KING. The heavens have thought well on thee,

Lafeu,

Tobring forth this discovery.-Seek these suitors:Go, speedily, and bring again the count.

[Exeunt Gentleman, and some Attendants.

I am afeard, the life of Helen, lady,

Was foully snatch'd.

COUNT.

Now, justice on the doers!

Enter BERTRAM, guarded.

KING. I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters

arrested a clothier that was outlawed, and had seized his goods, which he had brought into the faire, tolling him out of the faire, by a traine.”

And toll for this, may, however, mean-and I will sell this fellow in a fair, as I would a horse, publickly entering in the toll-book the particulars of the sale. For the hint of this latter interpretation I am indebted to Dr. Percy. I incline, however, to the former exposition.

The following passage in King Henry IV. P. II. may be adduced in support of Mr. Steevens's interpretation of this passage: "Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown,-and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee."

Here Falstaff certainly means to speak equivocally; and one of his senses is, "I will take care to have thee knocked in the head, and thy friends shall ring thy funeral knell," MALONE.

I wonder, sir, since wives &c.] This passage is thus read in the first folio:

Which

I wonder, sir, sir, wives are monsters to you,

And that you fly them, as you swear them lordship,
Yet you desire to marry.-

may be corrected thus:

"I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters, &c.

The editors have made it-wives are so monstrous to you, and in the next line-swear to them, instead of-swear them lordship. Though the latter phrase be a little obscure, it should not have been turned out of the text without notice. I suppose

And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, Yet you desire to marry.-What woman's that?

Re-enter Gentleman, with Widow, and DIANA.

DIA. I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine,
Derived from the ancient Capulet;
My suit, as I do understand, you know,
And therefore know how far I may be pitied.

WID. I am her mother, sir, whose age and ho

nour

Both suffer under this complaint we bring,
And both shall cease," without your remedy.

KING. Come hither, count; Do you know these women?

BER. My lord, I neither can, nor will deny But that I know them: Do they charge me further?

DIA. Why do you look so strange upon your

wife?

BER. She's none of mine, my lord.

DIA.

If you shall marry,

You give away this hand, and that is mine;

You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine;
You give away myself, which is known mine;
For I by vow am so embodied yours,

lordship is put for that protection which the husband, in the marriage ceremony, promises to the wife. TYRWHITT.

As, I believe, here signifies as soon as. MALONE.

I read with Mr. Tyrwhitt, whose emendation I have placed in the text. It may be observed, however, that the second folio reads:

I wonder, sir, wives are such monsters to you·

STEEVENS.

shall cease,] i. e. decease, die. So, in King Lear: "Fall and cease." The word is used in the same sense in p. 391 of the present comedy. STEEVENS.

That she, which marries you, must marry me,
Either both, or none.

LAF. Your reputation [To BERTRAM.] comes too short for my daughter, you are no husband for her.

BER. My lord, this is a fond and desperate creature,

Whom sometime I have laugh'd with: let your

highness

Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour,
Than for to think that I would sink it here.

KING. Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend,

Till your deeds gain them: Fairer prove your ho

nour,

Than in my thought it lies!

DIA.

Good my lord,

Ask him upon his oath, if he does think

He had not my virginity.

KING. What say'st thou to her?

BER.

She's impudent, my lord;

And was a common gamester to the camp.

7

DIA. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so, He might have bought me at a common price:

7 a common gamester to the camp.] The following passage, in an ancient MS. tragedy, entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy, will sufficiently elucidate the idea once affixed to the term-gamester, when applied to a female:

""Tis to me wondrous how you should spare the day "From amorous clips, much less the general season "When all the world's a gamester."

Again, in Pericles, Lysimachus asks Mariana

"Were you a gamester at five or at seven ?"

Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

66

daughters of the game." STEEVENS.

8

Do not believe him: O, behold this ring,
Whose high respect, and rich validity,
Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that,
He gave it to a commoner o'the camp,
If I be one.

COUNT.

He blushes, and 'tis it: Of six preceding ancestors, that gem

9

Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,
Hath it been ow'd and worn.

That ring's a thousand proofs.

KING.

This is his wife;

Methought, you said,'

You saw one here in court could witness it.

DIA. I did, my lord, but loath am to produce So bad an instrument; his name's Parolles. LAF. I saw the man to-day, if man he be. KING. Find him, and bring him hither. BER. He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,"

What of him?

• Whose high respect, and rich validity,] Validity means value. So, in King Lear:

"No less in space, validity, and pleasure."

Again, in Twelfth-Night:

9

"Of what validity and pitch soever.'

99 STEEVENS.

'tis it:] The old copy has 'tis hit. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. In many of our old chronicles I have found hit printed instead of it. Hence, probably, the mistake here. Mr. Pope reads-and 'tis his. MALONE.

Or, he blushes, and 'tis fit. HENLEY.

1

Methought, you said,] The poet has here forgot himself. Diana has said no such thing. BLACKSTONE.

He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,] Quoted has the same sense as noted, or observed.

So, in Hamlet:

"I'm sorry that with better heed and judgment
"I had not quoted him." STEEVENS.

With all the spots o'the world tax'd and debosh'd;3
Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth:*
Am I or that, or this, for what he'll utter,
That will speak any thing?

KING.

She hath that ring of yours.

BER. I think, she has: certain it is, I lik'd her, And boarded her i'the wanton way of youth: She knew her distance, and did angle for me, Madding my eagerness with her restraint, As all impediments in fancy's course Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine,

3

debosh'd;] See a note on The Tempest, Act III. sc. ii. Vol. IV. p. 102, n. 1. STEEVENS.

Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth:] Here the modern editors read:

Which nature sickens with:

a most licentious corruption of the old reading, in which the punctuation only wants to be corrected. We should read, as here printed:

Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth:

i. e. only to speak a truth. TYRWHITT.

all impediments in fancy's course

Are motives of more fancy;] Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is heightened. And, to conclude, her solicitation concurring with her fashionable appearance, she got the ring.

I am not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word modern, which perhaps signifies rather meanly pretty.

JOHNSON.

I believe modern means common. The sense will then be this-Her solicitation concurring with her appearance of being common, i. e. with the appearance of her being to be had, as we say at present. Shakspeare uses the word modern frequently, and always in this sense, So, in King John:

scorns a modern invocation."

Again, in As you like it:

"Full of wise saws and modern instances.

"Trifles, such as we present modern friends with."”.

VOL. VIII.

DD