He knows, I am no maid, and he'll swear to't:
I'll swear, I am a maid, and he knows not.
Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life;
I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.

[Pointing to LAfeu. King. She does abuse our ears; to prison with her. Dia. Good mother, fetch my bail.-Stay, royal sir; [Exit Widow. The jeweller, that owes the ring, is sent for, And he shall surety me. But for this lord, Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself, Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him : He knows himself, my bed he hath defil'd; And at that time he got his wife with child : Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick; So there's my riddle, One, that's dead, is quick : And now behold the meaning.

Re-enter Widow, with HELENA.

King. Is there no exorcist

Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?
Is't real, that I see?

Hel. No, my good lord;

"Tis but the shadow of a wife you see,

The name, and not the thing.

Ber. Both, both; O, pardon!

Hel. O, my good lord, when I was like this maid, I found you wond'rous kind. There is your ring, And, look you, here's your letter; This it says, When from my finger you can get this ring, And are by me with child, &c.-This is done: Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?

Ber. If she, my liege, can make me know this clear

ly,

I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.

Hel. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,
Deadly divorce step between me and you!—
O, my dear mother, do I see you living?

Laf. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon :Good Tom Drum, [To PAROLLES.] lend me a handkerchief: So, I thank thee; wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee: Let thy courtesies alone, they

are scurvy ones.

King. Let us from point to point this story know, To make the even truth in pleasure flow :If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,

[TO DIANA.

Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;
For I can guess, that, by thy honest aid,
Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.—
Of that, and all the progress, more and less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express:
All yet seems well; and, if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

Advancing.

[Flourish.

The king's a beggar, now the play is done:
All is well ended, if this suit be won,
That you express content; which we will pay,
With strife to please you, day exceeding day:
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;
Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

[Exeunt.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.