HEL. Be not afraid [To a Lord.] that I I'll never do you wrong for your own sake : your LAF. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them. HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood. 4 LORD. Fair one, I think not so.. 5 LAF. There's one grape yet 3,-I am sure, thy father drank wine.-But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already. HEL. I dare not say, I take you; [To BERTRAM.] but I give Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, Into your guiding power.-This is the man. KING. Why then, young Bertram, take her, she's thy wife. BER. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech your highness, In such a business give me leave to use The help of mine own eyes. 5 There's one grape yet,] This speech the three last editors [Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton,] have perplexed themselves, by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense. I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it. Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused, reproached the young lords as boys of ice, throwing his eyes on Bertram, who remained, cries out, "There is one yet into whom his father put good blood—but I have known thee long enough to know thee for an ass." JOHNSON. KING. Know'st thou not, Bertram, What she has done for me? BER. Yes, my good lord ; But never hope to know why I should marry her. KING. Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my sickly bed. BER. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raising? I know her well; She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor physician's daughter my wife !-Disdain Rather corrupt me ever! KING. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st, From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, Is good, without a name; vileness is so1: 6 'Tis only title-] i. e. the want of title. MALONE. 7 Of colour, weight, and heat,] That is, which are of the same colour, weight, &c. MALONE. 8 From lowest place WHEN virtuous things proceed,] The old copy has-whence. This easy correction [when] was prescribed by Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD. 9 Where great ADDITIONS Swell,] Additions are the titles and descriptions by which men are distinguished from each other. In the old copy swell's, probably for swell us. I good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so:] MALONE. BOSWELL. Shakspeare may mean, that external circumstances have no power over the real nature of things. Good alone (i. e. by itself) without a name Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair; (i. e. without the addition of titles) is good. Vileness is so (i. e. is itself). Either of them is what its name implies: "The property by what it is should go, "Not by the title." "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn, " "Tis not the devil's crest." Measure for Measure. STEEVENS. Steevens's last interpretation of this passage is very near being right; but I think it should be pointed thus: 66 good alone "Is good ;-without a name, vileness is so.” Meaning that good is good without any addition, and vileness would still be vileness, though we had no such name to distinguish it by. A similar expression occurs in Macbeth: 66 Though all things foul would wear the brows of "Yet grace must still look so." grace, That is, grace would still be grace, as vileness would still be vileness. M. MASON. The meaning is," Good is good, independent on any worldly distinction or title: so vileness is vile, in whatever state it may appear." MALONE. 2 In these to nature she's IMMEDIATE HEIR ;] To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmitter: thus she inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is transmitted by ancestors. JOHNSON. 3 that is honour's scorn, Which challenges itself as HONOUR'S BORN, And is not like the fire:] Perhaps we might read, more elegantly-as honour-born,-honourably descended: the child of honour. MALONE. Honour's born, is the child of honour. Born is here used, as bairn still is in the North. HENLEY. 4 And is not like the sire: Honours BEST thrive, &c.] The first folio omits-best; but the second folio supplies it, as it is necessary to enforce the sense of the passage, and complete its measure. STEEVENS. The modern editors read-" Honours best thrive;" in which they have followed the editor of the second folio, who introduced Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave, Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb I can create the rest: virtue, and she, Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from me. BER. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't. KING. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st strive to choose. HEL. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am glad; Let the rest go. KING. My honour's at the stake; which to de feat, I must produce my power: Here, take her hand, the word best unnecessarily; not observing that sire was used by our author, like fire, hour, &c. as a dissyllable. MALONE. Where is an example of sire, used as a dissyllable, to be found? Fire and hour were anciently written fier and hower; and consequently the concurring vowels could be separated in pronunciation. STEEVENS. See the Essay on Shakspeare's Versification. BosWELL. 5 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. Had Mr. Theobald been aware that the implication or clause of the sentence (as the grammarians say) served for the antecedent "Which danger to defeat," there had been no need of his wit or his alteration. FARMER. So, in Othello: 66 She dying gave it me, "And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, i. e. to my wife, though not before mentioned but by implication. MALONE. Notwithstanding Mr. Theobald's pert censure of former editors for retaining the word defeat, I should be glad to see it restored again, as I am persuaded it is the true reading. The French verb defaire (from whence our defeat) signifies to free, to disembarrass, Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift; My love, and her desert; that canst not dream, We, poizing us in her defective scale, 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: Do thine own fortunes that obedient right, Loosing upon thee in the name of justice, as well as to destroy. Defaire un noeud, is to untie a knot; and in this sense, I apprehend, defeat is here used. It may be observed, that our verb undo has the same varieties of signification ; and I suppose even Mr. Theobald would not have been much puzzled to find the sense of this passage, if it had been written ;— My honour's at the stake, which to undo I must produce my power." TYRWHITT. 66 6 that canst not dream, We, poizing us in her defective scale, Shall weigh thee to the beam ;] That canst not understand, that if you and this maiden should be weighed together, and our royal favours should be thrown into her scale, (which you esteem so light,) we should make that in which you should be placed, to strike the beam. MALOne. 7 Into the STAGGERS,] One species of the staggers, or the horse's apoplexy, is a raging impatience, which makes the animal dash himself with a destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I suppose, is made. JOHNSON. Shakspeare has the same expression in Cymbeline, where Posthumus says: "Whence come these staggers on me?" STEEVENS. |