I have to use: thy frank election make;

Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.
HEL. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when Love please! marry, to each, but one!

LAF. I'ld give bay Curtal and his furniture,
My mouth no more were broken than these boys',
And writ as little beard.

KING.

Peruse them well:

Not one of those but had a noble father.

HEL. Gentlemen,

Heaven hath through me restored the king to health. ALL. We understand it, and thank heaven for

you.

HEL. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthiest, That I protest I simply am a maid.

Please it your majesty, I have done already :

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."

Make choice; and, see,

KING.
Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.
HEL. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly;
And to imperial Love, that god most high,
Do my sighs stream. Sir, will you hear my suit?
FIRST LORD. And grant it.

HEL.

Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.

75 all the rest is mute] I will say no more. Cf. Hamlet, V, ii, 380: "The

rest is silence."

60

70

LAF. I had rather be in this choice than throw amesace 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!
SEC. 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'ld have them whipped; or I would send them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of.

HEL. Be not afraid 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 'em.

HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood.

FOURTH LORD. Fair one, I think not so.

LAF. There's one grape yet; I am sure thy father

76 ames-ace] ambs-ace, the two aces, the lowest throw of the dice, a thing of no value. The general meaning of Lafeu's somewhat lame irony seems to be, "I had rather be a competitor in this contest than risk my life for nothing at all."

97-99 I am sure . . . already] Thy father put some spirit into you; but I know enough of you to know you for an ass.

80

90

drunk wine: but if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already.

HEL. [To Bertram] I dare not say I take you; 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.

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.

What she has done for me?

BER.

Know'st thou not, Bertram,

Yes, my good lord;

But never hope to know why I should marry her.
KING. Thou know'st she has raised me from my

sickly bed.

BER. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father's charge.
A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!

KING. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
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

117 Of colour, etc.] As far as colour, etc., are concerned.

100

110

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:

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions swell's and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
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 thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave
Debosh'd on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb

Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb

120

130

Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,

140

I can create the rest: virtue and she

Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.
BER. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do 't.
KING. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive
to choose.

127 Vileness is so] Vileness is in the same case. 132 challenges itself as] asserts a claim to be.

HEL. That you are well restored, my lord, I'm glad: Let the rest go.

KING. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,
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,

Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour where

We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt:
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
Into the staggers and the careless lapse

Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate
Loosing upon thee, in the name of justice,

Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer.

147 which to defeat] and to destroy this risk of injury to my honour. 150 in vile misprision shackle up] contemptibly undervalue or disdain.

"Misprision" means here "the act of undervaluing." Cf. III, ii, 29, infra, where the countess talks of "the misprising of" Helena by her son.

152-153 We, poising . . . beam] We, throwing the weight of our influence in her favour or scale, which of itself were deficient in weight, shall make the scale in which you are placed strike the beam, i. e., weigh nothing at all.

161 staggers] strictly speaking, apoplexy in horses.

Here "staggering

helplessness" or "bewilderment" (of men). Cf. Cymb., V, v, 233: "How come these staggers on me?

150

160