Re-enter KING.

BERTRAM and PAROLLES retire.

Par. [To Ber.] 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. [Kneeling] Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.

King. I'll fee thee to stand up.

Laf. Then here's a man stands, that has
brought his pardon.

I would you 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. Good faith, across: but, my good lord, 'tis thus ;

53. list, bounds.

54. wear themselves in the cap of the time, are men of the highest fashion.

55. muster true gait, display correct modes of walking.

64. fee; Theobald's emendation for Ffsee.

бо

70

65. brought, brought with him, i.e. is sure of pardon.

70. across, i.e. an unskilful hit. Lafeu playfully applies the phrase used of the tilter who broke his spear across his adversary's body instead of striking with the point, to the king's

retort.

Will you be cured of your infirmity ?

King. No.

Laf. O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox? Yes, but you will my 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 spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch
Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,

To give great Charlemain 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
arrived,

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 amazed 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 wondering how thou took'st it.

Laf.

And not be all day neither.

Nay, I'll fit you,

[Exit.

King. Thus he his special nothing ever pro

logues.

75. medicine, physician.

77. canary, a lively dance. 79. King Pepin, as a type of one long dead.

80

90

82. Doctor She; so Grant White for Ff doctor she.'

91. the admiration, the won

der.

Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA.

Laf. Nay, come your ways.

King.

This haste hath wings indeed.

Laf. Nay, come your ways;

This is his majesty; say your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,
That dare leave two together; fare you well.

[Exit.

King. Now, fair one, does your business follow us?

Hel. Ay, my good lord.

Gerard de Narbon was my father;

I knew him.

In what he did profess, well found.
King.
Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards

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 the 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.

King.

We thank you, maiden;

But may not be so credulous of cure,

When our most learned doctors leave us and

98. majesty. The word was colloquially abbreviated to two syllables; Shakespeare uses both the abbreviated and the full form.

100. Cressid's uncle, Pandarus.

105. well found, well equipped. 109. dearest issue, most precious fruit.

L

The congregated college have concluded
That labouring art can never ransom nature
From her inaidible 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:

Thou thought'st to help me ; and such thanks I give
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 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;

131. A modest one, of moderate approval, a simple admission that her offer, though declined, was not out of place.

120

130

140

138. set up your rest, are decided.

147. fits; Ff shifts.' The emendation is Theobald's.

Thy pains not used 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 space
Hopest 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 darest thou venture?

Hel.

Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame Traduced by odious ballads: my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise: nay, worse of worst extended,

150

160

170

a deliberate archaism. Shakespeare uses it only in Gower's Prologue to Pericles, ii. No satisfactory emendation has been produced (among the many attempted) of this difficult passage. That of Singer, here