[which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be
made, than alone the recovery of the King; as to be--
_Laf._ Generally thankful]
I cannot see that there is any _hiatus_, or other irregularity of
language than such as is very common in these plays. I believe
Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no
right; and I read this passage thus,
Laf. _In a most weak and debile minister, great
power, great transcendence; which should, indeed,
give us a farther use to be made than the mere
recovery of the king._
Par. _As to be._
Laf. _Generally thankful._
II.iii.66 (52,9) [My mouth no more were broken than these boys']
A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth.
II.iii.77 (53,1) [Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever]
[W: dearth] The white death is the chlorosis.
II.iii.80 (53,2) [And to imperial Love] [W. The old editions read
IMPARTIAL, which is right.] There is no edition of this play older
than that of 1623, the next is that of 1632, of which both read
imperials the second reads imperial Jove.
II.iii.92 (53,3) [Laf. Do they all deny her?] None of them have yet
denied her, or deny her afterwards but Bertram. The scene must be
so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they
nay see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it,
so that they know not by whom the refusal is made.
II.iii.105 (54,4) [There's one grape yet,--I am sure, they father
drunk wine.--But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen.
I have known thee already] This speech the three last editors
have perplexed themselves by dividing between Lafeu and Parolles,
without any authority of copies, or any improvement of sense.
I have restored the old reading, and should have thought no explanation
necessary, but that Mr. Theobald apparently misunderstood it.
Old Lafeu having, upon the supposition that the lady was refused,
reproached the young lords as _boys of ice_, throwing his eyes
on Bertram who remained, cries out, "_There is one yet into whom his
father put good blood,----but I have known thee long enough to know
thee for an ass_."
II.iii.135 (55,6) [good alone Is good, without a name, vileness is so]
[W: good; and with a name,] The present reading is certainly wrong,
and, to confess the truth, I do not think Dr. Warburton's emendation
right; yet I have nothing that I can propose with much confidence.
Of all the conjectures that I can make, that which least
displeases me is this:
--_good alone.
Is good without a name_; Helen _is so_;
The rest follows easily by this change.