woman, if I were the parson: One in ten, quoth a'! ana we might have a good woman born but for every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 't would mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere a pluck one. COUNT. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you!

CLO. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done!—Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.—I am going, forsooth; the business is for Helen to come hither.

COUNT. Well, now.

[Exit.

STEW. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. COUNT. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds there is more owing her than is paid; and more shall be paid her than she'll demand.

STEW. Madam, I was very late more near her than, I think, she wished me: alone she was, and did communicate to herself her own words to her own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they touched not any stranger sense. Her matter was, she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend his might only where qualities were level; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight surprised, without rescue in the first assault, or ransom afterwards: This she delivered in the most bitter touch of sorrow that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty, speedily to acquaint you withal; sithence, in the loss that may happen, it concerns you something to know it.

COUNT. You have discharged this honestly; keep it to yourself: many likelihoods informed me of this before, which hung so tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe, nor misdoubt: Pray you, leave me: stall this in your bosom, and I thank you for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon. [Exit Steward.

Enter HELENA.

COUNT. Even so it was with me when I was young:

If everd we are nature's, these are ours: this thorn

Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong:

Our blood to us, this to our blood is born;

And, of the original, we think should be an; and have altered it accordingly. For. The original reads ore. Steevens omits the word altogether. The slight correction of for appears to us to give a sense. Malone reads or, in the sense of before. We are happy in this emendation to have the approval of Mr. Dyce.

*The passage in the original stands thus:-"Love, no god, that would not extend his might only where qualities were level; queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight surprised without rescue," &c. The introduction of "Diana no" was made by Theobald. He also added

to be" before "surprised." Mr. Dyce gives a passage from Drayton, to show that this insertion is unnecessary, according to the construction of our early writers:

"And suffer not their mouths shut up, O Lord."

Ever. This word was omitted by Pope, and has been constantly omitted in modern editions.

It is the show and seal of nature's truth,

Where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth:

By our remembrances of days foregone,

Such were our faults;-or then we thought them none.
Her eye is sick on 't; I observe her now.

HEL. What is your pleasure, madam ?

COUNT. You know, Helen, I am a mother to you.
HEL. Mine honourable mistress.

COUNT.

Nay, a mother;
Why not a mother? When I said, a mother,
Methought you saw a serpent: What's in mother
That you start at it? I say, I am your mother;
And put you in the catalogue of those
That were enwombed mine: 'T is often seen,
Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds
A native slip to us from foreign seeds:
You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan,
Yet I express to you a mother's care:-
God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood
To say, I am thy mother? What 's the matter,
That this distempered messenger of wet,
The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?
Why?—that you are my daughter?

HEL.

COUNT. I say, I am your mother.

HEL.

That I am not.

Pardon, madam;

The count Rousillon cannot be my brother:
I am from humble, he from honoured name;
No note upon my parents, his all noble:
My master, my dear lord he is: and I
His servant live, and will his vassal die:
He must not be my brother.

COUNT.

Nor I your mother?
HEL. You are my mother, madam. ('Would you were
So that my lord, your son, were not my brother.)
Indeed, my mother!-(Or were you both our mothers,
I care no more for than I do for heaven,

So I were not his sister a.) Can't be other
But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?
COUNT. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law:
God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother,
So strive upon your pulse: What, pale again?

• We venture to point this very difficult passage differently from the received mode. It appears to us that the passages which we give between parentheses are spoken half aside. Farmer explains that "I care no more for" means "I care as much for."

My fear hath catch'd your fondness: Now I see
The mystery of your loneliness a, and find

Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 't is gross,
You love my son; invention is asham'd,

Against the proclamation of thy passion,

Το
say
thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, 't is so :-for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, th' one to th' other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,

That truth should be suspected: Speak, is 't so?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, forswear 't: howe'er, I charge thee,
As Heaven shall work in me for thine avail,

COUNT. Go not about; my love hath in 't a bond,

Whereof the world takes note: come, come, disclose
The state of your affection; for your passions

Have to the full appeach'd.

My friends were poor but honest; so 's my love:

Be not offended; for it hurts not him

That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not

By any token of presumptuous suit;

Nor would I have him, till I do deserve him;

. Yet never know how that desert should be.
I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet, in this captious and intenible" sieve,
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,

Religious in mine error, I adore

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,

But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,

⚫ Loneliness. In the original, loueliness. There can be no doubt that loneliness, and not loveliness, is intended.

* Captious and intenible-capable of receiving (taking), but not of retaining.

VOL. 1.

R

Let not your hate encounter with my love,
For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love; O then, give pity
To her, whose state is such, that cannot choose
But lend and give, where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies.
COUNT. Had you not lately an intent, speak truly,
To go to Paris?

Madam, I had.

HEL.
COUNT.
Wherefore? tell true.
HEL. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear.
You know my father left me some prescriptions
Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading,
And manifest experience, had collected
For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me
In heedfullest reservation to bestow them,

As notes, whose faculties inclusive were,
More than they were in note: amongst the rest,
There is a remedy, approv'd, set down,

To cure the desperate languishings whereof
The king is render'd lost.

COUNT. This was your motive for Paris, was it? speak.
HEL. My lord your son made me to think of this;
Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king,

Had, from the conversation of my thoughts,
Haply, been absent then.

COUNT.

But think you, Helen,

If you should tender your supposed aid,

He would receive it? He and his physicians

Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him,
They, that they cannot help: How shall they credit

A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,

Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off

The danger to itself?

HEL.

There's something hints",

More than my father's skill, which was the greatest

. Hints. The original has in 't. The emendation is Hanmer's. Mr. Collier retains in 't, upon the authority of a passage in 'Twelfth Night.' That passage is

"There's something in 't

That is deceivable."

No one can doubt the clearness of this affirmation. The cases do not appear to us to be parallel.

Of his profession, that his good receipt

Shall, for my legacy, be sanctified

By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour
But give me leave to try success, I'd venture

The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure,

By such a day and hour.

COUNT. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave and love,
Means, and attendants, and my loving greetings

To those of mine in court; I'll stay at home,
And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
What I can help thee to thou shalt not miss.

[Exeunt.