After well-enter'd soldiers, to return King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords! 2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty! Both. Our hearts receive your warnings. The King retires to a couch. Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. 2 Lord. I am your accessary; and so farewell, 2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles! Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! [Exeunt [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! Ber. And I will do so. Par. Worthy fellows, and like to prove most sinewy Laf. Pardon, my lord, [ Kneeling.]for me and for my Stands, that has brought his pardon. I would, you King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, Laf. Good faith, across: But, my good lord, 'tis thus: will you be cur'd King, No. Laf. O, will you eat No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will, I My noble grapes, an if my royal fox To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand, King. What her is this? Laf. Why, doctor she. My lord, there's one arriv'd, King. Now, good Lafeu, Bring in the admiration; that we with thee [Exit Lafeu. And not be all day neither. Laf. Nay, come your ways! This is his majesty, say your mind to him: Hel.The rather will I spare my praises towards him; King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful: Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, So holy writ in babes hath judgement shown, But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. The greatest grace lending grace, Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth His powerful sound, within an organ weak: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die, And well deserv'd! Not helping, death's my fee; Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven. To choose from forth the royal blood of France, King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, 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. 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. 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 fore-finger, as as pan-cake for ShroveTuesday, 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,—There's a simple putting off:more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves meat. spare not me! Clo. O Lord, sir,- nay, put me to't, I warrant you. Count. You were lately whipped, sir, as I think. Clo. O Lord, sir, 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: Isee, 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. This is not much. Clo. Not much commendation to them. Count. Not much employment for you: You understand me? Par. That's it I would have said; the very same. Laf. Why, your dolphin is not lustier; 'fore me, speak in respect I All. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. Hel. Thanks, sir: all the rest is mute. Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw amesace for my life. Hel. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Love make your fortunes twenty times above Hel. My wish receive, Which great love grant! and so I take my leave. Hel. Be not afraid [To a Lord.] that I your hand should take; I'll never do you wrong for your own sake: Par. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the, Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have brief and the tedious of it; and he is of a most facino-her: sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them. rous spirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the Laf. Very hand of heaven. Par. Ay, so I say. Laf. In a most weak 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. drank wine.-But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already. Par.And debile minister,great power, great transcen-Laf. There's one grape yet, I am sure, thy father dence: which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to beLaf. Generally thankful. Enter King, HELENA, and Attendants. Par. I would have said it; you say well. Here comes theking. 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. Par. Mort du Vinaigre! Is not this Helen? King. Go, call before me all the lords in court!- Enter several Lords. Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel King. Peruse them well! Not one of those, but had a noble father. Hel. Gentlemen, Hel.I dare not say I take you ;[To Bertram.]but I give King. Why then, young Bertram, take her, she's Ber. My wife, my liege ?I shall beseech your highness, King. Know'st thou not, Bertram, Ber. Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I should marry her. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which Heaven hath, through me, restor’d the king to health. Is good, without a name; vileness is so : The property by what it is should go, And these breed honour; that is honour's scorn, Hel. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad; King. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat, My love, and her desert; that canst not dream, Shall weigh thee to the beam: that wilt not know, We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt, Of youth and ignorance, both my revenge and hate, King. Take her by the hand, And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise Ber. I take her hand. King. Good fortune, and the favour of the king, [Exeunt King, Bertram, Helena, Lords, and Laf. Do you hear, monsieur? a word with you! Laf. Your lord and master did well to make his cantation. Pur. Recantation? My lord? my master? Laf. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee. Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do. Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs, and the bannerets, about thee, did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden. I have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care not: yet art thou good for nothing but taking up; and that thou art scarce worth. Par. Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee, Laf. Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial; which if- Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee well; thy casement I need not open, for I look through thee. Give me thy hand. Pur. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity. Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not bate thee a scruple. Par. Well, I shall be wiser. Laf. E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack o' the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf, and beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge; that I may say, in the default, he is a man I know. Par.My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation. Laf. I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing eternal: for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave. [Exit. Par. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double, and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age, than I would have of — I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again. Laf. The devil it is, that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose stands.By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think, thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee. Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord. Laf. Goto, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords, re-and honourable personages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtues gives you commission. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit. Par. A most harsh one; and not to be understood without bloody succeeding. My master? Luf. Are you companion to the count Rousillon? Par. To any count, to all counts; to what is man. Laf. To what is count's man; count's master is of another style. Par. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old. Enter BERTRAM. Par. Good, very good; it is so then. good; let it be concealed a while. I Ber. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever! Ber. Although before the solemu priest I have sworn, Par. What? what, sweet heart? Par. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits The tread of a man's foot. To the wars! A very serious business calls on him. The great prerogative and rite of love, Which, as your due,time claims, he does acknowledge; Ber. There's letters from my mother; what the im- Whose want, and whose delay is strewed with sweets, port is, I know not yet. Which they distil now in the curbed time, Par. Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, And pleasure drown the brim. to the wars! He wears his honour in a box unseen, Which should sustain the bound and high curvet Ber. It shall be so; I'll send her to my house, Hel. What's his will else? Ber. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof. Par. Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it for a bunting. A young man, married, is a man that's marr'd: [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-The same. Another room in the same. Enter HELENA and Clown. Hel. My mother greets me kindly. Is she well? Clo. She is not well: but yet she has her health: she's very merry; but yet she is not well: but thanks be given, she's very well, and wants nothing i'the world: but yet she is not well. Hel. If she be very well, what does she ail, that she's not very well? Clo. Truly, she's very well, indeed, but for two things. Clo. One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her quickly! the other, that she's in earth,from whence God send her quickly! Enter PAROLLES. Par. Bless you, my fortunate lady! Hel. I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own good fortunes. Par. You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them on, have them still. -0, my knave! How does my old lady? Clo. So that you had her wrinkles, and I her money, Ber. I do assure you, my lord, he is very great in knowledge, and accordingly valiant. Laf. I have then sinned against his experience, and transgressed against his valour; and my state that way is dangerous, since I cannot yet find in my heart to repent. Here he comes; I pray you, make us friends, I will pursue the amity. Enter PAROLLES. Par. These things shall be done, sir. [To Bertram. Laf. O, I know him well. Ay, sir; he, sir, is a good Ber. Will she away to-night? [Aside to Parolles. Ber. I have writ my letters, casketed my treasure, Laf. A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner; but one that lies three-thirds, and uses a known truth to pass a thousand nothings with, should be once heard, and thrice beaten. God save you, captain! Ber.Is there any unkindness between my lord and you, monsieur? Par. I know not how I have deserved to run into my lord's displeasure. Cla. Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing. To say no- Laf. You have made shift to run into't, boots and thing, to do nothing, to know nothing, and to have no-spurs and all, like him that leaped into the custard; thing, is to be a great part of your title; which is within a very little of nothing. Par. Away, thou'rt a knave! Clo. You should have said, sir, before a knave thou art a knave; that is, before me thou art a knave: this had been truth, sir. Par. Go to, thou art a witty fool, I have found thee. Clo. Did you find me in yourself, sir? or were you taught to find me? The search, sir, was profitable; and much fool may you find in you, even to the world's pleasure, and the increase of laughter. Par. A good knave, i'faith, and well fed. Madam, my lord will go away to-night; and out of it you'll run again, rather than suffer question for your residence. Ber. It may be, you have mistaken him, my lord. Laf. And shall do so ever, though I took him at his prayers. Fare you well, my lord and believe this of me: there can be no kernel in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes: trust him not in matter of heavy consequence; I have kept of them tame, and know their natures.- Farewell, monsieur! I have spoken better of you, than you have, or will deserve at my hand but we must do good against evil. [Exit. Par. An idle lord, I swear. Ber. I think so. |