Helena; go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a forrow,

have

Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too." Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excelfive grief the enemy to the living stod Count. (2) If the living be not enemy to the grief,d the excess makes i it foon mortal. to gritol s41 vino Ber. Madam, I defire your holy wishes. How understand we that?

as

2

Laf.

Count. Be thou bleft, Bertram, and fucceed thy father
In manners as in fhape: thy blood and virtue
Contend for Empire in thee, and thy goodnefs
Share with thy birth-right! Love all, truft a few,
o wrong to none; be able for thine enemy

Do

Rather in power, than ufe; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for fpeech. What heav'n more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head! farewel, my Lord;

'Tis an unfeafon'd courtier, good my Lord,
Advise him.

Laf. He cannot want the best, di u indW I
That fhall attend his love.

Count. Heav'n bless him! Farewel, Bertram.

Exit Countess. Ber. [To Hel.] The beft withes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be fervants to you: be comfortable to my mother, your Miftrefs, and make much of her. Laf. Farewel, pretty Lady, you must hold the credit of your father. 19623Exeunt Ber and Laf. Hel. Of, were that all! I think not on my father; And these great tears grace his remembrance more, Than thofe f fhed for him. What was he like ?w I have forgot him. My imagination dont ons vad

(2) If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it féon mortal. } This feems very obfcure; but the addition of a negative perfectly difpels all the mift. If the living be not enemy, &c. Exceffive grief is an enemy to the living, fays Lofeu: Yes, replies. the Counters; and if the living be not enemy to the grief, [i, e. ftrive to conquer it,] the excefs makes it foon mortal. TRON 1Mr. Warburton.

Carries no favour in it, but my Bertram's.

I am undone; there is no living, nonė,

If Bertram be away. It were all one

That I fhould love a bright partic'lar ftar, 19
And think to wed it; he is fo above me :
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Muft I be comforted, not in his fphere.
Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itfelf;
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Muft die for love. "Twas pretty, tho' a plague,
To fee him every hour; to fit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table: heart, too capablen
Of every line and trick of his fweet favour!--
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy T
Muft fanctify his relicks. Who comes here for

Enter Parolles,

One that goes with him: I love him for his fake,
And yet I know him a notorious liar;

Think him a great way fool, folely a coward;
Yet thefe fix'd evils fit fo fit in him,

That they take place, when virtue's fteely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind; full oft we fee
Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

Par. Save you, fair Queen.

Hel. And you, Monarch.

Par. No.

Hel. And, no.

Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

Hel. Ay: you have fome ftain of foldier in you; let me ask you a queftion, Man is enemy to virginity, how may we barricado it against him?

Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he affails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us fome warlike refistance.

Par. There is none: man, fetting down before you, will undermine you and blow you up.

Hel. Blefs our poor virginity from underminers and

blowers

blowers up! Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men?

Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quick❤ lier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lofe your city. (3) It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preferve virginity. Lofs of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, 'till virginity was first loft. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever loft; 'tis too cold a companion; away with't.

Hel. I will ftand for't a little, though therefore I die. a virgin,

Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To fpeak on the part of virginity, is to accufe your mother; which is moft infallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself, and fhould be buried in highways out of all fanctified limit, as a defperate offendrefs against nature. Virginity breeds mites; much like a cheese; confumes itfelf to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding its own ftomach. Befides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of felf-love, which is the moft prohibited fin in the canon. Keep it not, you cannot chufe but lofe by't. Out with't; within ten years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase, and the principal itfelf not much the worfe. Away with't.

Hel. How might one do, Sir, to lose it to her own liking?

Par. Let me fee. Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lofe the glofs with lying. The longer kept, the lefs worth off with't, while 'tis vendible. Anfwer the time of request. Vir

(3) It is not politick in the commonwealth of rature to preferme virginity. Lefs of virginity is rational increafe; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first loft. The context feems to me rather to require-national increase; tho' I have not ventur'd to disturb the text, as the other reading will admit of a meaning.

A 5.

ginity,

ginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly fuited, but unfuitable; just like the b.ooch and the tooth-pick, which we wear not now: your date is better in your pye and your porridge, than in your cheek; and your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears; it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear: it was formerly better; pear. Will you any yet 'tis a wither'd thing with it?

Hel. Not my virginity yet.

There hall your mafter have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a miftrefs, and a friend,

A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddefs, and a Sovereign,
A counfellor, a traitrefs, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility;
His jarring concord; and his difcord dulcet;
His faith, his fweet difafter; with a world
Of pretty fond adoptious chriftendons,
That blinking Cupid goffips. Now fhall he

I know not, what he fhall-God fend him well!-
The court's a learning place-and he is one--

Par. What one, i' faith?

Hel. That I wish well-'tis pity

Par. What's pity?

Hel. That withing well had not a body in't,
Which might be felt; that we the poorer born,
Whose bafer ftars do fhut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends;
And fhew what we alone muft think, which never
Returns us thanks.

Enter Page.

Page. Monfieur Parelles,

My Lord calls for you.

[Exit Page

Par. Little Helen, farewel; if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court.

Hel. Monfieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable ftar..

Par. Under Mars, I.

Hel.

Hel,

especially think, under Mars.

Par Why under Mars?

Hel. The wars have kept you fo under, that you mut needs be born under Mars.

Pare Ben he wasominant.

Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather.
Par. Why think you fo?

Hel. You go fo much backward, when you fight.
Par. That's for advantage.

Hel. So is running away, when fear propofes fafety: but the compofition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.

Par. I am fo full of bufineffes, as I cannot answer the acutely: I will return perfect courtier, in the which, my inftruction fhall ferve to naturalize thee, fo thou wilt be capable of courtiers counfel, and underftand what advice fhall thrust upon thee; elfe thou dieft in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away; farewel. When thou haft leifure, fay thy prayers; when thou haft none, remember thy friends; get thee a good husband, and ufe him as he

:

[Exit.

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we afcribe to heav'n. The fated ky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our flow defigns, when we ourselves are dull. What power is it, which mounts my love fo high, That makes me fee, and cannot feed mine eye? The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes; and kifs, like native things. Impoffible be ftrange attempts, to thofe That weigh their pain in fenfe; and do fuppofe, What hath been, cannot be. Who ever ftrove To fhew her merit, that did miss her love? The King's difeafe-my project may deceive me, But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me. [Exit.

SCENE