And these great tears5 grace his remembrance more
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carrie's no favour in it, but Bertram's.
I am undone; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.

ther, says, that she upholds the credit of her father, on this principle, that the surest proof that can be given of the merit of a person deceased, are the lamentations of those who survive him. But Helena, who knows her own heart, wishes that she had no other cause of grief, except the loss of her father, whom she thinks no more of." M. Mason.

O, were that all! &c.] Would that the attention to maintain the credit of my father, (or, not to act unbecoming the daughter of such a father, -for such perhaps is the meaning) were my only solicitude! I think not of him. My cares are all for Bertram. Malone.

5

these great tears-] The tears which the King and Countess shed for him. Johnson.

And these great tears grace his remembrance more

Than those I shed for him.] Johnson supposes that, by these great tears, Helena means the tears which the King and the Countess shed for her father; but it does not appear that either of those great persons had shed tears for him, though they spoke of him with regret. By these great tears, Helena does not mean the tears of great people, but the big and copious tears she then shed herself, which were caused in reality by Bertram's departure, though attributed by Lafeu and the Countess, to the loss of her father; and from this misapprehension of theirs, graced his remembrance more than those she actually shed for him. What she calls gracing his remembrance, is what Lafeu had styled before, upholding his credit, the two passages tending to explain each other. It is scarcely necessary to make this grammatical observation-That if Helena had alluded to any tears supposed to have been shed by the King, she would have said those tears, not these, as the latter pronoun must necessarily refer to something present at the time. M. Mason.

In his bright radiance and collateral light &c.] I cannot be united with him and move in the same sphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all sides from him. Johnson.

So, in Milton's Paradise Lost, B. X:

from his radiant seat he rose
"Of high collateral glory." Steevens.

The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table;7 heart, too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour: 8
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here?

Enter PAROLLES.

One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,

Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,

7 'Twas pretty, though a plague,

To see him every hour; to sit and draw

His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,

In our heart's table;] So, in our author's 24th Sonnet:
"Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steel'd
"Thy beauty's form in table of my heart."

A table was in our author's time a term for a picture, in which sense it is used here. Tableau, French. So, on a picture painted in the time of Queen Elizabeth, in the possession of the Hon. Horace Walpole :

"The queen to Walsingham this table sent, "Mark of her people's and her own content." Malone. Table here only signifies the board on which any picture was painted. So, in Mr. Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, Vol. I, p. 58: "Item, one table with the picture of the Duchess Item, one table with the pictures of the King's Majesty and Queen Jane :" &c. Helena would not have talked of drawing Bertram's picture in her heart's picture; but considers

of Milan." 66

her heart as the tablet or surface on which his resemblance was to be pourtrayed. Steevens.

8

trick of his sweet favour:] So, in King John: "he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face." Trick seems to be some peculiarity or feature. Johnson.

Trick is an expression taken from drawing, and is so explained in King John, Act I, sc. i. The present instance explains itself: to sit and draw

His arched brows, &c.

and trick of his sweet favour.

Trick, however, on the present occasion, may mean neither tracing nor outline, but peculiarity. Steevens.

Tricking is used by heralds for the delineation and colouring of arms, &c. Malone.

That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly."

Par. Save you, fair queen.

Hel. And you, monárch.1

Par. No.

Hel. And no.2

Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier3 in you;

9 Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as superfluous for over-clothed. This makes the propriety of the antithesis. Warburton.

1 And you, monarch.] Perhaps here is some allusion designed to Monarcho, a ridiculous fantastical character of the age of Shakspeare. Concerning this person, see the notes on Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, sc. i. Steevens.

2 And no.] I am no more a queen than you are a monarch, or Monarcho. Malone.

3

stain of soldier-] Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble-bee. Warburton.

It does not appear from either of these expressions, that Parolles was entirely drest in red. Shakspeare writes only some stain of soldier, meaning in one sense that he had red breeches on, (which is sufficiently evident from calling him afterwards redtail'd humble-bee) and in another, that he was a disgrace to soldiery. Stain is used in an adverse sense by Shakspeare, in Troilus and Cressida: " nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it."

Mr. M. Mason observes on this occasion that "though a red coat is now the mark of a soldier in the British service, it was not so in the days of Shakspeare, when we had no standing army, and the use of armour still prevailed." To this I reply, that the colour red has always been annexed to soldiership. Chaucer, in his Knight's Tale, v. 1749, has "Mars the rede," and Boccace has given Mars the same epithet in the opening of his Theseida: "O rubicondo Marte." Steevens.

I take the liberty of making one observation respecting Steevens's note on this passage, which is, that when Chaucer talks of Mars the red, and Boccace of the rubicondo Marte, they both allude to the countenance and complexion of the god, not to his clothes; but as Lafeu, in Act IV, sc. v, calls Parolles the redtailed humble-bee, it is probable that the colour of his dress was in Helena's contemplation. M. Mason.

Stain rather for what we now say tincture, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. Johnson.

let me ask you a question: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him?

Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance.

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men?

Par. Virginity, being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it.

Hel. I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against

4

with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city.] So,

in our author's Lover's Complaint:

"And long upon these terms I held my city,

"Till thus he 'gan besiege me."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"This makes in him more rage, and lesser pity,

"To make the breach, and enter this sweet city. Malone. 5 Loss of virginity is rational increase;] I believe we should read, national. Tyrwhitt.

Rational increase may mean the regular increase by which rational beings are propagated. Steevens.

• He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself;] i.e. he that hangs himself, and a virgin, are in this circumstance alike; they are both self-destroyers. Malone.

nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose by 't: Out with 't: within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: Away with 't.

T

8

66

inhibited sin -] i. e. forbidden. So, in Othello:

a practiser

"Of arts inhibited and out of warrant."

Steevens.

within ten years it will make itself ten,] The old copy reads "within ten years it will make itself two." The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. It was also suggested by Mr. Steevens, who likewise proposed to read-" within two years it will make itself two." Mr. Tollet would read-" within ten years it will make itself twelve."

I formerly proposed to read-" Out with it: within ten months it will make itself two." Part with it, and within ten months' time it will double itself; i. e. it will produce a child.

I now mention this conjecture, (in which I once had some confidence) only for the purpose of acknowledging my error. I had not sufficiently attended to a former passage in this scene,"Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found," i. e. may produce ten virgins. Those words likewise are spoken by Parolles, and add such decisive support to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation, that I have not hesitated to adopt it. The text, as exhibited in the old copy, is undoubtedly corrupt. It has already been observed, that many passages in these plays, in which numbers are introduced, are printed incorrectly. Our author's sixth Sonnet fully supports the emendation here made: "That use is not forbidden usury,

"Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
"That's for thyself, to breed another thee,
"Or ten times happier, be it ten for one.

"Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
"If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee."

"Out with it," is used equivocally.-Applied to virginity, it means, give it away; part with it: considered in another light, it signifies, put it out to interest. In The Tempest we have"Each putter out on five for one," &c. Malone.

There is no reason for altering the text. A well-known observation of the noble earl, to whom the horses of the present generation owe the length of their tails, contains the true explanation of this passage. Henley.

I cannot help repeating, on this occasion, Justice Shallow's remark: "Give me pardon, sir:-If you come with news, I take it there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them."