Let him fear this; for it will come to pass, } [Exit. Hel. SCENE VII. Changes to the Widow's House, at Florence. Enter Helena, Widow, and Diana. THA HAT you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you, One of the Greatest in the Chriftian world Shall be my Surety; 'fore whofe Thone 'tis needful, Wid. Gentle Madam, You never had a fervant, to whose trust Hel. Nor you, Mistress, Ever a friend, whofe thoughts more truly labour To recompenfe your love: doubt not, but heav'n Hath brought me up to be your Daughter's dower, As it hath fated her to be my motive 4 my motive] metive for assistant. WARBURTON. And helper to a husband. But, O ftrange men! Dia. Let death and honesty Go with your impofitions, I am yours Hel. Yet I pray you: "But with the word the time will bring on fummer, When briars fhall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as fweet as fharp: we must away, 'Our Waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us ; 5 When SAUCY trufting of the coxen'd thoughts Defiles the pitchy night; ] i. e. makes the perfon guilty of intentional adultery. But trufting a mistake cannot make any one guilty. We should read, and point, the lines thus, All's thour of it will himself think it unneceffary, when he recollects that faucy may very properly fignify luxurious, and by confequence lafcivious. 6 But with the word, the time will bring on fummer,]、 With the word, i. e. in an inftant reads (but what he means by it I know not) Bear with the word. WARBURTON. The meaning of this obfervation is, that as briars have fweetnefs with their prickles, fo fhall thefe troubles be recompenfed with joy. When FANCY, trusting of the of time. The Oxford Editor cozen'd thoughts, Defiles the pitchy night. i. e. the fancy, or imagination, that he lay with his mistress, tho' it was, indeed, his Wife, made him incur the guilt of adultery. Night, by the ancients, was reckoned odious, obscene, and abominable. The Poet, alluding to this, fays, with great beauty, Defiles the pitchy night; i, e. makes the night, more than ordinary, abominable. 7 Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us ;] The word Revives conveys fo little fenfe, that it feems very liable to fufpicion. and time revyes us; i e. looks us in the face, calls upon us to haften. WARB. B b 4 The WARBURTON. This conjecture is truly ingenious; but, I believe, the au All's well, that ends well; ftill the Fine's the crown ; Whate'er the courfe the end is the renown. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Changes to Roufillon in France. Laf. N N Enter Countefs, Lafeu, and Clown. : O, no, no, your, Son was mif-led with a fnipt taffata fellow there, whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbak'd and doughy The prefent reading is cor rupt, and I am afraid the emendation none of the foundeft. I never remember to have feen the word revye. One may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we not read for a fhift, without much effort, the time invites us? 8 whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbak'd and dowy youth of a nation in his colour.] Parelles is reprefented as an affected follower of the fashion, and an encourager of his mafter to run into all the follies of it; where he says, Ufe a more spacious ceremony to the noble Lords they wear themselves in the cap of time and tha' the Devil lead the mea eafure, fuch are to be follow ed. Here fome particularities of fashionable drefs are ridiculed. Snipt-taffata needs no explanation; but villainous faffron is more obfcure. This alludes to a fantastic fashion, then much followed, of ufing yellow fiarch for their bands and ruffs. So Fletcher, in his Queen of Corinth, youth Has he familiarly Diflik'd your yellow ftarch; or Said your doublet Was not exactly frenchified And Johnson's Devil's an Afs, Carmen and chimney-Sweepers are got into the yellow ftarch. This was invented by one Turner, a tire-woman, a court-bawd; and, in all respects, of so infamous a character, that her invention deferved the name of vil lainous faffron. This woman was, afterwards, amongst the mifcreants concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which fhe was hanged at Tyburn, and would die in a yellow ruff of her own invention: which made yellow ftarch fo odious, that it immediately went out of fashion. 'Tis this, then, to which ShakeSpeare alludes: but ufing the word Jaffron for yellow, a new idea prefented itself, and he pursues his thought under a quite different allufion Whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbaked and dowy youths of a nation in his colour, i. e. of his temper youth of a nation in his colour. Your daughter-inlaw had been alive at this hour; and your fon here at home, more advanc'd by the King than by that redtail'd humble bee I fpeak of. Count. I would, I had not known him! it was the death of the moft virtuous Gentlewoman that ever Nature had Praife for creating: if he had partaken of my flesh, and cost me the dearest groans of a Mother, I could not have owed her a more rooted love. Laf. 'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady. We may pick a thousand fallets ere we light on fuch another herb. Clo. Indeed, Sir, fhe was the fweet-marjoram of the fallet, or rather the herb of grace. Laf. They are not fallet herbs, you knave, they are nofe herbs. Clo. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, Sir, I have not much skill in grafs. Laf. Whether doft thou profess thyself, a knave or a fool? Clo. A fool, Sir, at a woman's fervice; and a knäve, at a man's. Clo. I would cozen the man of his wife, and do his service. Laf. So you were a knave at his fervice, indeed. Clo. And I would give his wife my bauble, Sir, to do her fervice. Laf. I will fubfcribe for thee, thou art both knave and fool. Clo. At your fervice. temper and difpofition. Here the general cuftom of that time, of colouring pafte with faffron, is alluded to. So in the Win ter's Tale': I must have faffron to colour the warden pyes. WARBURTON. 9 I would, I had not known him.] This dialogue ferves to connect the incidents of Parolles with the main plan of the play. Clo. Clo. Why, Sir, if I cannot ferve you, I can ferve as great a Prince as you are. Laf. Who's that, a Frenchman? Clo. Faith, Sir, he has an English name; but his phifnomy is more hotter in France than there. Laf. What Prince is that? Clo. The black Prince, Sir, alias the Prince of Darkness, alias the Devil. Laf. Hold thee, there's my purse; I give thee not this to feduce thee from thy Mafter thou talk'st of, ferve him ftill. 2 Clo. I'm a woodland fellow, Sir, that always lov'd a great fire; and the Mafter I fpeak of ever keeps a good fire; but, fure, he is the Prince of the world, let his Nobility remain in's Court. I am for the House with the narrow gate, which I take to be too little for Pomp to enter: fome, that humble themselves, may; but the many will be too chill and tender, and they'll be for the flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate, and the great fire. Laf. Go thy ways, I begin to be a weary of thee, and I tell thee fo before, because I would not fall out with thee. Go thy ways, let my horfes be well look'd to, without any tricks. Clo. If I put any tricks upon 'em, they shall be jades' tricks, which are their own right by the law of Nature. [Exit. 1 his phis'nomy is more HOTTER in France than there.] This is intolerable nonfenfe. The ftupid Editors, because the Devil was talked of, thought no quali ty would fuit him but hotter. We fhould read,more HONOUR'D. A joke upon the French people, as if they held a dark complexion, which is natural to them, in more eftimation than the English do, who are generally white and fair. WARBURTON. 2 I'm a woodland fellow, Sir, &c.] Shakespear is but rarely guilty of fuch impious trash. And it is obfervable, that then he always puts that into the mouth of his fools, which is now grown the characteristic of the fine gentleman. WARBURTON. Laf, |