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

law;

God fhield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother,
So ftrive upon your pulfe: What, pale again?
My fear hath catch'd your fondness: Now I fee
The mystery of your loneliness, and find

2

'Your falt tears' head. Now to all fenfe 'tis grofs,
You love my fon; invention is asham'd,
Against the proclamation of thy paffion,

To fay, thou doft not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, 'tis fo-for, look, thy cheeks
Confefs it one to the other; and thine eyes
See it fo grofly fhewn in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they fpeak it; only fin
And hellish obftinacy tie thy tongue,

That truth should be fufpected: Speak, is't fo?
If it be fo, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, forfwear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
As heaven fhall work in me for thine avail,

To tell me truly.

Hel. Good madam, pardon me!

Now I fee

The mystery of your lovelinefs, and find
Your falt tears' head.

The mystery of her loveliness is beyond my comprehenfion: the old Countess is faying nothing ironical, nothing taunting, or in reproach, that this word fhould find a place here; which it could not, unless farcaftically employed, and with fome fpleen. I dare warrant the poet meant his old lady should say no more than this: "I now find the mystery of your creeping into corners, and weeping, and pining in fecret.' For this reafon I have amended the text, loneliness. The Steward, in the foregoing scene, where he gives the Countefs intelligence of Helena's behaviour, fays:

Alone the was, and did communicate to herself her own words to ber own ears. THEOBALD.

The late Mr. Hall had corrected this, I believe, rightly,your lowlinefs. TYRWHITT.

I think Theobald's correction as plaufible. To chufe folitude is a mark of love. STEEVENS.

3 Your falt tears' head.] The fource, the fountain of your tears, the caufe of your grief. JOHNSON.

VOL. IV.

Count. Do you love my fon?

Hel. Your pardon, noble mistress!
Count. Love you my fon?

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 paffions

Have to the full appeach'd.

Hel. Then, I confefs,

Here on my knee, before high heaven and you,
That before you, and next unto high heaven,
I love your fon :-

My friends were poor, but honeft; fo'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 prefumptuous fuit;

Nor would I have him, 'till I do deserve him;
Yet never know how that defert fhould be.
I know I love in vain, ftrive against hope;
Yet, in this captious and intenible fieve,
I ftill pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose ftill: thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore

The fun, that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My deareft madam,
Let not your hate encounter with my love,
For loving where you do but, if yourself,
Whofe aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever, in fo true a flame of liking,
With chaftly, and love dearly, that your

Dian

4 captious and intenible fieve,] The word captious I never found in this fenfe; yet I cannot tell what to fubftitute, unless carious for rotten, which yet is a word more likely to have been mistaken by the copyers than used by the author. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads-intemible fieve.

5 And lack not to lose ftill:- -]

Perhaps we should read :

STEEVENS.

And lack not to love ftill. TYRWHITT.

Was

Was both herself and love; O then, give pity
To her, whose state is such, that cannot chufe
But lend and give, where the is fure to lofe;
That feeks not to find that, her fearch implies,
But, riddle-like, lives fweetly where the dies.
Count. Had you not lately an intent, fpeak truly,
To go to Paris?

Hel. Madam, I had.

Count. Wherefore? tell true.

Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I fwear.
You know, my father left me fome prescriptions
Of rare and prov'd effects, fuch as his reading,
And manifeft experience, had collected

For general fovereignty; and that he will'd me
In heedfulleft reservation to bestow them,
As 'notes, whofe faculties inclufive were,
More than they were in note: amongst the rest,
There is a remedy, approv'd, fet down,

To cure the defperate languishings, whereof
The king is render'd loft.

Count. This was your motive

For Paris, was it? fpeak.

Hel. My lord your fon made me to think of this;

Elfe Paris, and the medicine, and the king,

Had, from the converfation of my thoughts,

Haply, been absent then.

Count. But think you, Helen,

If you fhould tender your fuppofed aid,

He would receive it? He and his phyficians

Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him,

They, that they cannot help: How fhali they credit A poor unlearned virgin, when the fchools,.

notes, whofe faculties inclufive] Receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed than appeared to obfervation.

JOHNSON.

Embowell'd of their doctrine 7, have left off
The danger to itself?

8

Hel. There's fomething hints,

More than my father's skill, which was the greatest Of his profeffion, that his good receipt

Shall, for my legacy, be fanctified

By the luckieft ftars in heaven: and, would your honour

But give me leave to try fuccefs, I'd venture
The well-loft life of mine on his grace's cure,
By fuch a day, and hour.

Count. Doft thou believe't

Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly.

Count. Why, Helen, thou fhalt have my leave, and love,

Means, and attendants, and my loving greetings
To thofe of mine in court; I'll stay at home,
And pray God's bleffing into thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be fure of this,
What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.

[Exeunt.

"Embowell'd of their doctrine, i.e. exhausted of their skill. So, in the old fpurious play of K. John:

"Back warmen, back; embowel not the clime."

8 There's fomething in't

More than my father's fkill-
that his good receipt &c.]

STEEVENS.

F

Here is an inference, [that] without any thing preceding, to which it refers, which makes the fentence vicious, and fhews that we should read:

There's fomething hints

More than my father's skill,

that his good receipt

i. e. I have a fecret premonition or prefage. WAR Burton.

9

read.

into thy attempt :] So the old copy. We might better unto thy attempt. STEEVENS.

ACT

ACT II.

SCENE I.

The Court of France.

Enter the King, with young lords taking leave for the Florentine war. Bertram and Parolles.

Flourish cornets.

King. Farewel, young lords, thefe warlike prin

ciples

2

Do not throw from you :—and you, my lords, fare

wel :

Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,
And is enough for both.

' In all the latter copies these lines stood thus:
Farewel, young lords; these warlike principles
Do not throw from you. You, my lords, farewel;
Share the advice betwixt you; if both again,

The gift doth ftretch itself as 'tis receiv'd.

The third line in that state was unintelligible. Sir Thomas Han◄ mer reads thus:

Farewel young lord, thefe warlike principles

Do not throw from you; you, my lord, farewel;
Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,
The gift doth ftretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,

And is enough for both.

The first edition, from which the paffage is restored, was fufficiently clear; yet it is plain, that the latter editors preferred a reading which they did not understand. JOHNSON.

2

and you, my lords, farewel:]

It does not any where appear that more than two French lords (befides Bertram) went to ferve in Italy; and therefore I think the king's fpeech fhould be corrected thus:

"Farewel, young lord; these warlike principles

"Do not throw from you; and you my lord, farewel;"

what follows, fhews this correction to be neceffary:

Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, &c."

TYRWHITT.