maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: Why, he's able to lead her a coranto. Par, Mort du Vinaigre! Is not this Helen? King. Go, call before me all the lords in court.[Exit an Attendant. Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side; And with this healthful hand,, whose banish'd sense Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive The confirmation of my promis'd gift, Which but attends thy naming. Enter several Lords. Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice9 My mouth no more were broken3 than these boys', King. Peruse them well: Not one of those, but had a noble father. Hel. Gentlemen, Heaven hath, through me, restor❜d the king to health. All. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. Hel. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthiest, That, I protest, I simply am a maid: Please it your majesty, I have done already: • O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice-] They were his wards as well as his subjects. HENLEY. 1 marry, to each, but one!] i. e. except one. 3 My mouth no more were broken-] A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth. JOHNSON. VOL. III. X The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me, We'll ne'er come there again. Make choice; and, see, King. Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me. Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly; And to imperial Love, that god most high, Do my sighs stream.-Sir, will you hear my suit? 1 Lord. And grant it. Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute." Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace" for my life. Hel. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threateningly replies: Love make your fortunes twenty times above Hel. My wish receive, Which great love grant! and so I take my leave. Laf. Do all they deny her?" An they were sons of mine, I'd have them whipped; or I would send them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of. Hel. Be not afraid [To a Lord] that I your hand should take I'll never do you wrong for your own sake: 4 Let the white death, &c.] The white death is the chlorosis. The pestilence that ravaged England in the reign of Edward III. was called the black death." 6 the rest is mute.] i. e. I have no more to say to you. 7 Laf. Do all they deny her?] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards, but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is inade. JOHNSON. Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her: sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them. Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my 4 Lord. Fair one, I think not so. blood. Laf. There's one grape yet, I am sure, thy father drank wine.-But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already. Hel. I dare not say, I take you; [To BERTRAM] but I give Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, Into your guiding power.-This is the man. King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, she's thy wife. Ber. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech your highness, In such a business give me leave to use The help of mine own eyes. King. Know'st thou not, Bertram, What she has done for me? Ber. Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I should marry her. King. Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my sickly bed. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raising? I know her well; She had her breeding at my father's charge: A poor physician's daughter my wife -Disdain Rather corrupt me ever! King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, • "Tis only title-] i. e. the want of title. Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st, Is good, without a name; vileness is so:1 Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb I can create the rest: virtue, and she, Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from me. Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't. King. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st strive to choose. Hel. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am glad; Let the rest go. 9 Where great additions swell,] Additions are the titles and descriptions by which men are distinguished from each other. •good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so:] The meaning is,Good is good, independent on any worldly distinction or title; so vileness is vile, in whatever state it may appear. MALONE. Honour's born,] is the child of honour. Born is here used, as bairn still is in the North. HENLEY. King. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat, My love, and her desert; that canst not dream, Shall weigh thee to the beam:3 that wilt not know, We please to have it grow: Check thy contempt: Do thine own fortunes that obedient right, Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate, Loosing upon thee in the name of justice, 3 King. Take her by the hand, that canst not dream, We, poizing us in her defective scale, Shall weigh thee to the beam :] That canst not understand, that if you and this maiden should be weighed together, and our royal favours should be thrown into her scale, (which you esteem so light,) we should make that in which you should be placed, to strike the beam. MALONE. * Into the staggers,] One species of the staggers or the horse's apoplexy, is a raging impatience, which make the animal dash himself with a destructive violence against posts or walls. To this the allusion, I suppose, is made. JOHNSON. |