I formerly proposed to read - Out with it: within ten months it will make itself two." Part with it, and within ten months' time it will double itself; i. e. it wili produce a child.

I now mention this conjecture (in which I once had some confidence) only for the purpose of acknowledging my error. I had not sufficiently attended to a former passage in this scene,' ,,Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found," i. e. may produce ten virgins. Those words likewise are spoken by Parolles, and add such decisive support to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation, that I have not hesitated to adopt it. The text, as exhibited in the old copy, is undoubtedly corrupt. It has already been observed, that many passages in these plays in which numbers are introduced, are printed incorrectly.

MALONE.

There is no reason for altering the text, A well-known observation of the noble Earl, to whom the horses of the present generation owe the length of their tails, contains the true expla nation of this passage. HENLEY.

I cannot help repeating on this occasion, Justice Shallow's remark: if Give me pardon, Sir, 99 you come with news, I take it there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them." With this noble Earl's notorious remark, I am quite unacquainted. But perhaps the critick (with a flippancy in which he has sometimes indulged himself at my expence) will reply, like Pistol,,,Why then lament therefore;" or observe, like Hamlet, that,,a knavish speech, sleeps in a

foolish car." STEEVENS.

P. 108, 1. 21.

to like him that ne'er it likes.] Parolles, in answer to the question,,,How

one shall lose virginity to her own liking?" plays upon the word liking, and says, she must do ill, for virginity, to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity. JOHNSON.

P. 108, 1. 28. which wear not now;] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Shakspeare often uses the active for the passive. The modern editors read, which we wear not now. TYRWHITT. P. 108, 1. 28. Your date is better etc.] Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a candied fruit much used in our author's time, STEEVENS.

P. 108, last 1. but one. Not my virginity yet.] This whole speech is abrupt, unconnected, and obscure. Dr. Warburton thinks much of it sup posititious. I would be glad to think so of the whole, for a commentator naturally wishes to reject what he cannot understand. Something, which should connect Helena's words with those of Parolles, seems to be wanting. Hanmer has made a fair attempt by reading:

Not my virginity yet. You're for the

court,

There shall your master, etc.

Some such clause has, I think, dropped out, but still the first words want connection, Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply. I know not what to do with the passage.

JOHNSON.

I do not perceive so great a want of connection as my predecessors have apprehended; nor is that connection always to be sought for, in so careless a writer as ours, from the thought immediately preceding the reply of the speaker. Parolles has

been laughing at the unprofitableness of virginity, especially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. Helena properly enough replies, that hers is not yet in that state; but that in the enjoyment of her, his master should find the gratification of all his most romantic Dr. Warburton says afterwards is

shes. Was all positive declarations of the

at

same kind must of necessity be. Were I to propose any change, I would read should instead of shall. It does not however appear that this rapturous effusion of Helena was designed to be intelligible to Parolles. Its obscurity, therefore, may be its merit. It sufficiently explains what is passing in the mind of the speaker, to every one but him to whom she does not mean to explain it. STEEVENS.

Perhaps we should read: ,, Will you any thing with us?" i. e. will you send any thing with us to court? to which Helena's answer would be proper enough

,,Not my virginity yet." TYRWHITT.

P. 109, 1. 2. A phoenix, etc.] The eight lines following friend, I am persuaded, is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player. What put it into his head was Helen's saying, as it should be read for the future:

There shall your master have a thousand

loves;

„A mother, and a mistress, and a friend, I know not what he shall God send

him well.

Where the fellow, finding a thousand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a

mother's, a mistress's, and a friend's (which, by the way, were all a judicious writer could mention; for there are but these three species of love in nature) he would help out the number, by the intermediate nonsense; and, because they were yet too few, he pieces out his loves with enmities, and makes of the whole such finished nonsense, as is never heard out of Bedlam. WARBURTON, P. 109, I. 2. captain,] Our author often uses this word for a head or chief, MALONE. P. 109, 1. 4. It seems that traitress was in that age a term of endearment, for when Lafeu introduces Helena to the King, he says,

,,You are like a traytor, but such traytors his Majesty docs not much fear." JOHNSON.

Ι cannot conceive that traitress (spoken seriously) was in any age a term of endearment, From the present passage, we might as well sup pose enemy (in the last line but one) to be a term of endearment. In the other passage quoted, Lafeu is plainly speaking ironically. TYRWHITT.

Traditora, a traitress, in the Italian language, is generally used as a term of endearment. The meaning of Helen is, that she shall prove every thing to Bertram. Our ancient writers delighted in catalogues, and always characterize love by contrarieties. STEEVENS.

Falstaff, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, says to Mrs. Ford: Thou art a traitor to say In his interview with her, he certainly meant to use the language of love.

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Helena however, I think, does not mean to say that she shall prove every thing to Bertram, but to express her apprehension that he will find at the court some lady or ladies who shall proye every thing to him; (,,a phoenix, captain, coun

sellor, traitress; etc.") to whom he will give all the fond names that ,,blinking Cupid gossips." MALONE.

I believe it would not be difficult to find in the love poetry of those times an authority for most, if not for every one, of these whimsical titles. At least I can affirm it from knowledge, that far the greater part of them are to be found in the Italian lyrick poetry, which was the model from which our pocts chiefly copied. HEATH.

P. 109, 1. 8. Christendom signifies the collective body of christianity, every place where the christian religion is embraced, is surely used with much licence on the present occasion. STEEVENS.

P. 109, 1. 20. And show what we alone must think;] And show by realities what we now must only think.

JOHNSON.

P. 110, 1. 7. is a virtue of a good wing,] Mr. Edwards is of opinion, that a virtue of a good wing refers to his nimbleness or fleetness in running away. The phrase, however, is taken from falconry, as may appear from the following passage in Marston's Fawne, 1606: „,— I love my horse after a journeying easiness, as he is easy in journeying; my hawk, for the goodness of his wing, etc." Or it may be taken from dress: So, in Every Man ont of his Humour: „I would have mine such a suit without a difference; such 'stuff, such a wing, such a sleeve," etc. M. Tollet observes, that a good wing signifies a strong wing in Lord Bacon's Natural History, experi ment 8 6:,,Certainly many birds of a good wing (as kites and the like) would bear up a good weight as they fly." STEEVENS.