The nature of his great offence is dead, The incensing relicks of it: let him approach, A stranger, no offender; and inform him, So 'tis our will he should. Gent. I shall, my liege. [Exit Gentleman. King. What says he to your daughter? have you spoke? Laf. All that he is hath reference to your highness. King. Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent me, That set him high in fame. Enter BERTRAM. Laf. He looks well on't. King. I am not a day of season, 6 For thou may'st see a sun-shine and a hail In me at once: But to the brightest beams Ber. My high-repented blames, Dear sovereign, pardon to me. Not one word more of the consumed time. Ber. Admiringly, my liege: at first King. Well excus'd : [6] That is, of uninterrupted rain: one of those wet days that usually happen about the vernal equinox. The word is still used in the same sense in Virginia, in which government, and especially on the eastern shore of it, where the descendants of the first settlers have been less mixed with later emigrants, many expressions of Shakspeare's time are still current. HENLEY. That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away Count.Which better than the first, O dear heaven, bless! Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease ! Laf. Come on, my son, in whom my house's name Ber. Hers it was not. King. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't.- Necessitied to help, that by this token I would relieve her: Had you that craft, to reave her Of what should stead her most? Ber. My gracious sovereign, Howe'er it pleases you to take it so, The ring was never her's. Count. Son, on my life, I have seen her wear it; and she reckon'd it Laf. I am sure, I saw her wear it. Ber. You are deceiv'd, my lord, she never saw it: In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,7 [7] Bertram still continues to have too little virtue to deserve Helen. He did not know indeed that it was Helen's ring, but he knew that he had it not from a window. JOHNS. Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain'd the name King. Plutus himself, That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine, 9 (Where you have never come,) or sent it us 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, Having vainly fear'd too little. -Away with him ;- [8] Ingaged, in the sense of unengaged, is aword of exactly the same forma. tion as inhabitable, which is used by Shakspeare and the contemporary wri ters for uninhabitable. MAL. [9] Plutus, the grand alchemist, who knows the tincture which confers the properties of gold upon base metals, and the matter by which gold is multiplied, by which a small quantity of gold is made to communicate its qualities to a large mass of base metal. In the reign of Henry the fourth, a law was made to forbid "all men thenceforth to multiply gold, or use any craft of multiplication." Of which law Mr. Boyle, when he was warm with the hope of transmutation, procured a repeal. JOHNS. [1] The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational. I have rather been hitherto more easy JOHNSON. than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear. 15 VOL. III. Ber. If you shall prove This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy Where yet she never was. [Exit BERTRAM, guarded. Enter a Gentleman. King. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings. Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not; 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; kis 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 him: for this, I'll none of him.3 King. The heavens have e 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, Count. Now, justice on the doers ! Enter BERTRAM, guarded. King. I wonder, sir, since wives are monstrous to you, And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, Yet you desire to marry. - What woman's that? [2] Removes are journies or post-stages. JOHNS. [3] I'll buy me a son-in-law as they buy a horse in a fair; toul him, i. e. enter him on the toul or toll-book. Alluding (as Dr. Grey observes) to the two statutes relating to the sale of horses, 2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, and 31 Eliz. c. 12. and publickly tolling them in fairs, to prevent the sale of such as were stolen, and to preserve the property to the right owner. STEEV. Re-enter Gentleman, with Widow, and DIANA. Derived from the ancient Capulet; Wid. I am her mother, sir, whose age and honour Both suffer under this complaint we bring, 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; 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, 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 honour, Than in my thought it lies! Dia. Good my lord, Ask him upon his oath, if he does think King. What say'st thou to her? And was a common gamester to the camp. Dia. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so, Count. He blushes, and 'tis it: [4] i. e. decease, die. So, in King Lear-"Fall and cease." STEEV. |