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Among nine bad if one be good,
Among nine bad if one be good,
There's yet one good in ten.

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?

Clo. That man should be at a woman's command,

2 Among nine bad if one be good,
There's yet one good in ten.]

and

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 shews 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, Antiphon, Deiphobus, Dius, Hector, Helenus, Hippothous, Pammon, Paris, and Polites.

3

WARBURTON.

but every blazing ftar,-] The old ore every blazing ftar. STEEVENS.

copy reads- -but

4 Clo. That man, &c.] The clown's answer is obfcure. His lady bids him do as he is commanded. He answers with the licentious petulance of his character, that if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amifs; that he does not amifs, being at the command of a woman, 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 hurt; and will not only do no hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of fuperiors, and wear the furplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart;

and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the furplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.—I am going, forfooth: the bufinefs is for Helen to come hither.

Count. Well, now.

[Exit.

Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman intirely.

Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeath'd her to me; and fhe herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as the finds: there is more owing her, than is paid; and more fhall be paid her, than fhe'll demand.

Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her than, I think, fhe wifh'd me: alone fhe was, and did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; the thought, I dare vow for her, they touch'd not any ftranger fenfe. Her matter was, the lov'd your

will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of fubjection.

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 union, and, perhaps, to infinuate, that the modest purity of the furplice was fometimes a cover for pride. JOHNSON.

I cannot help thinking that we fhould read. -Though honefty be a puritan. TYRWHITT.

The averfion of the puritans to a furplice is alluded to in many of the old comedies. So in the following inftances:

"She loves to act in as clean linen as any gentlewoman of her function about the town; and truly that's the reason that your fincere puritans cannot abide a furplice, because they say 'tis made of the fame thing that your villainous fin is committed in, of your prophane holland." Cupid's Whirligig by E. S. 1616. Again, in the Match at Midnight, 1633, by W. R.

"He has turn'd my stomach for all the world like a puritan's at the fight of a furplice."

Again, in The Hollander, 1635:

"a puritan, who, because he faw a furplice in the church, would needs hang himself in the bell-ropes." STEEVENS.

fon:

fon: Fortune, fhe faid, was no goddess, that had put fuch difference betwixt their two eftates; Love, no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight to be furprised without rescue in the firft affault, or ransom afterward: This fhe deliver'd in the most bitter touch of forrow, that e'er I heard a virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty, fpeedily to acquaint you withal; fithence, in the lofs that may happen, it concerns you fomething to know it.

Count. You have discharg'd this honeftly; keep it to yourself: many likelihoods inform'd me of this before, which hung so 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 speak with you further [Exit Steward.

anon.

Enter Helena.

Count. Even fo it was with me, when I was young: If we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn

-Fortune, fhe faid, was no goddess, &c. Love no god, &c. complained against the queen of virgins, &c.] This paffage stands thus in the old copies :

Love, no god, that would not extend his might only where qualities tvere level, queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight, &c.

'Tis evident to every fenfible reader that fomething muft have flipt out here, by which the meaning of the context is rendered defective. The steward is fpeaking in the very words he overheard of the young lady; fortune was no goddefs, fhe faid, for one reafon; love, no god, for another;

-what could fhe then

inore naturally fubjoin, than as I have amended in the text? Diana, no queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight to be furprised without refcue, &c.

For in poetical history Diana was well known to prefide over chaftity, as Cupid over love, or Fortune over the change or regulation of our circumftances. THEObald.

6 If we are nature's, ] The old copy reads: If ever we are nature's. STEEVENS.

Doth

Doth to our rofe of youth rightly belong;

Our blood to us, this to our blood is born;

It is the fhew and feal of nature's truth,

Where love's ftrong paffion is impreft in youth: "By our remembrances of days foregone,

'Such were our faults, O! then we thought them none. Her eye is fick on't; I obferve her now.

Hel. What is your pleasure, madam ?
Count. You know, Helen,

I am a mother to you.

Hel. Mine honourable mistress.
Count. Nay, a mother;

Why not a mother? When I said, a mother,
Methought you faw a ferpent: What's in mother,
That you ftart at it? I fay, I am your mother;
put you in the catalogue of those

And

That were enwombed mine: "Tis often seen,
Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds
A native flip to us from foreign feeds:
You ne'er opprefs'd me with a mother's groan,
Yet I exprefs to you a mother's care :-
God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood,
To fay, I am thy mother? What's the matter,
That this distemper'd meffenger of wet,
The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?
Why that you are my daughter?
Hel. That I am not.

Count. I fay, I am your mother.
Hel. Pardon, madam;

The count Roufillon cannot be my brother:
I am from humble, he from honour'd name;

7 By our remembrances· ] That is, according to our recoi lection. So we fay, he is old by my reckoning. JOHNSON.

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Such were our faults, or then we thought them none.] We should read:

O! then we thought them none.

A motive for pity and pardon; agreeable to fact, and the indulgent character of the fpeaker. This was fent to the Oxford editor, and he altered O, to tho'. WARBURTON.

No

No note upon my parents, his all noble :
My mafter, my dear lord he is; and I

His fervant live, and will his vaffal die :
He must not be my brother.

Count. Nor I your mother?

Hel. You are my mother, madam; 'Would your

were

(So that my lord, your fon, were not my brother) Indeed, my mother!-or were you both our mothers, I care no more for, than I do for heaven, So I were not his fifter: 'Can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother? 9 - or were e you both our mothers,

I care no more for, than I do for heav'n,

So I were not his fifter:

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The second line has not the leaft glimmering of fenfe. Helen, by the indulgence and invitation of her mistress, is encouraged to difcover the hidden cause of her grief; which is the love of her miftrefs's fon; and taking hold of her miftrefs's words, where the bids her call her mother, the unfolds the mystery: and, as fhe is difcovering it, emboldens herself by this reflection, in the line in queftion, as it ought to be read in a parenthesis:

(I can no more fear, than I do fear heav'n.)

i. e. I can no more fear to truft fo indulgent a mistress with the fecret, than I can fear heaven, who has my vows for its happy issue. This break, in her difcovery, is exceeding pertinent and fine. Here again the Oxford editor does his part. WARBUrton.

I do not much yield to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myfelf with any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

Or were you both our mothers,

I cannot ask for more than that of heaven,

So I were not his fifter: can't be no other

Way Iyour daughter, but he must be my brother? JOHNSON. "Were you both our mothers,

"I care no more for, than I do for heaven,

"So I were not his fifter."

There is a defigned ambiguity: I care no more for, is, I care as much for.I wish it equally. FARMER.

Can't no other,

But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?]

The meaning is obfcur'd by the elliptical diction. Can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter he must be my brother? JOHNSON.

Count

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