your bosom, and I you leave me stall this in Count. Even so If we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Count. Nay, a mother; Why not a mother? When I said, a mother, If it be not, forswear't: howe'er, I charge thee, 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, disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Hel. Then, I confess, Here on my knee, before high heaven and you, My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love: By any token of presumptuous suit; The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, Hel. Madam, I had. Count. Wherefore? tell true. Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear. Hel. You are my mother, madam; 'would you (So that my lord, your son, were not my brother), Indeed, my mother!—or were you both our moI care no more for, than I do for heaven, [thers, So I were not his sister. Can't no other, But I your daughter, he must be my brother? Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-In heedfullest reservation to bestow them, As notes, whose faculties inclusive were, More than they were in note; amongst the rest, There is a remedy, approv'd, set down, To cure the desperate languishes, whereof The king is render'd lost. in-law: [ther, J. To say thou dost not: therefore, tell me true; Count. This was your motive [this; Hel. My lord, your son, made me to think of Count. But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid,.. SCENE I. PARIS. A BOOM IN THE KING'S PALACE. Flourish. Enter King, with young Lords taking leave for the Florentine war; Bertram, Parolles, and Attendants. weKing. Farewell, young lord, these warlike prin- Do not throw from you:-and you, my lord, fare- 1 Lord. It is our hope, sir, After well-enter'd soldiers, to return.. King, No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart 2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty! King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; Both. Our hearts receive your warnings. wasanganh [the King retires to a couch. 1 Lord. O my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us! Par. 'Tis not his fault; the spark2 Lord, O 'tis brave wars! Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with, Too young, and the next year, and 'tis too early. Par. An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely. Ber. I shall stay here the fore-horse to a smock, Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn, 2 Lord. I am your accessary; and so, farewell. Ber. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body. 1 Lord. Farewell, captain. 2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles! Pur. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are 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 him, I live; and observe his reports for me. 2 Lord. We shall, noble captain. Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! [exeunt Lords.] What will you do? Ber. Stay; the king [seeing him rise. Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble 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 received star; and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell. Laf. O, will you eat No grapes, my royal' fox? yes, but you will, To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand, King. What her is this? (For that is her demand), and know her business? | Where most it promises: and oft it hits, That done, laugh well at me. King. Now, good Lafeu, Bring in the admiration; that we with thee [exit Lafeu. King. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues. Re-enter Lafeu, with Helena. Laf. Nay, come your ways. King. This haste hath wings indeed. This is his majesty, say your mind to him: [was [him; Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one, Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, And of his old experience the only darling, He bade me store up, as a triple eye, Safer than mine own too, more dear. I have so: And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd With that malignant cause wherein the honour Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power, I come to tender it, and my appliance, With all bound humbleness. King. We thank you, maiden; But may not be so credulous of cure,— When our most learned doctors leave us; and The congregated college have concluded That labouring art can never ransom nature From her unaidable estate ;-I say, we must not So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malady To empirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. Hel. My duty then shall pay me for my pains: I will no more enforce mine office on you; Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modest one, to bear me back again. [ful King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateThou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give 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 peril, 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 hath judgment shown. When judges have been babes. Great floods have fown From simple sources; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 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, As 'tis with us, that square our guess by shows: But most it is presumption in us, when The help of heaven we count the act of men. Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent, Of heaven, not me, make an experiment. I am not an impostor, that proclaim Myself against the level of mine aim: 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 Hop'st thou my cure? [space 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. [speak; King. Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven. [hand, Hel. Then thou shalt give me, with thy kingly What husband in thy power I will command: Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely, Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest.- 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. [tions? Count. Will your answer serve fit to all quesClo. 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 fore-finger, 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 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 fitness for all questions? Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your constable, it will fit any question. 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 welbagain. Count. An end, sir, to your business: give Helen And urge her to a present answer back: [this, 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? [legs. Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my Count. Haste you again. [exeunt severally SCENE III. PARIS. A ROOM IN THE KING'S 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 latter times. Ber. And so 'tis. Laf. To be relinquish'd of the artists,- Laf. That gave him out incurable.— Par. Right; as 'twere, a man assured of an- Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said. 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? Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous earthly actor. 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. [you. Clo. O Lord, sir,-nay, put me to't, I warrant 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 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. 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. Lustick, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: why, he's able to lead her a coranto. Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous Fall, when love please!-marry, to each, but one! Laf. I'd 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. [health. Heaven hath, through me, restor'd the king to All. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. Hel. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthiest, Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever; King. Make choice; and, see, Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me. Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute. Hel. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair Which great love grant! and so I take my leave. Hcl. 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. Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood. 4 Lord. Fair one, I think not so. father drank wine. But if thou be'st not an ass, 1 am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already. Hel 1 dare not say I take you; [to Bertram] Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, King. Know'st thou not, Bertram, But never hope to know why I should marry her. my sickly bed. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the Is good, without a name; vileness is so : Hel. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am I must produce my power. Here, take her hand, Laf. There's one grape yet,—I am sure, thy We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt: |