HEL. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was My father; in what he did profess, well found 2. KING. I knew him. HEL. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death 3 Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so : With all bound humbleness. KING. We thank you, maiden; But may not be so credulous of cure,- To émpiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. 2- well found.] i. e. of known, acknowledged excellence. STEEVENS. 3 — a TRIPLE eye,] i. e. a third eye. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : "The triple pillar of the world, transform'd wherein the honour Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,] Perhaps we may better read: 66 wherein the power "Of my dear father's gift stands chief in honour." JOHNSON. HEL. My duty then shall pay me for my pains: I will no more enforce mine office on you; Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modest one, to bear me back again. KING. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful: Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give, As one near death to those that wish him live: HEL. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, Oft does them by the weakest minister: From simple sources; and great seas have dried, 5 So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, 66 When judges have been babes.] The allusion is to St. Matthew's Gospel, xi. 25: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." See also 1 Cor. i. 27: "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." MALONE. 6 When miracles have by the greatest been denied.] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost. JOHNSON. I point the passage thus; and then I see no reason to complain of want of connection: "When judges have been babes. Great floods, &c. "When miracles have by the greatest been denied." Shakspeare, after alluding to the production of water from a rock, and the drying up of the Red Sea, says, that miracles had been denied by the GREATEST; or, in other words, that the ELDERS Oft expectation fails, and most oft there maid; Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: HEL. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd: of ISRAEL (who just before, in reference to another text, were styled judges) had, notwithstanding these miracles, wrought for their own preservation, refused that compliance they ought to have yielded. See the book of Exodus, particularly xvii. 5, 6, &c. HENLEY. Great "So holy writ," &c. alludes to Daniel's judging, when, young youth," the two Elders in the story of Susannah. floods, i. e. when Moses smote the rock in Horeb, Exod. xvii. great seas have dried 66 "When miracles have by the greatest been denied." Dr. Johnson did not see the import or connection of this line. It certainly refers to the children of Israel passing the Red Sea, when miracles had been denied, or not hearkened to, by Pharaoh. HOLT WHITE. 7 and despair most SITS.] The old copy reads-shifts. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALOne. 8 myself against the level of mine aim;] i. e. pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition. WARBURTON. I rather think that she means to say,- "I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud; I think what I speak." JOHNSON. KING. Art thou so confident? Within what space Hop'st thou my cure? HEL. The greatest grace lending grace, Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp'; HEL. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— 9 The greatest GRACE lending GRACE,] I should have thought the repetition of grace to have been superfluous, if the grace of grace had not occurred in the speech with which the tragedy of Macbeth concludes. STEEVENS. The former grace in this passage, and the latter in Macbeth, evidently signify divine grace. HENLEY. The repetition of words, such as we find in this passage, seems to have been reckoned a beauty in our author's time. So Spenser, in his Pastorals: "I love thilke lasse, alas! why do I love?" Januarie, 1. 61. Again: I 66 And joyes enjoyes that mortal men do misse." MALONE. HIS sleepy lamp;] Old copy-her sleepy lamp. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. a divulged shame,— Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended.] "I would bear (says she) the tax of impudence, which is the denotement of a strumpet; would endure a shame resulting from my failure in KING. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; His powerful sound, within an organ weak3: what I have undertaken, and thence become the subject of odious ballads; let my maiden reputation be otherwise branded; and, no worse of worst extended, i. e. provided nothing worse is offered to me, (meaning violation,) let my life be ended with the worst of tortures." The poet, for the sake of rhyme, has obscured the sense of the passage. "The worst that can befal a woman, being extended to me," seems to be the meaning of the last line. 66 66 STEEVENS. "Tax of impudence," that is, to be charged with having the. boldness of a strumpet:-" a divulged shame; i. e. to be traduced by odious ballads :- my maiden's name's seared otherwise; " i. e. to be stigmatized as a prostitute :-" no worse of worst extended;" i. e. to be so defamed that nothing severer can be said against those who are most publickly reported to be infamous. Shakspeare has used the word sear and extended in The Winter's Tale, both in the same sense as above: And "The report of her is extended more than can be thought." HENLEY. The old copy reads, not no, but ne, probably an error for nay, or the. I would wish to read and point the latter part of the passage thus: 66 my maiden's name "Sear'd otherwise; nay, worst of worst, extended i. e. Let me be otherwise branded ;-and (what is the worst of worst, the consummation of misery,) my body being extended on the rack by the most cruel torture, let my life pay the forfeit of my presumption. So, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594: 66 the worst of worst of ills.” No was introduced by the editor of the second folio. Again, in The Remedie of Love, 4to. 1600: "If she be fat, then she is swollen, say, "If browne, then tawny as the Africk Moore; If courtly, wanton, worst of worst before." MALONE. I cannot think that justice has been done to the purity of Helena's sentiment. I explain it thus: Let me be stigmatized as a strumpet, and in addition (although that would not be worse, or a more extended evil than what I have mentioned, the loss of |
