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Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851
Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Notes
ON TWO PASSAGES IN "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."
Among the few passages in Shakspeare upon which little light has been thrown, after all that has been written about them, are the following in Act. IV. Sc. 2. of All's Well that Ends Well, where Bertram is persuading Diana to yield to his desires:
"Bert. I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:
I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.
Dia. Ay, so you serve us,
Till we serve you: but when you have our roses,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
And mock us with our bareness.
Bert. How have I sworn?
Dia. 'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth;
But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the Highest to witness: Then, pray you, tell me,
If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,
I love'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? this has no holding,
To swear by him whom I protest to love,
That I will work against him."
Read—"when I protest to Love."
It is evident that Diana refers to Bertram's double vows, his marriage vow, and the subsequent vow or protest he had made not to keep it. "If I should swear by Jove I loved you dearly, would you believe my oath when I loved you ill? This has no consistency, to swear by Jove, when secretly I protest to Love that I will work against him (i.e. against the oath I have taken to Jove)."
Bertram had sworn by the Highest to love his wife; in his letter to his mother he says:
"I have wedded her, not bedded her, and sworn to make the not eternal:"
he secretly protests to Love to work against his sacred oath; and in his following speech he says:
"Be not so cruel-holy, Love is holy."
He had before said:
"–do not strive against my vows:
I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
By Love's own sweet constraint:"
clearly indicating that this must be the true sense of the passage. By printing when for whom, and Love with a capital letter, to indicate the personification, all is made clear.
After further argument from Bertram, Diana answers: