Laf. Why, doctor fhe: My lord, there's one arriv'd,

If you will fee her now, by my faith and honour, If seriously I may convey my thoughts

In this my light deliverance, I have fpoke

With one, that, in her fex, her years, profeffion,
Wisdom, and conftancy, hath amaz'd me more
Than I dare blame my weaknefs: Will you fee her,
(For that is her demand) and know her business?
That done, laugh well at me.

King. Now, good Lafeu,

Bring in the admiration; that we with thee,
May spend our wonder too, or take off thine,
By wond'ring how thou took'ft it.

Laf. Nay, I'll fit you,

And not be all day neither.

[Exit Lafeu,

King. Thus he his fpecial nothing ever prologues,

Laf. [Returns.] Nay, come your ways.

[Bringing in Helena.

King. This hafte hath wings indeed.

Laf. Nay, come your ways;

This is his majefty, fay your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but fuch traitors
His majesty feldom fears: I am Creffid's uncle 5,
That dare leave two together; fare you well. [Exit.
King. Now, fair one, does your bufinefs follow us?
Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was
My father; in what he did profess, well found.
King. I knew him.

Hel. The rather will I fpare my praises toward him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death

3-ber years, profeffion,] By profeffion is meant her declaration of the end and purpose of her coming. WARBURTON.

+ Than I dare blame my weakness:] This is one of Shakespeare's `perplexed expreffions. To acknowledge how much she has aftonifhed me, would be to acknowledge a weakness; and this I have not the confidence to do. STEEVENS.

5

Creffid's uncle, I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Crefida. JOHNSON.

Many

Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the deareft iffue of his practice,
And of his old experience the only darling,
He bad me ftore up, as a triple eye",

Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have fo:
And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd
With that malignant cause wherein the honour
Of my dear father's gift ftands chief in power,
'I come to tender it, and my appliance,
With all bound humbleness.

King. We thank you, maiden;

But may not be fo credulous of cure,-
When our most learned doctors leave us; and
The congregated college have concluded,
That labouring art can never answer nature
From her inaidable eftate,-I fay we must not
So ftain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
To prostitute our past-cure malady

To empericks; or to diffever fo

Our great felf and our credit, to esteem

A fenfelefs help, when help past sense we deem.
Hel. My duty then fhall pay me for my pains:
I will no more enforce mine office on you;
Humbly intreating from your royal thoughts
A modeft one, to bear me back again.

King. I cannot give thee lefs, to be call'd grateful :
Thou thought'ft to help me ; and fuch thanks I give,
As one near death to those that with him live:
But, what at full I know, thou know'ft no part;
I knowing all my peril, thou no art.

Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, Since you fet up your reft 'gainst remedy:

7

a triple eye,] i. e. a third eye." STEEVENS.

- wherein the honour

Of my dear father's gift ftands chief in power,]

Perhaps we may better read:

wherein the power

Of my dear father's gift ftands chief in honour. JOHNSON.

He

He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minifter:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes. Great floods have
flown

From fimple fources; and great feas have dry'd,
When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd ".
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where moft it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldeft, and defpair moft fits.
King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind
maid;

en.

Thy pains, not us'd, muft by thyself be paid:
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Hel. Infpired merit fo by breath is barr'd:
It is not fo with him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us that fquare our guefs by fhows:
But moft it is prefumption in us, when
The help of heaven we count the act of m
Dear fir, to my endeavours give consent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impoftor, that proclaim
'Myself against the level of mine aim;

But know, I think, and think I know moft fure,
My art is not paft power, nor you past cure.

8 When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd.]

I do not fee the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correfpondent rhyme, I fufpect that fomething has been loft. JOHNSON.

I point the paffage thus; and then I fee no reason to complain of want of connection:

When judges have been babes. Great floods, &c.

When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd.

i. e. miracles have continued to happen, while the wisest men have been writing against the poffibility of them. STEEVENS.

9 Myfelf against the level of mine aim ;]

i. e. pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of condition. WARBURTON.

my

I rather think that the means to fay, I am not an impoftor that proclaim one thing and defign another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud: I think what I fpeak. JOHNSON.

King. Art thou fo confident? Within what space
Hop'it thou my cure?

Hel. The greateft grace lending grace',
Ere twice the horfes of the fun fhall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moift Hesperus hath quench'd his fleepy lamp
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glafs
Hath told the thievifh minutes how they pafs;
What is infirm from your found parts fhall fly,
Health fhall live free, and fickness freely die.
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'it thou venture?

Hel. Tax of impudence,

A ftrumpet's boldnefs, a divulged fhame',
Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name

The greatest grace lending grace,]

Sear'd

I should have thought the repetition of grace to have been fuper. fluous, if the grace of grace had not occurred in the fpeech with which the tragedy of Macbeth concludes. STEEVENS.

2

a divulged fhame,

Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwife, no worfe of worst extended,

With wileft torture let my life be ended.]

This paffage is apparently corrupt, and how fhall it be rectified? I have no great hope of fuccefs, but fomething must be tried. I read the whole thus:.

King. What dar'ft thou venture?

Hel. Tax of impudence,

A frumpet's boldness; a divulged shame,
Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden name;
Sear'd otherwife, to worst of avort extended;

With vileft torture let my life be ended.

When this alteration firft came into my mind, I fuppofed Helen tờ
mean thus: First, I venture what is deareft to me, my maiden re-
putation; but if your diftruft extends my character to the worst of
the worst, and fuppofes me feared against the fenfe of infamy, I
will add to the ftake of reputation, the ftake of life. This cer
tainly is fenfe, and the language as grammatical as many other paf-
fages of Shakespeare. Yet we may try another experiment:
Fear otherwife to worst of avort extended;
With vileft torture let my life be ended.

That

Sear'd otherwife; no worfe of worst extended,
With vileft torture let my life be ended.

King. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed fpirit doth speak;

His powerful found, within an organ weak:

And

That is, let me act under the greatest terrors poffible. Yet once again we will try to find the right way by the glimmer of Hanmer's emendation, who reads thus:

-my maiden name

Sear'd; otherwife the worst of worst extended, &c.

Perhaps it were better thus:

my maiden name

Sear'd; otherwife the worst to worst extended;

With vileft torture let my life be ended. JOHNSON. Let us try, if poffible, to produce fenfe from this paffage with out exchanging a fyllable. I would bear (fays fhe) the tax of im pudence, which is the denotement of a ftrumpet; would endure a shame refulting from my failure in what I have undertaken, and thence become the fubject of odious ballads; let my maiden reputation be otherwife branded; and, no worfe of worst extended, i. e. provided no thing worfe is offered to me, (meaning violation) let my life be ended with the worst of tortures. The poet for the fake of rhime has ob fcured the fenfe of the paffage. The worst that can befal a woman, being extended to me, feems to be the meaning of the laft line. STEEVENS. The old copy reads not fear'd, but fear'd. The impreffion in my book is very faint, but that, I think, is the word. In the fame line it reads not no, but ne, probably an error for the. I would wish to read and point the paffage thus:

a divulged frame

Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden's name;
Scar'd otherwife; the worst of worst, extended
With vileft torture, let my life be ended.

i.e. Let my maiden reputation become the fubject of ballads.
let it be otherwife mangled-and (what is the worst of worst, the
confummation of mifery) my body being extended on the rack by the
moft cruel torture, let my life pay the forfeit of my prefumption

3 Methinks, in thee fome bleffed fpirit doth Speak

MALONE.

His powerful found, within an organ weak:] To fpeak a found is a barbarifim: for to speak fignifies to utter an articulate found, i. e. a voice. So, Shakespeare, in Love's Labour Loft, fays with propriety, And when love fpeaks the voice of all the gods. To fpeak a found therefore is improper, though to utter a found is not; because the word utter may be applied either to an

articulate