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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 :4 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,5-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 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 my―O 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

[4] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, at a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth. JOHNS.

[5] A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech then in vogue at court. WARB.

seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.

Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times.

Ber. And so 'tis.

Laf. To be relinquished of the artists,

Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows, 7
Par. Right, so I say.

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

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 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, 9 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

[7] Shakspeare, as I have often observed, never throws out his words at random. Paracelsus, though no better than an ignorant and knavish enthusiast, was at this time in such vogue, even amongst the learned, that he had almost jostled Galen and the ancients out of credit. On this account learned is applied to Galen; and authentic, or fashionable, to Paracelsus. WARB.

As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions of Parolles to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafeu. I read this passage thus: Laf. To be relinquished of the artists

Par. So I say.

Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the learned and authentic fellows

Par. Right, so I say.

JOHNS.

[8] By dolphin is meant the dauphin, the heir apparent, and the hope of the crown of France. His title is so translated in all the old books. STEEV.

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made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to beLaf. Generally thankful."

Enter King, HELENA, and Attendants.

--

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

2

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?
Laf. 'Fore God, I think so.

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 promis'd 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 forsake.
Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when love please !-marry, to each, but one!
Laf. I'd give bay Curtal,3 and his furniture,
My mouth no more were broken than these boys',
And writ as little beard.

King. Peruse them well:

Not one of those, but had a noble father.

Hel. Gentlemen,

Heaven hath, through me, restor❜d the king to health.

[1] I believe Parolles has again usurped words and sense to which he has no right; and I read this passage thus:

Laf. In a most weak and debile minister, great power, great transcendence; which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than the mere recovery of the king.

Par. As to be

Laf. Generally thankful. JOHNS.

When the parts are written out for players, the names of the characters which they are to represent, are never set down; but only the last words of the preceding speech which belongs to their partner in the scene. If the plays of Shakspeare were printed (as there is reason to suspect) from these piece-meal transcripts, how easily may the mistake be accounted for, which Dr. Johnson has judiciously strove to remedy? STEEV.

[2] Lustigh is the Dutch word for lusty, cheerful, pleasant. [3] i. e. a bay, a docked horse. STEEV.

STEEV.

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 :—

Please it your majesty, I have done already :
The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,

We blush, that thou should'st choose; but, be refus'd,
Let the white death sit on thy cheek forever ;^
We'll ne'er come there again.

King. Make choice; and, see,

Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly ;
And to imperial Love, that god most high,
Do my sighs stream.-Sir, will you hear my suit?
1 Lord. And grant it.

Hel. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.

Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw amesace for my life.

Hel. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threateningly 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:
Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

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.

[4] The white death is the chlorosis. JOHNS.

The pestilence that ravaged England in the reign of Edward III. was called "the black death." STEEV.

ram.

[5] None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards, but Bert 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. JOHNS.

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 BER.] 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
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 dignify'd by the doer's deed:
Where great additions swell, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour: gcod 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 ;7

And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,

Which challenges itself as honour's born,

[6] Additions are the titles and descriptions by which men are distinguished from each other. MAL

[7] To be immediate heir is to inherit without any intervening transmit ter: thus she inherits beauty immediately from nature, but honour is trans mitted by ancestors. JOHNS.

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