Have fought with equal fortune, and continue
A braving war.

KING. Nay, 'tis most credible; we here receive it A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria, With caution, that the Florentine will move us For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend Prejudicates the business, and would seem To have us make denial.

1 LORD.

His love and wisdom,

Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead
For amplest credence.

KING.
And Florence is denied before he comes:
Yet, for our gentlemen, that mean to see
The Tuscan service, freely have they leave
To stand on either part.

He hath arm'd our answer,

2 LORD.

It may well serve
A nursery to our gentry, who are sick
For breathing and exploit.

KING.

What's he comes here?

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.

1 LORD. It is the count Rousillon, my good

lord,

Young Bertram.

KING. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,

Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts May'st thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.

BER. My thanks and duty are your majesty's. KING. I would I had that corporal soundness now, As when thy father, and myself, in friendship

people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna. The Florentines were at perpetual variance with them.

STEEVENS. 6-Rousillon,] The old copy reads Rosignoll. STEEVENS.

First try'd our soldiership! He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father: In his youth
He had the wit, which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords; but they may jest,
Till their own scorn return to them unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour".
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,
His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,

To talk of your good father:] To repair, in these plays, generally signifies, to renovate. So, in Cymbeline:

O disloyal thing,

"That should'st repair my youth!

8 He had the wit, which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords; but they may jest,

Till their own scorn return to them unnoted,

MALONE.

Ere they can hide their levity in honour.] I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation :—“ Your father, (says the king,) had the same airy flights of satirical wit with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity, in honour, cover petty faults with great merit."

This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that over-powers them by great qualities. JOHNSON.

Point thus:

66

He had the wit, which I can well observe
"To-day in our young lords: but they may jest,
"Till their own scorn returns to them, un-noted,
"Ere they can hide their levity in honour,
"So like a courtier. Contempt," &c.

BLACKSTONE.

The punctuation recommended by Sir William Blackstone is, I believe, the true one, at least it is such as deserves the reader's consideration. STEEVENS.

9 So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness

Were in HIS pride or sharpness; if THEY were,

His equal had awak'd them ;] Nor was used without reduplication. So, in Measure for Measure:

Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak, and, at this time,
His tongue obey'd his hand': who were below him,
He us'd as creatures of another place2;

And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled 3: Such a man

"More nor less to others paying,

"Than by self-offences weighing."

The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter." If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by some injury, not of a man below him, but of his equal. This is the complete image of a well-bred man, and somewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero, Lewis XIV. JOHNSON.

His tongue obey'd His hand:] We should read-" His tongue obey'd the hand." That is, "the hand of his honour's clock," showing "the true minute when exceptions bad him speak." JOHNSON.

His is put for its. So, in Othello:

"Blush'd at herself."—instead of itself. STEEVENS.

2 He us'd as creatures of another place ;] i. e. he made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford editor, not understanding the sense, has altered another place to a brother-race.

WARBURTON.

I doubt whether this was our author's meaning. I rather incline to think that he meant only, "that the father of Bertram treated those below him with becoming condescension, as creatures not indeed in so high a place as himself, but yet holding a certain place; as one of the links, though not the largest, of the great chain of society."

In The Winter's Tale, place is again used for rank or situation in life :

O thou thing,

"Which I'll not call a creature of thy place." MAlone.

3 Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled:] But why were they proud of his humility? It should be read and pointed thus:

"Making them proud; and his humility,

"In their poor praise, he humbled-."

i. e. by condescending to stoop to his inferiors, he exalted them

Might be a copy to these younger times;

Which, follow'd well, would démonstrate them now But goers backward.

BER.

His good remembrance, sir,

Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph,

As in your royal speech *.

and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he humbled even his humility. The sentiment is fine.

WARBURTON.

Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however, is not so common; the mean are found more frequently than the great.

JOHNSON.

I think the meaning is," Making them proud of receiving such marks of condescension and affability from a person in so elevated a situation, and at the same time lowering or humbling himself, by stooping to accept of the encomiums of mean persons for that humility." The construction seems to be, "he being humbled in their poor praise." MALONE.

Giving them a better opinion of their own importance, by his condescending manner of behaving to them. M. MASON. So in approof lives not his EPITAPH,

As in your royal speech.] Epitaph for character.

I should wish to read

"Approof so lives not in his epitaph,
"As in your royal speech."

WARBURTON.

Approof is approbation. If I should allow Dr. Warburton's interpretation of epitaph, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading.

We might, by a slight transposition, read

"So his approof lives not in epitaph."

JOHNSON.

Approof certainly means approbation. So, in Cynthia's Re

venge :

"A man so absolute in my approof,

"That nature hath reserv'd small dignity

"That he enjoys not."

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Either of commendation or approof." STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is this :-" His epitaph or inscription on

KING. 'Would, I were with him! He would
always say,

(Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words
He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there, and to bear,)-Let me not live,——
Thus his good melancholy oft began,

On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
When it was out,-let me not live, quoth he,
After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff

Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Mere fathers of their garments; whose constan-

cies

his tomb is not so much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech." TOLLET.

There can be no doubt but the word approof is frequently used in the sense of approbation, but this is not always the case; and in this place it signifies proof or confirmation. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: "The truth of his epitaph is in no way so fully proved, as by your royal speech. It is needless to remark, that epitaphs generally contain the character and praises of the deceased. Approof is used in the same sense by Bertram, in the second Act:

"Laf. But I hope your lordship thinks him not a soldier.
"Ber. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof."
M. MASON.

Mr. Heath supposes the meaning to be this: "His epitaph, or the character he left behind him, is not so well established by the specimens he exhibited of his worth, as by your royal report in his favour." The passage above quoted from Act II. supports this interpretation. MALONE.

5 Thus-] Old copy-This.

6 whose judgments are

Corrected by Mr. Pope.
MALONE.

Mere FATHERS of their garments ;] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress. JOHNSON. I have a suspicion that Shakspeare wrote-“ Mere feathers of their garments;" i. e. whose judgments are merely parts (and insignificant parts) of their dress, worn and laid aside, as feathers are, from the mere love of novelty and change. He goes on to say, that they are even less constant in their judgments than in their dress :