The sense of the word, like that of many others in the same author, must be determined by the scope and object of the passage in which it is used. The object of Helena, in declaring her love to the Countess, is to show the all-absorbing nature of it; to prove that she is _tota in illo_; and that, however she may strive to stop the cravings of it, her endeavours are of no more use than the attempt to fill up a bottomless abyss. The reader may, if he pleases, compare her case with that of other heroines in like predicaments. Thus Medaea, in _Apollonius Rhodius_: [Greek: "Pante moi phrenes eisin amechanoi, oude tis alke Pematos."] And the same lady in _Ovid_: "---- Luctata diu, postquam ratione furorem, Vincere non poterat. Frustra, Medea, repugnas. ---- Excute virgineo conceptas pectore flammas, Si potes, infelix. Si possem sanior essem: Sed trahit invitam nova vis." Or Dido, in _Virgil_ or _Ovid_: "Ille quidem male gratus, et ad munera surdus; Et quo si non sim stulta carere velim: Non tamen AEneam, quamvis male cogitat, odi; Sed queror infidum, questaque pejus amo." Or Phaedra, in _Seneca_: ----"Furor cogit sequi Pejora: vadit animus in praeceps sciens, Remeatque, frustra sana consilia appetens. Sic cum gravatam navita adversa ratem Propellit unda, cedit in vanum labor, Et victa prono puppis aufertur vado." The complaints of all are alike; they lament that they make attempts to resist their passion, but find it not to be resisted; that they are obliged at last to yield themselves entirely to it, and to feel their whole thoughts, as it were, swallowed up by it. Such being the way in which Shakspeare represents Helena, and such the sentiments which he puts into her mouth, it seems evident that the interpretation of _captious_ in the sense of _absorbent_ is better adapted to the passage than the explanation of it in the sense of _fallacious_. "I know I love in vain, and strive against hope; yet into this _insatiable_ and _unretaining_ sieve I still pour in the waters of my love, and fail not to lose still." I said that the sense of _fallacious_ seemed to be too refined and recondite. To believe that Shakspeare borrowed his _captious_ in this sense, from the Latin _captiosus_, we must suppose that he was well acquainted with the exact sense of the Latin word; a supposition which, in regard to a man who had _small Latin_, we can scarcely be justified in entertaining. This interpretation is, therefore, too recondite: and to imagine Helena as applying the word to Bertram as being "_incapable of receiving_ her love," and "truly _captious_" (or deceitful and ensnaring) "in that respect," is surely to indulge in too much refinement of exposition.