Scene II, III. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and i like the wear well. 229 As when thy father, and myself, in friendship King. I would I had that corporal soundness now, First try'd our soldiership! He did look far Into the service of the time, and was But on us both did haggish age steal on, Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long; Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer And wore us out of act. It much repairs* me thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the To talk of your good father: In his youth which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, He had the wit, which I can well observe so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel, To-day in our young lords; but they may jest and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; Till their own scorn return to them unnoted, else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine Ere they can hide their levity in honour. ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When thou So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, Clock to itself, knew the true minute when none, remember thy friends: get thee a good hus- His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, band, and use him as he uses thee: so farewell. Exception bid him speak, and, at this time, His tongue obey'd his hand: who were below him He us'd as creatures of another place; And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, Making them proud of his humility, [Exit. Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, [Exit. ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue So 'tis reported, sir. His love and wisdom, King. it He hath arm'd our answer, 2 Lord. It may well serve A nursery to our gentry, who are sick For breathing and exploit. King. What's he comes here? Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man Ber. His good remembrance, sir, King. 'Would, I were with him! He would al ways say, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, Ber. Thank your majesty. Enter Countess, Steward, and 1 Lord. It is the count Rousillon, my good lord, SCENE III.-Rousillon. A Room in the CounYoung Bertram. King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; (1) i. e. Thou wilt comprehend it. (4) To repair, bere signifies to renovate modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them. Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours. Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow. Count. Well, sir. Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damned: But, if may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may. Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar? Clo. I do beg your good will in this case. Count. In what case? Clo. In Isbel's case, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the blessing of God, till I have issue of my body; for, they say, bearns are blessings. Count. Tell me the reason why thou wilt marry. Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives. Count. Is this all your worship's reason? Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are. Count. May the world know them? Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent. Was this king Priam's joy? And gave this sentence then; Count. What, one good in ten? you corrupt the song, sirrah. Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the song: 'Would God would serve the world so all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe-woman, if I were the parson: One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one. Count. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you? Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.-I am going, forsooth: the business is for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown. Count. Well, now. Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds: there is more owing her, than is paid; and Count. Thy marriage, sooner than thy wicked-more shall be paid her, than she'll demand. ness. Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her Clo. I am out of friends, madam; and I hope to than, I think, she wished me: alone she was, and have friends for my wife's sake. did communicate to herself, her own words to her Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they Clo. You are shallow, madam; e'en great friends; touched not any stranger sense. Her matter was, for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no a-weary of. He, that ears my land, spares my goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their team, and gives me leave to inn the crop: If I be two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor he, that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves my knight to be surprised, without rescue, in the first flesh and blood; he, that loves my flesh and blood, assault, or ransome afterward: This she delivered is my friend: ergo, he that kisses my wife, is my in the most bitter touch of sorrow, that e'er I heard friend. If men could be contented to be what they virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty, speedily are, there were no fear in marriage; for young to acquaint you withal; sithence, in the loss that Charbon the puritan, and old Poysam the papist, may happen, it concerns you something to know it. howsoe'er their hearts are severed in religion, their Count. You have discharged this honestly; keep heads are both one, they may joll horns together, it to yourself: many likelihoods informed me of like any deer i' the herd. this before, which hung so tottering in the balance Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouthed and that I could neither believe, nor misdoubt: Pray calumnious knave? you, leave me: stall this in your bosom, and I Clo. A prophet I, madam; and I speak the thank you for your honest care: I will speak with truth the next way: you further anon. Your cuckoo sings by kind. Enter Helena. [Exit Steward. Count. Even so it was with me, when I was young: If we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn Count. Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong more anon. Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid It is the show and seal of nature's truth, Helen come to you; of her I am to speak. Count. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman, I would speak with her; Helen I mean, Clo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, Why the Grecians sacked Troy? Where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth. Such were our faults;-or then we thought them none. Her eye is sick on't; I observe her now. Fond done, done fond, You know, Heler I am a mother to you. Nay, a mother; That I am not. Count. I say, I am your mother. Count. were (So that my lord, your son, were not my brother,) God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother, To say, thou dost not: therefore tell me true; That truth should be suspected: Speak, is't so? Hel. Good madam, pardon me! Count. Do you love my son? Hel. Your pardon, noble mistress! Count. Love you my son? Hel. Do not you love him, madam? I love your son : My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love: The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Diar Madam, I had. Hel. Count. Wherefore? tell true. Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear. You know, my father left me some prescriptions Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading, And manifest experience, had collected For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me In heedfullest reservation to bestow them, As notes, whose faculties inclusive were, More than they were in note: amongst the rest, There is a remedy, approv'd, set down, To cure the desperate languishes, whereof The king is render'd lost. Count. For Paris, was it? speak. This was your motive Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this; Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, Had, from the conversation of my thoughts, Haply, been absent then. Count. But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid, He would receive it? He and his physicians Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him, They, that they cannot help: How shall they credit A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools, Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off The danger to itself? 8 Hel. By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a But give me leave to try success, I'd venture bond, The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure, Whereof the world takes note: come, come, dis-By such a day, and hour. close Count. and love, Means, and attendants, and my loving greetings To those of mine in court; I'll stay at home, that you were no less virtuous when young. (6) i. e. Venus. (7) Receipts in which greater virtues were en closed than appeared. (8) Exhausted of their skill. King. Farewell, young lord, these warlike principles, Do not throw from you:-and you, my lord, fare- Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 1 Lord. It is our hope, sir, King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; Par. 'Tis not his fault; the spark-—— Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Commit it, count. 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 (1) i. e. Those excepted who possess modern Italy, the remains of the Roman empire. (2) Seeker, inquirer. (3) Be not captives before you are soldiers. (4) With a noise, bustle. (5) In Shakspeare's time it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on. 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 of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to them; lords; you have restrained yourself within the list for they wear themselves in the cap of 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 follow ed: 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. [Exe. Bertram and Parolles. Enter Lafeu. Laf. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me and Laf. No. O, will you eat King. 12 If you will see her,-now, by my faith and honour, King. Re-enter Lafeu, with Helena. Laf. Nay, come your ways. This haste hath wings indeed (6) They are the foremost in the fashion. (10) A female physician. (11) A kind of dance. (12) By profession is meant her declaration of the object of her coming. A traitor you do look like; but such traitors Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death King. To empirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful; Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give, Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, From simple sources; and great seas have dried, Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended. 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 heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, 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 (9) i. e. May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee. 1 (10) The spring or morning of life. |