BER. Now will I lead you to the house, and

show you

The lass I spoke of.

2 LORD.

But, you say, she's honest.

BER. That's all the fault: I spoke with her but

once,

And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her, By this same coxcomb that we have i'the wind,3 Tokens and letters which she did re-send;

And this is all I have done: She's a fair creature; Will you go see her?

HEL. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how I shall assure you further, But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.* WID. Though my estate be fallen, I was well born,

Nothing acquainted with these businesses;

The whole course of the dialogue shows this to have been a mistake. See p. 326.

"1 Lord. [i. e. Captain E.] I, with a troop of Florentines," &c. MALOne.

3

we have the wind,] To have one in the wind, is enumerated as a proverbial saying by Ray, p. 261. REED. But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.] i. e. by discovering herself to the count. WARBURTON.

:

And would not put my reputation now
In any staining act.

HEL.

Nor would I wish you. First, give me trust, the count he is my husband; And, what to your sworn counsel' I have spoken, Is So, from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, Err in bestowing it.

WID.

I should believe you; For you have show'd me that, which well approves You are great in fortune.

HEL.

Take this purse of gold, And let me buy your friendly help thus far, Which I will over-pay, and pay again,

When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolves to carry her; let her, in fine, consent,
As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it,
Now his important blood will nought deny
That she'll demand: A ring the county wears,"
That downward hath succeeded in his house,
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds
In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire,

5

to your sworn counsel-] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy.

JOHNSON.

Now his important blood will nought deny-] Important

here, and elsewhere, is importunate. JOHNSON.

So, Spenser, in The Fairy Queen, B. II. c. vi. st. 29: "And with important outrage him assailed." Important, from the French Emportant. TYRWHITT.

7

the county wears.] i. e. the count. So, in Romeo and Juliet, we have " the county Paris." STEEVENS.

To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.

WID.

Now I see

The bottom of your purpose.

HEL. You see it lawful then: It is no more,
But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,
Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter;
In fine, delivers me to fill the time,

Herself most chastely absent: after this,
To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is past already.

WID.
I have yielded :
Instruct my daughter how she shall perséver,
That time and place, with this deceit so lawful,
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musicks of all sorts, and songs compos'd
To her unworthiness: It nothing steads us,
To chide him from our eaves; for he persists,
As if his life lay on't.

HEL.

Why then, to-night
Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act;
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact :
But let's about it.

9

[Exeunt.

after this,] The latter word was added to complete

the metre, by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

9 Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,

And lawful meaning in a lawful act;] To make this gingling riddle complete in all its parts, we should read the second line thus:

And lawful meaning in a wicked act;

The sense of the two lines is this: It is a wicked meaning because the woman's intent is to deceive; but a lawful deed, because the man enjoys his own wife. Again, it is a lawful

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Without the Florentine Camp.

Enter first Lord, with five or six Soldiers in ambush.

1 LORD. He can come no other way but by this hedge' corner: When you sally upon him, speak what terrible language you will; though you understand it not yourselves, no matter: for we must not

meaning because done by her to gain her husband's estranged affection, but it is a wicked act because he goes intentionally to commit adultery. The riddle concludes thus: Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact, i. e. Where neither of them sin, and yet it is a sinful fact on both sides; which conclusion, we see, requires the emendation here made. WARBURton.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads in the same sense :

Unlawful meaning in a lawful act. JOHNSON.

Bertram's meaning is wicked in a lawful deed, and Helen's meaning is lawful in a lawful act; and neither of them sin: yet on his part it was a sinful act, for his meaning was to commit adultery, of which he was innocent, as the lady was his wife.

TOLLET.

The first line relates to Bertram. The deed was lawful, as being the duty of marriage, owed by the husband to the wife; but his meaning was wicked, because he intended to commit adultery. The second line relates to Helena; whose meaning was lawful, in as much as she intended to reclaim her husband, and demanded only the rights of a wife. The act or deed was lawful for the reason already given. The subsequent line relates to them both. The fact was sinful, as far as Bertram was concerned, because he intended to commit adultery; yet neither he nor Helena actually sinned: not the wife, because both her intention and action were innocent; not the husband, because he did not accomplish his intention; he did not commit adultery. This note is partly Mr. Heath's. MALONE.

seem to understand him; unless some one among us, whom we must produce for an interpreter.

1 SOLD. Good captain, let me be the interpreter. 1 LORD. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?

1 SOLD. No, sir, I warrant you.

1 LORD. But what linsy-woolsy hast thou to speak to us again?

1 SOLD. Even such as you speak to me.

2

1 LORD. He must think us some band of strangers i'the adversary's entertainment.' Now he hath a smack of all neighbouring languages; therefore we must every one be a man of his own fancy, not to know what we speak one to another; so we seem to know, is.to know straight our purpose: chough's language,3 gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very politick. But couch, ho! here he comes; to beguile two hours in a sleep, and then to return and swear the lies he forges.

1

some band of strangers i'the adversary's entertainment.] That is, foreign troops in the enemy's pay. JOHNSON.

2

so we seem to know, is to know &c.] I think the meaning is,-Our seeming to know what we speak one to another, is to make him to know our purpose immediately; to discover our design to him. To know, in the last instance, signifies to make known. Sir Thomas Hanmer very plausibly reads to show straight our purpose. MALONE.

The sense of this passage with the context I take to be thisWe must each fancy a jargon for himself, without aiming to be understood by one another, for provided we appear to understand, that will be sufficient for the success of our project.

66

chough's language,] So, in The Tempest:
I myself could make
"A chough of as deep chat."

STEEVENS.

HENLEY.