Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy (1)
(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. Вотн. 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. 'T is not his fault, the spark. 2 LORD. O, 't is 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 't is too early. PAR. An thy mind stand to 't, 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, But one to dance with !(2) 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 tortured body.b

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

Upon Lafeu prostrating himself, the afflicted king, mindful of his own debility, remarks,-"Instead of your begging permission of me to rise, I'll sue thee for the same grace;"-Lafeu immediately responds,

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

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 sword-men.

[Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES.

Enter LAFEU.

LAF. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me and for my tidings.

KING. I'll sue thee to stand up.

LAF. Then here's a man stands, that has
brought his pardon.
[mercy;

I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me
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.
['t is thus ;
LAF. Good faith, across : d but, my good lord,
Will you be cur'd of your infirmity?
KING. NO.

LAF. O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox? Yes, but will, my you noble grapes, an if My royal fox 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 touch
Is powerful to araise king Pepin, nay,

(*) Old text, ye.

"I would you had kneel'd, my lord," &c.

d Good faith, across:] Across, in reference to the sports of chivalry, in which, to break a spear across the body of an opponent was disgraceful, came to be used in derision when any pass of wit miscarried. Here however, we believe.Lafeu alludes rather to some game, where certain successes entitle the achiever to mark a cross.

Yes, but you will my noble grapes,-] My in this passage has been changed in some modern editions to ay, but needlessly; we have only to read "my" emphatically, and the, sense is obvious:

"O, will you eat no grapes?, &c.

Yes, but you will, mysnoble grapes."

And make you dance canary,-] To what has already been said on the nature of this sprightly dance (see note (a), vol I p. 64), may be added, that the dancers accompanied their movements with castagnets: see Florio, who defines Chioppare "to clacke or snap, or phip, or click, or lirp with ones fingers, as they that dance the Canaries, or as some barbers."

LAF. Why, doctor she; my lord, there's one arriv'd,

If you will see her,—now, by my faith and honour,
If seriously I may convey my thoughts
In this my light deliverance, I have spoke
With one, that, in her sex, her years, profession,
Wisdom, and constancy, hath amaz'd me more
Than I dare blame my weakness. Will you see her,
(For that is her demand,) and know her business?
That done, laugh well at me.
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.

And not be all day neither.

Nay, I'll fit you, [Exit LAFEU.

KING. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.

him;

Knowing him, is enough. On's bed of death
Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the dearest issue of his practice,
And of his old experience th' only darling,
He bade me store up, as a triple eye,

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.

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.

grateful:

KING. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd [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 judgment shown,
When judges have been babes.(3) Great floods have
flown

From simple sources; and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.*

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 't is 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 space Hop'st thou my cure?

HEL. The great'st 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

In common sense, sense saves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate
Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate;
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all

That happiness and prime can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate.
Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try;
That ministers thine own death, if I die.

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;
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.d [hand,

HEL. Then shalt thou 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;
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.

KING. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd,
Thy will by my performance shall be serv'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;
From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,--but rest
Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest.-
Give me some help here, ho!-If thou proceed
As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed.
[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.

CLO. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court.

A Ne worse of worst extended,-] This is the lection of the old copy, and although unquestionably corrupt, it is not worse than the commentators' suggestions for its amendment. We should, perhaps, approach nearer to what the poet really wrote by treating ne and extended as palpable misprints, and reading :

66 —and, worse of worst expended, With vilest torture let my life be ended." Impossibility-] That is, incredibility.

But will you make it even?] That is, Will you equate it? Will you match it? See note (a), p. 11, of the present volume.

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 a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday, a morris for May-day,(4) 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 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 whip

d And my hopes of heaven.] The old copy has help. The correction, which is due to Dr. Thirlby, seems called for both by the context and the rhyme. It is observable that much of this scene is in smooth, rhyming verses; it was a portion probably of the poet's first youthful conception, for we cannot divest ourselves of the impression that at a subsequent period of his career he rewrote a considerable part of this play.

• O Lord, sir!] The use of this expletive, which appears to have been thought the mode both in court and city, has been finely ridiculed by Jonson also. See "Every Man out of his Humour," Act III. Sc. 1, and passim.