LAF. To be relinquished of the artists,-
PAR. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
LAF. Of all the learned and authentic fellows,-
PAR. Right, so I say.

LAF. That gave him out incurable,-
PAR. Why, there 't is; so say I too.
LAF. Not to be helped,-

PAR. Right: as 't were, a man assured of a—
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.

PAR. It is, indeed: if you will have it in

(*) First folio, And.

a Lustique,-] "An old play, that has a great deal of merit, call'd' The weakest goeth to the Wall,' (printed in 1600, but how much earlier written, or by whom written, we are no where in form'd,) has in it a Dutchman, call'd-Jacob van Smelt, who speaks a jargon of Dutch and our language; and upon several occasions uses this very word, which in English is-lusty."-CAPELI

PAR. And debile minister, great power, great transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to be

LAF. Generally thankful.

PAR. I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.

LAF. Lustique, 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.

Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants.

KING. Go, call before me all the lords in court. [Exit an Attendant.

Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;
And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promised gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

Enter several Lords.

Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful 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 for-
sake.

HEL. To each of you, one fair and virtuous mistress

(*) First folio, facinerious.

b A coranto.] The coranto was a dance distinguished for the liveliness and rapidity of its movements :-

"And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos."—
Henry V. Act III. Sc. 5.

ames-ace for my

HEL. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair Before I speak, too threat'ningly 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
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!

your

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. [good, HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too To make yourself a son out of blood. my 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, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known thee already.

HEL. I dare not say, I take you; [To BERTRAM.]
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;
But never hope to know why I should marry her.
KING. Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my
sickly bed.

BER. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down,

a There's one grape yet,-I am sure thy father drank wine.] We are to suppose that Lafeu, who has been in conversation with Parolles, had not heard the discourse between Helena and the young courtiers, but believed she had proposed to each, and been refused by all but the one now in question. The after-part of his

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:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions swell us, 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: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers; the mere word's a slave,
Debosh'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?
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 me.
BER. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.
KING. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st
strive to choose.
[glad;
HEL. That you are well restor❜d, my lord, I'm
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 misprision shackle up
My love, and her desert; that canst not dream,
We, poising us in her defective scale,
Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
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;
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 answer.
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 't were, born so.

KING.
Take her by the hand,
And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoise; if not to thy estate,

A balance more replete.

BER. KING. Good fortune, and the favour of the Smile upon this contract; whose ceremonye 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.

I take her hand. [king,

[Exeunt KING, BERTRAM, HELENA, Lords, and Attendants.

LAF. Do you hear, monsieur ? a word with you. PAR. Your pleasure, sir?

LAF. Your lord and master did well to make his recantation.

PAR. Recantation ?-My lord ?-my master ? LAF. Ay; is it not a language, I speak?

PAR. A most harsh one; and not to be understood without bloody succeeding. My master? LAF. 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.

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 dis

suade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen. 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.

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

"Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony." Again, in "Julius Cæsar," Act I. Sc. 1,"If you do find them deckt with ceremonies." and, Act II. Sc. 2:

"Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies.*

d Exeunt King, &c.] The stage-direction, in the original text, is, "Exeunt. Parolles and Lafeu stay behind, commenting of this wedding."

e My good window of lattice.-] See note (2), p. 626, Vol. i. f For doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave.] If instead of as, we read, so, the conceit on the word past is then intelligible: "For doing I am past, so I will [pass] by thee," &c.

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 breathe 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.a You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.

Enter BERTRAM.

PAR. Good, very good; it is so then.-Good, very good; let it be concealed a while.

BER. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever!

Than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission.] This transposition of the words heraldry and commission, as they stand in the old text, was made by Hanmer.

PAR. What is the matter, sweet-heart? BER. Although before the solemn priest I have sworn, I will not bed her.

PAR. What? what, sweet-heart?

BER. O my Parolles, they have married me :I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. [merits PAR. France is a dog-hole, and it no more 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!

He wears his honour in a box unseen,
That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home;
Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions!
France is a stable; we, that dwell in't, jades;
Therefore, to the war!

BER. It shall be so; I'll send her to my house,
Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,
And wherefore I am fled; write to the king
That which I durst not speak: his present gift
Shall furnish me to those Italian fields,
Where noble fellows strike. War is no strife
To the dark house, and the detested* wife.
PAR. Will this capriccio hold in thee, art sure?

(*) Old text, detected.