HEL. Mine honourable mistress.
COUNT.

Nay, a mother;
Why not a mother? when I said, a mother,
Methought you saw a serpent: what's in mother,
That you start at it? I say, I am your mother;
And put you in the catalogue of those
That were enwombed mine. 'Tis often seen,
Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds
A native slip to us from foreign seeds :
You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan,
Yet I express to you a mother's care:-
God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood,
To say, I am thy mother? What's the matter,
That this distemper'd messenger of wet,
The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?
Why?that you are my daughter?
HEL.

That I am not.

HEL. You are my mother, madam; would you were

(So that my lord, your son, were not my brother,) Indeed my mother!-or were you both our mothers,

I care no more for," than I do for heaven,
So I were not his sister: can't no other,
But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?
COUNT. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-
in-law;

God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother,

So strive upon your pulse: what, pale again?
My fear hath catch'd your fondness: now I see
The mystery of your loneliness,* and find
Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 'tis gross,
You love my son; invention is asham'd,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,

To say, thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, 'tis so:-for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, th' one to th' other:† and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,

That truth should be suspected. Speak, is't so?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, forswear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

HEL.

COUNT. DO you

HEL.

COUNT. Love

HEL.

Good madam, pardon me!

love
my son?

C

Your pardon, noble mistress! you my son ?

Do not you love him, madam?

COUNT. Go not about; my love hath in't a

bond,

Whereof the world takes note: come, come,

disclose

The state of your affection, for your passions Have to the full appeach'd.

HEL.

Then, I confess, Here on my knee, before high heaven and you, That before you, and next unto high heaven, I love your son :—

My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love : Be not offended, for it hurts not him,

That he is lov'd of me; I follow him not

By any token of presumptuous suit,

Nor would I have him, till I do deserve him ;
Yet never know how that desert should be.

I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet, in this captious and intenible‡ sieve,

d

(*) First folio, louelinesse.

(+) First folio, 'ton tooth to th' other. (1) First folio, intemible. throughout the speech is palpably corrupt.

c Gross,-] That is, palpable.

d This captious and intenible sieve,-] We incline to believe, with Farmer, that captious here is only a contraction of capacious.

I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,

Let not your hate encounter with my love,
For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and Love; O then, give pity
To her, whose state is such that cannot choose,
But lend and give where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies.
COUNT. Had you not lately an intent, speak
truly,

To go to Paris?

HEL.

COUNT.

Madam, I had.

Wherefore? tell true. HEL. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear.

Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy (1)
(Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy) see that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,
That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.

2 LORD. Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty !

KING. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; They say, our French lack language to deny, If they demand; beware of being captives, Before you serve. Вотн. Our hearts receive your warnings. KING. Farewell.-Come hither to me. [The KING retires to a couch. 1 LORD. O my sweet lord, that you will stay

1 LORD. There's honour in the theft. PAR.

Commit it, count. 2 LORD. I am your accessary; and so farewell. BER. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.b

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

PAR. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.

[Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES.

Enter LAFEU.

LAF. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me and for my tidings.

c

KING. I'll sue thee to stand up.

LAF. Then here's a man stands, that has
brought his pardon.
[mercy;

I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me
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.
['t is thus ;

LAF. Good faith, across : d but, my good lord,
Will you be cur'd of your infirmity?
KING. NO.

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

(*) Old text, ye.

"I would you had kneel'd, my lord," &c.

d Good faith, across:] Across, in reference to the sports of chivalry, in which, to break a spear across the body of an opponent was disgraceful, came to be used in derision when any pass of wit miscarried. Here, however, we believe Lafeu alludes rather to some game, where certain successes entitle the achiever to mark a cross.

e Yes, but you will, my noble grapes,-] My in this passage has been changed in some modern editions to ay, but needlessly; we have only to read "my" emphatically, and the sense is obvious:

"O, will you eat no grapes? &c.

Yes, but you will, my noble grapes."

f And make you dance canary.-] To what has already been said on the nature of this sprightly dance (see note (a), vol. I. p. 64), may be added, that the dancers accompanied their movements with castagnets: see Florio, who defines Chioppare "to clacke or snap, or phip, or click, or lirp with ones fingers, as they that dance the Canaries, or as some barbers."

C