(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, - [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 [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, 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, 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, Wid. I am her mother, sir, whose age and honour 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. You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; That she, which marries you, must marry me, 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, 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. 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 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 That ring's a thousand proofs. This is his wife: Methought, you said, King. 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: King. 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. |