King. Now, fair one, does your business follow us? Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was My father; in what he did profess, well found. King. I knew him. Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death Safer than mine own two, more dear. I have so: King. We thank you, maiden; But may not be so credulous of cure,- To empirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. King. I cannot give thee less, to be called grateful 1 A third eye. Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, flown Great floods have From simple sources; and great seas have dried, Where most it promises, and oft it hits, Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid; Thy pains, not used, must by thyself be paid. But know I think, and think I know most sure, King. Art thou so confident? Within what space Hop'st thou my cure? Hel. The greatest grace lending grace,1 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 quenched his sleepy lamp; 1 i. e. "Since you have determined or made up your mind that there is no remedy." 2 An allusion to Daniel judging the two elders. 3 I am not an impostor, that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud. I think what I speak. 4 í. e. the divine grace, lending me grace or power to accomplish it. Or four-and-twenty times the pilot's glass Health shall live free, and sickness freely die. Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— King. Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; His powerful sound within an organ weak; way. In common sense, sense saves another Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property 2 Hel. fee; But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of help.3 Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command. 1 Let me be stigmatized as a strumpet, and, in addition (although that could not be worse, or a more extended evil than what I have mentioned, the loss of my honor, which is the worst that could happen), let me die with torture. Ne is nor. 2 Property seems to be used here for performance or achievement, singular as it may seem. 3 Thirlby proposes to read hopes of heaven. Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observed, [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. Člo. 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 1 The old copy reads "image of thy state." Warburton proposed impage, which Steevens rejects, saying, unadvisedly, "there is no such word." It is evident that Shakspeare formed it from "an impe, a scion, or young slip of a tree." 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 groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffeta punk, as Tib'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 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. 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.2- -There's a simple putting off; -more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of 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. 1 The rush ring seems to have been a kind of love token, for plighting of troth among rustic lovers. 2 A ridicule on this silly expletive of speech, then in vogue at court. Thus Clove and Orange, in Every Man in his Humor: "You conceive me, sir?-O Lord, sir!" |