III.vi.III (87,7) [ere we case him] This is, before we strip him naked. (1773) III.vii.9 (88,2) [to your sworn council] To your private knowledge, after having required from you an oath of secrecy. III.vii.21 (88,9) [Now his important blood will nought deny] _Important_ here, and elsewhere, is _importunate_. IV.i.16 (90,2) [some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment] That is, _foreign troops in the enemy's pay_. Iv.i.44 (91,3) [the instance] The _proof_. IV.ii.13 (94,5) [No more of that! I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows: I was compell'd to her] I know not well what Bertram can mean by entreating Diana _not to strive against his vows_. Diana has just mentioned his _wife_, so that the _vows_ seem to relate to his marriage. In this sense not Diana, but himself, _strives against his vows_. His _vows_ indeed may mean _vows_ made to Diana; but, in that case, to _strive against_ is not properly used for to reject, nor does this sense cohere well with his first exclamation of impatience at the mention of his wife. _No more of that_! Perhaps we might read, _I Pr'ythee do not_ drive _against my vows. Do not_ run _upon that topick; talk of any thing else that I can bear to hear_. I have another conceit upon this passage, which I would be thought to offer without much confidence: _No more of that_! _I pr'ythee do not_ strive--_against my_ voice _I was compell'd to her._ Diana tells him unexpectedly of his wife. He answers with perturbation, _No more of that! I pr'ythee do not_ play the confessor --_against my own_ consent _I was compelled to her_. When a young profligate finds his courtship so gravely repressed by an admonition of his duty, he very naturally desires the girl not to take upon her the office of a confessor. IV.ii.23 (95,6) [What is not holy, that we swear not 'bides] [W: not 'bides] This is an acute and excellent conjecture, and I have done it the due honour of exalting it to the text; yet, methinks, there is something yet wanting. The following words, _but take the High'st to witness_, even though it be understood as an anticipation or assumption in this sense,--_but_ now suppose that you _take the_ Highest _to witness_,--has not sufficient relation to the antecedent sentence. I will propose a reading nearer to the surface, and let it take its chance. Ber. _How have I sworn_! Diana. _'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth, But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true_. Ber. _What is not holy, that we swear not by. But take the High'st to witness_. Diana. _Then, pray tell me. If I should swear_, &c. Bertram means to enforce his suit, by telling her, that he has bound himself to her, not by the pretty protestations usual among lovers, but by vows of greater solemnity. She then makes a proper and rational reply.