Hath told the thievish minutes how they pafs; Hel. Tax of impudence, A ftrumpet's boldness, a divulged fhame With vileft torture let my life be ended. King. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed fpirit doth fpeak: His powerful found, within an organ weak; And what impoffibility would flay In common fenfe, fenfe faves another ways And well deferv'd! not helping, death's my fee Hels (13) Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all &c.] This verfe is too fhort by a foot; and apparently fome diffyllable is drop'd out by mischance. Mr. Warburton concurr'd with me in conjecture to supply the verse thus: Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all &c. Helena had laid a particular stress on her maiden reputation; and the King, afterwards, when he comes to speak of her to Bertram, fays; -If the be All that is virtuous, (fave, what thou diflik't, A poor phyfician's daughter ;) thou dislik'st Of virtue for her name: (14) King. Make thy demand. Hel. But will you make it even ? King, Ay, by my scepter and my hopes of help.] The Hel. But will you make it even ?` King. Ay, by my fcepter, and my hopes of heav'n. To chufe from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand, the premises obferv'd, More fhould I queftion thee, and more I muft; SCENE changes to Roufillen. Enter Countess, and Clown Count. height of your breeding OME on, Sir; I fhall now put you to the Clo. I will fhew myfelf highly fed, and lowly taught; I know, my business is but to the court. Count. But to the court? why, what place make you special, when you put off that with fuch contempt ? but to the court! Clo. Truly, Madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may eafily put it off at court: he that The King could have but a very flight hope of belp from her, fcaree enough to fwear by: and therefore Helen might fufpect, he meant to equivocate with her. Befides, obferve, the greateft part of the fcene is ftrictly in rhyme: and there is no fhadow of reafon why it should be interrupted here. I rather imagine, the poet wrote; Ay, by my scepter, and my bopes of heav'n. Dr. Thirlby. cannot cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kifs his hand, and fay nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, fuch a fellow, to fay precifely, were not for the court but for me, I have an answer will ferve all men. Count. Marry, that's a bountiful anfwer that fits all queftions. Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. Count. Will your answer ferve fit to all queftions? Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffaty punk, as Tib's rufh for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for ShroveTuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a fcolding quean to a. wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth ; nay, as the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I fay, an answer of fuch fitnefs for all questions? Clo. From below your Duke, to beneath your conftable, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of moft monftrous fize, that muft fit all demands. Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned fhould fpeak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't. Afk me, if I am a courtier ;-it shall do you no harm to learn. Count. To be young again, if we could: I will be a fool in a queftion, hoping to be the wifer by your anfwer. I pray you, Sir, are you a courtier ? Clo. O Lord, Sir,-there's a fimple putting off: more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you. Clo. O Lord, Sir,-thick, thick, fpare not me. Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely. meat. Clo. O Lord, Sir,-nay, put me to't, I warrant you. Count. You were lately whip'd, Sir, as I think. Clo. O Lord, Sir-fpare not me. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, Sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? indeed, your O Lord, Sir, is very fequent to your whipping: you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't. Clo. I ne'er had worfe luck in my life, in my-0 Lord, Sir; I fee, things may ferve long, but not ferve ever. Count. I play the noble hufwife with the time, to entertain it fo merrily with a fool. Clo. O Lord, Sir-why, there't ferves well again. Count. An end, Sir; to your bufinefs: give Helen this,. And urge her to a prefent answer back. Commend me to my kinfmen, and my son :: Clo. Not much commendation to them? Count. Not much imployment for you, you under. ftand me.. Clo. Moft fruitfully, I am there before my legs. [Exeunti SCENE changes to the Court of France.. Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles.. Laf. (15) Thave our philofophical perfons to make HEY fay, miracles are paft; and we modern, and familiar, things fupernatural and caufelefs. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors; enfconfing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we fhould fubmit ourselves to an unknown fear. Par. Why, 'tis the rareft argument of wonder that hath fhot out in our later times, Ber. And fo 'tis. (15) They fay miracles are paft, and we have our philofophical perfons: to make modern and familiar things fupernatural and caufelefs.] This, as it has hitherto been pointed, is directly oppofite to our poet's, and his fpeaker's, meaning. As I have ftop'd it, the fenfe quadrates with the context: and, furely, it is one unalterable property of philofophy, to make feeming firange and preternatural Phænomena · familiar, and reducible to cause and reafon, B. 5 Laf.. Laf. To be relinquifh'd of the artists- Laf. That gave him out incurable, Par. Why, there 'tis, fo fay I too. Laf. Not to be help'd, Par. Right, as 'twere a man affur'd of an Laf. Uncertain life, and fure death, Par. Juft, you fay well: fo would I have faid. Laf. I may truly fay, it is a novelty to the world.. Par. It is, indeed, if you will have it in fhewing, you fhall read it in, what do you call there Laf. A fhewing of a heav'nly effect in an earthly actor. Par. That's it, I would have faid the very fame. Laf (16) Why, your dolphin is not luftier: for me, I fpeak in refpect Par. Nay, 'tis ftrange, 'tis very ftrange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a moft facinerious fpirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the-Laf. Very hand of heav'n. Par. Ay, fo I fay. Lef. In a most weak (16) Why, your dolphin is not luftier :] I have thought it very prehable, that, as 'tis a French man fpeaks, and as 'tis the French King. he is fpeaking of, the poet might have wrote, Why, your Dauphin is not luftier : i, e. the King is as hale and hearty as the Prince his fon. And that the King in this play is fuppofed to have a fon, is plain from what he fays to Bertram in the first act. My fon's no dearer. -Welcome, Count, Befdes, Dauphin in the old impreffions is conflantly fpelt as the fish, dolphin. But then confidering on the other hand, As found as a roach, As whole as a fifh, are proverbial expreffions: and confidering too that our author elsewhere makes the dolphin an instance or emblem of Juftihood and activity. -his delights Were dolphin-like, they fhew'd his back above Anto, and Cleop I have not thought proper to difturb the text. Nor would, indeed, the fenfe of the paffage be affected by any alteration, |
0 Rezensionen Rezensionen werden nicht überprüft, Google sucht jedoch gezielt nach gefälschten Inhalten und entfernt diese Rezension schreiben |