The last that e'er I took her leave at court, BER. Hers it was not. KING. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't.This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen, I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood Necessitied to help, that' by this token I would relieve her: Had you that craft, to reave her Of what should stead her most? BER. My gracious sovereign, Howe'er it pleases you to take it so, The ring was never her's. COUNT. Son, on my life, I have seen her wear it; and she reckon❜d it LAF. I am sure, I saw her wear it. BER. You are deceiv'd, my lord, she never saw it: In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,8 Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain'd the name Of her that threw it: noble she was, and thought • The last that e'er I took her leave-] The last time that I saw her, when she was leaving the court. Mr. Rowe and the subsequent editors read-that e'er she took, &c. MALONE. 7 I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood Necessitied to help, that-] Our author here, as in many other places, seems to have forgotten, in the close of the sentence, how he began to construct it. See p. 208, n. 8. The meaning however is clear, and I do not suspect any corruption. MALONE. In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,] Bertram still continues to have too little virtue to deserve Helen. He did not know indeed that it was Helen's ring, but he knew that he had it not from a window. JOHNSON. I stood ingag'd:8 but when I had subscrib'd To mine own fortune, and inform'd her fully, KING. Plutus himself, That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine, noble she was, and thought I stood ingag'd:] Thus the old copy. Dr. Johnson readsengaged. STEEVENS. The plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me engaged to her. JOHNSON. Ingag'd may be intended in the same sense with the reading proposed by Mr. Theobald, [ungag'd,] i. e. not engaged; as Shakspeare, in another place, uses gag'd for engaged. Merchant of Venice, Act I. sc. i. TYRWhitt. I have no doubt that ingaged (the reading of the folio) is right. Gaged is used by other writers, as well as by Shakspeare, for engaged. So, in a Pastoral, by Daniel, 1605: Not that the earth did gage "Unto the husbandman "Her voluntary fruits, free without fees." Ingaged, in the sense of unengaged, is a word of exactly the same formation as inhabitable, which is used by Shakspeare and the contemporary writers for uninhabitable. MALONE. • Plutus himself, That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,] Plutus, the grand alchemist, who knows the tincture which confers the properties of gold upon base metals, and the matter by which gold is multiplied, by which a small quantity of gold is made to communicate its qualities to a large mass of base metal. In the reign of Henry the Fourth a law was made to forbid all men thenceforth to multiply gold, or use any craft of multiplication. Of which law, Mr. Boyle, when he was warm with the hope of transmutation, procured a repeal. JOHNSON, That you are well acquainted with yourself, Confess 'twas hers,' and by what rough enforcement You got it from her: she call'd the saints to surety, That she would never put it from her finger, Unless she gave it to yourself in bed, (Where you have never come,) or sent it us Upon her great disaster. BER. She never saw it. KING. Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour; And mak'st conjectural fears to come into me, Having vainly fear'd too little.2-Away with him;- That you are well acquainted with yourself, Confess 'twas hers,] i. e. confess the ring was hers, for you know it as well as you know that you are yourself. EDWARDS. The true meaning of this expression is, If you know that your faculties are so sound, as that you have the proper consciousness of your own actions, and are able to recollect and relate what you have done, tell me, &c. JOHNSON. 2 My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, Shall tax my fears of little vanity, Having vainly fear'd too little. The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational. I have rather been hitherto more easy than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear. JOHNSON. BER. If you shall prove This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy Where yet she never was. [Exit BERTRAM, guarded. Enter a Gentleman. KING. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings. GENT. Gracious sovereign, Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not; Here's a petition from a Florentine, Who hath, for four or five removes, come short Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech KING. [Reads.] Upon his many protestations to marry me, when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the count Rousillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my honour's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice: Grant it me, O king; in you it best 3 Who hath, for four or five removes, come short &c.] Who hath missed the opportunity of presenting it in person to your majesty, either at Marseilles, or on the road from thence to Rousillon, in consequence of having been four or five removes behind you. MALONE. Removes are journies or post-stages. JOHNSON. lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone. DIANA CAPULET. LAF. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll him for this, I'll none of him.* ♦ I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll him: for this, I'll none of him.] Thus the second folio. The first omitshim. Either reading is capable of explanation. The meaning of the earliest copy seems to be this: I'll buy me a new son-in-law, &c. and toll the bell for this; i. e. look upon him as a dead man. The second reading, as Dr. Percy suggests, may imply: I'll buy me a son-in-law as they buy a horse in a fair; toul him, i. e. enter him on the toul or tollbook, to prove I came honestly by him, and ascertain my title to him. In a play called The famous History of Tho. Stukely, 1605, is an allusion to this custom: "Gov. I will be answerable to thee for thy horses. "Stuk. Dost thou keep a tole-booth? zounds, dost thou make a horse-courser of me?" Again, in Hudibras, P. II. c. i: 66 a roan gelding "Where, when, by whom, and what y'were sold for Alluding (as Dr. Grey observes) to the two statutes relating to the sale of horses, 2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, and 31 Eliz. c. 12. and publickly tolling them in fairs, to prevent the sale of such as were stolen, and to preserve the property to the right owner. The previous mention of a fair seems to justify the reading I have adopted from the second folio. STEEVENS. The passage should be pointed thus: I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll; That is, "I'll buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and pay toll; as for this, I will have none of him." M. MASON. The meaning, I think, is, "I will purchase a son-in-law at a fair, and get rid of this worthless fellow, by tolling him out of it." To toll a person out of a fair was a phrase of the time. So, in Camden's Remaines, 1605: "At a Bartholomew Faire at London there was an escheator of the same city, that had |