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Ite-enter LAFEU, with HELENA.

Laf. Nay, come your ways.
King.

This haste hath wings indeed.
Laf. Nay, come your ways;
This is his majesty, say your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's
uncle*,

That dare leave two together; fare you well.
[Exit.
King. Now, fair one, does your business
follow us?
[was
Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon
My father; in what he did profess, well
King. I knew him.
[found t.
Hel. The rather will I spare my praises
towards him;
[death
Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of
1 Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the dearest issue of his practice,
And of his old experience the only darling,
He bad me store up, as a triple eye †, [so:
Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have
=And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd
With that malignant cause wherein the honour
Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,
I come to tender it, and my appliance,
With all bound humbleness.

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King.
We thank you, maiden;
But may not be so credulous of cure,-
When our most learned doctors leave us; and
The congregated college have concluded
That labouring art can never ransome nature
From her inaidable estate,-I say we must not
So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
To prostitute our past-cure malady
To empirics; or to dissever so

Our great self and our credit, to esteem
A senseless help, when help past sense we
deem.
[pains :
Hel. My duty then shall pay me for my
I will no more enforce mine office on you;
Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
A modest one, to bear me back again.
King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd
grateful:
[I give,
Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks
As one near death to those that wish him live:
But, what at full I know, thou know'st no
I knowing all my peril, thou no art. [part;
Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try,
Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy:
He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes). Great floods
have flown

From simple sources; and great seas have
dried,
[denied ¶.
When miracles have by the greatest been
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

Where most it promises: and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.
King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well,
kind maid;

Thy pains, not used, must by thyself be paid:
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.

Hel. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:
It is not so with Him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows:
But most it is presumption in us, when
The help of heaven we count the act of men.
Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impostor, that proclaim
Myself against the level of mine aim **;
But know I think, and think I know most

sure,

My art is not past power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou so coufident? Within what
Hop'st thou my cure?
[space
Hel. The greatest grace lending grace
Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Fre twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus tt hath quench'd his sleepy
lamp;

Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass;
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'st thou venture?

Hel.

Tax of impudence,-
A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,-
Traduced by odious ballads; my maiden's
[ed,
Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extend
With vilest torture let my life be ended.

name

King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spi

rit doth speak;
His powerful sound, within an organ weak:
And what impossibility would slay
In common sense, sense saves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate
Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate #;
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness and prime 3 can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate.
Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try;
That ministers thine own death, if I die.

Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; [fee;
Aud well deserv'd: Not helping, death's my
But, if I help, what do you promise me?
King. Make thy demand."

Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven. [hand, Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly What husband in thy power I will command: A third eye. § An allui. e., When Moses smote the rock in Horeb. This must refer to the children of Israel passing the Red Sea, when miracles had been denied by Pharaoh. ** i. e., Pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition. tt The evening star. i. e., May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee.

I am lile Pandarus. + Of acknowledged excellence. sion to Daniel judging the two Elders.

The spring or morning of life.

Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood
France;

My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or image of thy state:
But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

Count. To be young again, if we could: I of will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, sir, are you a courtier?

King. Here is my hand; the premises observed,

Thy will by my performance shall be served; So make the choice of thy own time; for I, Thy resolved patient, on thee still rely. More should I question thee, and more I must; Though, more to know, could not be more to trust; [But rest From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest.Give me some help here, ho!-If thou proceed [deed. As high as word, my deed shall match thy [Flourish. Eteunt. SCENE II. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace.

Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clo. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court.

Count. To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court!

Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the court: but, for me, I have an answer will serve all

men.

Count. Marry, that's a bountiful answer, that fits all questions.

Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn buttock, or any buttock.

Count. Will your answer serve fit to all questions?

Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for Shrove-tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin.

Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions?

Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your constable, it will fit any question.

Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous size, that must fit all demands.

Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't: Ask me, if I am a courtier; it shall do you no harm to learn.

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Clo. O Lord, sir,- -There's a simple put ting off;-more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you.

Clo. O Lord, sir,-Thick, thick, spare not me. Count. I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.

Clo. O Lord, sir,-Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.

Count. You were lately whipped, sir, as I think.

Clo. O Lord, sir,-Spare not me.

Count. Do you cry, O Lord, sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, sir, is very sequent to your whip ping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.

Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in my-O Lord, sir: 1 see, things may serve long, but not serve ever.

Count. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool.

Clo. O Lord, sir,-Why, ther't serves well again.

Count. An end, sir, to your business: Give
Helen this,

And urge her to a present answer back :
Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son;
This is not much.

Clo. Not much commendation to them. Count. Not much employment for you: You understand me?

Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs.

Count. Haste you again. [Exeunt severally. SCENE III. Paris. A Room in the King's Palace.

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES. Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modernt and familiar things, supernatural and causeless. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear ‡.

Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. Ber. And so 'tis.

Laf. To be relinquished of the artists,Pur. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows,

Par. Right, so I say.

Laf. That gave him out incurable,-
Pur. Why, there 'tis; so say I too.
Laf. Not to be helped,-

Pur. Right: as 'twere, a man assured of an-
Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death.
Par. Just, you say well; so would I have
said.

Fear means here the object of fear.

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Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in, What do you call there ?Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.

Par. That's it I would have said; the very same.

Laf. Why, your dolphin* is not lustier: 'fore me I speak in respect

Par. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he is of a most facinorous † spirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the

Laf. Very hand of heaven.
Par. Ay, so I say.

Laf. In a most weak

Par. And debile minister, great power, great transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to be

Laf. Generally thankful.

Enter King, HELENA, and Attendants. Par. I would have said it; you say well Here comes the king.

Laf. Lustick, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: Why, he's able to lead her a

ccranto.

Par. Mort du Vinaigre! Is not this Helen? Laf. 'Fore God, I think so. King. Go, call before me all the lords in court.[Exit an Attendant. Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side; And with this healthfu! hand, whose banish'd

sense

Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promised gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

Enter several Lords.:

Fair maid, send forth thine eye this youthful parcel

Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
O'er whom both sovereign power and father's
voices

I have to use thy frank election make;
Thou hast power to choose, and they none to
forsake.
[tuous mistress
Hel. To each of you one fair and vir-
Fall, when love please!-marry, to each, but
one!

Laf. I'd give bay Curtal¶, and his furniture,
My mouth no more were broken than these
And writ as little beard..
[boys',
King
Peruse them well:
Not one of those, but had a noble father.
Hel. Gentlemen,
[health.
Heaven hath, through me, restored the king to
All. We understand it, and thank heaven
for you.
[wealthiest,
Hel. I am a simple maid; and therein
That, I protest, I simply am a maid :——
Please it your majesty, I have done already:

The dauphin.

† Wicked.

The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,
We blush, that thou shouldst choose; but,
be refused,

Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;
We'll ne'er come there again.
King.
Make choice; and, see,
Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly;
And to imperial Love, that gcd most high,
Do my sighs stream.-Sir, will you hear my
1 Lord. And grant it.
[suit?

Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute **. Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames ace tt for my life.

Hel. The honour, sir, that flames in your
fair eyes,

Before I speak, too threateningly replies:
Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
2 Lord. No better, if you please.

Hel.
My wish receive,
Which great love grant! and so I take my leave.
Laf. Do all they deny her? An they were
sons of mine, I'd have them whipped; or I
would send them to the Turk, to make eu
nuchs of.

Hel. Be not afraid [To a Lord] that I your

hand should take;

I'll never do you wrong for your own sake:
Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her; sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them.

Hel. You are too young, too happy, and
too good,

To make yourself a son out of my blood.
4 Lord. Fair one, I think not so.
Laf. There's one grape yet,-I am sure,
thy father drank wine. But if thou be'st not
an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have
known thee already.

Hel. I dare not say, I take you; [To BER
TRAM] but I give

Me, and my service, ever whilst I live,
Into your guiding power. This is the man.
King. Why then, young Bertram, take her,
she's thy wife.
[your highness,
Ber. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech
In such a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.
King.

Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What she has done for me?
Ber.

Yes, my good lord;
But never hope to know why I should marry
her.
[from my sickly bed.
King. Thou know'st, she has raised me
Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me
down
[well;

Must answer for your raising? I know her
She had her breeding at my father's charge:
A poor physician's daughter my wife!-Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
[the which

King. 'Tis only title ‡‡thou disdain'st in her, Lustigh is the Dutch word for lusty, cheerful. They were wards as well as subjects. Except one, meaning Bertram. A docked horse. ** i. e., I have no more to say to you." : tt The lowest chance of the dice.

i.e., The want of title.

I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty: If she be

All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislikest,
A poor physician's daughter,) thou dislikest
Of virtue for the name: but do not so: [ceed,
From lowest place when virtuous things pro-
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions* swell, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour: good alone
Is good, without a name; vileness is so t:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she's immediate heir;
And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the sire: Honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers; the mere word's a slave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb,

Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue, and she, [me.
Is her own dower; honour and wealth, from
Ber. I cannot love ber, nor will strive to do't.
King. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou

shouldst strive to choose. [I am glad;
Hel. That you are well restored, my lord,
Let the rest go.
[defeat,
King. My honour's at the stake; which to
I must produce my power: Here, take her
hand,

Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
That dost in vile misprision shackle up

My love, and her desert; that canst not dream,
We, poising us in her defective scale, [know,
Shall weigh thee to the beam: that wilt not
It is in us to plant thine honour, where [tempt:
We please to have it grow: Check thy con-
Obey our will, which travails in thy good:
Believe not thy disdain, but presently
Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which both thy duty owes, and our power
claims;

Or 1 will throw thee from my care for ever,
Into the staggers, and the careless lapse [hate,
Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and
Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity: Speak; thine answer.
Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
My fancy to your eyes: When I consider,
What great creation, and what dole of honour,
Flies where you bid it, I find, that she, which
late

Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
Is, as 'twere, born so.
King.
Take her by the hand,
And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoise; if not to thy estate,
A balance more replete.

Ber.

• Titles.

I take her hand.

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King, Good fortune, and the favour of the
king,

Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting absent friends. As thou lovest her,
Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.

[Exeunt King, BER. HEL. Lords,

and Attendants. Laf.Do you hear,monsieur? a word with you. Par. Your pleasure, sir?

Laf. Your lord and master did well to make his recantation.

Par. Recantation?-My lord? my master? Laf. Ay; Is it not a language, I speak? Par. A most harsh one; and not to be understood without bloody succeeding. My master?

Laf. Are you companion to the count Rousillon ?

Par. To any count; to all counts; to what is man.

Laf. To what is count's man; count's master is of another style.

Par. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

Laf. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee.

Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do. Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries ‡, to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs, and the bannerets, about thee, did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden. I have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care not yet art thou good for nothing but taking up; and that thou art scarce worth.

Par. Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,-

Laf. Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial;-which if-Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee well; thy casement I need not open, for I look through thee. Give me thy hand.

Par. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

Laf. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.

Par. I have not, my lord, deserved it.
Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and
I will not bate thee a scruple.

Par. Well, I shall be wiser.

Laf. E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack o'the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf, and beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge; that I may say, in the default §, he is a man I know.

Par. My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.

+ Good is good independent of any worldly distinction, and so is vileness vile. ` i.e., While I sate twice with thee at dinner.

At a need,

Laf. I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing eternal: for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave. [Exit. Pur. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord!-Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age, than I would have of I'll beat him, an if I could but meet bim again.

Re-enter LAFEU.

Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's married, there's news for you; you have a new mistress.

Par. I most unfeignedly beseech your lord. ship to make some reservation of your wrongs: He is my good lord: whom I serve above, is my master.

Laf. Who? God?
Par. Ay, sir.

Laf. The devil it is, that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think, thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.

Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

Laf. Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords, and honourable personages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.

Enter BERTRAM.

France is a stable; we that dwell in't, jades;
Therefore, to the war!
[house,

Ber. It shall be so; I'll send her to my
Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,
And wherefore I am fled; write to the king
That which I durst not speak: His present gift
Shall furnish me to those Italian fields,
Where noble fellows strike: War is no strife
To the dark house, and the detested wife.
Par. Will this capricio hold in thee, art
sure?

[me.
Ber. Go with me to my chamber, and advise
I'll send her straight away: To-morrow
I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.
Par. Why, these balls bound; there's noise
in it. Tis hard;

A young man, married, is a man that's marr'd:
The king has done you wrong; but, hush!
Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:
[Exeunt.

'tis so.

SCENE IV. The same. Another Room in the same.

Enter HELENA and Clown. Hel. My mother greets me kindly: Is she well?

Clo. She is not well; but yet she has her health: she's very merry; but yet she is not well: but thanks be given, she's very well, and wants nothing i'the world; but yet she is not well.

Hel. If she be very well, what does she ail, that she's not very well?

Clo. Truly, she's very well, indeed, but for two things.

Hel. What two things?

Clo. One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her quickly! the other, that she's in earth, from whence God send her quickly!

Enter PAROLLES.

Par. Bless you, my fortunate lady! Hel. I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own good fortunes.

knave! How does my old lady?

Clo. So that you had her wrinkles, and I her money, I would she did as you say. Par. Why, I say nothing.

Par. Good, very good; it is so then.- Par. You had my prayers to lead them on: Good, very good; let it be concealed a while.and to keep them on, have them still.-O, my Ber. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever! Par. What is the matter, sweet heart? Ber. Although before the solemn priest I I will not bed her. [have sworn, Par. What? what, sweet heart? [me:Ber. O my Parolles, they have married I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. Par. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits

The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!
Ber. There's letters from my mother; what
I know not yet.
[the import is,
Par. Ay, that would be known: To the
wars, my boy, to the wars!
He wears his honour in a box unseen,
That hugs his kicksy-wicksy + here at home;
Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
Of Mars's fiery steed: To other regions!
+ A cant term for a wife.

• Exercise.

Clo. Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing: To say nothing, to do nothing, to know nothing, and to have nothing, is to be a great part of your title; which is within a very little of nothing.

Par. Away, thou'rt a knave.

Clo. You should have said, sir, before a knave thou art a knave; that is, before me thou art a knave: this had been truth, sir.

Pur. Go to, thou art a witty fool, I have found thee.

Clos Did you find me in yourself, sir? or were you taught to find me? The search, sir, was profitable; and much fool may you fird ↑ The house made gloomy by discontent.

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