Count. You were lately whipped, sir, as I think. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, sir, is very sequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't. Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in myO Lord, sir. I see, things may serve long, but not serve ever. Count. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool. Clo. O Lord, sir.-Why, there't serves well again. Count. An end, sir, to your business. Give Helen this, And urge her to a present answer back. Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son; This is not much. Clo. Not much commendation to them. Count. Not much employment for you. You understand me? Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs. Count. Haste you again. [Exeunt severally. SCENE III. Paris. A Room in the King's Palace. 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 is it, that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.2 Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows,— Laf. That gave him out incurable, Par. Why, there 'tis; so say I too. Laf. Not to be helped, Par. Right: as 'twere, a man assured of an- 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 showing, you shall read it in-What do you call there?— Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor. Par. That's it I would have said; the very 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. Par. Ay, so I say. 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 2 Laf. Generally thankful. Enter King, HELENA, and Attendants. Par. I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king. 1 The dauphin was formerly so written, but it is doubtful whether Lafeu means to allude to the prince or the fish. The old orthography is therefore continued. 2 Dr. Johnson thought this and some preceding speeches in the scene were erroneously given to Parolles instead of to Lafeu. This seems very probable, for the humor of the scene consists in Parolles's pretensions to knowledge and sentiments which he has not. Laf. Lustick,' 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? 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 banished sense Thou hast repealed, 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? Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake. King. 4 Peruse them well: Not one of those, but had a noble father. Hel. Gentlemen, Heaven hath, through me, restored the king to health. Please it your majesty, I have done already. We blush, that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused, Lustigh is the Dutch for active, pleasant, playful, sportive. 2 They were wards as well as subjects. 3 i. e. except one, meaning Bertram; but in the sense of be-out. 4 A curtal was the common phrase for a horse; i. e. "I'd give my bay horse, &c. that my age were not greater than these boys':" a broken mouth is a mouth which has lost part of its teeth. Let the white death sit on thy cheek forever; King. Hel. you hear my suit? Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute. Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life. 2 Hel. The honor, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threateningly replies. Love make your fortunes twenty times above 2 Lord. No better, if you please. 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. Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, 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. 1 Be refused means the same as "thou being refused," or "be thou refused." The white death is the paleness of death. 2 The lowest chance of the dice. 3 The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it; so that they know not by whom the refusal is made. 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. What she has done for me? · Ber. Know'st thou not, Bertram, Yes, my good lord; But never hope to know why I should marry her. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods, All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st, From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, Is good; without a name, vileness is so:3 1 i. e. the want of title. 2 Titles. 3 3 Good is good, independent of any worldly distinction; and so vileness would be ever vile, did not rank, power, and fortune, screen it from opprobrium |