He gave it to a commoner o' the camp,

If I be one.

Count.

He blushes, and 'tis it:2

Of six preceding ancestors, that gem

Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,

Hath it been ow'd and worn.

This is his wife;

That ring's a thousand proofs.
King.

Methought, you said,3

You saw one here in court could witness it.
Dia. I did, my lord, but loth 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.

He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,

What of him?

With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd;5
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,

2 'tis it:] The old copy has-'tis hit. The emendation was made by Mr Steevens. In many of our old chronicles I have found hit printed instead of it. Hence, probably, the mistake here. Mr. Pope reads-and 'tis his. Malone

Or, he blushes, and 'tis fit. Henley.

3 Methought, you said,] The poet has here forgot himself. Diana has said no such thing. Blackstone.

4 He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,] Quoted has the same sense as noted, or observed.

So, in Hamlet:

5

"I'm sorry that with better heed and judgment
"I had not quoted him." Steevens.

debosh'd;] See a note on The Tempest, Act III, sc. ii. Vol. II, p. 82, n. 2. Steevens.

6 Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth:] Here the modern editors read:

Which nature sickens with:

a most licentious corruption of the old reading, in which the punctuation only wants to be corrected. We should read, as here printed:

Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth: i. e. only to speak a truth. Tyrwhitt.

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'insuit coming" with her modern grace, infinite cunning

Subdued me to her rate: she got the ring;
And I had that, which any inferior might
At market-price have bought.

I must be patient;

Dian. "You, that turn'd off a first so noble wife, May justly diet me. I pray you yet,

7

· all impediments in fancy's course

"

·Are motives of more fancy;] Every thing that obstructs love is an occasion by which love is heightened. And, to conclude, her solicitation concurring with her fashionable appearance, she got the ring. I am not certain that I have attained the true meaning of the word modern, which, perhaps, signifies rather meanly pretty. Johnson.

I believe modern means common. The sense will then be this — Her solicitation concurring with her appearance of being common, i. e. with the appearance of her being to be had, as we say at present. Shakspeare uses the word modern frequently, and always in this sense. So, in King John:

66

scorns a modern invocation." Again, in As you Like it:

"Full of wise saws and modern instances."

"Trifles, such as we present modern friends with." Again, in the present comedy, p. 211, n. 5; "— to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless."

Mr. M. Mason says, that modern grace means, with a tolerable degree of beauty. He questions also the insufficiency of the instances brought in support of my explanation, but adduces none in defence of his own. Steevens.

Dr. Johnson's last interpretation is certainly the true one. See p. 59, n. 4; and p. 211, n. 5. I think, with Mr. Steevens, that modern here, as almost every where in Shakspeare, means common, ordinary; but do not suppose that Bertram here means to call Diana a common gamester, though he has styled her so in a former passage. Malone.

8 May justly diet me.] May justly loath or be weary of me, as people generally are of a regimen or prescribed diet. Such, I imagine, is the meaning. Mr. Collins thinks she means" May justly make me fast, by depriving me (as Desdemona says) of the rites for which I love you." Malone.

Mr. Collins's interpretation is just. The allusion may be to

(Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband) Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.

Ber.

I have it not.

King. What ring was yours, I pray you?

Dia.

The same upon your finger.

Sir, much like

King. Know you this ring? this ring was his of late. Dia. And this was it I gave him, being a-bed.

King. The story then goes false, you threw it him Out of a casement.

Dia.

I have spoke the truth.

Enter PAROLLES.

Ber. My lord, I do confess, the ring was hers.
King. You boggle shrewdly, every feather starts

you.

Is this the man you speak of?

Dia.

Ay, my lord.

King. Tell me, sirrah, but, tell me true, I charge you, Not fearing the displeasure of your master, (Which, on your just proceeding, I'll keep off) By him, and by this woman here, what know you? Par. So please your majesty, my master hath been an honourable gentleman; tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.

King. Come, come, to the purpose: Did he love this woman?

Par. 'Faith, sir, he did love her; But how?9

King. How, I pray you?

the management of hawks, who were half starved till they became tractable. Thus, in Coriolanus:

I'll watch him,

"Till he be dieted to my request."

"To fast, like one who takes diet," is a comparison that occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

9

Steevens.

he did love her; But how?] But how perhaps belongs to the King's next speech:

But how, how, I pray you?

This suits better with the King's apparent impatience and solicitude for Helena. Malone.

Surely all transfer of these words is needless. Hamlet addresses such another flippant interrogatory to himself: "The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically." Steevens.

Par. He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a

woman.

King. How is that?

Par. He loved her, sir, and loved her not.

King. As thou art a knave, and no knave:-
What an equivocal companion1 is this?

Par. I am a poor man, and at your majesty's command.
Laf. He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty orator.
Dia. Do you know, he promised me marriage?
Par. 'Faith, I know more than I'll speak.

King. But wilt thou not speak all thou know'st? Par. Yes, so please your majesty; I did go between them, as I said; but more than that, he loved her,-for, indeed, he was mad for her, and talked of Satan, and of limbo, and of furies, and I know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time, that I knew of their going to bed; and of other motions, as promising her marriage, and things that would derive me ill will to speak of, therefore I will not speak what I know.

King. Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are married: But thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore stand aside.

2

This ring, you say, was yours?

1

2

Dia.

King. Where did you buy it?

Ay, my good lord.

or who gave it you?

Dia. It was not given me, nor did I buy it.
King. Who lent it you?

· companion] i. e. fellow. So, in King Henry VI, P. II: Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be,

"I know thee not." Steevens.

But thou art too fine in thy evidence;] Too fine, too full of finesse; too artful. A French expression-trop fine.

So, in Sir Henry Wotton's celebrated Parallel: "We may rate this one secret, as it was finely carried, at 40001. sterling. Malone.

So, in a very scarce book, entitled A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels: conteyning fiue Tragicall Histories, &c. Translated out of French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton] 4to. 1578: "Woulde God, (sayd he) I were to deale with a man, that I might recover my losse by fine force: but sith my controversie is agaynst a woman, it muste be woone by loue and favoure." p. 51. Again, p. 277: ". as a butterflie flickering from floure to floure, if it be caught by a childe that finely followeth it," &c.

Steevens:

Dia.

It was not lent me, neither.

I found it not.

King. Where did you find it then?
Dia.

King. If it were yours by none of all these ways,
How could you give it him?

Dia.

I never gave it him. Laf. This woman 's an easy glove, my lord; she goes off and on at pleasure.

King. This ring was mine, I gave it his first wife. Dia. It might be yours, or hers, for aught I know. King. Take her away, I do not like her now;

To prison with her: and away with him.

Unless thou tell'st me where thou had'st this ring,
Thou diest within this hour.

Dia.

King. Take her away.

I'll never tell you.

I'll put in bail, my liege.

Dia. King. I think thee now some common customer.3 Dia. By Jove, if ever I knew man, 'twas you. King. Wherefore hast thou accus'd him all this while? Dia. Because he 's guilty, and he is not guilty; He knows, I am no maid, and he 'll swear to 't: I'll swear, I am a maid, and he knows not. Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life;

I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.

[Pointing to LAF. King. She does abuse our ears; to prison with her. Dia. Good mother, fetch my bail.-Stay, royal sir; [Exit. Wid.

The jeweller, that owes the ring, is sent for,
And he shall surety me. But for this lord,
Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself,
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him:
He knows himself, my bed he hath defil'd;4
And at that time he got his wife with child:

3

customer] i. e. a common woman. So, in Othello: "I marry her!-what?-a customer!" Steevens.

4 He knows himself, &c.] the dialogue is too long, since the audience already knew the whole transaction; nor is there any reason for puzzling the King and playing with his passions; but it was much easier than to make a pathetical interview between Helen and her husband, her mother, and the King. Johnson.