But know I think, and think I know most sure,
My art is not past power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou so confident? Within what

space Hop'st thou my cure? Hel.

The greatest grace lending grace,
Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus 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,-
Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended,
With vilest torture let my life be ended.
King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit 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;

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postor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud.

no worse of worst extended,] i. e. to be be so defamed that nothing severer can be said against those who are most publickly reported to be infamous.

Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness and prime can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate.
Sweet practiser, thy physick 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;
And well deserv'd: Not helping, death's my fee;
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 hea

ven.

Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly

hand,

What husband in thy power I will command:
Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood of 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.

King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd,
Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd;
So make the choice of thy own time; for I,
Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely.
More should I question thee, and more I must;
Though, more to know, could not be more to trust ;
From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,-But rest
Unquestion d welcome, and undoubted blest.

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? —prime -] Youth; the sprightly vigour of life.

in property -] In property seems to be here used, with much laxity, for--in the duc performance.

With any branch or image of thy state:] Branch refers to the collateral descendants of the royal blood, and image to the direct and immcdiate line. HENLEY..

Give me some help here, ho!-If thou proceed As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

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 groạts is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Tih'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 fita ness 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.

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 courtier?

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.

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 0 Lord, sir, is very sequent to your whipping; 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 myO 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.

"To be young again,] The lady censures her own levity in triAling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth.

? O Lord, sir,] A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech then in vogue at court,

Clo. O Lord, sir,—Why, there'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 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.4

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,
Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentick fellows,
Par. Right, so I say.
Laf. That gave him out incurable,–

modern--] i. e. common, ordinary.
unknown fear.] Fear is here an object of fear.

-authentick fellows,] The epithet authentick was in our author's time particularly applied to the learned.

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