Line 349. -like a stalking horse,] See note on Much Ado about Nothing, Act 2. Sc. 3.

Line 351. Enter Hymen,] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aërial being in the character of Hymen.

JOHNSON.

Line 361. If there be truth in sight,] The answer of Phebe makes it probable that Orlando says, if there be truth in shape: `that is, if a form may be trusted; if one cannot usurp the form of another. JOHNSON.

Line 375. If truth holds true contents.] That is, if there be truth in truth, unless truth fails of veracity. JOHNSON.

END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON AS YOU LIKE IT.

ANNOTATIONS

ON

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

ACT I. SCENE I.

LINE 5. -in ward.] Under his particular care, as my guardian, till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in England that the. heirs of great fortunes were the king's wards. Whether the same practice prevailed in France, it is of no great use to enquire, for Shakspeare gives to all nations the manners of England. JOHNS.

Line 20. -O, that had! how sad a passage 'tis !] Passage is any thing that passes; so we now say, a passage of an author, and we said about a century ago, the passages of a reign. When the countess mentions Helena's loss of a father, she recollects her own loss of a husband, and stops to observe how heavily that word had passes through her mind. JOHNSON.

Thus Shakspeare himself. See The Comedy of Errors, Act 3, Sc. 1.-"Now in the stirring passage of the day." STEEVENS. Line 45. they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness;] Her virtues are the better for their simpleness, that is, her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design. The learned Dr.

Warburton well explained virtues, but has not, I think, reached the force of the word traitors, and therefore has not shewn the full extent of Shakspeare's masterly observation. Virtues in an unclean mind are virtues and traitors too. Estimable and useful qualities, joined with evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence. The Tatler, mentioning the sharpers of his time, observes, that some of them are men of such elegance and knowledge, that a young man who falls into their way is betrayed as much by his judgment as his passions. JOHNSON.

Line 51.

—can season her praise in:] Thus.in Twelfth Night; "all this to season

"A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh,
"And lasting in her remembrance."

Line 54. -all livelihood-] Means all appearance of life.

STEEVENS.

61. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.] Lafeu says, excessive grief is the enemy of the living: the countess replies, If the living be an enemy to grief, the excess soon makes it mortal: that is, if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess. By the word mortal I understand that which dies, and Dr. Warburton, (whose reading is-be not enemy) that which destroys. I think that my interpretation gives a sentence more acute and more refined. Let the reader judge. JOHNSON.

Line 75. That thee may furnish,] That may help thee with more and better qualifications.de JOHNSON.

Line 82. The best wishes, &c.] That is, may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring them to effect. JOHNS. Line 90.these great tears-] The tears which the king and countess shed for him. ̧. JOHNSON. Line 98. In his bright radiance and collateral light, &c.] I cannot be united with him and move in the same sphere, but must be comforted at a distance by the radiance that shoots on all sides from him. JOHNSON.

Line 105. In our hearts' table;] Table means the board or canvass on which a picture was painted. See Walpole's Anecdotes. Line 106. trick of his sweet favour:] So in King John:

"—he hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face." Trick seems, to be some peculiarity of look or feature. JOHNSON.

Line 115. Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.] Cold for naked; as superfluous for over-cloathed. This makes the propriety of the antithesis. WARBURTON.

Line 117. And you, monarch.] Probably monarcho, then a popular and ridiculous character of the age.

Line 121.

-stain of soldier—] Stain for colour. Parolles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble-bee. WARBURTON.

It does not appear from either of these expressions, that Parolles was entirely drest in red. Shakspeare writes only some stain of soldier, meaning only he had red breeches on, which is sufficiently evident from calling him afterwards red-tail'd humble-bee. STEEV.

Stain rather for what we now say tincture, some qualities, at least superficial, of a soldier. JOHNSON. Line 138. Loss of virginity is rational increase ;] Mr. Tyrwhitt would read national, which I think more plausible and correct. Line 156. inhabited sin-] i. e. Forbidden. So in Othello: -a practiser,

64

"Of arts inhabited and out of warrant."

So the first folio. Theobald and Johnson read prohibited. STEEV. ⚫ Line 163. Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes, &c.] Parolles, in answer to the question, how one shall lose virginity to her own liking? plays upon the word liking, and says, she must do ill, for virginity, to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity. JOHNSON.

Line 170. -your date is better-] Here is a quibble on the word date, which means both age, and a particular kind of fruit much used in our author's time- -Romeo and Juliet:

"They call for dates and quinces in the pastry."

STEEV.

Line 177. Not my virginity yet.] Perhaps Parolles, going away after his harangue, said, will you any thing with me? to which Helen may reply. JOHNSON.

Parolles has been laughing at the unprofitableness of virginity, especially when it grows ancient, and compares it to withered fruit. Helena, properly enough replies, that hers is not yet in Q

VOL. X.