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I Lord. So 'tis reported, Sir.

King. Nay, 'tis moft credible; we here receive it,
A certainty vouch'd from our coufin Auftria;
With caution, that the Florentine will move us
For fpeedy aid; wherein our dearest friend
Prejudicates the business, and would feem
To have us make denial.

1 Lord. His love and wifdom,

Approv'd fo to your Majefty, may plead
For ample credence.

King. He hath arm'd our answer;
And Florence is deny'd, before he comes:
Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to fee
The Tuscan fervice, freely have they leave
To stand on either part.

2 Lord. It may well ferve

A nursery to our gentry, who are fick
For breathing and exploit.

King. What's he comes here?

Enter Bertram, Lafeu and Parolles.

1 Lord. It is the count Roufillon, my good Lord, young Bertram.

King. Youth, thou bear'ft thy father's face.
Frank nature, rather curious than in hafte,
Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts
May'ft thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.

Ber. My thanks and duty are your Majefty's.
King. I would, I had that corporal foundness now,
As when thy father and myself in friendship
First try'd our foldiership: he did look far
Into the fervice of the time, and was
Discipled of the brav'ft. He lafted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father; in his youth
VOL. III.

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"He had the wit, which I can well obferve To-day in our young lords: but they may jeft Till their own fcorn return to them; unnoted Ere they can hide their levity in honour. "So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or fharpness, if they were, His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,

5 He had the wit, which I can

well obferve To day in our young Lords: but they may jeft,

Till their own fcorn return to

them; unnoted

Ere they can hide their levity in honour.] i. e. Ere their titles can cover the levity of their behaviour, and make it pass for defert. The Oxford Editor, not underflanding this, alters the line

to

Ere they can wye their levity with his honour.

WARBURTON.

I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, fays the King, had the fame airy flights of fatirical wit with the young lords of the prefent time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit.

This is an excellent obfervation. Jocofe follies, and flight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities.

So like a Courtier, no Contempt or Bitterness Were in his Pride or Sharpness; if they were,

His Equal badawak'd them.-] This paffage is fo very incorrealy pointed, that the Author's Meaning is loft. As the Text

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not his Inferior: to whom he "fcorn'd to discover any thing "that bore the Shadow of Pride or Sharpness."

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WARBURTON. The original edition reads the first line thus,

So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness.

The fenfe is the fame. Nor was used without reduplication. So in Meafure for Measure,

More nor lefs to others paying, Than by felf-offences weighing. The old text needs to be explained. He was fo like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been arvakened by fome injury, not of a man below him, but of his Equal. This is the complete image of a well-bred man, and fomewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV.

Clock

Clock to itself, knew the true minute when

7

Exceptions bid him speak; and at that time

8

His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below him
He us'd as creatures of another place,

And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks;
Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times;

Which, follow'd well, would now demonftrate them
But goers backward.

Ber. His good remembrance, Sir,

Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph,
As in your royal fpeech.

7 His tongue obeyed his hand.] We fhould read,

His tongue obeyed the hand. That is, the band of his honour's clock, fhewing the true minute when exceptions bad him Speak.

8 He us'd as creatures of ano• ther place. i. e. He made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford Editor, not underftanding the fense, has altered another place, to a Brother-race.

WARBURTON. 9 Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praife, he humbled] But why were they proud of his Humility? It fhould be read and pointed thus. -Making them proud; AND bis Humility,

In their poor praife, he humbled 2. e. by condefcending to ftoop to his Inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in

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the gracious receiving their poor praife, he humlled even his humility. The Sentiment is fine.

WARBURTON.

Every man has feen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the greal may fometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of thofe who commend them without conviction or difcernment: this, however, is not fo common; the mean are found more frequently than the great.

So in approof lives not his
Epitaph,

WARB,

As in your royal Speech.]
Epitaph for character.
I fhould wifh to read,
Approof fo lives not in his Epi-
taph,

As in your royal perch.
Approof is approbation.
If I
fhould allow Dr. Warburton's in-
terpretation of Epitaph, which is
more than can be reasonably ex-
pected, I can yet find no fense
in the present reading.

King

King. Would, I were with him! he would always

fay,

Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words
He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them
To grow there, and to bear-Let me not live, —
-Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
When it was out-let me not live (quoth he)
After my flame lacks oil; to be the snuff
Of younger spirits, whofe apprehensive senses
All but new things difdain; whofe judgments are
2 Meer fathers of their garments; whofe conftancies
Expire before their fafhions :- this he wifh'd.
1, after him, do after him with too,

Since I nor wax, nor honey can bring home,
I quickly were diffolved from my hive,
To give fome labourers room.

2 Lord. You're loved, Sir;

They, that least lend it you, fhall lack you first.
King. I fill a place, I know't-How long is't, count,
Since the phyfician at your father's died?

He was much fam'd.

Ber. Some fix months fince, my Lord.

King. If he were living, I would try him yet;
Lend me an arm ;- -the reft have worn me out
With feveral applications-nature and sickness
Debate it at their leifure-Welcome, count,
My fon's no dearer.

2

Ber. Thank your Majefty.

Whofe judgments are

Mere fathers of their garments.] Who have no other use of their

[Flourish. Exeunt.

faculties, than to invent new modes of drefs.

SCENE

SCEN E VI.

Changes to the Countess's at Roufillon. ·

Enter Countefs, Steward and Clown 3:

Count. Will now hear; what fay you of this gentlewoman?

4

Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearness of our defervings, when of ourselves we publish them.

Count. What does this knave here? get you gone, Sirrah; the complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flowness that I do not, for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours.

3 Steward and Clown.] A Clown in Shakespeare is commonly taken for a licensed jefter, or domeftick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, fince fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only fervant reprefented is Patifon the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wife.

In fome plays, a fervant, or ruftic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of fpeech, is like wife called a Clown.

4 To even your content.] To act up to your defires.

Clo.

5 you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries YOURS ; ' Well, but if he had folly to commit them, he neither wanted knavery, nor any thing else, fure, to make them his own. This nonfenfe fhould be read, To make fuch knaveries YARE; nimble, dextrous, i. e. Tho' you be fool enough to commit knaveries, yet you have quickpefs enough to commit them dextroufly: for this obfervation was to let us into his character. But now, tho' this be fet right, and, I dare fay, in Shakespeare's own words, yet the former part of the fentence will ftill be inaccurate you lack not folly to commit THEM. Them, what? the fenfe requires knaveries, but the anteU 3 cedent

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