King. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat 21,
I must produce my power: Here, take her hand,
Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
That dost in vile misprision shackle up

My love, and her desert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective scale,

Shall weigh thee to the beam: that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour, where

We please to have it grow: Check thy contempt:
Obey our will, which travails in thy good:
Believe not thy disdain, but presently

Do thine own fortunes that obedient right.
Which both thy duty owes, and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever,
Into the staggers 22 and the careless lapse
Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate,
Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity: Speak; thine answer.
Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
My fancy to your eyes: When I consider,
What great creation, and what dole 23 of honour,
Flies where you bid it, I find, that she, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now

21 The implication or clause of the sentence (as the grammarians say) here serves for the antecedent, which danger to defeat.' So in Othello:

She dying gave it me,

And bid me when my fate would have me wive
To give it her.'

i. e. to my wife, though not mentioned before but by implication. 22 The commentators here kindly inform us that the staggers is a violent disease in horses; but the word in the text has no relation, even metaphorically, to it. The reeling and unsteady course of a drunken or sick man is meant. Shakspeare has the same expression in Cymbeline, where Posthumus says:

'Whence come these staggers on me?'

23 i. e. portion.

The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
Is, as 'twere, born so.

King.

Take her by the hand, And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise A counterpoize; if not to thy estate,

A balance more replete.

Ber.

I take her hand.

King. Good fortune, and the favour of the king, Smile this contract: whose ceremony upon

Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be perform'd to-night 24: the solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her,
Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.

[Exeunt King, BERTRAM, HELENA, Lords,
and Attendants.

Laf. Do you hear, monsieur? a word with you.
Par. Your pleasure, sir?

Laf. Your lord and master did well to make his

recantation.

Par. Recantation? My lord? my master? Laf. Ay; Is it not a language, I speak? Par. A most harsh one; and not to be understood without bloody succeeding. My master? Laf. Are you companion to the count Rousillon? Par. To any count; to all counts; to what is man. Laf. To what is count's man: count's master is of another style.

24 Shakspeare uses expedient and expediently in the sense of expeditiously: and brief in the sense of a short note or intimation concerning any business, and sometimes without the idea of writing. So in the last act of this play, 'She told me in a sweet verbal brief,' &c. The meaning therefore appears to be. The ceremonial part of this contract shall immediately pass,-shall follow close upon the troth now briefly plighted between the parties, and be performed this night; the solemn feast shall be delayed to a future time.

Par. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

Laf. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee.

Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries 25, to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs, and the bannerets, about thee, did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden. I have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care not: yet art thou good for nothing but taking up 26; and that thou art scarce worth.

Par. Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,

Laf. Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial; which if-Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee well; thy casement I need not open, for I look through thee. Give me thy hand.

Par. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

Laf. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy

of it.

Par. I have not, my lord, deserved it.

Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not bate thee a scruple.

Par. Well, I shall be wiser.

Laf. E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack o' the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf, and beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my know

25 i. e. while I sate twice with thee at dinner.

26 To take up is to contradict, to call to account; as well as to pick off the ground.

ledge; that I may say, in the default 27, he is a man I know.

Par. My lord, you do me most insupportable

vexation.

Laf. I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing eternal: for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave 28. [Exit.

Par. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord!— Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age, than I would have of—I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.

Re-enter LAfeu.

Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's married, there's you; you have a new mistress.

news for

Par. I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs: He is my good lord: whom I serve above, is my master. Laf. Who? God?

Par. Ay, sir.

Laf. The devil it is, that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, 27 i. e. at a need.

28 There is a poor conceit here hardly worth explaining, but that some of the commentators have misunderstood it :-' Doing I am past,' says Lafeu, as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave;' i. e. 'as I will pass by thee as fast as I am able: and he immediately goes out.

and every man should beat thee. I think, thou wast created for men to breathe 29 themselves upon thee. Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

Laf. Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords, and honourable personages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.

Enter BERTRAM.

Par. Good, very good; it is so then.-Good, very good; let it be concealed a while.

Ber. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever!
Par. What is the matter, sweet heart?

Ber. Although before the solemn priest I have

sworn,

I will not bed her.

Par. What? what, sweet heart?

Ber. O my Parolles, they have married me: I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her.

Par. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!

Ber. There's letters from my mother; what the import is,

I know not yet.

Par. Ay, that would be known: To the wars, my boy, to the wars!

He wears his honour in a box unseen,

That hugs his kicksy-wicksy 30 here at home;
Spending his manly marrow in her arms,

Which should sustain the bound and high curvet

29 Exercise.

30 A cant term for a wife.