“_Dia._ The Count Rousillon:—know you such a one?
_Hel._ But by the ear that hears most nobly of him;
His face I know not.”
Shall we say here, that Shakespeare has unnecessarily made his loveliest
character utter a lie?—Or shall we dare think that, where to deceive was
necessary, he thought a pretended verbal verity a double crime, equally
with the other a lie to the hearer, and at the same time an attempt to lie
to one’s own conscience?
“Merry Wives Of Windsor.”