To give great Charlemaine a pen in's hand, And write to her a love-line. KING. What her is this? LAF. Why, doctor she; my lord, there's one arriv'd, If you will see her, -now, by my faith and honour, With one, that, in her sex, her years, profession, 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. In what he did profess, well found. KING. I knew him. HEL. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On's bed of death Safer than mine own two more dear: I have so; With all bound humbleness. To émpirics; or to dissever so 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. KING. I must not hear thee; fare thee well 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 'tis 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 spac Hop'st thou my cure? HEL. The great'st grace lending grac What dar'st thou venture? Tax of impudence, EN hard live Sear'd otherwise; ne worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended. [speak KING. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth That happiness and prime can happy call: Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try; - That ministers thine own death, if I die. : WD, oodil ved da HEL. If I break time, or flinch in property Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; 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: fits! Exempted be from me the arrogance thee! To choose from forth the royal blood of France; My low and humble name to propagate pail: With any branch or image of thy state: rews But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know band Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow. WS, KING. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, y shor Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd; So make the choice of thy own time, for I, men. Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely. t; More should I question thee, and more I must, at. 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. ost Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceed cure As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. what [Flourish. Exeunt. Hence, a Ne worse of worst extended,-) This is the lection of the old copy, and although unquestionably corrupt, it is not worse than uden the commentators' suggestions for its amendment. We should, perhaps, approach nearer to what the poet really wrote by treating e-ne and extended as palpable misprints, and reading :and, worse of worst expended, With vilest torture let my life be ended." 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 pan-cake 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 's nam b Impossibility-] That is, incredibility. c But will you make it even?] That is, Will you equate it? , het. Will you match it? See note (a), p. 11, of the present volume. 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. 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 showing, you shall read it in, what do ye cal there? LAF. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor. PAR. That's it I would have said; the ver same. LAF. Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me I speak in respect PAR. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he is of a most facinorous* spirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the LAF. Very hand of heaven. 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 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.b 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 is it, that we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side; ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear. PAR. Why, 't is the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense 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 Thou hast power to choose, and they none to for- HEL. To each of you, one fair and virtuous mistress (*) First folio, fucincrious. A coranto.] The coranto was a dance distinguished for the liveliness and rapidity of its movements:- "And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos."- Heaven hath, through me, restored the king to health. ALL. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. HEL. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthiest, That, I protest, I simply am a maid :---- 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. And to imperial Love, that god most high, Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute. LAF. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life. [eyes, 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 your hand should take, I'll never do you wrong for your own sake: 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 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, 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, 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. Know'st thou not, Bertram, What she has done for me? Yes, my good lord; 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; KING. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, Than our fore-goers; the mere word's a slave, Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from me. HEL. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm Let the rest go. KING. My honour's at the stake; which to I must produce my power. Here, take her hand, My love, and her desert; that canst not dream, |