Enter a Gentleman.

KING. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.

GENT.

Gracious sovereign,

Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not;
Here's a petition from a Florentine,

Who hath, for four or five removes, come short
To tender it herself 3. I undertook it,

3

Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech
Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know,
Is here attending: her business looks in her
With an important visage; and she told me,
In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern

Your highness with herself.

KING. [Reads.] Upon his many protestations to marry me, when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the count Rousillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my honour's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice: Grant it me, O king; in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone.

DIANA CAPULET.

LAF. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for this: I'll none of him 4.

3 Who hath, for four or five removes, come short, &c.] Who hath missed the opportunity of presenting it in person to your Majesty, either at Marseilles, or on the road from thence to Rousillon, in consequence of having been four or five removes behind you. MALONE.

Removes are journeys or post-stages. JOHNSON.

4 I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll HIM for this, I'll none of him.] Thus the second folio. The first omits-him. Either reading is capable of explanation.

The meaning of the earliest copy seems to be this: 'I'll buy me a new son-in-law, &c. and toll the bell for this; i. e. look upon him as a dead man. The second reading, as Dr. Percy sug

KING. The heavens have thought well on thee, Lafeu,

gests, may imply: I'll buy me a son-in-law as they buy a horse in a fair; toul him, i. e. enter him on the toul or toll-book, to prove I came honestly by him, and ascertain my title to him.' In a play called The Famous History of Tho. Stukely, 1605, is an allusion to this custom :

"Gov. I will be answerable to thee for thy horses.

"Stuk. Dost thou keep a tole-booth? zounds, dost thou make a horse-courser of me?

66

a roan gelding

Where, when, by whom, and what y'were sold for "And in the open market toll'd for."

Alluding (as Dr. Grey observes) to the two statutes relating to the sale of horses, 2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, and 31 Eliz. c. 12. and publickly tolling them in fairs, to prevent the sale of such as were stolen, and to preserve the property to the right owner. The previous mention of a fair seems to justify the reading I have adopted from the second folio. STEEVENS.

The passage should be pointed thus ;

"I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll;
"For this I'll none of him."

That is, "I'll buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and pay toll ; as for this, I will have none of him." M. MASON.

The meaning, I think, is, "I will purchase a son in law at a fair, and get rid of this worthless fellow, by tolling him out of it." To toll a person out of a fair was a phrase of the time. So, in Camden's Remaines, 1605: "At a Bartholomew Faire at London there was an escheater of the same city, that had arrested a clothier that was outlawed, and had seized his goods, which he had brought into the faire, tolling him out of the faire, by a traine."

And toll for this, may, however, mean— " and I will sell this fellow in a fair, as I would a horse, publickly entering in the tollbook the particulars of the sale." For the hint of this latter interpretation I am indebted to Dr. Percy. I incline, however, to the former exposition.

The following passage in King Henry IV. Part II. may be adduced in support of Mr. Steevens's interpretation of this passage: "Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown,-and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee."

Here Falstaff certainly means to speak equivocally; and one of his senses is, "I will take care to have thee knocked in the head, and thy friends shall ring thy funeral knell." MALOne.

To bring forth this discovery.-Seek these suitors :Go, speedily, and bring again the count.

[Exeunt Gentleman, and some Attendants.

I am afeard, the life of Helen, lady,

Was foully snatch'd.

COUNT.

Now, justice on the doers!

Enter BERTRAM, guarded.

KING. I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters to you 5,

And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, Yet you desire to marry.-What woman's that?

Re-enter Gentleman, with Widow, and DIANA. DIA. I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine, Derived from the ancient Capulet;

My suit, as I do understand, you know,
And therefore know how far I may be pitied.
WID. I am her mother, sir, whose age and ho-

nour

5 I wonder, sir, since wives, &c.] This passage is thus read in the first folio:

"I wonder, sir, sir, wives are monsters to you,

"And that you fly them, as you swear them lordship,
"Yet you desire to marry-

Which may be corrected thus:

66

I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters," &c.

The editors have made it-" wives are so monstrous to you," and in the next line-" swear to them," instead of "swear them lordship." Though the latter phrase be a little obscure, it should not have been turned out of the text without notice. I suppose lordship is put for that protection which the husband, in the mar riage ceremony, promises to the wife. TYRWHITT.

As, I believe, here signifies as soon as. MALONE.

I read with Mr. Tyrwhitt, whose emendation I have placed in the text. It may be observed, however, that the second folio

reads:

66

I wonder, sir, wives are such monsters to you.”

STEEVENS.

Both suffer under this complaint we bring,
And both shall cease, without your remedy.
KING, Come hither, count; Do you know these
women?

BER. My lord, I neither can, nor will deny
But that I know them: Do they charge me further?
DIA. Why do you look so strange upon your

wife?

BER. She's none of mine, my lord.

DIA.
If you shall marry,
You give away this hand, and that is mine;

You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine;
You give away myself, which is known mine;
For I by vow am so embodied yours,

That she, which marries you, must marry me,
Either both, or none.

LAF. Your reputation [To BERTRAM.] comes too short for my daughter, you are no husband for her.

BER. My lord, this is a fond and desperate crea

ture,

Whom sometime I have laugh'd with: let your

highness

Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour,
Than for to think that I would sink it here.

KING. Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend,

Till your deeds gain them: Fairer prove your ho

nour,

Than in my thought it lies!

DIA.

Good my lord, Ask him upon his oath, if he does think

He had not my virginity.

6 -shall CEASE,] i. e. decease, die, So, in King Lear: "Fall and cease." The word is used in the same sense in p. 476 of the present comedy. STEEVENS.

.

KING. What say'st thou to her?

BER. She's impudent, my lord; And was a common gamester to the camp'.

DIA. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so, He might have bought me at a common price: Do not believe him: O, behold this ring, Whose high respect, and rich validity, Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that, He gave it to a commoner o' the camp, If I be one.

COUNT.

He blushes, and 'tis it 9:

Of six preceding ancestors, that gem

Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,

Hath it been ow'd and worn.

This is his wife;

That ring's a thousand proofs.

KING.

Methought, you said ',

You saw one here in court could witness it.

7

,

a common GAMESTER to the camp.] The following passage, in an ancient MS. tragedy, entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy, will sufficiently elucidate the idea once affixed to the term-gamester, when applied to a female:

"Tis to me wondrous how you should spare the day

"From amorous clips, much less the general season
"When all the world's a gamester.”

Again, in Pericles, Lysimachus asks Mariana

"Were you a gamester at five or at seven?"

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

66

daughters of the game." STEEVens.

8 Whose high respect, and rich VALIDITY,] Validity means value. So, in King Lear:

"No less in space, validity, and pleasure."

Again, in Twelfth-Night :

"Of what validity and pitch soever." STEEVENS.

9 -'tis IT:] The old copy has-'tis hit. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. In many of our old chronicles I have found hit printed instead of it. Hence, probably, the mistake here. Mr. Pope reads-" and 'tis his." MALONE.

Or, "he blushes, and 'tis fit." HENLEY.

1 Methought, you said,] The poet has here forgot himself. Diana has said no such thing. BLACKSTONE.