For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth 26,
Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,

Wish chastly, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love 27; 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. You know, my father left me some prescriptions Of rare and proved effects, such as his reading, And manifest experience, had collected For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me In heedfulest reservation to bestow them, As notes, whose faculties inclusive were, More than they were in note 28: amongst the rest, There is a remedy, approv'd, set down,

To cure the desperate languishes, whereof

The king is render'd lost.

Count.

For Paris, was it? speak.

This was your

motive

Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this;

26 i. e. whose respectable conduct in age proves that you were no less virtuous when young.

27 Helena means to say-'If ever you wished that the deity who presides over chastity, and the queen of amorous rites, were one and the same person, or, in other words, if ever you wished for the honest and lawful completion of your chaste desires.' Malone thinks the line should be thus read:

Love dearly, and wish chastly, that your Dian,' &c.

28 Receipts in which greater virtues were enclosed than appeared to observation.

Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king,
Had, from the conversation of my thoughts,
Haply, been absent then.

Count.

But think you, Helen, If you should tender your supposed aid,

He would receive it? He and his physicians
Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him;
They, that they cannot help: How shall they credit
A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,

Embowell'd of their doctrine 29, have left off
The danger to itself?

Hel.

There's something hints 30, More than my father's skill, which was the greatest Of his profession, that his good receipt

Shall, for my legacy, be sanctified

By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would

honour

But give me leave to try success, I'd venture
The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure,
By such a day, and hour.

Count.

your

Dost thou believe't?

Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly.

Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave, and love,

Means, and attendants, and my loving greetings
To those of mine in court; I'll stay at home,
And pray God's blessing into 31 thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.
[Exeunt.

29 Exhausted of their skill.

30 The old copy reads-in't. The emendation is Hanmer's. 31 Into for unto. A common form of expression with old writers. See Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3, note 2. The third folio reads unto.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Paris.

A Room in the King's Palace. Flourish.

Enter King, with young Lords taking leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and Attendants.

King. Farewell, young lord1, these warlike prin

ciples

Do not throw from

well:

you:-
:-and

you, my lord, fare

Share the advice betwixt you: if both gain all,
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,

And is enough for both.

1 Lord.

It is our hope, sir,

After well enter'd soldiers, to return

And find your grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart Will not confess he owes the malady

That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords; Whether I live or die, be you the sons

Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy (Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall

Of the last monarchy 3) see, that you come

1 In this and the following instance the folio reads lords. The correction was suggested by Tyrwhitt.

2 i. e. as the common phrase runs, I am stil! heart-whole; my spirits, by not sinking under my distemper, do not acknowledge its influence.

3 I prefer Johnson's explanation of this obscure passage to any that has been offered: Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is to the overthrow, of those who inherit but the fall of the last monarchy, or the remains of the Roman empire.' Bated and abated are used elsewhere by Shakspeare in a kindred sense.

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 5.

Both.

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 be

hind us!

Par. "Tis not his fault; the spark

2 Lord. O, 'tis brave wars! Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with; Too young, and the next year, and 'tis too early. Par. An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely.

Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,

Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn, But one to dance with?! By heaven, I'll steal away. 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 8.

1 Lord. Farewell, captain.

4 Seeker, inquirer.

5 Be not captives before you are soldiers.

6 To be kept a coil is to be vexed or troubled with a stir or

noise.

7 In Shakspeare's time it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on.

8 'I grow to you, and our parting is as it were to dissever or torture a body.'

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 this very sword entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his reports for me.

2 Lord. We shall, noble captain.

Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! [Exeunt Lords.] What will you do? Ber. Stay; the king[Seeing him rise. Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords: you have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the time 9, there do muster true gait 10; eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure 11, such are to be followed after them, and take a more dilated farewell.

Ber. And I will do so.

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.

King. I'll fee thee to stand up.

9 They are the foremost in the fashion.

10 It seems to me that this passage has been wrongly pointed and improperly explained, there do muster true gait; if addressed to Bertram, it means there exercise yourself in the gait of fashion; eat, &c. But perhaps we should read they instead of there, or else insert they after gait; either of these slight emendations would render this obscure passage perfectly intelligible.

11 The dance.