For prefent parting; only, he defires
Some private fpeech with you.

Ber. I fhall obey his will.

You must not marvel, Helen, at my course,
Which holds not colour with the time, nor does
The miniftration and required office

On my particular prepar'd I was not

For fuch a bufinefs; therefore am 1 found

So much unfettled: This drives me to intreat you,
That presently you take your way for home;
And rather mufe, than afk, why I entreat you:
For my refpects are better than they feem;
And my appointments have in them a need,
Greater than fhews itself, at the first view,
To you that know them not.

This to my mother : [Giving a letter

'Twill be two days ere I shall fee

I leave you to your wisdom.

Hel. Sir, I can nothing say,

you; fo

But that I am your most obedient fervant.
Ber. Come, come, no more of that.

Hel. And ever shall

With true obfervance feek to eke out that,
Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd
To equal my great fortune.

Ber. Let that go:

My hafte is very great: Farewel; hie home.
Hel. Pray, fir, your pardon.

Ber. Well, what would you say?

Hel. I am not worthy of the wealth I owe ";

Nor dare I fay, 'tis mine; and yet it is;

But, like a timorous thief, moft fain would steal

What law does vouch mine own.

Ber. What would you have?

beth:

And rather mufe, &c.] To mufe is to wonder. So, in Mac-
Do not mufe at me my most noble friends." STEEVENŞ.

5 -the wealth I owe ;] i, e. I own.

STEEVENS.

Hel.

Hel. Something; and scarce fo much nothing, indeed.

I would not tell you what I would; my lord,-'faith, yes;

Strangers, and foes, do funder, and not kifs.

Ber. I pray you, ftay not, but in hafte to horse. Hel. I fhall not break your bidding, good my

6

lord.

[Exit Helena. monfieur?-Fare

Go thou toward home; where I will never come, Whilft I can shake my fword, or hear the drum :Away, and for our flight.

Par. Bravely, coragio!

[Exeunt,

ACT III.

SCENE I.

The Duke's court in Florence.

Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, two French Lords,

with foldiers.

Duke. So that, from point to` point, now have you heard

The fundamental reafons of this war;

Whofe great decifion hath much blood let forth
And, more thirsts after.

• In former copies :

Hel. I fhall not break your bidding, good my lord:
Where are my other men? Monfieur, farewel

Ber. Go thou toward home, where I will never come.] What other men is Helen here enquiring after? Or who is the fuppofed to afk for them? The old Countefs, 'tis certain, did not send her to the court without fome attendants: but neither the Clown, nor any of her retinue, are now upon the ftage: Bertram, observing Helen to linger fondly, and wanting to fhift her off, puts on a fhew of hafte, afks Parolles for his fervants, and then gives his wife an abrupt difmiffion. THEOBALD.

I Lord.

1 Lord. Holy feems the quarrel

Upon your grace's part; black and fearful
On the oppofer.

Duke. Therefore we marvel much, our coufin
France

Would, in so just a business, shut his bosom
Against our borrowing prayers.

2 Lord. Good my lord,

The reasons of our ftate I cannot yield 7,
But like a common and an outward man
That the great figure of a council frames
By felf-unable motion: therefore dare not
Say what I think of it; fince I have found
Myself in my uncertain grounds to fail
As often as I guefs'd.

Duke. Be it his pleasure.

2 Lord. But I am fure, the younger of our nature That furfeit on their eafe, will, day by day,

Come here for phyfick.

Duke. Welcome fhall they be ;

And all the honours, that can fly from us,

Shall on them fettle: You know your places well;
When better fall, for your avails they fell:
To-morrow to the field.

[Exeunt.

7 I cannot yield,] I cannot inform you of the reasons.

8

JOHNSON.

-an outward man,] i. e. one not in the secret of affairs. WARBURTON.

So inward is familiar, admitted to fecrets. "I was an inward

of his." Meafure for Measure. JOHNSON.

9 By felf-unable motion :-] We should read notion.

WARBURTON.

This emendation had been recommended by Mr. Upton.

the younger of our nature,]

STEEVENS.

i. e. as we fay at prefent, our young fellows. The modern editors read nation, I have restored the old reading, STEEVENS.

SCENE

1

Count. It hath happened all as I would have had it, fave, that he comes not along with her.

Clo. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.

Count. By what obfervance, I pray you?

Clo. Why, he will look upon his boot, and fing; mend the ruff, and fing; afk queftions, and fing; pick his teeth, and fing: I know a man that had this trick of melancholy, fold a goodly manor for a fong. : Count. Let me fee what he writes, and when he means to come,

Clo. I have no mind to Ifbel, fince I was at court: our old ling and our Ifbels o'the country, are nothing like your old ling and your Ifbels o'the court : the brain of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no ftomach. Count. What have we here?

Clo. E'en that

you

have there.

Countess reads a letter.

[Exit.

I have fent you a daughter-in-law: he hath recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and fworn to make the not eternal. You shall hear, I am run away; know it, before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you.

2

Your unfortunate fon,

BERTRAM.

-fold a goodly manor for a fong.] Thus the modern editors.

The old copy reads-hold a goodly, &c. The emendation however

feems neceflary. STEEVENS.

This is not well, rafh and unbridled boy,
To fly the favours of fo good a king;
To pluck his indignation on thy head,
By the misprizing of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

Re-enter Clown.

Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two foldiers and my young lady.

Count. What is the matter?

Clo. Nay, there is fome comfort in the news, fome comfort; your fon will not be kill'd fo foon as I thought he would.

Count. Why fhould he be kill'd?

Clo. So fay I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does: the danger is in standing to't; that's the lofs of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come, will tell you more: for my part, I only hear, your fon was run away.

Enter Helena, and two gentlemen.

1 Gen. Save you, good madam.

Hel. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone." 2 Gen. Do not say so.

Count. Think upon patience.-'Pray you, gentle

men,

I have felt fo many quirks of joy, and grief,
That the first face of neither, on the start,

Can woman me unto't :Where is my fon, I pray you?

2 Gen. Madam, he's gone to ferve the duke of Florence:

We met him thitherward; for thence we came,
And, after fome dispatch in hand at court,

Thither we bend again.

Hel. Look on this letter, madam; here's my paff

port..

When