Puslapio vaizdai
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Kin. Art thou fo confident? Within what space
Hop'st thou my cure?

HEL. The great'ft grace lending grace,
Ere twice the horses of the fun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his fleepy lamp;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glafs
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass;
What is infirm from your found parts fhall fly,
Health fhall live free, and fickness freely dye.
Kin. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'ft thou venture?

HEL. Tax of impudence,

A ftrumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,
Traduc'd by odious ballads, my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwise; or, worse to worst extended,
With vileft torture let my life be ended.

Kin. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed spirit doth speak;
His powerful found, within an organ weak:
And what impoffibility would flay

In common fenfe, fenfe faves 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, can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monftrous desperate.
Sweet practiser, thy physick I will try;
That minifters thine own death, if I dye.
HEL. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I fpoke, unpity'd let me dye;

7 her fleepy 17 otherwife, no worse of worst

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And well deserv'd: Not helping, death's my fee;
But, if I help, what do you promise me?
Kin. Make thy demand.

HEL. But will you make it even?

Kin. Ay, by my fcepter, and my hopes of heaven. HEL. Then fhalt 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 fuch a one, thy vaffal; whom I know

Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

Kin. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd,
Thy will by my performance fhall be ferv'd:
So make the choice of thy own time; for I,
Thy resolv'd patient, on thee ftill rely.

More should I question thee, and more I muft;
Though, more to know, could not be more to truft ;
From whence thou cam'ft, how tended on,― But relt
Unqueftion'd welcome, and undoubted bleft.-
Give me fome help here, ho! If thou proceed
As hig has word, my deed shall match thy deed. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. Rofillion. A Room in the Count's Palace.
Enter Countefs, and Clown.

Cou. Come on, fir, I shall now put you to the height of your breeding.

Clo. I will fhew myfelf highly fed, and lowly taught: I know, my business is but to the court.

Cou. But to the court! Why, what place make you special, when you put off that with fuch contempt ?

VOL. IV.

s of helpe.

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, fuch a fellow, to fay precisely, were not for the court: but, for me, I have an answer will serve all men. Cou. 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.

Cou. Will your anfwer ferve fit to all questions?

Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffety punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for fhrovetuesday, 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 frier's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin.

Cou. Have you, I fay, an answer of fuch fitnefs for all questions?

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

Cou. It must be an anfwer of moft monftrous fize, that muft 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.

Cou. 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, fir, are you a courtier ?

Clo. O lord, fir,-There's a fimple putting off: more, more, a hundred of them.

Cou. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you.
Clo. O lord, fir,―Thick, thick, spare not me.
Cou. I think, fir, you can eat none of this homely meat.
Clo. O lord, fir,-Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.
Cou. You were lately whipt, fir, as I think.

Clo. O lord, fir, Spare not me.

Cou. Do you cry, o lord, fir, at your whipping, and Spare not me? Indeed, your o lord, fir, is very fequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.

Clo. I ne'er had worfe luck in my life in my o lord, fir: I fee, things may serve long, but not ferve ever. Cou. I play the noble huswife with the time, to entertain it fo merrily with a fool.

Clo. O lord, fir,- Why, there't ferves well again. Cou. An end, fir, to your businefs: Give Helen this, And urge her to a present answer back :

Commend me to my kinsmen, and my fon;
This is not much.

Clo. Not much commendation to them.

[me? Cou. Not much employment for you: : You understand Clo. Moft fruitfully; I am there before my legs. Cou. Hafte you again. [Exeunt feverally.

SCENE III. Paris. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter LAFEU, BERTRAM, and PAROLLES. LAF. They fay, miracles are past; and we have our philofophical perfons, to make modern, and familiar, things fupernatural and causelefs. Hence is it, that we

make trifles of terrors; enfconcing ourselves into feeming knowledge, when we should fubmit ourselves to an unknown fear.

PAR. Why, 'tis the rareft argument of wonder, that hath fhot out in our latter times.

BER. And fo 'tis.

LAF. To be relinquifh'd of the artists,

PAR. So I fay; both of Galen, and Paracelfus.

LAF. Of all the learned and authentic fellows,
PAR. Right, fo I say.

LAF. That gave him out incurable, —

PAR. Why, there 'tis ; fo fay I too.

LAF. Not to be help'd.

PAR. Right; as 'twere, a man affur'd of a―
LAF. Uncertain life, and fure death.

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PAR. Juft, you fay well; fo would I have faid. LAF. I may truly fay, it is a novelty to the world. PAR. It is, indeed: if you will have it in fhewing, you fhall read it in- What do you call there?

LAF. A fhewing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.

PAR. That's it, I would have faid; the very fame. LAF. Why, your dolphin is not luftier: 'fore me, I fpeak in refpect

PAR. Nay, 'tis ftrange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a moft facinerious fpirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the

LAF. Very hand of heaven,

PAR. Ay, so I say.

LAF. In a moft weak

PAR. And debile minifter, great power, great tranfcendence which fhould, indeed, give us a further ufe

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