(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,
Which I would fain shut out: If it should prove
That thou art so inhuman,-'twill not prove so;-
And yet I know not:-thou didst hate her deadly,
And she is dead; which nothing, but to close
Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,
More than to see this ring.-Take him away.-

-

[Guards seize BERTRAM. My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, Shall tax my fears of little vanity,

Having vainly fear'd too little 16.-Away with him;We'll sift this matter further.

you shall prove

This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy
Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence,
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 17, come short To tender it herself. I undertook it,

Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech

16 The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational. I have unreasonably feared too little.

17 Removes are journeys or post-stages; she had not been able to overtake the king on the road.

Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know,
Is here attending: her business looks in her
With an importing visage; and she told me,
In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern
Your highness with herself.

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 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 18 for this; I'll none of him.

King. The heavens have thought well on thee, Lafeu,

To bring 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!

18 The second folio reads:-'I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for him: for this, I'll none of him.' I prefer the reading of the first folio, as in the text. The allusion is to the custom of paying toll for the liberty of selling in a fair, and means, 'I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and sell this one; pay toll for the liberty of selling him.' So in Hudibras :a roan gelding,

Where, when, by whom, and what ye were sold for,
And in the public market toll'd for.'

There were two statutes to regulate the tolling of horses in fairs. Tolling out is a mistaken conception of Malone's. The passage from Camden's Remaines, tolling him out of the faire by a traine, means, inticing him out of the fair by a device or stratagem.'

Enter BERTRAM, guarded.

King. I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters to you 19,

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, Deriv'd 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 honour
Both suffer under this complaint we bring,
And both shall cease 20, 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,

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,

19 The first folio reads:

'I wonder, sir, sir; wives, &c.'

The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. As in the succeeding line

means as soon as.

20 Decease, die.

VOL. III.

GG

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 21.

Dia. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so, He might have bought me at a common price : Do not believe him: O, behold this ring, Whose high respect, and rich validity 25 Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that, He gave it to a commoner o' the camp,

If I be one.
Count.

22

He blushes, and 'tis it 23:

21 The following passage from The False One of Beaumont and Fletcher will sufficiently elucidate this term when applied to a female:

'Tis a catalogue

Of all the gamesters in the court and city,

Which lord lies with that lady, and what gallant
Sports with that merchant's wife.'

22 i. e. value.

23 Malone remarks that the old copy reads, 'tis hit, and that in many of our old chronicles he had found hit printed instead of it. It is not in our old chronicles alone, but in all our old writers that the word may be found in this form. The acute author of the Diversions of Purley has shown the reason at p. 53 of his second volume. Pope had changed hit to his, and Henley proposed to read fit. Tooke treats poor Malone with sarcastic commiseration for taking the old orthography for a mistake of the printer.

Of six preceding ancestors, that gem
Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,
Hath it been ow'd and worn.

That ring's a thousand proofs.

This is his wife:

Methought, you said,

King.
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.

What of him? He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,

24

With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd 25:
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,
Her insult coming with her modern grace
26
Subdued me to her rate: she got the ring;
And I had that, which any inferior might
At market-price have bought.

Dia.

24 Noted.

26

I must be patient;

25 Debauch'd.

Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is heightened, and to conclude her solicitation concurring with her common or ordinary grace she got the ring.' It may be remarked that Shakspeare and some of his contemporaries use the word modern for trivial, common, ordinary; the reason of this has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Modernaglie,' says Florio, moderne things; also taken for young wenches.' Modern may therefore mean youthful in this instance.