Inter. I'll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure.

Par. I'll no more drumming; a plague of all drums! Only to feem to deferve well, and 7 to beguile the fuppofition of that lafcivious young boy the count, have I run into this danger: Yet, who would have fufpected an ambush where I was taken? [Afide.

Inter. There is no remedy, fir, but you must die : the general fays, you, that have so traiterously discovered the fecrets of your army, and made fuch pestiferous reports of men very nobly held, can ferve the world for no very honeft ufe; therefore you muft die. Come, headfman, off with his head.

Par. O Lord, fir; let me live, or let me fee my death!

Inter. That fhall you, and take your leave of all your friends.

[Unbinding him. So, look about you; Know you any here? Ber. Good-morrow, noble captain.

2 Lord. God bless you, captain Parolles.
I Lord. God fave you, noble captain,

2 Lord. Captain, what greeting will you to my lord Lafeu? I am for France.

1 Lord. Good captain, will you give me a copy of that fame fonnet you writ to Diana in behalf of the count Roufillon an I were not a very coward, I'd compel it of you; but fare you well. [Exeunt. Inter. You are undone, captain; all but your scarf, that has a knot on't yet.

Par. Who cannot be crufh'd with a plot?

Inter. If you could find out a country where but women were that had received fo much fhame, you

7

to beguile the fuppofition] That is, to deceive the opinion, to make the count think me a man that deferves well.

JOHNSON.

might begin an impudent nation. Fare you well,
fir; I am for France too; we shall speak of you there.
[Exit.
Par. Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,
'Twould burft at this: Captain I'll be no more;
But I will eat and drink, and fleep as foft
As captain fhall: fimply the thing I am

Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pafs,
That every braggart fhall be found an afs.
Ruft, fword! cool, blufhes! and, Parolles, live
Safeft in fhame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive!
There's place, and means, for every man alive.
I'll after them.

SCENE IV.

The Widow's houfe at Florence.

Enter Helena, Widow, and Diana.

}

[Exit.

Hel. That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you,

One of the greatest in the christian world

Shall be my furety; 'fore whofe throne, 'tis needful,
Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel:
Time was, I did him a defired office,
Dear almoft as his life; which gratitude
Through flinty Tartar's bofom would peep forth,
And answer, thanks: I duly am inform'd,
His grace is at Marseilles; to which place
We have convenient convoy. You must know,
I am fuppofed dead: the army breaking,

My husband hies him home; where, heaven aiding,
And by the leave of my good lord the king,

We'll be, before our welcome.

Wid. Gentle madam,

You never had a fervant, to whose trust

Your bufinefs was more welcome.

Hel. Nor you, miftrefs,

Ever a friend, whofe thoughts more truly labour
To recompence your love; doubt not, but heaven
Hath brought me up to be your daughter's dower,
As it hath fated her to be my motive
And helper to a hufband.

But O ftrange men!
That can fuch fweet ufe make of what they hate,
9 When faucy trufting of the cozen'd thoughts
Defiles the pitchy night! fo luft doth play
With what it loaths, for that which is away:
But more of this hereafter:-You, Diana,
Under my poor inftructions yet must suffer
Something in my behalf.

Dia. Let death and honefty

Go with your impofitions, I am yours
Upon your will to fuffer,

Hel. Yet, I pray you,

But with the word, the time will bring on fummer, When briars fhall have leaves as well as thorns,

8

my motive] Motive for affiftant, WARBURTON,

• When faucy trufting of the cozen'd thoughts

Defiles the pitchy night!

And

i. e. makes the perfon guilty of intentional adultery. But trufting a mistake cannot make any one guilty. We fhould read and point the lines thus:

When fancy, trufting of the cozen'd thoughts,
Defiles the pitchy night.

i. e. the fancy, or imagination, that he lay with his mistress, though it was, indeed, his wife, made him incur the guilt of adultery. Night, by the ancients, was reckoned odious, obfcene, and abominable. The poet, alluding to this, fays, with great beauty, Defiles the pitchy night, i. e. makes the night, more than ordinary, abominable. WARBURTON.

This conjecture is truly ingenious, but, I believe, the author of it will himself think it unneceffary, when he recollects that faucy may very properly fignify luxurious, and by confequence lafcivious. JOHNSON.

But with the word, the time will bring on fummer,] With the word, i. e. in an inftant of time. The Oxford editor reads (but what he means by it I know not) Bear with the word.

WARBURTON,

The

And be as sweet as fharp. We must away;

1

Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us :
All's well, that ends well: ftill the fine's the crown;
Whate'er the course, the end is the renown. [Exeunt.

Enter Countefs, Lafeu, and Clown.

Laf. No, no, no, your fon was mif-led with a

The meaning of this obfervation is, that as briars have sweetnefs with their prickles, fo fhall these troubles be recompensed with joy. JOHNSON.

2 Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us ;]

The word revives conveys fo little fenfe, that it feems very liable to fufpicion.

and time revyes us;

i, e. looks us in the face, calls upon us to haften. WARBURTON. The prefent reading is corrupt, and I am afraid the emendation none of the foundeft. I never remember to have feen the word reye. One may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we not read for a fhift, without much effort, the time invites us? JOHNSON.

Το vye and revye were terms at feveral ancient games at cards, but particularly at Gleek. So, in Greene's Art of Coney-catching, 1592: "I'll either win fomething or lofe fomething, therefore I'll vie and revie every card at my pleasure, till either yours or mine come out; therefore 12 d. upon this card, my card comes first." Again : -fo they vie and revie till fome ten fhillings be on the stake &c." Again: "This flefheth the Conie, and the sweetnefs of gain makes him frolick, and none more ready to vie and revie than he." Again: "So they vie and revie, and for once that the Barnacle wins, the Conie gets five." Again, in the Mufes Elizium, by Drayton :

"Vie and revie, like chapmen proffer'd,

"Would't be receiv'd what you have offer'd." Perhaps however, revyes is not the true reading. Shakespeare might have written-time reviles us, i. e. reproaches us for wafting it. Yet, -time revives us may mean, it roufes us. So, in another play of our author:

66

-I would revive the foldier's hearts,
Because I found them ever as myfelf." STEEVENS.

fnipt-taffata fellow there; whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbak'd and doughy youth

3

of

whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbak'd and doughy youth of a nation in his colour : -] Parolles is reprefented as an affected follower of the fafhion, and an encourager of his master to run into all the follies of it; where he fays, Ufe a more fpacious ceremony to the noble lords-they wear themselves in the cap of time-and though the devil lead the measure, fuch are to be followed. Here fome particularities of fashionable dress are ridiculed. Snipt-taffata needs no explanation; but villainous faffron is more obfcure. This alludes to a fantaftic fafhion, then much followed, of ufing yellow ftarch for their bands and ruffs. So, Fletcher, in his Queen of Corinth :

Has he familiarly

"Diflik'd your yellow ftarch; or faid your doublet
"Was not exactly frenchified ?",

And Jonfon's Devil's an Afs:

"Carmen and chimney-fweepers are got into the yellow ftarch."

This was invented by one Turner, a tire-woman, a court-bawd; and, in all refpects, of fo infamous a character, that her invention deferved the name of villainous faffron. This woman was, afterwards, amongst the mifcreants concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which fhe was hanged at Tyburn, and would die in a yellow ruff of her own invention: which made yellow ftarch fo odious, that it immediately went out of fashion. 'Tis this then to which Shakespeare alludes: but ufing the word faffron for yellow, a new idea presented itself, and he pursues his thought under a quite different allufion-Whofe villainous faffron would have made all the unbak'd and doughy youths of a nation in his colour, i. e. of his temper and difpofition. Here the general custom of that time, of colouring pafte with faffron, is alluded to. So, in the Winter's Tale:

"I must have faffron to colour the warden pyes."

WARBURTON.

Stubbs, in his Anatomic of Abufes, published in 1595, speaks of ftarch of various colours:

"The one arch or piller wherewith the devil's kingdome of great ruffes is underpropped, is a certain kind of liquid matter, which they call ftartch, wherein the devill hath learned them to wash and die their ruffes, which, being drie, will stand stiff and inflexible about their neckes. And this ftartch they make of divers substances, fometimes of wheate flower, of branne, and other graines: fometimes of rootes, and fometimes of other thinges of all collours and hues, as white, redde, blewe, purple, and the like."