But most it is presumption in us, when The help of Heaven we count the act of men. I am not an impostor, that proclaim But know I think, and think I know most sure, HEL. The greatest Grace lending grace, Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp; What dar'st thou venture? HEL. Tax of impudence,- KING. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; And what impossibility would slay In common sense, sense saves another way. • The pilot's glass must be a two-hour glass. "Youth, beauty wisdom, courage, virtue, all.” Virtue was added by Warburton, "to supply a defect in the measure." This mode of emendation is most unsatisfactory. The King enumerates all the qualities which are apparent in Helenawhich she has displayed in her interview with him. The congregated college have concluded To empirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. HEL. What I can do can do no hurt to try, It is not so with Him that all things! Shifts. We print these three lines as in the The couplets"). out a correspon a is said, ourish. Exeunt. tess's Palace. ight of your breeding. ght: I know my business is linarily printed as prose, as they stand in the original. But we have no written as verse, to mark the change in the tone of the Countess. y printed, "An end, sir, to your business." The Countess means,-an end to to your business. Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; And well deserv'd: Not helping, death 's my fee; KING. Make thy demand. HEL. But will you make it even? KING. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven a. To choose from forth the royal blood of France; With any branch or image of thy state: [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE II.-Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter COUNTESS and Clown. COUNT. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. but to the court. 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? Heaven. In the original, help. The rhyme requires the correction. 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 forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May-day, 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,-spare not me. COUNT. Do you cry, “O Lord, sir," at your whipping, and “ Indeed, your spare not me?" O Lord, sir," is very sequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to 't 10. 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 foola. 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. These lines are ordinarily printed as prose, as they stand in the original. But we have no doubt that they were written as verse, to mark the change in the tone of the Countess. This is generally printed, “An end, sir, to your business." The Countess means,—an end to this trifling; now to your business. |