“So that, _conclusions to be as kisses_, if your four negatives make
your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends, and the
better for my foes.”
(Warburton reads “conclusion to be asked, is.”)
Surely Warburton could never have wooed by kisses and won, or he would not
have flounder-flatted so just and humorous, nor less pleasing than
humorous, an image into so profound a nihility. In the name of love and
wonder, do not four kisses make a double affirmative? The humour lies in
the whispered “No!” and the inviting “Don’t!” with which the maiden’s
kisses are accompanied, and thence compared to negatives, which by
repetition constitute an affirmative.
“All’s Well That Ends Well.”