Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Embowell'd of their doctrine,* have left off
The danger to itself?

Hel. There's something hints, [greatest
More than my father's skill, which was the
Of his profession, that his good receipt
Shall, for my legacy, be sanctified

By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would
your honour

But give me leave to try success, I'd venture
The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure,
By such a day, and hour.

Count. Dost thou believe't?
Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly.
Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my
leave, and love,
[ings
Means, and attendants, and my loving greet-
To those of mine own court; I'll stay at home,
And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.
[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I-Paris.-A Room in the King's

Palace.
Flourish. Enter KING, with young LORDS
ing leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM,
PAROLLES, and attendants.

Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn,
But one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal

away.

1 Lord. There's honour in the theft.
Par. Commit it. count.

2 Lord. I am your accessary; and so farewell. Ber. I grow to you, and our parting is a tor. tured body.

1 Lord. Farewell, captain.

2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles!

Par. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are 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 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 extak-pressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the time,t 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.

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,
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,
And is enough for both.

1 Lord. It is our hope, Sir,

After well-enter'd soldiers, to return
And find your grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart
Will not confess he owes the malady
That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young
Whether I live or die, be you the sons [lords;
Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy
(Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy,+) see, that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
The bravest questant; shrinks, find what you
seek,

That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.
2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your
majesty!

King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of

them;

They say, our French lack language to deny,
If they demand: beware of being captives,
Before you serve.

Both. Our hearts receive your warnings.
King. Farewell.-Come hither to me.
The KING retires to a couch.
1 Lord. O my sweet lord, that you will stay
behind us!

Par. "Tis not his fault: the spark-
2 Lord. O, 'tis brave wars!

Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with;

foo young, and the next year, and 'tis too early. Pur. An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely.

Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,

[blocks in formation]

Par. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy swordmen.

[Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLIES.

Enter LAFEU.

[you

Luf. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me
and for my tidings.
King. I'll fee thee to stand up.
Stands, that has brought his pardon. I would,
Luf. Then here's a man
Had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy; and
That, at my bidding, you could so stand up.

King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate,
And ask'd thee mercy for't.

Laf. Goodfaith, across :||

But my good lord, 'tis thus; Will you be cur'd
Of your infirmity?
King, No.

Laf. O, will you eat

My noble grapes, an if my royal fox
No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will,

Could reach them: I have seen a medicine,¶
That's able to breathe life into a stone;

Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary,"
With sprightly fire and motion; whose simple
Is powerful to araise king Pepin, nay, [touch
And write to her a love-line.
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, [honour, If seriously I may convey my thoughts If you will see her,-now, by my faith and In this my light deliverance, I have spoke With one, that, in her sex, her years, profes

[blocks in formation]

Than I dare blame my weakness: Will you | Oft expectation fails, and most oft there see her [ness? Where most it promises; and oft it hits, (For that is her demand,) and know her busi- Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. That done, laugh well at me. King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;

King. Now, good Lafeu,

Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
May spend our wonder too, or take off thine,
By wond'ring how thou took'st it.
Laf. Nay, I'll fit you,
And not be all day neither. [Exit LAFEU.
King. Thus he his special nothing ever
logues.

Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA.

Laf. Nay, come your ways.

King. This haste hath wings indeed.
Laf. Nay, come your ways;

Thy pains, not as'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:
pro-But most it is presumption in us, when

This is his majesty, say your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
His majesty seldom fears: IamCressid's uncle,*
That dare leave two together; fare you well.
[Exit.
King. Now, fair one, does your business fol-

low 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 to-
wards him;

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 bad me store up, as a triple eye,t
Safer than mine own two, 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 inaidable estate,-I say we must not
So stain our judgement, 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.
King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd
grateful:
[give,
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 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 judgement shown, When judges have been babes. Great floods [dried, From simple sources; and great seas have When miracles have by the greatest been

have flown

denied.

[blocks in formation]

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.
Hop'st thou my cure?
King. Art thou so confident? Within what
[space
Hel. The greatest grace lending grace,
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp;
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
What dar'st thou venture?
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,

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:
And what impossibility would slay

In common sense, sense saves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all
Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate;t
That happiness and primes can happy call:
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate.
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try;
That ministers thine own death, if I die.

Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property
[fee;
And well deserv'd: Not helping, death's my
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die;
But, if I help, what do you promise me?

King. Make thy demand."

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:
Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood of France;
My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or image of thy state:
But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd;
King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd.
So make the choice of thy own time; for I,
Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely.
More should I question thee, and more I must;
Though, more to know, could not be more to
trust;

* 1. e. Pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition. +The evening star. I. e. May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee. The spring or morning of life

[blocks in formation]

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 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 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?

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
Helen this,

Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son;
And urge her to a present answer back:
This is not much.

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. SCENE III-Paris.-A Room in the King's

#

Palace.

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.t

Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of won-
der, that hath shot out in our fatter times.
Ber. And so 'tis.

Laf. To be relinquished of the artists,
Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fel-
lows,-

Pur. Right, so I say.

Laf. That gave him out incurable,-
Par. Why, there 'tis ; so say I too.
Laf. Not to be helped,-

Par. Right: as 'twere a man assured of an-
Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death.

Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said. Laf. I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world.

Pur. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in,What do you

Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your constable, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of most mon-call there?strous 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.

Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.

Par. That's it I would have said; the very same.

Luf. Why, your dolphint is not lustier; 'fore Count. To be young again, if we could: Ime I speak in respect

will be a fool in question, hoping to be the Pur. Nay 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that wiser by your answer. I pray you, Sir, are is the brief and the tedious of it; and he is of you a courtier ? a most facinorious spirit, that will not acknow

Clo. O Lord, Sir,-There's a simple put-ledge it to be theting 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.

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,-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 lack in my life, in my-O Lord, Sir: I see, things may serve long, but not serve ever.

Properly follows.

Laf. Very hand of heaven.
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 re-
covery of the king, as to be-
Laf. Generally thankful.

Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants.
Par. I would have said it; you say wel:
Here comes the king.

Laf. Lustic, 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?
Laf. 'Fore God, I think so.
King. Go, call before me all the lords in
[Exit an Attendant.

court.

* Ordinary. + Fear means here the object of fear.
The dauphin.
Wicked.
Lustigh is the Dutch word for lusty, cheerful

[blocks in formation]

parcel

Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing, O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice*

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'd give bay Curtal, and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken than these boy's, And writ as little beard.

King. Peruse them well:

Not one of those, but had a noble father.
Hel. Gentlemen,

Heaven hath, through me, restor❜d the king to health.

All. We understand it, and thank heaven for

you.

Hel. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthThat, I protest, I simply am a maid :- [iest, Please it your majesty, I have done already · The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me, We blush, that thou should'st choose; but, be refus'd,

Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;
We'll ne'er come there again.

King. Make choice; and, see,
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,
Domy sighs stream.--Sir, will you hear my suit?
1 Lord. And grant it.

Hel. Thanks, Sir; all the rest is mute. Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace | 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!
2 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'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: 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 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. Laf. There's one grape yet,-I am sure, thy father drank wine.-But if thou be'st not an ass, They were wards as well as subjects. Except one, meaning Bertram. 2. e. I have no more to say to you. DC of the dice.

A docked horse.

The lowest

I am a youth of fourteen; I have known the: already.

Hel. I dare not say, I take you; [To BER
TRAM] 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, Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What she has done for me?
Ber. Yes, my good lord:

[her.

But never hope to know why I should marry King. Thou know'st, she has rais'd 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
In differences so mighty: If she be
All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st,
A
poor physician's daughter,) thou dislik'st
Of virtue for the name: but do not so: [ceed,
From lowest place when virtuous things pro-
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additionst swell, 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: thatis honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the sire: Honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers; the mere word's a slave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb,
Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be
said?

[me.

If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue, and she,
Is her own dower; honour and wealth, from
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.
King. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st
strive to choose.

Hel. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am 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 misprison shackle up
My love, and her desert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective scale, [know,
Shall weigh thee to the beam: that wilt not
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;

[blocks in formation]

Or I will throw thee from my care for ever, Into the staggers, and the careless lapse [hate, Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and Loosing upon thee in the name of justice, Without all terms of pity: Speak; thine an

swer.

Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit My fancy to your eyes: When I consider, What great creation, and what dole of honour, Flies where you bid it, I find, that she, which late

Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
Is, as 'twere, born so.

King. Take her by the hand,
And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoize; if not to thy estate,
A balance more replete.

Ber. I take her hand,

King, Good fortune, and the favour of the king,

Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief, And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast Shall more attend upon the coming space, Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her, Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.

[Exeunt KING, BERTRAM, HELENA, LORDS, and Attendants. Laf. Do you hear, monsieur? a word with

[blocks in formation]

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.

Luf. 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.

Par. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

Laf. Ay," with all my heart; and thou art

worthy of it.

Par. I have not, my lord, deserved it.

to pull at a smack o' the contrary. If ever thoa 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'lÍ have no more pity of his age, than I would have of-I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.

Re-enter LAFEU.

Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's married, there's news for you; you have a new mistress.

Par. I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs: He is my good lord: whom I serve above, is my master.

Laf. Who? God? Par. Ay, Sir.

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 breather themselves upon thee.

Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

Laf. Go to, 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, and honourable personages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.

[blocks in formation]

The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!
Ber. There's letters from my mother; what
the import is,
I know not yet.

Par. Ay, that would be known: To the wars
my boy, to the wars!

Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and He wears his honour in a box unseen,

I will not bate thee a scruple.

Par. Well, I shall be wiser.

Laf. E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast

Le. While I sate twice with thee at dinner.

That hugs his kicksy-wicksy‡ here at home: Spending his manly marrow in her arms, Which should sustain the bound and high curvet

* At a need. + Exercise. ↑ A cant term for a wife

« AnteriorContinuar »