And of his old experience the only darling, We thank you, maiden; King. To empiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful: Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, Since you set up your rest 22 'gainst remedy: 21 A third eye. 22 i.e. Since you have determined or made up your mind that there is no remedy.' Set up your rest is a metaphorical expression derived from the game of Primero, at which it seems to have meant to stand upon the cards one held in his hand. This word furnished many other proverbial expressions among the He that of greatest works is finisher, Oft does them by the weakest minister : So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, When judges have been babes 23. Great floods have flown From simple sources 24; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied 25. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits, Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid : The help of heaven we count the act of men. I am not an impostor, that proclaim Haver fatto 'Ri Italians, one of which is to be found in the Ciriffo Calvaneo of Luca Pulci. Fa del suo resto,' to adventure all. del resto,' to have lost all, or to have nothing to rest upon. serbar il resto,' to reserve one's rest, to be wary and circumspect, &c. &c. All authorities are decisive upon the derivation of this term from Primero, as Mr. Nares has amply shown. So says Minshew, Torriano, and Florio, who is worth quoting: 'Restare, to rest, &c. Also to set up one's rest, to make a rest, or play upon one's rest at Primero.' In Spanish too Echar el resto,' to set or lay up one's rest, has the same origin and figurative meaning; to adventure all, to be determined. We shall now, it is to be hoped, hear no more of musket rests, &c. in explanation of this phrase. 23 An allusion to Daniel judging the two Elders. 24 i. e. when Moses smote the rock in Horeb. 25 This must refer to the children of Israel passing the Red Sea, when miracles had been denied by Pharaoh. Myself against the level of mine aim 26 ; But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. The greatest grace lending grace 27, Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,- King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; His powerful sound, within an organ weak: In common sense, sense saves another way. 26 I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud. I think what I speak. i. e. the divine grace, lending me grace or power to accomplish it. So in Macbeth: at the conclusion we have the grace of grace. 28 Let me be stigmatized as a strumpet, and, in addition (although that would not be worse, or a more extended evil than what I have mentioned, the loss of my honour, which is the worst that could happen), let me die with torture. Ne is nor. 29 i. e. may be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee. Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all And well deserved: Not helping, death's my fee; King. Make thy demand. Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven 32. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: To choose from forth the royal blood of France; 33. 30 Prime here signifies that sprightly vigour which usually accompanies us in the prime of life; which old Montaigne calls, cet estat plein de verdeur et de feste, and which Florio translates, 'that state, full of lust, of prime, and mirth.' So in Hamlet:'A violet in the youth of primy nature.' 31 Property seems to be used here for performance or achievement, singular as it may seem. So in Hamlet, Horatio says of the Grave-digger : 'Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.' 32 The old copy reads 'hopes of help.' The emendation is Thirlby's. 33 The old copy reads image of thy state.' Warburton proposed impage, which Steevens rejects, saying unadvisedly there is no such word.' It is evident that Shakspeare formed it from an impe, a scion, or young slip of a tree.' To impe and imping were also in use, as was the whole verb among our ancestors. The context evidently requires a word of this import. The word propagate, in its old sense of increasing by grafting cuttings from an old stock, would never have been so incongruously followed But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, More should I question thee, and more I must; SCENE II. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clo. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court. Count. To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court! Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; as by image. Shakspeare beautifully alludes to this art in the following passage of the Winter's Tale : You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock; |