Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all And well deserved: 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 32 Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: To choose from forth the royal blood of France; 30 Prime here signifies that sprightly vigour which usually accompanies us in the prime of life; which old Montaigne calls, cet estat plein de verdeur et de feste, and which Florio translates, that state, full of lust, of prime, and mirth.' So in Hamlet : 'A violet in the youth of primy nature.' 31 Property seems to be used here for performance or achievement, singular as it may seem. So in Hamlet, Horatiò says of the Grave-digger : 'Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.' 32 The old copy reads 'hopes of help.' The emendation is Thirlby's. 33 The old copy reads 'image of thy state.' Warburton proposed impage, which Steevens rejects, saying unadvisedly 'there is no such word.' It is evident that Shakspeare formed it from 'an impe, a scion, or young slip of a tree.' To impe and imping were also in use, as was the whole verb among our ancestors. The context evidently requires a word of this import. The word propagate, in its old sense of increasing by grafting cuttings from an old stock, would never have been so incongruously followed But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, More should I question thee, and more I must; 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. Clo. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is 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! manners, Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any 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; as by image. Shakspeare beautifully alludes to this art in the following passage of the Winter's Tale: You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock; 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 buttocks1; 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, 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 stable, it will fit any question. your con 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? 1 This is a common proverbial expression. 2 Tom and Tibb were apparently common names for a lad and lass, the rush ring seems to have been a kind of love token, for plighting of troth among rustic lovers. In Green's Menaphon the custom is alluded to, 'Well, 'twas a goodly worlde when such simplicitie was used, sayes the olde women of our time, when a ring of rush would tie as much love together as a gimmon (gimmal) of golde.' The inuendo here is but too obvious. Clo. O Lord, sir3,- -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. And urge her to a present answer back: Clo. Not much commendation to them. Count. Not much employment for you: You understand me? Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs. court. 3 A ridicule on this silly expletive of speech, then in vogue at Thus Clove and Orange, in Every Man in his Humour : You conceive me, sir?-O Lord, sir!' Cleveland in one of his songs makes his Gentleman— Answer, O Lord, sir! and talk play book oaths.' 4 Properly follows. 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 modern1 and familiar things, supernatural and causeless. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing 2 ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear 3. Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. Ber. And so 'tis. Laf. To be relinquish'd of the artists, Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentick fellows,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. 1 Common, ordinary. 2 Sconce being a term in fortification for a chief fortress. To ensconce literally signifies to secure as in a fort. So in The Merry Wives of Windsor :-' I will ensconce me behind the arras.' Into is used for in. 3 Fear means here an object of fear. 4 Authentick is allowed, approved; and seems to have been the proper epithet for a physician regularly bred or licensed. The diploma of a licentiate still has authentice licentiatus. |