1 Lord. Holy feems the quarrel

Upon your grace's part; black and fearful
On the oppofer.

Duke. Therefore we marvel much, our coufin
France

Would, in fo just a business, fhut his bosom
Againft our borrowing prayers.

2 Lord. Good my lord,

The reafons of our ftate I cannot yield 7,
But like a common and an outward man 8
That the great figure of a council frames
By felf-unable motion; therefore dare not
Say what I think of it; fince I have found
Myfelf in my uncertain grounds to fail
As often as I guefs'd.

Duke. Be it his pleasure.

2 Lord. But I am fure, the younger of our nature', That furfeit on their eafe, will, day by day,

Come here for phyfick.

Duke. Welcome shall they be ;

And all the honours, that can fly from us,

Shall on them fettle: You know your places well;
When better fall, for your avails they fell:
To-morrow to the field.

[Exeunt

-I cannot yield,] Icannot inform you of the reasons.

JOHNSON.

an outward man,] i. e. one not in the fecret of affairs. WARBURTON.

So inward is familiar, admitted to fecrets. "I was an inward

of his." Meafure for Meafure. JOHNSON.

By felf-unable motion:] We fhould read notion.

WARBURTON.

This emendation had been recommended by Mr. Upton.

I

-the younger of our nature,]

i. e. as we fay at prefent, our young fellows. read nation, I have restored the old reading.

STEEVENS.

The modern editors
STEEVENS.

SCENE

Count. It hath happened all as I would have had it, fave, that he comes not along with her.

Clo. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.

Count. By what obfervance, I pray you?

Clo. Why, he will look upon his boot, and fing; mend the ruff, and fing; ask questions, and fing; pick his teeth, and fing: I know a man that had this trick of melancholy, fold a goodly manor for a fong". Count. Let me fee what he writes, and when he means to come.

Clo. I have no mind to Ifbel, fince I was at court: our old ling and our Ifbels o'the country, are nothing like your old ling and your Ifbels o'the court: the brain of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no ftomach. Count. What have we here?

Clo. E'en that you have there.

Countefs reads a letter.

[Exit.

I have fent you a daughter-in-law: fhe hath recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and fworn to make the not eternal. You fhall hear, I am run away; know it, before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you.

2

Your unfortunate fon,

BERTRAM,

-fold a goodly manor for a fong.] Thus the modern editors.

The old copy reads-hold a goodly, &c. The emendation however feems neceffary. STEEVENS,

This is not well, rafh and unbridled boy,
To fly the favours of fo good a king;
To pluck his indignation on thy head,
By the mifprizing of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

Re-enter Clown.

Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two foldiers and my young lady.

Count. What is the matter?

Clo. Nay, there is fome comfort in the news, fome comfort ; your fon will not be kill'd fo foon as I thought he would.

Count. Why fhould he be kill'd?

Clo. So fay I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does: the danger is in ftanding to't; that's the lofs of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come, will tell you more: for my part, I only hear, your fon was run away.

Enter Helena, and two gentlemen.

1 Gen. Save you, good madam.

Hel. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone. 2 Gen. Do not fay fo...

Count. Think upon patience.-'Pray you, gentle

men,

I have felt fo many quirks of joy, and grief,
That the firft face of neither, on the start,
Can woman me unto't :

you?

Where is my fon, I pray

2 Gen. Madam, he's gone to ferve the duke of

Florence:

We met him thitherward; for thence we care,
And, after fome difpatch in hand at court,

Thither we bend again.

Hel. Look on this letter, madam; here's my paff

port.

When

3 When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which ne ver fhall come off, and fhew me a child begotten of thy body, that I am father to, then call me husband: but in fuch a Then I write a Never.

This is a dreadful fentence.

Count. Brought you this letter, gentlemen?
1 Gen. Ay, madam ;

And, for the contents' fake, are forry for our pains.
Count. I pr'ythee, lady, have a better cheer;
If thou engroffeft, all the griefs are thine,
Thou robb'ft me of a moiety: He was my fon;
But I do wash his name out of my blood,

And thou art all my child.-Towards Florence is he? 2 Gen. Ay, madam.

Count. And to be a foldier?

2 Gen. Such is his noble purpose: and, believe't, The duke will lay upon him all the honour That good convenience claims.

Count. Return you thither ?

1 Gen. Ay, madam, with the fwifteft wing of fpeed. Hel. 'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France. "Tis bitter. [Reading.

Count. Find you that there?

Hel. Ay, madam.

1 Gen. 'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which

His heart was not confenting to.

Count. Nothing in France, until he have no wife! There's nothing here, that is too good for him, But only fhe; and the deferves a lord,

i. e. When

3 When thou can't get the ring upon my finger, thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy poffeffion. The Oxford editor, who took it the other way, to fignify, when thou canft get it on upon my finger, very fagacioufly alters it to, When thou canst get the ring from my finger. WARBURTON.

I think Dr. Warburton's explanation fufficient, but I once read it thus: When thou canft get the ring upon thy finger, which never fhall come off mine. JOHNSON.

That

That twenty fuch rude boys might tend upon,

And call her hourly, miftrefs. Who was with him?
I Gen. A fervant only, and a gentleman
Which I have fome time known.
Count. Parolles, was't not?

1 Gen. Ay, my good lady, he.

Count. Avery tainted fellow, and full of wickedness; My fon corrupts a well-derived nature With his inducement.

1 Gen. Indeed, good lady,

The fellow has a deal of that, too much,
Which holds him much to have.

Count. You are welcome gentlemen.
I will intreat you, when you fee my for,
To tell him, that his fword can never win
The honour that he lofes : more I'll intreat you
Written to bear along.

2 Gen. We ferve you, madam,

In that and all your worthieft affairs.

Count. 5 Not fo, but as we change our courtefies. Will you draw near? [Exeunt Countess and gentlemens Hel. 'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France. Nothing in France, until he has no wife! Thou shalt have none, Roufillon, none in France, Then haft thou all again. Poor lord is't I 'That chafe thee from thy country, and expofe

-a deal of that, too much, Which holds him much to have.]

That is, his vices ftand him in ftead. Helen had before delivered this thought in all the beauty of expreffion.

-I know him a notorious liar;

Think him a great way fool, folely a coward;
Fet thefe fixt evils fit fo fit in him,

That they take place, while virtue's freely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind-

But the Oxford editor reads:

Which 'boves him not much to have. WARBURTON.

5 Not fo, &c.] The gentlemen declare that they are servants to the Countefs; the replies, No otherwife than as the returns the fame offices of civility. JOHNSON

Thofe