The blufhes in my cheeks thus whifper me,

"We blush that thou fhould chufe, but be refus'd; "Let the white death fit on thy cheek for ever', "We'll ne'er come there again.

King. Make choice; and fee,

Who fhuns thy love, fhuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly;
And to imperial Love, that god most high,
Do my fighs ftream. Sir, will you hear my fuit?
1 Lord. And grant it.

Hel. Thanks, fir;-all the rest is mute.

Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life.

Hel. The honour, fir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threatningly replies:

Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
2 Lord. No better, if you please.

Hel. My wifh receive,

Which great love grant! and fo I take my leave. Laf. Do all they deny her? An they were fons

"Let the white DEATH fit on thy cheek for ever,] Shakespeare, I think, wrote DEARTH; i. e. want of blood, or more figuratively barrennefs, want of fruit or iffue.

The white death is the chlorofis. JOHNSON.

WARBURTON,

* And to IMPERIAL Love, -] The old editions read IMPARTIAL, which is right. Love who has no regard to difference of condition, but yokes together high and low, which was her cafe. WARBURTON.

There is no edition of this play older than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read imperial: the second reads imperial Jove. JOHNSON.

3 Laf. Do they all deny br?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The fcene must be fo regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may fee what paffes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, fo that they know not by whom the refufal is made. JOHNSON.

of mine, I'd have them whipt; or I would fend them
to the Turk to make eunuchs of.

Hel. Be not afraid that I your hand should take
I'll never do you wrong for your own fake:
Bleffing upon your vows! and in your bed.
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

Laf. Thefe boys are boys of ice, they'll none of her fure, they are baftards to the English; the French ne'er got 'em.

Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a fon out of my blood,

4 Lord. Fair one, I think not fo.

Laf. There's one grape yet,-I am fure, thy father drunk wine.But if thou be'ft not an afs, I am a youth of fourteen. I have known thee already. Hel. I dare not fay, I take you; but I give

Me, and my service, ever whilft I live,

Into your guided power. This is the man. [To Bertram, King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, fhe's thy wife.

Ber. My wife, my liege? I fhall beseech your
highness,

In fuch a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.

King. Know'ft thou not, Bertram,

What the hath done for me?

+ There's one grape yet,] This fpeech the three laft editors have perplexed themfelves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles, without any authority of copies, or any improvement of fenfe. I have reflored the old reading, and fhould have thought no explanation neceffary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently mifunderstood it.

Old Lafeu having, upon the fuppofition that the lady was refufed, 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 lorg enough to know thee for an afs. JOHNSON.

Ber

Ber. Yes, my good lord;

But never hope to know why I fhould marry her. King. Thou know'ft, fhe has rais'd me from my fickly bed.

Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raifing? I know her well; She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor phyfician's daughter my wife !-Difdain Rather corrupt me ever!

King. 'Tis only title thou difdain'ft in her, the which

I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound diftinction, yet ftand off
In differences, fo mighty. If fhe be

All that is virtuous, (fave what thou dislik'st,
A poor physician's daughter,) thou dislik'st
Of virtue for the name: but do not fo.

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignify'd by the doer's deed.
Where great addition fwells, and virtue none,
It is a dropfied honour: good alone

Is

5 Whence from lowest place virtuous things proceed,] This eafy correction was prescribed by Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD.

6

good al no,

Is good without a name. Vilenefs is fo:]

The text is here corrupted into nonfenfe. We should read,

good aline

Is good; and, with a name, vilenefs is fo.

i. e. good is good, though there be no addition of title; and vilenefs is vilenefs, though there be. The Oxford editor, underftanding nothing of this, ftrikes out vileness, and puts in its place, in'tfelf. WARBURTON.

The prefent reading is certainly wrong, and, to confefs the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation right; yet I have nothing that I can propofe with much confidence. Of all

É 4

the

Is good, without a name, vileness is so :
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wife, fair 7;
In these, to nature fhe's immediate heir;

And

the conjectures that I can make, that which leaft difpleases me is this :

good alone,

Is good without a name; Helen is fo; The reft follows easily by this change. JOHNSON. without a name, vileness is fo,

I would wish to read,

good alone,

Is good, without a name; in vileness is fa ;

i. e. good alone is good unadorned by title, nay, even in the meaneft ftate is fo. Vilenefs does not always mean, moral turpi tude, but bumility of fituation. STEEVENS.

The objection was, that Helen had neither riches nor title: to this the King replies, fhe's the immediate heir of nature, from whom he inherits youth, wifdom, and beauty. The thought is fine. For by the immediate heir to nature, we must understand one who inherits wisdom and beauty in a fupreme degree. From hence it appears that young is a faulty reading, for that does not, like wifdom and beauty, admit of different degrees of excellence; therefore he could not, with regard to that, be faid to be the immediate heir of nature; for in ibat fhe was only joint-heir with all the reft of her fpecies. Befides, tho' wisdom and beauty may breed honour, yet youth cannot be faid to do fo. On the contrary, it is age which has this advantage. It feems probable, that fome foolish player when he tranfcribed this part, not apprehending the thought, and wondering to find youth not reckoned among the good qualities of a woman when he was proposed to a lord, and not confidering that it was comprised in the word fair, foifted in young, to the exclufion of a word much more to the purpose. For I make no queftion but Shakespeare wrote,

She is GOOD, wife, fair.

For the greatest part of her encomium turned upon her virtue. To omit this therefore in the recapitulation of her qualities, had been against all the rules of good fpeaking. Nor let it be ob

jected

And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the fire. Honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers; the mere word's a flave
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb,

Where duft, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones, indeed. What fhould be faid?
If thou can't like this creature as a maid,

I can create the reft: virtue, and fhe,

Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from mẹ.
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will ftrive to do't.
King. Thou wrong'ft thyself, if thou should'st strive
to chufe.

Hel. That you are well reftor'd, my lord, I'm glad: Let the reft go.

King. My honour's at the ftake; which to defend,

jected that this is requiring an exactnefs in our author which we Thould not expect. For he who could reason with the force our author doth here, (and we ought always to diftinguish between Shakespeare on his guard and in his rambles) and illustrate that reafoning with fuch beauty of thought and propriety of expreffion, could never make ufe of a word which quite deftroyed the exactnefs of his reafoning, the propriety of his thought, and the elegance of his expreffion. WARBURTON.

Here is a long note which I wish had been shorter. Good is better than young, as it refers to bonour. But he is more the immediate beir of nature with refpect to youth than goodness. To be immediate bir is to inherit without any intervening tranfmitter: thus fhe inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is tranfmitted by ancestors; youth is received immediately from nature, but goodness may be conceived in part the gift of parents, or the effect of education. The alteration therefore lofes on one fide what it gains on the other. JOHNSON.

8 My bonour's at the flake; which to defeat

I must produce my power.-]

The poor King of France is again made a man of Gotham, by pur unmerciful editors. For he is not to make use of his autho pity to defeat, but to defend, his honour. THEOBALD.

I must