LAF. Why, doctor she; my lord, there's one arriv'd, If you will see her,-now, by my faith and honour, IIEL. The rather will I spare my praises towards Knowing him, is enough. On's bed of death Safer than mine own two more dear: I have so; KING. To empirics; or to dissever so grateful: KING. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd [give, Thou thought'st to help me, and such thanks I As one near death to those that wish him live: But, what at full I know, thou know'st no part; I knowing all my peril, thou no art. HEL. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, Oft does them by the weakest minister: From simple sources; and great seas have dried, KING. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: HEL. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd: KING. Art thou so confident? within what space Hop'st thou my cure? HEL. The great'st grace lending grace, Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring; Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his† sleepy lamp; Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass; What is infirm, from your sound shall fly, Health shall live free, and sickness freely die. KING. Upon thy certainty and confidence, What dar'st thou venture? HEL. parts Tax of impudence,A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name In common sense, sense saves another way. That happiness and prime can happy call: HEL. If I break time, or flinch in property Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; And well deserv'd. Not helping, death's my fee; But, if I help, what do you promise me? KING. Make thy demand. HEL. But will you make it even ? KING. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven.d [hand, HEL. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly What husband in thy power I will command: Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of France; KING. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, 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? 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 fore-finger, as a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday, a morris for May-day,(4) 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 I you, 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!—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 whip And my hopes of heaven.] The old copy has help. The correction, which is due to Dr. Thiriby, seems called for both by the context and the rhyme. It is observable that much of this scene is in smooth, rhyming verses; it was a portion probably of the poet's first youthful conception, for we cannot divest ourselves of the impression that at a subsequent period of his career he rewrote a considerable part of this play. e O Lord, sir!] The use of this expletive, which appears to have been thought the mode both in court and city, has been finely ridiculed by Jonson also. See "Every Man out of his Humour," Act III. Sc. 1, and passim. € 2 ping, 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 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. PAR. Why, 't is the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. BER. And so 't is. LAF. To be relinquished of the artists,- LAF. That gave him out incurable,— PAR. Right: as 't were, a man assured of a- 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 (*) First folio, And. a Lustique,-] "An old play, that has a great deal of merit, call'd The weakest goeth to the Wall,' (printed in 1600, but how much earlier written, or by whom written, we are no where inform'd,) has in it a Dutchman, call'd-Jacob van Smelt, who speaks a jargon of Dutch and our language; and upon several occasions uses this very word, which in English is-lusty."-CAPELL Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever; 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, my sighs stream.-Sir, will you 1 LORD. And grant it. HEL. Do 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. [eyes, HEL. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair Before I speak, too threat'ningly 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: 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. [good, HEL. You are too young, too happy, and too 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. HEL. I dare not say, I take you; [To BERTRAM.] Me and my service, ever whilst I live, KING. Why then, young Bertram, take her, Must answer for your raising? I know her well; KING. 'Tis only title thou disdainʼst in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st, Is good, without a name; vileness is so : HEL. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm Let the rest go. KING. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat, I must produce my power. Here, take her hand, Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know, |