[I will come after you, with what good speed
Our means will make us means]
Shakespeare delights much in this kind of reduplication, sometimes
so as to obscure his meaning. Helena says, _they will follow with
such speed as the means which they have will give them ability to
exert_.
V.ii.57 (123,3) [tho' you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat]
Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be
the character which Shakespeare delighted to draw, a fellow that
had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should
be detected and exposed, yet his _vices sit so fit in him_ that he
is not at last suffered to starve.
V.iii.1 (123,4) [We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem Was made much
poorer by it] Dr. Warburton, in Theobald's edition, altered this
word to _estate_, in his own he lets it stand and explains it by
worth or estate. But _esteem_ is here _reckoning_ or _estimate_. Since
the loss of _Helen_ with her _virtues_ and _qualifications_, our _account_
is _sunk_; what we have to _reckon_ ourselves king of, is much _poorer_
than before.
V.iii.4 (123,5) [home] That is, _completely_, _in its full extent_.
V.iii.6 (123,6) [done i' the blade of youth] In the _spring_ of _early
life_, when the man is yet _green_, _oil_ and _fire_ suit but ill with
_blade_, and therefore Dr. Warburton reads, _blaze_ of youth.
V.iii.21 (124,7) [the first view shall kill All repetition] _The first
interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past_.
Shakespeare is now hastening to the end of the play, finds his matter
sufficient to fill up his remaining scenes, and therefore, as
on other such occasions, contracts his dialogue and precipitates
his action. Decency required that Bertram's double crime of cruelty
and disobedience, joined likewise with some hypocrisy, should raise
more resentment; and that though his mother might easily forgive
him, his king should more pertinaciously vindicate his own authority
and Helen's merit: of all this Shakespeare could not be ignorant,
but Shakespeare wanted to conclude his play.
V.iii.50 (125,9) [My high repented blames] [A long note by Warburton]
It was but just to insert this note, long as it is, because the
commentator seems to think it of importance. Let the reader judge.