Hel. That I am not. Count. I say, I am your mother. The count Rousillon cannot be my brother: Religious in mine error, I adore The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, [were 10 Count. Nor I your mother? ter-in-law; mother, Hel, Madam, I had, Count. Wherefore? tell true. Hel, I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear, For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and Hel. Good madam, pardon me! Hel. Do not you love him, madam ? Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a bond, Whereof the world takes note: come, come, disThe state of your affection; for your passions[close Have to the full appeach'd. Hel. Then I confess, Here on my knee, before high heav'n and you, Count. This was your motive 30 For Paris, was it? speak. 35 [this: Hel. My lord your son made me to think of Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, Had, from the conversation of my thoughts, Haply, been absent then. Count. But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid, [est Hel, There's something hints, [honour My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love : 50 By such a day and hour. Be not offended; for it hurts not him, That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not By any token of presumptuous suit; Nor would I have him, 'till I do deserve him; 3 Count. Dost thou believe't? [and love, Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave, Means and attendants, and my loving greetings 55 To those of mine in court; I'll stay at home, And pray God's blessing into thy attempt: Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this, What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss. [Exeunt. 2i. e. the source of your grief, Meaning, prescriptions in which i. e. exhausted of their skill. I care no more for, is, I care as much for-I wish it equally. Dr. Johnson suspects we should read carious, i. e. rotten. greater virtues were inclosed than appeared to observation. ACT Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 2 Lord. 'Tis our hope, sir, 5 Jcaptain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrench'd it: say to him, I live; and observe his reports for me. 2 Lord. We shall, noble captain. Par. Mars doat on you for his novices! what will you do? Ber. Stay; the king Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the no10ble lords; you have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most re15fceiv'd star; and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be follow'd: after them, and take a more dilated farewel. 20 King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart 2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; Both. Our hearts receive your warnings. Ber. And I will do so. Laf. Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings. Luf. Then here's a man Stands, that has bought his pardon. I would, you King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, 30 And ask'd thee mercy for't. Laf. Goodfaith, across:-but my good lord, Will you be cur'd of your infirmity? ['tis thus; King, No. Laf. O, will you eat [The King retires to a couch. 35 No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will, 1 Lord. Oh my sweet lord, that you behind us! Par. " is not his fault! the spark— 2 Lord. Oh, 'tis brave wars! will stay Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. 40 Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, 45 1 Lord. There's honour in the th.ft. 2 Lord. I am your accessary; and so farewel. Ber. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body. 1 Lord. Farewel, captain. 2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles! My noble grapes, an if my royal fox Laf. Why, doctor she: my lord, there's one If you will see her-now, by my faith and honour, 55 King, Now, good Lafeu, [ness? Bring in the admiration; that we with thee May spend our wonder too, or take off thine, [By wond'ring how thou took'st it. The epithet higher is here to be understood as referring to situation rather than to dignity. This word, as has been before observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries. Laf. Laf. Nay, I'll fit you, And not be all day neither. [Exit Lafeu King. Thus he his special nothing ever pro- 5 10 [him; 15 Hel. The rather will I spare my praises toward King. We thank you, maiden; A senseless help, when help past sense we deem.] fful: King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grate- Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, 20 From simple sources; and great seas have dry'd Hel. The greatest grace lending grace, Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame, 40 King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth His powerful sound, within an organ weak 3: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property That is, "I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another." 2 Mr. Steevens thus happily explains this obscure passage: "I would bear (says she) the tax of impudence, which is the denotement of a strumpet; would endure a shame resulting from my failure in what I have undertaken, and thence become the subject of odious ballads; let my maiden reputation be otherwise branded; and, no worse of worst extended, i. e. provided nothing worse is offered to me, (meaning violation) let my life be ended with the worst of tortures. The poet for the sake of rhime has obscured the sense of the passage. The worst that can befal a woman being extended to me, seems to be the meaning of the last line." The author of the Revisal of Shakspeare's Text explains this line thus: "The verb do h speak, in the first line, should be understood to be repeated in the construction of the second, thus; His powerful sound speaks within a weak organ.' ◄ i, e.'youth. 3 5 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. Count. To be young again, if we could:-I will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, sir, are you a 10 courtier? 15 20 Clo. O Lord, sir,There's a simple putting off: more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you. Cio. O Lord, sir,- -Thick, thick, spare notme. 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 whipp'd, sir, as I think. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, sir, is very sequent to your whipping; you 25 would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. 30 Clo. I will shew myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court. Count. But to the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court! 35 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 4 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 but-45] tocks; 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 yourtaffaty punk, 50 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. 55 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. Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in my— O Lord, sir: I 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, there't serves well again. [Helen this, Count. An end, sir, to your business: Give 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. SCENE III. The Court of France. Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern 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 later times. Ber. And so 'tis. Laf. To be relinquish'd of the artists,- 1 This alludes to an ancient custom of marrying with a rush ring, as well in other countries as in England; but was scarce ever practised except by designing men, for the purpose of corrupting those young women to whom they pretended love 2 A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech, then in vogue at court. 'Fear here means the object of fear. Par. Laf. That gave him out incurable, Par. Right, so I say. Pur. Why, there 'tis; so say I too. Par. Right; as 'twere, a man assur'd of an- 5 Pur. Just, you say well: so would I have said. Laf. Imay truly say, it is a novelty to the world. Par. Itis indeed: if you will have it in shewing, you shall read it in,-What do you call there?-10 Laf. A shewing 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. Laf. In a most weak 15 20 Pur. And debile minister, great power, great transcendance: which should, indeed, give us a farther use to be made, than alone the recovery 25 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, while I have a tooth in my head: Why, he's able to lead her a corranto. Par. Mort du Viraigre! Is not this Helen? Laf. 'Fore God, I think so. King.Go, call before me all the lords in court.- Enter several Lords. 6 We blush, that thou should'st chuse, but be refus'd; King. Make choice; and, see, Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me. Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute'. Which great Love grant! and so I take my leave. Hel. Be not afraid that I your hand should take; Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none 35 40 Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel And writ as little beard. 50 [health. 55 King. Peruse them well: 1 By dolphin is meant the dauphin. Luf. There's one grape yet,-I am sure, thy father drunk 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; but I give King. Know'st thou not, Bertram, Ber. Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I should marry her. sickly bed. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down 2 i. e. wicked. 'i. e. lusty, cheerful, pleasant. Meaning, perhaps, 4 A bay dock'd horse. * Meaning, had lost no more of his teeth. the chlorosis. 1i. e. silence. ! i. e. the lowest chance of the dice. ΔΗ |