Hel. Then, I confess, It is the show and seal of nature's truth, youth: By our remembrances of days foregone, Such were our faults;-or then we thought them none. Her eye is sick on't; I observe her now. I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Why not a mother? When I said a mother, Methought you saw a serpent: What's a mother, That you start at it? I say, I am your mother; That were enwombed mine: 'Tis often seen, Count. I say, I am your mother. The count Rousillon cannot be my brother. Count. Nor I your mother? Hel. You are my mother, madam; 'Would you were mothers, my our I care no more for, than I do for heaven, God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother, So strive upon your pulse: What, pale again? My fear hath catch'd your fondness: Now I see The mystery of your loneliness, and find Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 'tis gross, You love my son; invention is asham'd, Bel. Good madam, pardon me! Hel. Your pardon, noble mistress! 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, disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Have to the full appeach'd. 1e. I care as much for: I wish it equally. Contend. The source, the cause of your grief, My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love: Be not offended; for it hurts not him, Nor would I have him, till I do deserve him; The sun, that looks upon his worshipper Let not your hate encounter with my love, pity Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading, For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me There is a remedy, approv'd, set down, Count. This was your motive Hel. My lord, your son made me to think of this; Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, Count. But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid, A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools, Hel. There's something hints, More than my father's skill, which was the greatest Of his profession, that his good receipt By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour But give me leave to try success, I'd venture Count. Dost thou believe it? Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave 1. e. Whose respectable conduct in age proves that you were no less virtuous when young. + e. Veaus. 1 Receipts in which greater virtues were enclosed than appeared. Exhausted of their skill. Means and attendants, and my loving greetings ACT II. SCENE 1.-Paris.-A Room in the King's Palace. Flourish. Enter KING, with young LORDS, taking leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and Attendants. King. Farewell, young lord, these warlike principles Do not throw from you:-And you, my lord, farewell; Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 1 Lord. It is our hope, Sir, After well-enter'd soldiers, to return King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my kin. Good sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals:-You shall find in the regiment of the Spinii, one captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrenched it: say to hira, I live; and observe his reports for me. 2 Lord. We shall, noble captain. Par. Mars dote on you for bis novices! [Exeunt LORDS.] What will you do?" Ber. Stay; the king-- [Seeing him rist. Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords; you have restrained yourself wildin the list of too cold an adien: "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 received star; and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell. Ber. And I will do so. Par. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy swordmen. [Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLIS. King. No. Laf. Oh! will you eat No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will, Could reach them: I have seen a medicine, { Is powerful to araise king Pepin, nay, King. What her is this? Laf. Why, doctor she: My lord, there's ase arriv'd, If you will see her, now, by my faith and bo nour, If seriously I may convey my thoughts Wisdom, and constancy, hath amazed me more Than I dare blame my weakness: Will you ser ber (For that is her demand,) and know her business? That done, laugh well at me. King. Now, good Lafeu, Bring in the admiration: that we with thee And not be all day neither. [Frit LAPEC. King. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues. 'Re-enter LAFEU with HELENA. Laf. Nay, come your ways. J And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd King. We thank you, maiden; Our great self and our credit, to esteem A sensel ss help, when help past sense we deem. I will no more enforce mine office on you; Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I As one near death to those that wish him live: But, what at full I know, thou know'st no part; I knowing all my per!!, thou no art. 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 bath judginent shown, When judges have been babes. Great floods bave flown From simple sources; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied.¶ oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it bits, Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid; Thy pains, not us'd, 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, 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 + bath 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 tiy, 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: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power, I will command: To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd ; From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,- Unquestiou'd welcome, and undoubted blest.Give me some belp 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 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! I. e. Pretend to greater things than be fits the mediocrity of my condition. + The evening tear. 1 I. e. May be counted among the gifts enjored by thee. 91 he spring or morning of life. 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-buttoek, 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 forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for Mayday, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling kuave, 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. terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming know. ledge, 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,-Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laj. Of all the learned and authentic fellows, Par. Right, so I say Laf. That gave him out incurable,— Par. Right: as 'twere a man assured of an— Laf. I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world. Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in,-What do you call there?— Laj. 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 facinorious spirit, that will not acknow. Laf. Very hand of heaven. Count. To be young again, if we could: Iledge it to be the-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 your's, 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 war. rant 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 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 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. Count. An end, Sir, to your business: Give And urge her to a present answer back : 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. 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. Lustic, as the Dutchman says: 【D like a maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: Why, he's able to lead her a coranto. 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 Attendent. Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side! And with this healthful band, whose banish'd Laf. I'd give bay Curtal, ** and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken than these bog's, SCENE III.-Paris.-A Room in the King's And writ as little beard. Palace. Before I speak, too threateningly replies: 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 eunuchs of. Hel. Be not afraid [To a LORD] that I your hand should take; I'll never do you wrong for your own sake : 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. All that is virtuons, (save what thon dislik'st The place is dignified by the doer's deed: Is good, without a name: vileness is so:t Which challenges itself as honour's born, If thou canst like this creature as a maid, I can create the rest: virtue, and she, me. Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too We please to have it grow: Check thy congood, 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- Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, Ber. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech your highness, 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 ber. King. Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my sickly bed. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Most answer for your raising? I know her well; King, 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, 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 ditierences so mighty: If she be 1e. I have no more to say to you. + The lowest chance of the dice. 21.e. The want of title. tempt: 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 I will throw thee from my care for ever, Loosing upon thee in the name of justice, |