I am from humble, he from honour'd name;
No note upon my parents, his all noble:
My master, my dear lord he is; and I
His servant live, and will his vassal die:

He must not be my brother.

Count.

Nor I your mother?

Hel. You are my mother, madam; 'Would you

were

(So that my lord, your son, were not my brother,) Indeed, my mother!-or were you both our

mothers,

I care no more for, than I do for heaven,
So I were not his sister: Can't no other,
But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?

Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-
in-law;

God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and

mother,

So strive' upon your pulse: What, pale again?
My fear hath catch'd your fondness: Now I see
The mystery of your loneliness, and find
Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 'tis gross,
You love my son; invention is asham'd,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,
To say, thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, 'tis so:-for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, one to the other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,

That truth should be suspected: Speak, is't so?

• I care no more for,] There is a designed ambiguity: I care

no more for, is, I care as much for. I wish it equally. FARMER.

7

strive-] To strive is to contend.

• Your salt tears' head.] The source, the fountain of your tears, the cause of your grief. JOHNSON.

9

- in their kind-] i. e. in their language, according to their nature.

If it be so, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, forswear't: howe'er, I charge thee,

As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,

Count. Love you my son ?

Hel.

Do not you love him, madam?

Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a bond, Whereof the world takes note: come, come, disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Have to the full appeach'd.

Hel.

Then, I confess,

Here on my knee, before high heaven and you,
That before you, and next unto high heaven,

I love your son:

My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:
Be not offended; for it hurts not him,
That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous suit;
Nor would I have him, till I do deserve him;
Yet never know how that desert should be.
I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet, in this captious and intenible sieve,'
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,

1

- captious and intenible sieve,] Dr. Farmer supposes captious to be a contraction of capacious.

Mr. Malone thinks it means recipient, capable of receiving what is put into it; and by intenible, incapable of holding or retaining it.

* And lack not to lose still :) Helena means to say, that, like a person who pours water into a vessel full of holes, and still continues his employment, though he finds the water all lost, and the vessel empty, so, though she finds that the waters of her love are still lost, that her affection is thrown away on an object whom she thinks she never can deserve, she yet is not discouraged, but perseveres in her hopeless endeavour to accomplish her wishes.

VOL. III.

EE

Religious in mine error, I adore
The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,
Let not your hate encounter with my love,
For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
Wish chastly, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love; O then, give pity
To her, whose state is such, that cannot choose
But lend and give, where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies.
Count. Had you not lately an intent, speak truly,
To go to Paris?
Hel.

Count.

Madam, I had.

Wherefore? tell true.

Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear.
You know, my father left me some prescriptions
Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading,
And manifest experience, had collected
For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me
In heedfullest reservation to bestow them,
As notes, whose faculties inclusives were,
More than they were in note: amongst the rest,
There is a remedy, approv'd, set down,
To cure the desperate languishes, whereof

3 Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,] i. e, whose re spectable conduct in age shows, or proves, that you were no less virtuous when young.

* Wish chastly, and love dearly, that your Dian

Was both herself and love;] i. e. Venus. Helena means to say-" If ever you wished that the deity who presides over chastity, and the queen of amorous rites, were one and the same person; or, in other words, if ever you wished for the honest and

lawful completion of your chaste desires."

5

-notes, whose faculties inclusive

Receipts in which