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1 SCENE I.-"To whom I am now in ward." "It is now almost forgotten in England," says Johnson," that the heirs of great fortunes were the king's wards. Whether the same practice prevailed in France it is of no great use to inquire, for Shakspeare gives to all nations the manners of England." The particular expression here used by Shakspere does not necessarily imply that the feudal rights of the sovereign over tenants in chief, during their minority, were assumed to be exercised in the case of Bertram. Those rights, certainly, did not extend to all France, but were confined to Normandy. Our poet seems to have followed, without much regard to the general question of wards, the story of Boccaccio, in which the Bertram of the novel is represented as being left by his father under the guardianship of the king. But in Shakspere's day the rights of wardship were exercised by the crown very oppressively, and an English audience would quite understand how a sovereign could claim the privilege of disposing of his tenant in marriage. There is a very curious state paper addressed by Lord Cecil to Sir John Savile and others, in 1603, upon the accession of James, in

VOL. I.

which the king announces his desire to compromise his right of wardship for a pecuniary compensation. The Court of Wards was not abolished till 1656; but James, half a century before the nation got rid of this badge of feudality, thought that the existence of this species of tyranny afforded him a capital opportunity of making a merit of being gracious to his subjects, and of putting a round sum into his pocket at the same time. The scheme, however, failed, although very cleverly set forth. The letter of Cecil is long; but a sentence will show its objects and tone:-"His Majesty observing, among other things, what power he hath by the ancient laws of the realm to dispose of the marriages of all such subjects as hold their lands of him by tenures in capite, or knight's service, and shall be under ages at the time of their ancestors' death from whom their estates are derived; and conceiving well in his own great judgment what a comfort it would be to give them assurance that those might now be compounded for in the life of such ancestors, upon reasonable conditions, I thought it my duty, being privy to his Majesty's gracious purpose of affording his subjects at this time some such condition of favour, to consider of and

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propound some convenient courses to his Majesty," &c. (Lodge's 'Illustrations,' vol. iii., 4to., page 189.)

2 SCENE I.-"Her dispositions she inherits," &c.

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To understand this passage we must define the meaning of "virtuous qualities." The Countess has distinguished between dispositions" and "fair gifts." By the one is meant the natural temper and affections-by the other the results of education. In like manner "virtuous qualities" mean the same as "fair gifts" -they are the acquirements which might find a place in "an unclean mind," as well as in one of honest "dispositions." Then "they are virtues and traitors too"-they are good in themselves, but they betray to evil, by giving the "unclean mind" the power to deceive. The "virtuous qualities” in Helena are unmixed with any natural defect-" they are the better for their simpleness." The concluding expression," she derives her honesty, and achieves her goodness," is one of the many examples of Shakspere's beautiful discrimination as a moralist. How many that are honest by nature can scarcely be called good! "Goodness," in the high sense in which our poet uses it, can only be "achieved."

3 SCENE I.-"'T is the best brine," &c.

"To season," says Malone, "has here a culi

nary sense; to preserve by salting." Upon this, Pye, in his 'Comments upon the Commentators,' says, "Surely, this coarse and vulgar metaphor neither wanted nor merited a note." But why "coarse and vulgar?" The "culinary sense" of Malone may raise up associations of the kitchen, which are not perfectly genteel; but suppose he had said "chemical sense "-would the metaphor have been itself different? We would rather make our estimate of what is "coarse and vulgar" upon the authority of Shakspere himself than upon that of Mr. Pye. With our poet this was a favourite metaphor, repeated almost as often as "the canker" of the rose. In 'The Rape of Lucrece' we have,

"But I alone, alone must sit and pine, Seasoning the earth with showers of silver brine." In 'Romeo and Juliet,'

"Jesu Maria! What a deal of brine

Hath wash'd thy sallow cheek for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
To season love, that of it doth not taste!"

In 'Twelfth Night,'

"And water once a-day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting, in her sad remembrance."

The metaphor which these critics call "coarse and vulgar" and "culinary" has the sanction of the very highest authority, in whose mouth the most familiar allusions are employed in connection with the most sacred things: "Ye are the salt of the earth.”

• SCENE II.

"His plausive words

He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there, and to bear."

Of course from the collect in the Liturgy --"Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the words which we have heard this day with our outward ears may through thy grace be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth the fruit of good living," &c.

But it is noticeable that Shakspere's reverential mind very seldom adopted the phraseology

of scripture or prayer for the mere sake of ornamenting his diction, as moderns perpetually do. The passage noted is an exception; but such are very rare. Doubts have been entertained as to Shakspere's religious belief, because few or no notices of it occur in his works. This ought to be attributed to a tender and delicate reserve about holy things, rather than to inattention or neglect. It is not he who talks most about scripture, or who most frequently adopts its phraseology, who most deeply feels it.

5 SCENE III.-" What does this knave here?" &e.

Douce classes the Clown of this comedy amongst the domestic fools. Of this genus the same writer gives us three species:-The mere natural, or idiot; the silly by nature, yet cunning and sarcastical; the artificial. Of this latter species, to which it appears to us the Clown before us belongs, Puttenham, in his 'Art of English Poesie,' has defined the characteristics:-"A buffoon, or counterfeit fool, to hear him speak wisely, which is like himself, it is no sport at all. But for such a counterfeit to talk and look foolishly it maketh us laugh, be cause it is no part of his natural." Of the real domestic fools of the artificial class—that is, of the class of clever fellows who were content to be called fools for their hire, Gabriel Harvey has given us some minor distinctions:-Scoggin,

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realities. They are the interpreters, to the multitude, of many things that would otherwise "lie too deep" for words.

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• SCENE III.

Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart."

This passage refers to the sour objection of the puritans to the use of the surplice in divine service, for which they wished to substitute the black Genevan gown. At this time the controversy with the puritans raged violently. Hooker's fifth book of Ecclesiastical Polity,' which, in the 29th chapter, discusses this matter at length, was published in 1597. But the question itself is much older-as old as the

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Reformation, when it was agitated between the British and continental reformers. During the reign of Mary it troubled Frankfort; and on the accession of Elizabeth it was brought back to England, under the patronage of Archbishop Grindal, whose residence in Germany, during his exile in Mary's reign, had disposed him to Genevan theology. The dispute about ecclesiastical vestments may seem a trifle, but it was at this period made the ground upon which to try the first principles of church authority: a point in itself unimportant becomes vital when so large a question is made to turn upon it. Hence its prominency in the controversial writings of Shakspere's time; and few among his audience would be likely to miss an allusion to a subject fiercely debated at Paul's Cross and elsewhere.

ACT II.

which he has accordingly left us, massy, yet easy, and never failing him, any more than his superhuman abundance of thought and imagery

7 SCENE I.-"Then here's a man," &c. MR. Leigh Hunt, in the preface to his very beautiful drama of 'The Legend of Florence,' I dare venture to think, that, had he lived has the following observation on the rhythm of Shakspere:-"That dramatist, high above all dramatists, has almost sanctified a ten-syllable regularity of structure, scarcely ever varied by a syllable, though rich with every other diversity of modulation. But, noble as the music is

farther off from the times of the princely monotony of 'Marlowe's mighty line,' he would have carried still farther that rhythmical freedom, of which he was the first to set his own fashion, and have anticipated, and far surpassed, the sprightly licence of Beaumont and Fletcher."

Without entering into the general theory here involved, we may express an opinion that, in many instances, the freedom of Shakspere's lighter dialogue has been impaired by his editors. We have an instance before us. The three lines spoken by Lafeu are printed by us as in the original copy. Nothing can be more buoyant than their metrical flow, and nothing, therefore, more characteristic of the speaker. To get rid of the short line spoken by the King, some of the "regulators" have transposed the lines after this fashion, and so they are always printed :

"Laf. Then here's a man Stands, that has brought his pardon. I would you Had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy; and That, at my bidding, you could so stand up." In the same way the succeeding lines, which we also print as in the original, are changed by the syllable-counting process into the following:

"King. I would I had, so I had broke thy pate, And ask'd thee mercy for 't. "Laf. Good faith, across : But, my good lord, 't is thus; will you be cur'd Of your infirmity?

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SCENE II.-"It is like a barber's chair."

"As common as a barber's chair" was a proverbial expression, which we find used by Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy,' edit. 1652, p. 665). In a collection of epigrams, entitled 'More Fooles yet,' 1610, we have these lines:

"Moreover, satin suits he doth compare Unto the service of a barber's chair; As fit for every Jack and journeyman, As for a knight or worthy gentleman." The barber's shop, in Shakspere's time, was "a place where news of every kind circled and centered." So Scott has described it in 'The Fortunes of Nigel.' The "knight or worthy

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