unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he says, is muddied withal: Pray you, sir, use the carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed, ingenious, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his distress in my smiles of comfort, and leave him to your lordship. [Exit Clown. PAR. My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched. LAF. And what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her nails now. Wherein have you played the knave with fortune, that she should scratch you, who of herself is a good lady, and would not have knaves thrive long under her1? There's a quart d'ecu for you: Let the justices make you and fortune friends; I am for other business. PAR. I beseech your honour, to hear me one single word. LAF. You beg a single penny more: come, you shall ha't; save your word 2. 9 PAR. My name, my good lord, is Parolles. LAF. You beg more than one word then 3.-Cox' I do pity his distress in my SMILES of comfort,] We should read "similes of comfort," such as the calling him fortune's cat, carp, &c. WARBUrton. The meaning is, I testify my pity for his distress, by encouraging him with a gracious smile. The old reading may stand. HEATH. Dr. Warburton's proposed emendation may be countenanced by an entry on the books of the Stationers' Company, 1595: “-A booke of verie pythie similies, comfortable and profitable for all men to reade." 66 The same mistake occurs in the old copies of King Henry IV. Part I. where, instead of “ unsavoury similes" we have unsasmiles." STEEVENS. voury I under HER?] Her, which is not in the first copy, was supplied by the editor of the second folio. MALOne. save your word.] i. e. you need not ask ;-here it is. MALONE. 2 3 You beg more than ONE WORD then.] A quibble is intended my passion! give me your hand :-How does your drum ? PAR. O my good lord, you were the first that found me. LAF. Was I, in sooth? and I was the first that lost thee. PAR. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace, for you did bring me out. LAF. Out upon thee, knave! dost thou put upon me at once both the office of God and the devil? one brings thee in grace, and the other brings thee out. [Trumpets sound.] The king's coming, I know by his trumpets.-Sirrah, inquire further after me; I had talk of you last night: though you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat *; go to, follow. PAR. I praise God for you. SCENE III. [Exeunt. The Same. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Flourish. Enter King, Countess, LAFEU, Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, &c. KING. We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem ' Was made much poorer by it: but your son, 5 on the word Parolles, which, in French, is plural, and signifies words. One, which is not found in the old copy, was added, perhaps unnecessarily, by the editor of the third folio. MALONE. 4 you shall eat;] Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be the character which Shakspeare delighted to draw, a fellow that had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should be detected and exposed, yet his "vices sit so fit in him" that he is not at last suffered to starve. 5 JOHNSON. -esteem-] Dr. Warburton, in Theobald's edition, altered this word to estate; in his own he lets it stand, and explains it by As mad in folly, lack'd the sense to know COUNT. 'Tis past, my liege : And I beseech your majesty to make it Natural rebellion, done i' the blaze of youth'; KING. My honour'd lady, Though my revenges were high bent upon him, LAF. This I must say, But first I beg my pardon,-The young lord worth or estate. But esteem is here reckoning or estimate. Since the loss of Helen, with her virtues and qualifications, our account is sunk; what we have to reckon ourselves king of, is much poorer than before. JOHNSON. Meaning that his esteem was lessened in its value by Bertram's misconduct; since a person who was honoured with it could be so ill treated as Helena had been, and that with impunity. Johnson's explanation is very unnatural. M. MASON. 6 - home.] That is, completely, in its full extent. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: That thrusted home," &c. Malone. BLAZE of youth ;] The old copy reads-blade. 7 STEEVENS. "Blade of youth "is the spring of early life, when the man is yet green. Oil and fire suit but ill with blade, and therefore Dr. Warburton reads, "blaze of youth." JOHNSON. This very probable emendation was first proposed by Mr. Theobald, who has produced these two passages in support of it: 66 I do know "When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul "Lends the tongue vows. Again, in Troilus and Cressida : These blazes," &c. Hamlet. "For Hector, in his blaze of wrath," &c. MALONE. In Hamlet we have also "flaming youth," and in the present comedy "the quick fire of youth." I read, therefore, without hesitation, blaze. STEEVENS. sitation,-blaze. Whose beauty did astonish the survey Of richest eyes; whose words all ears took cap We are reconcil'd, and the first view shall kill The incensing relicks of it: let him approach, GENT. I shall, my liege. KING. What says he to your daughter? have you spoke ? LAF. All that he is hath reference to your high ness. 8 Of RICHEST eyes;] Shakspeare means that her beauty had astonished those, who, having seen the greatest number of fair women, might be said to be the richest in ideas of beauty. So, in As You Like It: to have seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands." STEEVENS. 66 9 the first view shall kill All repetition :] "The first interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past." Shakspeare is now hastening to the end of the play, finds his matter sufficient to fill up his remaining scenes, and therefore, as on such other occasions, contracts his dialogue and precipitates his action. Decency required that Bertram's double crime of cruelty and disobedience, joined likewise with some hypocrisy, should raise more resentment; and that though his mother might easily forgive him, his king should more pertinaciously vindicate his own authority and Helen's merit. Of all this Shakspeare could not be ignorant, but Shakspeare wanted to conclude his play. JOHNSON. KING. Then shall we have a match. I have let ters sent me, That set him high in fame. LAF. Enter BERTRAM. He looks well on't. KING. I am not a day of season', For thou may'st see a sun-shine and a hail Ber. My high-repented blames 2, All is whole e; Dear sovereign pardon to me. Steals ere we can effect them 3: You remember I am not a day of season,] That is, of uninterrupted rain; one of those wet days that usually happen about the vernal equinox. A similar expression occurs in The Rape of Lucrece : "But I alone, alone must sit and pine, 66 Seasoning the earth with showers." The word is still used in the same sense in Virginia, in which government, and especially on the eastern shore of it, where the descendants of the first settlers have been less mixed with later emigrants, many expressions of Shakspeare's time are still current. HENLEY. "A day of season," means a seasonable day; but a mixture of sunshine and hail, of winter and summer, is unseasonable. The word seasoning, in Mr. Henley's quotation, is used in a different sense, as would have been apparent if he had given the whole of the passage: 66 Seasoning the earth with showers of silver brine." MALONE. 2 My high-repented blames,] High-repented blames, are faults repented of to the height, to the utmost. Shakspeare has highfantastical in Twelfth-Night. STEevens. |