Embowell'd of their doctrine,* have left off Hel. There's something hints, [greatest By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would But give me leave to try success, I'd venture Count. Dost thou believe't? ACT II. SCENE I-Paris.-A Room in the King's Palace. Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, away. 1 Lord. There's honour in the theft. 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, Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 1 Lord. It is our hope, Sir, After well-enter'd soldiers, to return King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell. King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; They say, our French lack language to deny, Both. Our hearts receive your warnings. Par. "Tis not his fault: the spark- 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, Par. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy swordmen. [Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLIES. Enter LAFEU. [you Luf. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, Laf. Goodfaith, across :|| But my good lord, 'tis thus; Will you be cur'd Laf. O, will you eat My noble grapes, an if my royal fox Could reach them: I have seen a medicine,¶ Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary," 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 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 Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA. Laf. Nay, come your ways. King. This haste hath wings indeed. Thy pains, not as'd, must by thyself be paid: Hel. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd: This is his majesty, say your mind to him: 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- Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death King. We thank you, maiden; 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. The help of heaven we count the act of men. 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: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property 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 Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd; * 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 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 Count. An end, Sir, to your business: Give Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son; 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- Laf. To be relinquished of the artists, Pur. Right, so I say. 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. 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. Laf. In a most weak Par. And debile minister, great power, great Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants. 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? court. * Ordinary. + Fear means here the object of fear. 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. 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; King. Make choice; and, see, 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: 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 Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, Ber. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech your highness, In such a business give me leave to use King, Know'st thou not, Bertram, [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, [me. If thou canst like this creature as a maid, 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, 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 King. Take her by the hand, 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 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. The tread of a man's foot: to the wars! Par. Ay, that would be known: 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 |