This man may help me to his majesty's ear,
If he would spend his power.-God save you, sir.

GENT. And you.

HEL. Sir, I have seen you in the court of France.

GENT. I have been sometimes there.

HEL. I do presume, sir, that you are not fallen From the report that goes upon your goodness; And therefore, goaded with most sharp occasions, Which lay nice manners by, I put you to

The use of your own virtues, for the which
I shall continue thankful.

GENT.

What's your will?

HEL. That it will please you

To give this poor petition to the king,

And aid me with that store of power you have, To come into his presence.

GENT.

The king's not here.

Not here, sir?

Not, indeed:

HEL. GENT. He hence remov'd last night, and with more haste Than is his use. WID. Lord, how we lose our pains! HEL. All's well that ends well, yet; Though time seem so advérse, and means unfit.I do beseech you, whither is he gone?

GENT. Marry, as I take it, to Rousillon;
Whither I am going.

HEL.
I do beseech you, sir,
Since you are like to see the king before me,
Commend the paper to his gracious hand;
Which, I presume, shall render you no blame,
But rather make
you thank your pains for it.
I will come after you, with what good speed
Our means will make us means.

GENT.

This I'll do for you. HEL. And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd,

Whate'er falls more. We must to horse again;Go, go, provide.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Rousillon. The inner Court of the Countess's Palace.

Enter Clown and PAROLLES.

PAR. Good monsieur Lavatch, give my lord Lafeu this letter: I have ere now, sir, been better known to you, when I have held familiarity with fresher clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's mood," and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure.

CLO. Truly, fortune's displeasure is but sluttish, if it smell so strong as thou speakest of: I

will henceforth eat no fish of fortune's buttering. Pr'ythee, allow the wind.

PAR. Nay, you need not stop your nose, sir; I spake but by a metaphor.

CLO. Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my nose; or against any man's metaphor. Pr'ythee, get thee further.

a Muddied in fortune's mood,-] Warburton reads, moat, and we have an impression that moat was the author's word.

48

The inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them. You remember
The daughter of this lord?

BER. Admiringly, my liege: at first
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue:
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stol'n ;
Extended or contracted all proportions,
To a most hideous object: thence it came, [self,
That she, whom all men prais'd, and whom my-
Since I have lost, have lov'd, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.

That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away From the great compt: but love that comes too late,

Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, That's good that's gone. Our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them, until we know their grave:
Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust:
Our own love waking cries to see what's done,
While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.
Be this sweet Helen's knell, and now forget her.
Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin:
The main consents are had, and here we'll stay
To see our widower's second marriage-day.

COUNT. Which better than the first, O dear
heaven, bless!

Or, ere they meet, in me O nature cesse ! [name
LAF. Come on, my son, in whom my house's
Must be digested, give a favour from you,
To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,
That she may quickly come. By my old beard,
And every hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead,
Was a sweet creature; such a ring as this,
The last that e'er I took her leave at court, b
I saw upon her finger.

Hers it was not.

BER.
KING. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine

eye,

While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to 't.
This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen,
I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood
Necessitied to help, that by this token

I would relieve her. Had you that craft, to 'reave her

a Which better than the first, &c.] These two lines form part of the King's speech in the original. Theobald made the present arrangement.

b The last that e'er I took her leave at court,-] Which means, The last time that ever I took leave of her at court.

Ingag'd:] Ingaged is here used to imply unengaged, or disengaged, as the old writers employ inhabited to express uninhabited.

In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,
Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain❜d the name
Of her that threw it: noble she was, and thought
I stood ingag'd: but when I had subscrib'd
To mine own fortune, and inform'd her fully,
I could not answer in that course of honour
As she had made the overture, she ceas'd,
In heavy satisfaction, and would never
Receive the ring again.

KING.
Plutus himself,
That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,
Hath not in nature's mystery more science,
Than I have in this ring: 'twas mine, 't was
Helen's,

Whoever gave it you then, if you know
That you are well acquainted with yourself,
Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough enforcement
You got it from her. She call'd the saints to

And mak'st conjectural fears to come into me,
Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove
That thou art so inhuman,-'twill not prove so
And yet I know not :-thou didst hate her deadly,
And she is dead; which nothing, but to close
Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,
More than to see this ring.-Take him away.—
My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,
Shall tax my fears of little vanity,d
Having vainly fear'd too little.--Away with him;-
We'll sift this matter further.

BER.

If you shall prove This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence, Where yet she never was.

(*) Old text, Platus.

[Exit BERTRAM, guarded.

(t) First folio, connectural. (1) First folio, taze.

d Shall tax my fears of little vanity,-] "The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational, I have rather been hitherto more easy than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear."—JOHNSON.

Enter a Gentleman.

Gracious sovereign,

KING. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.
GENT.
Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not;
Here's a petition from a Florentine,

Who hath, for four or five removes, come short
To tender it herself. I undertook it,
Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech
Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know,
Is here attending: her business looks in her
With an importing visage, and she told me,
In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern
Your highness with herself.

KING. [Reads.] Upon his many protestations to marry me, when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the count Rousillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my honour's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice. Grant it me, O king, in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone. DIANA CAPULET.

LAF. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll; for this, I'll none of him. [Lafeu,

KING. The heavens have thought well on thee, To bring forth this discovery. Seek these suitors:

Go, speedily, and bring again the count.

[Exeunt Gentleman, and some Attendants. I am afeard, the life of Helen, lady, Was foully snatch'd. COUNT.

Now, justice on the doers!

Enter BERTRAM, guarded.

KING. I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters

to you, And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, Yet you desire to marry.—

Re-enter Gentleman, with Widow and DIANA.

What woman's that?

DIA. I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine,
Derived from the ancient Capulet;
My suit, as I do understand, you know,
And therefore know how far I may be pitied.
WID. I am her mother, sir, whose age and
honour

Both suffer under this complaint we bring,
And both shall cease, without your remedy.
KING. Come hither, count; do you know these

women?

Whether I have been to blame,-] The original has "too blame," and the same reading occurs so frequently in the early editions of these plays, as to raise a doubt whether too blame,' was not an expression of the time. In "Henry IV." First Part, Act III. Scene 1, it will be remembered, we have:-"You are too wilful blame."

[wife?

marry,

DIA. Why do you look so strange upon your BER. She's none of mine, my lord. DIA. If shall you You give away this hand, and that is mine; You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; You give away myself, which is known mine; For I by vow am so embodied yours, That she, which marries you, must marry me, Either both or none.

LAF. Your reputation [To BERTRAM.] comes too short for my daughter, you are no husband for her.

BER. My lord, this is a fond and desperate creature, [highness Whom sometime I have laugh'd with: let your Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour, Than for to think that I would sink it here.

KING. Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill
to friend,
[honour,
Till your deeds gain them: fairer prove your
Than in my thought it lies!
DIA.
Good my lord,
Ask him upon his oath, if he does think
He had not my virginity.

KING. What say'st thou to her?
BER.

She's impudent, my lord,
And was a common gamester to the camp.
DIA. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so,
He might have bought me at a common price:
Do not believe him: O, behold this ring,
Whose high respect, and rich validity,
Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that,
He gave it to a commoner o' the camp,
If I be one.

COUNT. He blushes, and 'tis it: Of six preceding ancestors, that gem Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue, Hath it been ow'd and worn. This is his wife; That ring's a thousand proofs.

KING.

Methought, you said, You saw one here in court could witness it. DIA. I did, my lord, but loath am to produce So bad an instrument; his name's Parolles. LAF. I saw the man to-day, if man he be. KING. Find him, and bring him hither.