. But he is more the immediate heir of nature with refped to youth than goodness. To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus fhe inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is tranfmitted by ancestors; youth is received immediately from nature, but goodness may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore loses on one fide what it gains on the other.

9

My honour's at the Stake; which to defeat

I must produce my Power.] The poor King of France is again made a Man of Gotham, by our unmerciful Editors. For he is not to make use of his Authority to defeat, but to defend his Honour. THEOBALD.

I muft

I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud fcornful boy, unworthy this good gift!
That doft in vile mifprifion fhackle up

My love, and her defert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective fcale,

Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour, where

We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt:
Obey our will, which travels in thy good;
Believe not thy disdain, but presently

Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which both thy duty owes, and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
Into the staggers', and the careless lapfe
Of youth and ignorance; my revenge and hate
Loofing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity. Speak, thine answer.
Ber. Pardon, my gracious Lord; for I fubmit
My fancy to your eyes. When I confider,
What great creation, and what dole of honour
Flies where you bid; I find that fhe, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the King; who, fo enobled,
Is, as 'twere, born fo.

King. Take her by the hand,

And tell her, fhe is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoize; if not in thy estate,

A balance more repleat.

Ber. I take her hand.

King. Good fortune, and the favour of the King Smile upon this contract; whofe ceremony Shall feem expedient on the new-born brief,

And be perform'd to-night; the folemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting abfent friends. As thou loy'ft her,
Thy love's to me religious; elfe does err. [ [Exeunt.

Manent Parolles and Lafeu.

Laf. Do you hear, Monfieur? a word with you.
Par. Your pleasure, Sir?

Laf. Your Lord and Mafter did well to make his recantation.

Par. Recantation? - my Lord? my Mafter?
Laf. Ay, is it not a language I fpeak?

Par. A moft harfh one, and not to be understood without bloody fucceeding. My mafter?

Laf. Are you companion to the Count Roufillon?
Par. To any Count; to all Counts; to what is

man.

Laf. To what is Count's man; Count's mafter is of another stile.

Par. You are too old, Sir; let it fatisfy you, you are too old.

Laf. I must tell thee, Sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee.

Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries 3, to be a pretty wife fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pafs; yet the scarfs and the ban