greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness.

PAR. By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.

BER. But you must not now slumber in it.

PAR. I'll about it this evening: and I will presently pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation, and, by midnight, look to hear further from

me.

BER. May I be bold to acquaint his grace, you are gone about it?

PAR. I know not what the success will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow.

BER. I know, thou art valiant; and, to the possibility of thy soldiership, will subscribe for thee. Farewell.

PAR. I love not many words.

[Exit.

1 LORD. No more than a fish loves water.-Is

6 I will presently pen down my DILEMMAS,] By this word, Parolles is made to insinuate that he had several ways, all equally certain, of recovering his drum. For a dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare might have found the word thus used in Holinshed. STEEVENS.

I think, that by penning down his dilemmas, Parolles means, that he will pen down his plans on the one side, and the probable obstructions he was to meet with, on the other. M. MASON.

If he penned down the probable obstructions he was to meet with, he could not well encourage himself in his certainty. BOSWELL. 7 POSSIBILITY OF THY soldiership,] "I will subscribe (says Bertram) to the possibility of your soldiership." His doubts being now raised, he suppresses that he should not be so willing to vouch for its probability. STEEVENS.

I believe Bertram means no more than that Parolles will do all that soldiership can effect. certain that he was a hilding." Malone.

66

8 Par. I love not many words.

1 Lord. No more than a fish loves water.]

he is confident

He was not yet

Here we have

the origin of this boaster's name; which, without doubt, (as Mr.

not this a strange fellow, my lord? that so confidently seems to undertake this business, which he knows is not to be done; damns himself to do, and dares better be damned than do't.

2 LORD. You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it is, that he will steal himself into a man's favour, and, for a week, escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after.

BER. Why, do you think, he will make no deed at all of this, that so seriously he does address himself unto?

1 LORD. None in the world; but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies but we have almost embossed him, you shall see his fall to-night; for, indeed, he is not for your lordship's respect.

2 LORD. We'll make you some sport with the fox, ere we case him '. He was first smoked by the old lord Lafeu: when his disguise and he is parted,

Steevens has observed,) ought, in strict propriety, to be writtenParoles. But our author certainly intended it otherwise, having made it a trisyllable:

"Rust sword, cool blushes, and Parolles live."

He probably did not know the true pronunciation. MALONE. 9 we have almost EMBOSSED him,] To emboss a deer is to enclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word:

"Like that self-begotten bird

"In the Arabian woods imbost,

"Which no second knows or third."

JOHNSON.

It is probable that Shakspeare was unacquainted with this word, in the sense which Milton affixes to it, viz. from emboscare, Ital. to enclose a thicket.

When a deer is run hard, and foams at the mouth, in the language of the field, he is said to be embossed. STEEVENS.

"To know when a stag is weary (as Markham's Country Contentments say) you shall see him imbost, that is, foaming and slavering about the mouth with a thick white froth," &c.

I

TOLLET.

ere we CASE him.] That is, before we strip him naked. JOHNSON.

tell me what a sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this very night.

1 LORD. I must go look my twigs; he shall be caught.

BER. Your brother, he shall go along with me. 1 LORD. As't please your lordship: I'll leave you2. [Exit. BER. Now will I lead you to the house, and show

you

The lass I spoke of.

2 LORD.

But, you say, she's honest. BER. That's all the fault: I spoke with her but

once,

And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her, By this same coxcomb that we have i' the wind 3, Tokens and letters which she did re-send;

And this is all I have done: She's a fair creature ; Will you go see her?

2 LORD.

With all my heart, my lord.

SCENE VII.

[Exeunt.

Florence. A Room in the Widow's House.

Enter HELENA and Widow.

HEL. If you misdoubt me that I am not she,
I know not how I shall assure you further,
But I shall lose the grounds I work upon *.

2

copy to the

I'll leave you.] This line is given in the old second lord, there called Captain G, who goes out; and the first lord, there called Captain E, remains with Bertram. course of the dialogue shows this to have been a mistake. p. 417:

The whole
See

"1 Lord. [i. e. Captain E.] I, with a troop of Florentines," &c. MALONE.

3 we have i' the wind,] To have one in the wind, is enumerated as a proverbial saying by Ray, p. 261. REED.

4 But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.] i. e. by discovering herself to the count. WARBURTON.

WID. Though my estate be fallen, I was well

born,

Nothing acquainted with these businesses;
And would not put my reputation now

In any staining act.

HEL. Nor would I wish you. First, give me trust, the count he is my husband; And, what to your sworn counsel I have spoken, Is so, from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow,

Err in bestowing it.

WID.

I should believe you: For you have show'd me that, which well approves You are great in fortune.

Take this purse of gold,

HEL.
And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will over-pay, and pay again,

When I have found it. The count he woos your

daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolves to carry her; let her, in fine, consent,
As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it,
Now his important blood will nought deny
That she'll demand: A ring the county wears',
That downward hath succeeded in his house,
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds
In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire,

5 to your swORN COUNSEL-] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy. JOHNSON. 6 Now his IMPORTANT blood will nought deny-] Important here, and elsewhere, is importunate. JOHNSON.

So, Spenser, in The Fairy Queen, b. ii. c. vi. st. 29:

"And with important outrage him asssailed." Important, from the French Emportant. TYRWHITT. 7 - the COUNTY wears.] i. e. the Count. So, in Romeo and Juliet, we have "the county Paris." STEEVENS.

To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.
WID.

Now I see

The bottom of your purpose.

HEL. You see it lawful then: It is no more,
But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,
Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter;
In fine, delivers me to fill the time,

Herself most chastely absent: after this,
To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is past already.

I have yielded:

WID.
Instruct my daughter how she shall perséver,
That time and place, with this deceit so lawful,
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musicks of all sorts, and songs compos'd
To her unworthiness: It nothing steads us,
To chide him from our eaves; for he persists,
As if his life lay on't.

HEL.

Let us assay our plot;

Why then, to-night which, if it speed,

Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act9;
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact :

But let's about it.

[Exeunt.

8 - after THIS,] The latter word was added to complete the metre, by the editor of the second folio.

9 Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,

MALOne.

And lawful meaning in a LAWFUL act;] To make this gingling riddle complete in all its parts, we should read the second line thus:

"And lawful meaning in a wicked act; The sense of the two lines is this: It is a wicked meaning because the woman's intent is to deceive; but a lawful deed, because the man enjoys his own wife." Again, it is a lawful meaning, because done by her to gain her husband's estranged affection, but it is a wicked act because he goes intentionally to commit adultery. The riddle concludes thus: "Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact," i. e. Where neither of them sin, and yet it is a