all_well.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE PLAY SYSTEM "play.dtd">

<PLAY>
<TITLE>All's Well That Ends Well</TITLE>

<FM>
<P>ASCII text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical Tools, 1992.</P>
<P>SGML markup by Jon Bosak, 1992-1994.</P>
<P>XML version by Jon Bosak, 1996-1999.</P>
<P>The XML markup in this version is Copyright &#169; 1999 Jon Bosak.
This work may freely be distributed on condition that it not be
modified or altered in any way.</P>
</FM>

<PERSONAE>
<TITLE>Dramatis Personae</TITLE>

<PERSONA>KING OF FRANCE</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>DUKE OF FLORENCE</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>LAFEU, an old lord.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>PAROLLES, a follower of Bertram.</PERSONA>

<PGROUP>
<PERSONA>Steward</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>Clown</PERSONA>
<GRPDESCR>servants to the Countess of Rousillon.</GRPDESCR>
</PGROUP>

<PERSONA>A Page. </PERSONA>
<PERSONA>COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Bertram. </PERSONA>
<PERSONA>HELENA, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>An old Widow of Florence. </PERSONA>
<PERSONA>DIANA, daughter to the Widow.</PERSONA>

<PGROUP>
<PERSONA>VIOLENTA</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>MARIANA</PERSONA>
<GRPDESCR>neighbours and friends to the Widow.</GRPDESCR>
</PGROUP>

<PERSONA>Lords, Officers, Soldiers, &amp;c., French and Florentine.</PERSONA>
</PERSONAE>

<SCNDESCR>SCENE  Rousillon; Paris; Florence; Marseilles.</SCNDESCR>

<PLAYSUBT>ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL</PLAYSUBT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT I</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of Rousillon, HELENA,
and LAFEU, all in black</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death</LINE>
<LINE>anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to</LINE>
<LINE>whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you,</LINE>
<LINE>sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times</LINE>
<LINE>good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose</LINE>
<LINE>worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather</LINE>
<LINE>than lack it where there is such abundance.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose</LINE>
<LINE>practises he hath persecuted time with hope, and</LINE>
<LINE>finds no other advantage in the process but only the</LINE>
<LINE>losing of hope by time.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This young gentlewoman had a father,--O, that</LINE>
<LINE>'had'! how sad a passage 'tis!--whose skill was</LINE>
<LINE>almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so</LINE>
<LINE>far, would have made nature immortal, and death</LINE>
<LINE>should have play for lack of work. Would, for the</LINE>
<LINE>king's sake, he were living! I think it would be</LINE>
<LINE>the death of the king's disease.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How called you the man you speak of, madam?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was</LINE>
<LINE>his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very</LINE>
<LINE>lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he</LINE>
<LINE>was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge</LINE>
<LINE>could be set up against mortality.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A fistula, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I heard not of it before.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman</LINE>
<LINE>the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my</LINE>
<LINE>overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that</LINE>
<LINE>her education promises; her dispositions she</LINE>
<LINE>inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where</LINE>
<LINE>an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there</LINE>
<LINE>commendations go with pity; they are virtues and</LINE>
<LINE>traitors too; in her they are the better for their</LINE>
<LINE>simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise</LINE>
<LINE>in. The remembrance of her father never approaches</LINE>
<LINE>her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all</LINE>
<LINE>livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena;</LINE>
<LINE>go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect</LINE>
<LINE>a sorrow than have it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,</LINE>
<LINE>excessive grief the enemy to the living.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess</LINE>
<LINE>makes it soon mortal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, I desire your holy wishes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How understand we that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father</LINE>
<LINE>In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue</LINE>
<LINE>Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness</LINE>
<LINE>Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,</LINE>
<LINE>Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy</LINE>
<LINE>Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend</LINE>
<LINE>Under thy own life's key: be cheque'd for silence,</LINE>
<LINE>But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,</LINE>
<LINE>That thee may furnish and my prayers pluck down,</LINE>
<LINE>Fall on thy head! Farewell, my lord;</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Advise him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He cannot want the best</LINE>
<LINE>That shall attend his love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To HELENA</STAGEDIR>  The best wishes that can be forged in</LINE>
<LINE>your thoughts be servants to you! Be comfortable</LINE>
<LINE>to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Farewell, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of</LINE>
<LINE>your father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, were that all! I think not on my father;</LINE>
<LINE>And these great tears grace his remembrance more</LINE>
<LINE>Than those I shed for him. What was he like?</LINE>
<LINE>I have forgot him: my imagination</LINE>
<LINE>Carries no favour in't but Bertram's.</LINE>
<LINE>I am undone: there is no living, none,</LINE>
<LINE>If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one</LINE>
<LINE>That I should love a bright particular star</LINE>
<LINE>And think to wed it, he is so above me:</LINE>
<LINE>In his bright radiance and collateral light</LINE>
<LINE>Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.</LINE>
<LINE>The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:</LINE>
<LINE>The hind that would be mated by the lion</LINE>
<LINE>Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though plague,</LINE>
<LINE>To see him every hour; to sit and draw</LINE>
<LINE>His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,</LINE>
<LINE>In our heart's table; heart too capable</LINE>
<LINE>Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:</LINE>
<LINE>But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy</LINE>
<LINE>Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;</LINE>
<LINE>And yet I know him a notorious liar,</LINE>
<LINE>Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;</LINE>
<LINE>Yet these fixed evils sit so fit in him,</LINE>
<LINE>That they take place, when virtue's steely bones</LINE>
<LINE>Look bleak i' the cold wind: withal, full oft we see</LINE>
<LINE>Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Save you, fair queen!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And you, monarch!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And no.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are you meditating on virginity?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you: let me</LINE>
<LINE>ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how</LINE>
<LINE>may we barricado it against him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Keep him out.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant,</LINE>
<LINE>in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some</LINE>
<LINE>warlike resistance.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There is none: man, sitting down before you, will</LINE>
<LINE>undermine you and blow you up.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bless our poor virginity from underminers and</LINE>
<LINE>blowers up! Is there no military policy, how</LINE>
<LINE>virgins might blow up men?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be</LINE>
<LINE>blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with</LINE>
<LINE>the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It</LINE>
<LINE>is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to</LINE>
<LINE>preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational</LINE>
<LINE>increase and there was never virgin got till</LINE>
<LINE>virginity was first lost. That you were made of is</LINE>
<LINE>metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost</LINE>
<LINE>may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is</LINE>
<LINE>ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the</LINE>
<LINE>rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity,</LINE>
<LINE>is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible</LINE>
<LINE>disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin:</LINE>
<LINE>virginity murders itself and should be buried in</LINE>
<LINE>highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate</LINE>
<LINE>offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites,</LINE>
<LINE>much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very</LINE>
<LINE>paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach.</LINE>
<LINE>Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of</LINE>
<LINE>self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the</LINE>
<LINE>canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose</LINE>
<LINE>by't: out with 't! within ten year it will make</LINE>
<LINE>itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the</LINE>
<LINE>principal itself not much the worse: away with 't!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it</LINE>
<LINE>likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with</LINE>
<LINE>lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't</LINE>
<LINE>while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request.</LINE>
<LINE>Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out</LINE>
<LINE>of fashion: richly suited, but unsuitable: just</LINE>
<LINE>like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not</LINE>
<LINE>now. Your date is better in your pie and your</LINE>
<LINE>porridge than in your cheek; and your virginity,</LINE>
<LINE>your old virginity, is like one of our French</LINE>
<LINE>withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry,</LINE>
<LINE>'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better;</LINE>
<LINE>marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will you anything with it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not my virginity yet</LINE>
<LINE>There shall your master have a thousand loves,</LINE>
<LINE>A mother and a mistress and a friend,</LINE>
<LINE>A phoenix, captain and an enemy,</LINE>
<LINE>A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,</LINE>
<LINE>A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;</LINE>
<LINE>His humble ambition, proud humility,</LINE>
<LINE>His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,</LINE>
<LINE>His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world</LINE>
<LINE>Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms,</LINE>
<LINE>That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he--</LINE>
<LINE>I know not what he shall. God send him well!</LINE>
<LINE>The court's a learning place, and he is one--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What one, i' faith?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That I wish well. 'Tis pity--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's pity?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That wishing well had not a body in't,</LINE>
<LINE>Which might be felt; that we, the poorer born,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes,</LINE>
<LINE>Might with effects of them follow our friends,</LINE>
<LINE>And show what we alone must think, which never</LINE>
<LINE>Return us thanks.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter Page</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Page</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Little Helen, farewell; if I can remember thee, I</LINE>
<LINE>will think of thee at court.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Under Mars, I.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I especially think, under Mars.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why under Mars?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The wars have so kept you under that you must needs</LINE>
<LINE>be born under Mars.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When he was predominant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When he was retrograde, I think, rather.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why think you so?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You go so much backward when you fight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's for advantage.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So is running away, when fear proposes the safety;</LINE>
<LINE>but the composition that your valour and fear makes</LINE>
<LINE>in you is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee</LINE>
<LINE>acutely. I will return perfect courtier; in the</LINE>
<LINE>which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize</LINE>
<LINE>thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's</LINE>
<LINE>counsel and understand what advice shall thrust upon</LINE>
<LINE>thee; else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and</LINE>
<LINE>thine ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When</LINE>
<LINE>thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast</LINE>
<LINE>none, remember thy friends; get thee a good husband,</LINE>
<LINE>and use him as he uses thee; so, farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,</LINE>
<LINE>Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky</LINE>
<LINE>Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull</LINE>
<LINE>Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.</LINE>
<LINE>What power is it which mounts my love so high,</LINE>
<LINE>That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?</LINE>
<LINE>The mightiest space in fortune nature brings</LINE>
<LINE>To join like likes and kiss like native things.</LINE>
<LINE>Impossible be strange attempts to those</LINE>
<LINE>That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose</LINE>
<LINE>What hath been cannot be: who ever strove</LINE>
<LINE>So show her merit, that did miss her love?</LINE>
<LINE>The king's disease--my project may deceive me,</LINE>
<LINE>But my intents are fix'd and will not leave me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Paris. The KING's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING of France,
with letters, and divers Attendants</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The Florentines and Senoys are by the ears;</LINE>
<LINE>Have fought with equal fortune and continue</LINE>
<LINE>A braving war.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So 'tis reported, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, 'tis most credible; we here received it</LINE>
<LINE>A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria,</LINE>
<LINE>With caution that the Florentine will move us</LINE>
<LINE>For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend</LINE>
<LINE>Prejudicates the business and would seem</LINE>
<LINE>To have us make denial.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His love and wisdom,</LINE>
<LINE>Approved so to your majesty, may plead</LINE>
<LINE>For amplest credence.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath arm'd our answer,</LINE>
<LINE>And Florence is denied before he comes:</LINE>
<LINE>Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see</LINE>
<LINE>The Tuscan service, freely have they leave</LINE>
<LINE>To stand on either part.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It well may serve</LINE>
<LINE>A nursery to our gentry, who are sick</LINE>
<LINE>For breathing and exploit.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's he comes here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is the Count Rousillon, my good lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Young Bertram.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face;</LINE>
<LINE>Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath well composed thee. Thy father's moral parts</LINE>
<LINE>Mayst thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My thanks and duty are your majesty's.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would I had that corporal soundness now,</LINE>
<LINE>As when thy father and myself in friendship</LINE>
<LINE>First tried our soldiership! He did look far</LINE>
<LINE>Into the service of the time and was</LINE>
<LINE>Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long;</LINE>
<LINE>But on us both did haggish age steal on</LINE>
<LINE>And wore us out of act. It much repairs me</LINE>
<LINE>To talk of your good father. In his youth</LINE>
<LINE>He had the wit which I can well observe</LINE>
<LINE>To-day in our young lords; but they may jest</LINE>
<LINE>Till their own scorn return to them unnoted</LINE>
<LINE>Ere they can hide their levity in honour;</LINE>
<LINE>So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness</LINE>
<LINE>Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,</LINE>
<LINE>His equal had awaked them, and his honour,</LINE>
<LINE>Clock to itself, knew the true minute when</LINE>
<LINE>Exception bid him speak, and at this time</LINE>
<LINE>His tongue obey'd his hand: who were below him</LINE>
<LINE>He used as creatures of another place</LINE>
<LINE>And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,</LINE>
<LINE>Making them proud of his humility,</LINE>
<LINE>In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man</LINE>
<LINE>Might be a copy to these younger times;</LINE>
<LINE>Which, follow'd well, would demonstrate them now</LINE>
<LINE>But goers backward.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His good remembrance, sir,</LINE>
<LINE>Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;</LINE>
<LINE>So in approof lives not his epitaph</LINE>
<LINE>As in your royal speech.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Would I were with him! He would always say--</LINE>
<LINE>Methinks I hear him now; his plausive words</LINE>
<LINE>He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,</LINE>
<LINE>To grow there and to bear,--'Let me not live,'--</LINE>
<LINE>This his good melancholy oft began,</LINE>
<LINE>On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,</LINE>
<LINE>When it was out,--'Let me not live,' quoth he,</LINE>
<LINE>'After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff</LINE>
<LINE>Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses</LINE>
<LINE>All but new things disdain; whose judgments are</LINE>
<LINE>Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies</LINE>
<LINE>Expire before their fashions.' This he wish'd;</LINE>
<LINE>I after him do after him wish too,</LINE>
<LINE>Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home,</LINE>
<LINE>I quickly were dissolved from my hive,</LINE>
<LINE>To give some labourers room.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are loved, sir:</LINE>
<LINE>They that least lend it you shall lack you first.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I fill a place, I know't. How long is't, count,</LINE>
<LINE>Since the physician at your father's died?</LINE>
<LINE>He was much famed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Some six months since, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If he were living, I would try him yet.</LINE>
<LINE>Lend me an arm; the rest have worn me out</LINE>
<LINE>With several applications; nature and sickness</LINE>
<LINE>Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, count;</LINE>
<LINE>My son's no dearer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thank your majesty.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt. Flourish</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter COUNTESS, Steward, and Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will now hear; what say you of this gentlewoman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I</LINE>
<LINE>wish might be found in the calendar of my past</LINE>
<LINE>endeavours; for then we wound our modesty and make</LINE>
<LINE>foul the clearness of our deservings, when of</LINE>
<LINE>ourselves we publish them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah:</LINE>
<LINE>the complaints I have heard of you I do not all</LINE>
<LINE>believe: 'tis my slowness that I do not; for I know</LINE>
<LINE>you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability</LINE>
<LINE>enough to make such knaveries yours.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, madam, 'tis not so well that I am poor, though</LINE>
<LINE>many of the rich are damned: but, if I may have</LINE>
<LINE>your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isbel</LINE>
<LINE>the woman and I will do as we may.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Wilt thou needs be a beggar?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do beg your good will in this case.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In what case?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In Isbel's case and mine own. Service is no</LINE>
<LINE>heritage: and I think I shall never have the</LINE>
<LINE>blessing of God till I have issue o' my body; for</LINE>
<LINE>they say barnes are blessings.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on</LINE>
<LINE>by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is this all your worship's reason?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons such as they</LINE>
<LINE>are.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>May the world know them?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and</LINE>
<LINE>all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry</LINE>
<LINE>that I may repent.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thy marriage, sooner than thy wickedness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am out o' friends, madam; and I hope to have</LINE>
<LINE>friends for my wife's sake.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Such friends are thine enemies, knave.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You're shallow, madam, in great friends; for the</LINE>
<LINE>knaves come to do that for me which I am aweary of.</LINE>
<LINE>He that ears my land spares my team and gives me</LINE>
<LINE>leave to in the crop; if I be his cuckold, he's my</LINE>
<LINE>drudge: he that comforts my wife is the cherisher</LINE>
<LINE>of my flesh and blood; he that cherishes my flesh</LINE>
<LINE>and blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my</LINE>
<LINE>flesh and blood is my friend: ergo, he that kisses</LINE>
<LINE>my wife is my friend. If men could be contented to</LINE>
<LINE>be what they are, there were no fear in marriage;</LINE>
<LINE>for young Charbon the Puritan and old Poysam the</LINE>
<LINE>Papist, howsome'er their hearts are severed in</LINE>
<LINE>religion, their heads are both one; they may jowl</LINE>
<LINE>horns together, like any deer i' the herd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouthed and calumnious knave?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A prophet I, madam; and I speak the truth the next</LINE>
<LINE>way:</LINE>
<LINE>For I the ballad will repeat,</LINE>
<LINE>Which men full true shall find;</LINE>
<LINE>Your marriage comes by destiny,</LINE>
<LINE>Your cuckoo sings by kind.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you more anon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE>May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to</LINE>
<LINE>you: of her I am to speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman I would speak with her;</LINE>
<LINE>Helen, I mean.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Was this fair face the cause, quoth she,</LINE>
<LINE>Why the Grecians sacked Troy?</LINE>
<LINE>Fond done, done fond,</LINE>
<LINE>Was this King Priam's joy?</LINE>
<LINE>With that she sighed as she stood,</LINE>
<LINE>With that she sighed as she stood,</LINE>
<LINE>And gave this sentence then;</LINE>
<LINE>Among nine bad if one be good,</LINE>
<LINE>Among nine bad if one be good,</LINE>
<LINE>There's yet one good in ten.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, one good in ten? you corrupt the song, sirrah.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying</LINE>
<LINE>o' the song: would God would serve the world so all</LINE>
<LINE>the year! we'ld find no fault with the tithe-woman,</LINE>
<LINE>if I were the parson. One in ten, quoth a'! An we</LINE>
<LINE>might have a good woman born but one every blazing</LINE>
<LINE>star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery</LINE>
<LINE>well: a man may draw his heart out, ere a' pluck</LINE>
<LINE>one.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That man should be at woman's command, and yet no</LINE>
<LINE>hurt done! Though honesty be no puritan, yet it</LINE>
<LINE>will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of</LINE>
<LINE>humility over the black gown of a big heart. I am</LINE>
<LINE>going, forsooth: the business is for Helen to come hither.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, now.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and</LINE>
<LINE>she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully</LINE>
<LINE>make title to as much love as she finds: there is</LINE>
<LINE>more owing her than is paid; and more shall be paid</LINE>
<LINE>her than she'll demand.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, I was very late more near her than I think</LINE>
<LINE>she wished me: alone she was, and did communicate</LINE>
<LINE>to herself her own words to her own ears; she</LINE>
<LINE>thought, I dare vow for her, they touched not any</LINE>
<LINE>stranger sense. Her matter was, she loved your son:</LINE>
<LINE>Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put</LINE>
<LINE>such difference betwixt their two estates; Love no</LINE>
<LINE>god, that would not extend his might, only where</LINE>
<LINE>qualities were level; Dian no queen of virgins, that</LINE>
<LINE>would suffer her poor knight surprised, without</LINE>
<LINE>rescue in the first assault or ransom afterward.</LINE>
<LINE>This she delivered in the most bitter touch of</LINE>
<LINE>sorrow that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in: which I</LINE>
<LINE>held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal;</LINE>
<LINE>sithence, in the loss that may happen, it concerns</LINE>
<LINE>you something to know it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have discharged this honestly; keep it to</LINE>
<LINE>yourself: many likelihoods informed me of this</LINE>
<LINE>before, which hung so tottering in the balance that</LINE>
<LINE>I could neither believe nor misdoubt. Pray you,</LINE>
<LINE>leave me: stall this in your bosom; and I thank you</LINE>
<LINE>for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Steward</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Even so it was with me when I was young:</LINE>
<LINE>If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn</LINE>
<LINE>Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong;</LINE>
<LINE>Our blood to us, this to our blood is born;</LINE>
<LINE>It is the show and seal of nature's truth,</LINE>
<LINE>Where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth:</LINE>
<LINE>By our remembrances of days foregone,</LINE>
<LINE>Such were our faults, or then we thought them none.</LINE>
<LINE>Her eye is sick on't: I observe her now.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is your pleasure, madam?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You know, Helen,</LINE>
<LINE>I am a mother to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mine honourable mistress.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, a mother:</LINE>
<LINE>Why not a mother? When I said 'a mother,'</LINE>
<LINE>Methought you saw a serpent: what's in 'mother,'</LINE>
<LINE>That you start at it? I say, I am your mother;</LINE>
<LINE>And put you in the catalogue of those</LINE>
<LINE>That were enwombed mine: 'tis often seen</LINE>
<LINE>Adoption strives with nature and choice breeds</LINE>
<LINE>A native slip to us from foreign seeds:</LINE>
<LINE>You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan,</LINE>
<LINE>Yet I express to you a mother's care:</LINE>
<LINE>God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood</LINE>
<LINE>To say I am thy mother? What's the matter,</LINE>
<LINE>That this distemper'd messenger of wet,</LINE>
<LINE>The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?</LINE>
<LINE>Why? that you are my daughter?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That I am not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I say, I am your mother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon, madam;</LINE>
<LINE>The Count Rousillon cannot be my brother:</LINE>
<LINE>I am from humble, he from honour'd name;</LINE>
<LINE>No note upon my parents, his all noble:</LINE>
<LINE>My master, my dear lord he is; and I</LINE>
<LINE>His servant live, and will his vassal die:</LINE>
<LINE>He must not be my brother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nor I your mother?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are my mother, madam; would you were,--</LINE>
<LINE>So that my lord your son were not my brother,--</LINE>
<LINE>Indeed my mother! or were you both our mothers,</LINE>
<LINE>I care no more for than I do for heaven,</LINE>
<LINE>So I were not his sister. Can't no other,</LINE>
<LINE>But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law:</LINE>
<LINE>God shield you mean it not! daughter and mother</LINE>
<LINE>So strive upon your pulse. What, pale again?</LINE>
<LINE>My fear hath catch'd your fondness: now I see</LINE>
<LINE>The mystery of your loneliness, and find</LINE>
<LINE>Your salt tears' head: now to all sense 'tis gross</LINE>
<LINE>You love my son; invention is ashamed,</LINE>
<LINE>Against the proclamation of thy passion,</LINE>
<LINE>To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true;</LINE>
<LINE>But tell me then, 'tis so; for, look thy cheeks</LINE>
<LINE>Confess it, th' one to th' other; and thine eyes</LINE>
<LINE>See it so grossly shown in thy behaviors</LINE>
<LINE>That in their kind they speak it: only sin</LINE>
<LINE>And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,</LINE>
<LINE>That truth should be suspected. Speak, is't so?</LINE>
<LINE>If it be so, you have wound a goodly clew;</LINE>
<LINE>If it be not, forswear't: howe'er, I charge thee,</LINE>
<LINE>As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,</LINE>
<LINE>Tell me truly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good madam, pardon me!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you love my son?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your pardon, noble mistress!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Love you my son?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do not you love him, madam?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go not about; my love hath in't a bond,</LINE>
<LINE>Whereof the world takes note: come, come, disclose</LINE>
<LINE>The state of your affection; for your passions</LINE>
<LINE>Have to the full appeach'd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then, I confess,</LINE>
<LINE>Here on my knee, before high heaven and you,</LINE>
<LINE>That before you, and next unto high heaven,</LINE>
<LINE>I love your son.</LINE>
<LINE>My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:</LINE>
<LINE>Be not offended; for it hurts not him</LINE>
<LINE>That he is loved of me: I follow him not</LINE>
<LINE>By any token of presumptuous suit;</LINE>
<LINE>Nor would I have him till I do deserve him;</LINE>
<LINE>Yet never know how that desert should be.</LINE>
<LINE>I know I love in vain, strive against hope;</LINE>
<LINE>Yet in this captious and intenible sieve</LINE>
<LINE>I still pour in the waters of my love</LINE>
<LINE>And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,</LINE>
<LINE>Religious in mine error, I adore</LINE>
<LINE>The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,</LINE>
<LINE>But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,</LINE>
<LINE>Let not your hate encounter with my love</LINE>
<LINE>For loving where you do: but if yourself,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,</LINE>
<LINE>Did ever in so true a flame of liking</LINE>
<LINE>Wish chastely and love dearly, that your Dian</LINE>
<LINE>Was both herself and love: O, then, give pity</LINE>
<LINE>To her, whose state is such that cannot choose</LINE>
<LINE>But lend and give where she is sure to lose;</LINE>
<LINE>That seeks not to find that her search implies,</LINE>
<LINE>But riddle-like lives sweetly where she dies!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Had you not lately an intent,--speak truly,--</LINE>
<LINE>To go to Paris?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, I had.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Wherefore? tell true.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear.</LINE>
<LINE>You know my father left me some prescriptions</LINE>
<LINE>Of rare and proved effects, such as his reading</LINE>
<LINE>And manifest experience had collected</LINE>
<LINE>For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me</LINE>
<LINE>In heedfull'st reservation to bestow them,</LINE>
<LINE>As notes whose faculties inclusive were</LINE>
<LINE>More than they were in note: amongst the rest,</LINE>
<LINE>There is a remedy, approved, set down,</LINE>
<LINE>To cure the desperate languishings whereof</LINE>
<LINE>The king is render'd lost.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This was your motive</LINE>
<LINE>For Paris, was it? speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord your son made me to think of this;</LINE>
<LINE>Else Paris and the medicine and the king</LINE>
<LINE>Had from the conversation of my thoughts</LINE>
<LINE>Haply been absent then.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But think you, Helen,</LINE>
<LINE>If you should tender your supposed aid,</LINE>
<LINE>He would receive it? he and his physicians</LINE>
<LINE>Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him,</LINE>
<LINE>They, that they cannot help: how shall they credit</LINE>
<LINE>A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,</LINE>
<LINE>Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off</LINE>
<LINE>The danger to itself?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's something in't,</LINE>
<LINE>More than my father's skill, which was the greatest</LINE>
<LINE>Of his profession, that his good receipt</LINE>
<LINE>Shall for my legacy be sanctified</LINE>
<LINE>By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour</LINE>
<LINE>But give me leave to try success, I'ld venture</LINE>
<LINE>The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure</LINE>
<LINE>By such a day and hour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Dost thou believe't?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, madam, knowingly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave and love,</LINE>
<LINE>Means and attendants and my loving greetings</LINE>
<LINE>To those of mine in court: I'll stay at home</LINE>
<LINE>And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:</LINE>
<LINE>Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,</LINE>
<LINE>What I can help thee to thou shalt not miss.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT II</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Paris. The KING's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING, attended
with divers young Lords taking leave for the
Florentine war; BERTRAM, and PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Farewell, young lords; these warlike principles</LINE>
<LINE>Do not throw from you: and you, my lords, farewell:</LINE>
<LINE>Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain, all</LINE>
<LINE>The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,</LINE>
<LINE>And is enough for both.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis our hope, sir,</LINE>
<LINE>After well enter'd soldiers, to return</LINE>
<LINE>And find your grace in health.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart</LINE>
<LINE>Will not confess he owes the malady</LINE>
<LINE>That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;</LINE>
<LINE>Whether I live or die, be you the sons</LINE>
<LINE>Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy,--</LINE>
<LINE>Those bated that inherit but the fall</LINE>
<LINE>Of the last monarchy,--see that you come</LINE>
<LINE>Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when</LINE>
<LINE>The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,</LINE>
<LINE>That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Those girls of Italy, take heed of them:</LINE>
<LINE>They say, our French lack language to deny,</LINE>
<LINE>If they demand: beware of being captives,</LINE>
<LINE>Before you serve.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Both</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Our hearts receive your warnings.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Farewell. Come hither to me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit, attended</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis not his fault, the spark.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, 'tis brave wars!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most admirable: I have seen those wars.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am commanded here, and kept a coil with</LINE>
<LINE>'Too young' and 'the next year' and ''tis too early.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>An thy mind stand to't, boy, steal away bravely.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,</LINE>
<LINE>Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,</LINE>
<LINE>Till honour be bought up and no sword worn</LINE>
<LINE>But one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal away.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's honour in the theft.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Commit it, count.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am your accessary; and so, farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Farewell, captain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sweet Monsieur Parolles!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good</LINE>
<LINE>sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall</LINE>
<LINE>find in the regiment of the Spinii one Captain</LINE>
<LINE>Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here</LINE>
<LINE>on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword</LINE>
<LINE>entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his</LINE>
<LINE>reports for me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We shall, noble captain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt Lords</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mars dote on you for his novices! what will ye do?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Stay: the king.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter KING. BERTRAM and PAROLLES retire</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>  Use a more spacious ceremony to the</LINE>
<LINE>noble lords; you have restrained yourself within the</LINE>
<LINE>list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to</LINE>
<LINE>them: for they wear themselves in the cap of the</LINE>
<LINE>time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and</LINE>
<LINE>move under the influence of the most received star;</LINE>
<LINE>and though the devil lead the measure, such are to</LINE>
<LINE>be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And I will do so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter LAFEU</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Kneeling</STAGEDIR>  Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll fee thee to stand up.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then here's a man stands, that has brought his pardon.</LINE>
<LINE>I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy,</LINE>
<LINE>And that at my bidding you could so stand up.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would I had; so I had broke thy pate,</LINE>
<LINE>And ask'd thee mercy for't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good faith, across: but, my good lord 'tis thus;</LINE>
<LINE>Will you be cured of your infirmity?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?</LINE>
<LINE>Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if</LINE>
<LINE>My royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicine</LINE>
<LINE>That's able to breathe life into a stone,</LINE>
<LINE>Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary</LINE>
<LINE>With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,</LINE>
<LINE>Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,</LINE>
<LINE>To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,</LINE>
<LINE>And write to her a love-line.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What 'her' is this?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, Doctor She: my lord, there's one arrived,</LINE>
<LINE>If you will see her: now, by my faith and honour,</LINE>
<LINE>If seriously I may convey my thoughts</LINE>
<LINE>In this my light deliverance, I have spoke</LINE>
<LINE>With one that, in her sex, her years, profession,</LINE>
<LINE>Wisdom and constancy, hath amazed me more</LINE>
<LINE>Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see her</LINE>
<LINE>For that is her demand, and know her business?</LINE>
<LINE>That done, laugh well at me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, good Lafeu,</LINE>
<LINE>Bring in the admiration; that we with thee</LINE>
<LINE>May spend our wonder too, or take off thine</LINE>
<LINE>By wondering how thou took'st it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, I'll fit you,</LINE>
<LINE>And not be all day neither.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, come your ways.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This haste hath wings indeed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, come your ways:</LINE>
<LINE>This is his majesty; say your mind to him:</LINE>
<LINE>A traitor you do look like; but such traitors</LINE>
<LINE>His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,</LINE>
<LINE>That dare leave two together; fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, fair one, does your business follow us?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, my good lord.</LINE>
<LINE>Gerard de Narbon was my father;</LINE>
<LINE>In what he did profess, well found.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I knew him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The rather will I spare my praises towards him:</LINE>
<LINE>Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death</LINE>
<LINE>Many receipts he gave me: chiefly one.</LINE>
<LINE>Which, as the dearest issue of his practise,</LINE>
<LINE>And of his old experience the oily darling,</LINE>
<LINE>He bade me store up, as a triple eye,</LINE>
<LINE>Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so;</LINE>
<LINE>And hearing your high majesty is touch'd</LINE>
<LINE>With that malignant cause wherein the honour</LINE>
<LINE>Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,</LINE>
<LINE>I come to tender it and my appliance</LINE>
<LINE>With all bound humbleness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We thank you, maiden;</LINE>
<LINE>But may not be so credulous of cure,</LINE>
<LINE>When our most learned doctors leave us and</LINE>
<LINE>The congregated college have concluded</LINE>
<LINE>That labouring art can never ransom nature</LINE>
<LINE>From her inaidible estate; I say we must not</LINE>
<LINE>So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,</LINE>
<LINE>To prostitute our past-cure malady</LINE>
<LINE>To empirics, or to dissever so</LINE>
<LINE>Our great self and our credit, to esteem</LINE>
<LINE>A senseless help when help past sense we deem.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My duty then shall pay me for my pains:</LINE>
<LINE>I will no more enforce mine office on you.</LINE>
<LINE>Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts</LINE>
<LINE>A modest one, to bear me back a again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful:</LINE>
<LINE>Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give</LINE>
<LINE>As one near death to those that wish him live:</LINE>
<LINE>But what at full I know, thou know'st no part,</LINE>
<LINE>I knowing all my peril, thou no art.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What I can do can do no hurt to try,</LINE>
<LINE>Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.</LINE>
<LINE>He that of greatest works is finisher</LINE>
<LINE>Oft does them by the weakest minister:</LINE>
<LINE>So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,</LINE>
<LINE>When judges have been babes; great floods have flown</LINE>
<LINE>From simple sources, and great seas have dried</LINE>
<LINE>When miracles have by the greatest been denied.</LINE>
<LINE>Oft expectation fails and most oft there</LINE>
<LINE>Where most it promises, and oft it hits</LINE>
<LINE>Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;</LINE>
<LINE>Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:</LINE>
<LINE>Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:</LINE>
<LINE>It is not so with Him that all things knows</LINE>
<LINE>As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;</LINE>
<LINE>But most it is presumption in us when</LINE>
<LINE>The help of heaven we count the act of men.</LINE>
<LINE>Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;</LINE>
<LINE>Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.</LINE>
<LINE>I am not an impostor that proclaim</LINE>
<LINE>Myself against the level of mine aim;</LINE>
<LINE>But know I think and think I know most sure</LINE>
<LINE>My art is not past power nor you past cure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are thou so confident? within what space</LINE>
<LINE>Hopest thou my cure?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The great'st grace lending grace</LINE>
<LINE>Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring</LINE>
<LINE>Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring,</LINE>
<LINE>Ere twice in murk and occidental damp</LINE>
<LINE>Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp,</LINE>
<LINE>Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass</LINE>
<LINE>Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass,</LINE>
<LINE>What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,</LINE>
<LINE>Health shall live free and sickness freely die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Upon thy certainty and confidence</LINE>
<LINE>What darest thou venture?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tax of impudence,</LINE>
<LINE>A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame</LINE>
<LINE>Traduced by odious ballads: my maiden's name</LINE>
<LINE>Sear'd otherwise; nay, worse--if worse--extended</LINE>
<LINE>With vilest torture let my life be ended.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak</LINE>
<LINE>His powerful sound within an organ weak:</LINE>
<LINE>And what impossibility would slay</LINE>
<LINE>In common sense, sense saves another way.</LINE>
<LINE>Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate</LINE>
<LINE>Worth name of life in thee hath estimate,</LINE>
<LINE>Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all</LINE>
<LINE>That happiness and prime can happy call:</LINE>
<LINE>Thou this to hazard needs must intimate</LINE>
<LINE>Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.</LINE>
<LINE>Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try,</LINE>
<LINE>That ministers thine own death if I die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If I break time, or flinch in property</LINE>
<LINE>Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,</LINE>
<LINE>And well deserved: not helping, death's my fee;</LINE>
<LINE>But, if I help, what do you promise me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Make thy demand.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But will you make it even?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand</LINE>
<LINE>What husband in thy power I will command:</LINE>
<LINE>Exempted be from me the arrogance</LINE>
<LINE>To choose from forth the royal blood of France,</LINE>
<LINE>My low and humble name to propagate</LINE>
<LINE>With any branch or image of thy state;</LINE>
<LINE>But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know</LINE>
<LINE>Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here is my hand; the premises observed,</LINE>
<LINE>Thy will by my performance shall be served:</LINE>
<LINE>So make the choice of thy own time, for I,</LINE>
<LINE>Thy resolved patient, on thee still rely.</LINE>
<LINE>More should I question thee, and more I must,</LINE>
<LINE>Though more to know could not be more to trust,</LINE>
<LINE>From whence thou camest, how tended on: but rest</LINE>
<LINE>Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.</LINE>
<LINE>Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceed</LINE>
<LINE>As high as word, my deed shall match thy meed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Flourish. Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter COUNTESS and Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of</LINE>
<LINE>your breeding.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught: I</LINE>
<LINE>know my business is but to the court.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To the court! why, what place make you special,</LINE>
<LINE>when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he</LINE>
<LINE>may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make</LINE>
<LINE>a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand and say nothing,</LINE>
<LINE>has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and indeed</LINE>
<LINE>such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the</LINE>
<LINE>court; but for me, I have an answer will serve all</LINE>
<LINE>men.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits all</LINE>
<LINE>questions.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks,</LINE>
<LINE>the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn</LINE>
<LINE>buttock, or any buttock.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Will your answer serve fit to all questions?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney,</LINE>
<LINE>as your French crown for your taffeta punk, as Tib's</LINE>
<LINE>rush for Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove</LINE>
<LINE>Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his</LINE>
<LINE>hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding queen</LINE>
<LINE>to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the</LINE>
<LINE>friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all</LINE>
<LINE>questions?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>From below your duke to beneath your constable, it</LINE>
<LINE>will fit any question.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It must be an answer of most monstrous size that</LINE>
<LINE>must fit all demands.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned</LINE>
<LINE>should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that</LINE>
<LINE>belongs to't. Ask me if I am a courtier: it shall</LINE>
<LINE>do you no harm to learn.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To be young again, if we could: I will be a fool in</LINE>
<LINE>question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I</LINE>
<LINE>pray you, sir, are you a courtier?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir! There's a simple putting off. More,</LINE>
<LINE>more, a hundred of them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir! Thick, thick, spare not me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir! Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You were lately whipped, sir, as I think.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir! spare not me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you cry, 'O Lord, sir!' at your whipping, and</LINE>
<LINE>'spare not me?' Indeed your 'O Lord, sir!' is very</LINE>
<LINE>sequent to your whipping: you would answer very well</LINE>
<LINE>to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I ne'er had worse luck in my life in my 'O Lord,</LINE>
<LINE>sir!' I see things may serve long, but not serve ever.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I play the noble housewife with the time</LINE>
<LINE>To entertain't so merrily with a fool.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir! why, there't serves well again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>An end, sir; to your business. Give Helen this,</LINE>
<LINE>And urge her to a present answer back:</LINE>
<LINE>Commend me to my kinsmen and my son:</LINE>
<LINE>This is not much.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not much commendation to them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not much employment for you: you understand me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most fruitfully: I am there before my legs.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Haste you again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt severally</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  Paris. The KING's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They say miracles are past; and we have our</LINE>
<LINE>philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar,</LINE>
<LINE>things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that</LINE>
<LINE>we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves</LINE>
<LINE>into seeming knowledge, when we should submit</LINE>
<LINE>ourselves to an unknown fear.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath</LINE>
<LINE>shot out in our latter times.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And so 'tis.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To be relinquish'd of the artists,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So I say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Both of Galen and Paracelsus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So I say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Of all the learned and authentic fellows,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Right; so I say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That gave him out incurable,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, there 'tis; so say I too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not to be helped,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Right; as 'twere, a man assured of a--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Uncertain life, and sure death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Just, you say well; so would I have said.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you</LINE>
<LINE>shall read it in--what do you call there?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's it; I would have said the very same.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me,</LINE>
<LINE>I speak in respect--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the</LINE>
<LINE>brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a most</LINE>
<LINE>facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Very hand of heaven.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, so I say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In a most weak--</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>pausing</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>and debile minister, great power, great</LINE>
<LINE>transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a</LINE>
<LINE>further use to be made than alone the recovery of</LINE>
<LINE>the king, as to be--</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>pausing</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>generally thankful.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants. LAFEU and
PAROLLES retire</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lustig, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the</LINE>
<LINE>better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: why, he's</LINE>
<LINE>able to lead her a coranto.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mort du vinaigre! is not this Helen?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Fore God, I think so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go, call before me all the lords in court.</LINE>
<LINE>Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;</LINE>
<LINE>And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense</LINE>
<LINE>Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive</LINE>
<LINE>The confirmation of my promised gift,</LINE>
<LINE>Which but attends thy naming.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter three or four Lords</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel</LINE>
<LINE>Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,</LINE>
<LINE>O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice</LINE>
<LINE>I have to use: thy frank election make;</LINE>
<LINE>Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress</LINE>
<LINE>Fall, when Love please! marry, to each, but one!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'ld give bay Curtal and his furniture,</LINE>
<LINE>My mouth no more were broken than these boys',</LINE>
<LINE>And writ as little beard.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Peruse them well:</LINE>
<LINE>Not one of those but had a noble father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gentlemen,</LINE>
<LINE>Heaven hath through me restored the king to health.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>All</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We understand it, and thank heaven for you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest,</LINE>
<LINE>That I protest I simply am a maid.</LINE>
<LINE>Please it your majesty, I have done already:</LINE>
<LINE>The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,</LINE>
<LINE>'We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused,</LINE>
<LINE>Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;</LINE>
<LINE>We'll ne'er come there again.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Make choice; and, see,</LINE>
<LINE>Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,</LINE>
<LINE>And to imperial Love, that god most high,</LINE>
<LINE>Do my sighs stream. Sir, will you hear my suit?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And grant it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace</LINE>
<LINE>for my life.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes,</LINE>
<LINE>Before I speak, too threateningly replies:</LINE>
<LINE>Love make your fortunes twenty times above</LINE>
<LINE>Her that so wishes and her humble love!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No better, if you please.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My wish receive,</LINE>
<LINE>Which great Love grant! and so, I take my leave.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine,</LINE>
<LINE>I'd have them whipped; or I would send them to the</LINE>
<LINE>Turk, to make eunuchs of.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be not afraid that I your hand should take;</LINE>
<LINE>I'll never do you wrong for your own sake:</LINE>
<LINE>Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed</LINE>
<LINE>Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her:</LINE>
<LINE>sure, they are bastards to the English; the French</LINE>
<LINE>ne'er got 'em.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are too young, too happy, and too good,</LINE>
<LINE>To make yourself a son out of my blood.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Fourth Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fair one, I think not so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's one grape yet; I am sure thy father drunk</LINE>
<LINE>wine: but if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth</LINE>
<LINE>of fourteen; I have known thee already.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>  I dare not say I take you; but I give</LINE>
<LINE>Me and my service, ever whilst I live,</LINE>
<LINE>Into your guiding power. This is the man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,</LINE>
<LINE>In such a business give me leave to use</LINE>
<LINE>The help of mine own eyes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Know'st thou not, Bertram,</LINE>
<LINE>What she has done for me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, my good lord;</LINE>
<LINE>But never hope to know why I should marry her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou know'st she has raised me from my sickly bed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But follows it, my lord, to bring me down</LINE>
<LINE>Must answer for your raising? I know her well:</LINE>
<LINE>She had her breeding at my father's charge.</LINE>
<LINE>A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain</LINE>
<LINE>Rather corrupt me ever!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which</LINE>
<LINE>I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,</LINE>
<LINE>Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,</LINE>
<LINE>Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off</LINE>
<LINE>In differences so mighty. If she be</LINE>
<LINE>All that is virtuous, save what thou dislikest,</LINE>
<LINE>A poor physician's daughter, thou dislikest</LINE>
<LINE>Of virtue for the name: but do not so:</LINE>
<LINE>From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,</LINE>
<LINE>The place is dignified by the doer's deed:</LINE>
<LINE>Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,</LINE>
<LINE>It is a dropsied honour. Good alone</LINE>
<LINE>Is good without a name. Vileness is so:</LINE>
<LINE>The property by what it is should go,</LINE>
<LINE>Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;</LINE>
<LINE>In these to nature she's immediate heir,</LINE>
<LINE>And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,</LINE>
<LINE>Which challenges itself as honour's born</LINE>
<LINE>And is not like the sire: honours thrive,</LINE>
<LINE>When rather from our acts we them derive</LINE>
<LINE>Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave</LINE>
<LINE>Debosh'd on every tomb, on every grave</LINE>
<LINE>A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb</LINE>
<LINE>Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb</LINE>
<LINE>Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?</LINE>
<LINE>If thou canst like this creature as a maid,</LINE>
<LINE>I can create the rest: virtue and she</LINE>
<LINE>Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That you are well restored, my lord, I'm glad:</LINE>
<LINE>Let the rest go.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,</LINE>
<LINE>I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,</LINE>
<LINE>Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;</LINE>
<LINE>That dost in vile misprision shackle up</LINE>
<LINE>My love and her desert; that canst not dream,</LINE>
<LINE>We, poising us in her defective scale,</LINE>
<LINE>Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,</LINE>
<LINE>It is in us to plant thine honour where</LINE>
<LINE>We please to have it grow. Cheque thy contempt:</LINE>
<LINE>Obey our will, which travails in thy good:</LINE>
<LINE>Believe not thy disdain, but presently</LINE>
<LINE>Do thine own fortunes that obedient right</LINE>
<LINE>Which both thy duty owes and our power claims;</LINE>
<LINE>Or I will throw thee from my care for ever</LINE>
<LINE>Into the staggers and the careless lapse</LINE>
<LINE>Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate</LINE>
<LINE>Loosing upon thee, in the name of justice,</LINE>
<LINE>Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit</LINE>
<LINE>My fancy to your eyes: when I consider</LINE>
<LINE>What great creation and what dole of honour</LINE>
<LINE>Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late</LINE>
<LINE>Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now</LINE>
<LINE>The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,</LINE>
<LINE>Is as 'twere born so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take her by the hand,</LINE>
<LINE>And tell her she is thine: to whom I promise</LINE>
<LINE>A counterpoise, if not to thy estate</LINE>
<LINE>A balance more replete.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I take her hand.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good fortune and the favour of the king</LINE>
<LINE>Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony</LINE>
<LINE>Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,</LINE>
<LINE>And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast</LINE>
<LINE>Shall more attend upon the coming space,</LINE>
<LINE>Expecting absent friends. As thou lovest her,</LINE>
<LINE>Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt all but LAFEU and PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Advancing</STAGEDIR>  Do you hear, monsieur? a word with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your pleasure, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your lord and master did well to make his</LINE>
<LINE>recantation.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Recantation! My lord! my master!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay; is it not a language I speak?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A most harsh one, and not to be understood without</LINE>
<LINE>bloody succeeding. My master!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are you companion to the Count Rousillon?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To any count, to all counts, to what is man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To what is count's man: count's master is of</LINE>
<LINE>another style.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which</LINE>
<LINE>title age cannot bring thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What I dare too well do, I dare not do.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have not, my lord, deserved it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not</LINE>
<LINE>bate thee a scruple.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, I shall be wiser.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Even as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at</LINE>
<LINE>a smack o' the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound</LINE>
<LINE>in thy scarf and beaten, thou shalt find what it is</LINE>
<LINE>to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold</LINE>
<LINE>my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge,</LINE>
<LINE>that I may say in the default, he is a man I know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor</LINE>
<LINE>doing eternal: for doing I am past: as I will by</LINE>
<LINE>thee, in what motion age will give me leave.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

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

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter LAFEU</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sirrah, your lord and master's married; there's news</LINE>
<LINE>for you: you have a new mistress.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make</LINE>
<LINE>some reservation of your wrongs: he is my good</LINE>
<LINE>lord: whom I serve above is my master.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who? God?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thou</LINE>
<LINE>garter up thy arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of</LINE>
<LINE>sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set</LINE>
<LINE>thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine</LINE>
<LINE>honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'ld beat</LINE>
<LINE>thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and</LINE>
<LINE>every man should beat thee: I think thou wast</LINE>
<LINE>created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good, very good; it is so then: good, very good;</LINE>
<LINE>let it be concealed awhile.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's the matter, sweet-heart?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Although before the solemn priest I have sworn,</LINE>
<LINE>I will not bed her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, what, sweet-heart?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my Parolles, they have married me!</LINE>
<LINE>I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits</LINE>
<LINE>The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's letters from my mother: what the import is,</LINE>
<LINE>I know not yet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!</LINE>
<LINE>He wears his honour in a box unseen,</LINE>
<LINE>That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home,</LINE>
<LINE>Spending his manly marrow in her arms,</LINE>
<LINE>Which should sustain the bound and high curvet</LINE>
<LINE>Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions</LINE>
<LINE>France is a stable; we that dwell in't jades;</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore, to the war!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It shall be so: I'll send her to my house,</LINE>
<LINE>Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,</LINE>
<LINE>And wherefore I am fled; write to the king</LINE>
<LINE>That which I durst not speak; his present gift</LINE>
<LINE>Shall furnish me to those Italian fields,</LINE>
<LINE>Where noble fellows strike: war is no strife</LINE>
<LINE>To the dark house and the detested wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Will this capriccio hold in thee? art sure?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go with me to my chamber, and advise me.</LINE>
<LINE>I'll send her straight away: to-morrow</LINE>
<LINE>I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard:</LINE>
<LINE>A young man married is a man that's marr'd:</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:</LINE>
<LINE>The king has done you wrong: but, hush, 'tis so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  Paris. The KING's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA and Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My mother greets me kindly; is she well?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She is not well; but yet she has her health: she's</LINE>
<LINE>very merry; but yet she is not well: but thanks be</LINE>
<LINE>given, she's very well and wants nothing i', the</LINE>
<LINE>world; but yet she is not well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If she be very well, what does she ail, that she's</LINE>
<LINE>not very well?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, she's very well indeed, but for two things.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What two things?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her</LINE>
<LINE>quickly! the other that she's in earth, from whence</LINE>
<LINE>God send her quickly!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bless you, my fortunate lady!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own</LINE>
<LINE>good fortunes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them</LINE>
<LINE>on, have them still. O, my knave, how does my old lady?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So that you had her wrinkles and I her money,</LINE>
<LINE>I would she did as you say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, I say nothing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's</LINE>
<LINE>tongue shakes out his master's undoing: to say</LINE>
<LINE>nothing, to do nothing, to know nothing, and to have</LINE>
<LINE>nothing, is to be a great part of your title; which</LINE>
<LINE>is within a very little of nothing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Away! thou'rt a knave.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You should have said, sir, before a knave thou'rt a</LINE>
<LINE>knave; that's, before me thou'rt a knave: this had</LINE>
<LINE>been truth, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Did you find me in yourself, sir? or were you</LINE>
<LINE>taught to find me? The search, sir, was profitable;</LINE>
<LINE>and much fool may you find in you, even to the</LINE>
<LINE>world's pleasure and the increase of laughter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A good knave, i' faith, and well fed.</LINE>
<LINE>Madam, my lord will go away to-night;</LINE>
<LINE>A very serious business calls on him.</LINE>
<LINE>The great prerogative and rite of love,</LINE>
<LINE>Which, as your due, time claims, he does acknowledge;</LINE>
<LINE>But puts it off to a compell'd restraint;</LINE>
<LINE>Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets,</LINE>
<LINE>Which they distil now in the curbed time,</LINE>
<LINE>To make the coming hour o'erflow with joy</LINE>
<LINE>And pleasure drown the brim.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's his will else?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That you will take your instant leave o' the king</LINE>
<LINE>And make this haste as your own good proceeding,</LINE>
<LINE>Strengthen'd with what apology you think</LINE>
<LINE>May make it probable need.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What more commands he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That, having this obtain'd, you presently</LINE>
<LINE>Attend his further pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In every thing I wait upon his will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall report it so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I pray you.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Come, sirrah.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE V.  Paris. The KING's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter LAFEU and BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But I hope your lordship thinks not him a soldier.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have it from his own deliverance.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And by other warranted testimony.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then my dial goes not true: I took this lark for a bunting.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do assure you, my lord, he is very great in</LINE>
<LINE>knowledge and accordingly valiant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have then sinned against his experience and</LINE>
<LINE>transgressed against his valour; and my state that</LINE>
<LINE>way is dangerous, since I cannot yet find in my</LINE>
<LINE>heart to repent. Here he comes: I pray you, make</LINE>
<LINE>us friends; I will pursue the amity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>  These things shall be done, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray you, sir, who's his tailor?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, I know him well, I, sir; he, sir, 's a good</LINE>
<LINE>workman, a very good tailor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>  Is she gone to the king?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She is.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Will she away to-night?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As you'll have her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have writ my letters, casketed my treasure,</LINE>
<LINE>Given order for our horses; and to-night,</LINE>
<LINE>When I should take possession of the bride,</LINE>
<LINE>End ere I do begin.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A good traveller is something at the latter end of a</LINE>
<LINE>dinner; but one that lies three thirds and uses a</LINE>
<LINE>known truth to pass a thousand nothings with, should</LINE>
<LINE>be once heard and thrice beaten. God save you, captain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is there any unkindness between my lord and you, monsieur?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know not how I have deserved to run into my lord's</LINE>
<LINE>displeasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have made shift to run into 't, boots and spurs</LINE>
<LINE>and all, like him that leaped into the custard; and</LINE>
<LINE>out of it you'll run again, rather than suffer</LINE>
<LINE>question for your residence.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It may be you have mistaken him, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And shall do so ever, though I took him at 's</LINE>
<LINE>prayers. Fare you well, my lord; and believe this</LINE>
<LINE>of me, there can be no kernel in this light nut; the</LINE>
<LINE>soul of this man is his clothes. Trust him not in</LINE>
<LINE>matter of heavy consequence; I have kept of them</LINE>
<LINE>tame, and know their natures. Farewell, monsieur:</LINE>
<LINE>I have spoken better of you than you have or will to</LINE>
<LINE>deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>An idle lord. I swear.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, do you not know him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, I do know him well, and common speech</LINE>
<LINE>Gives him a worthy pass. Here comes my clog.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have, sir, as I was commanded from you,</LINE>
<LINE>Spoke with the king and have procured his leave</LINE>
<LINE>For present parting; only he desires</LINE>
<LINE>Some private speech with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall obey his will.</LINE>
<LINE>You must not marvel, Helen, at my course,</LINE>
<LINE>Which holds not colour with the time, nor does</LINE>
<LINE>The ministration and required office</LINE>
<LINE>On my particular. Prepared I was not</LINE>
<LINE>For such a business; therefore am I found</LINE>
<LINE>So much unsettled: this drives me to entreat you</LINE>
<LINE>That presently you take our way for home;</LINE>
<LINE>And rather muse than ask why I entreat you,</LINE>
<LINE>For my respects are better than they seem</LINE>
<LINE>And my appointments have in them a need</LINE>
<LINE>Greater than shows itself at the first view</LINE>
<LINE>To you that know them not. This to my mother:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Giving a letter</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>'Twill be two days ere I shall see you, so</LINE>
<LINE>I leave you to your wisdom.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I can nothing say,</LINE>
<LINE>But that I am your most obedient servant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, come, no more of that.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And ever shall</LINE>
<LINE>With true observance seek to eke out that</LINE>
<LINE>Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd</LINE>
<LINE>To equal my great fortune.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let that go:</LINE>
<LINE>My haste is very great: farewell; hie home.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray, sir, your pardon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, what would you say?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am not worthy of the wealth I owe,</LINE>
<LINE>Nor dare I say 'tis mine, and yet it is;</LINE>
<LINE>But, like a timorous thief, most fain would steal</LINE>
<LINE>What law does vouch mine own.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What would you have?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Something; and scarce so much: nothing, indeed.</LINE>
<LINE>I would not tell you what I would, my lord:</LINE>
<LINE>Faith yes;</LINE>
<LINE>Strangers and foes do sunder, and not kiss.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall not break your bidding, good my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Where are my other men, monsieur? Farewell.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit HELENA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Go thou toward home; where I will never come</LINE>
<LINE>Whilst I can shake my sword or hear the drum.</LINE>
<LINE>Away, and for our flight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bravely, coragio!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT III</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Florence. The DUKE's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish. Enter the DUKE of Florence attended;
the two Frenchmen, with a troop of soldiers.</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So that from point to point now have you heard</LINE>
<LINE>The fundamental reasons of this war,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose great decision hath much blood let forth</LINE>
<LINE>And more thirsts after.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Holy seems the quarrel</LINE>
<LINE>Upon your grace's part; black and fearful</LINE>
<LINE>On the opposer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Therefore we marvel much our cousin France</LINE>
<LINE>Would in so just a business shut his bosom</LINE>
<LINE>Against our borrowing prayers.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>The reasons of our state I cannot yield,</LINE>
<LINE>But like a common and an outward man,</LINE>
<LINE>That the great figure of a council frames</LINE>
<LINE>By self-unable motion: therefore dare not</LINE>
<LINE>Say what I think of it, since I have found</LINE>
<LINE>Myself in my incertain grounds to fail</LINE>
<LINE>As often as I guess'd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be it his pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But I am sure the younger of our nature,</LINE>
<LINE>That surfeit on their ease, will day by day</LINE>
<LINE>Come here for physic.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Welcome shall they be;</LINE>
<LINE>And all the honours that can fly from us</LINE>
<LINE>Shall on them settle. You know your places well;</LINE>
<LINE>When better fall, for your avails they fell:</LINE>
<LINE>To-morrow to the field.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Flourish. Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter COUNTESS and Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It hath happened all as I would have had it, save</LINE>
<LINE>that he comes not along with her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very</LINE>
<LINE>melancholy man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By what observance, I pray you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, he will look upon his boot and sing; mend the</LINE>
<LINE>ruff and sing; ask questions and sing; pick his</LINE>
<LINE>teeth and sing. I know a man that had this trick of</LINE>
<LINE>melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Opening a letter</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court: our</LINE>
<LINE>old ling and our Isbels o' the country are nothing</LINE>
<LINE>like your old ling and your Isbels o' the court:</LINE>
<LINE>the brains of my Cupid's knocked out, and I begin to</LINE>
<LINE>love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What have we here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>E'en that you have there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she hath</LINE>
<LINE>recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded</LINE>
<LINE>her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the 'not'</LINE>
<LINE>eternal. You shall hear I am run away: know it</LINE>
<LINE>before the report come. If there be breadth enough</LINE>
<LINE>in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty</LINE>
<LINE>to you. Your unfortunate son,</LINE>
<LINE>BERTRAM.</LINE>
<LINE>This is not well, rash and unbridled boy.</LINE>
<LINE>To fly the favours of so good a king;</LINE>
<LINE>To pluck his indignation on thy head</LINE>
<LINE>By the misprising of a maid too virtuous</LINE>
<LINE>For the contempt of empire.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two</LINE>
<LINE>soldiers and my young lady!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is the matter?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some</LINE>
<LINE>comfort; your son will not be killed so soon as I</LINE>
<LINE>thought he would.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why should he be killed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does:</LINE>
<LINE>the danger is in standing to't; that's the loss of</LINE>
<LINE>men, though it be the getting of children. Here</LINE>
<LINE>they come will tell you more: for my part, I only</LINE>
<LINE>hear your son was run away.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA, and two Gentlemen</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Save you, good madam.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do not say so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Think upon patience. Pray you, gentlemen,</LINE>
<LINE>I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief,</LINE>
<LINE>That the first face of neither, on the start,</LINE>
<LINE>Can woman me unto't: where is my son, I pray you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of Florence:</LINE>
<LINE>We met him thitherward; for thence we came,</LINE>
<LINE>And, after some dispatch in hand at court,</LINE>
<LINE>Thither we bend again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Look on his letter, madam; here's my passport.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which</LINE>
<LINE>never shall come off, and show me a child begotten</LINE>
<LINE>of thy body that I am father to, then call me</LINE>
<LINE>husband: but in such a 'then' I write a 'never.'</LINE>
<LINE>This is a dreadful sentence.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Brought you this letter, gentlemen?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, madam;</LINE>
<LINE>And for the contents' sake are sorry for our pain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I prithee, lady, have a better cheer;</LINE>
<LINE>If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou robb'st me of a moiety: he was my son;</LINE>
<LINE>But I do wash his name out of my blood,</LINE>
<LINE>And thou art all my child. Towards Florence is he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, madam.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And to be a soldier?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Such is his noble purpose; and believe 't,</LINE>
<LINE>The duke will lay upon him all the honour</LINE>
<LINE>That good convenience claims.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Return you thither?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  Till I have no wife I have nothing in France.</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis bitter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Find you that there?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, madam.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which his</LINE>
<LINE>heart was not consenting to.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nothing in France, until he have no wife!</LINE>
<LINE>There's nothing here that is too good for him</LINE>
<LINE>But only she; and she deserves a lord</LINE>
<LINE>That twenty such rude boys might tend upon</LINE>
<LINE>And call her hourly mistress. Who was with him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A servant only, and a gentleman</LINE>
<LINE>Which I have sometime known.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Parolles, was it not?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, my good lady, he.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.</LINE>
<LINE>My son corrupts a well-derived nature</LINE>
<LINE>With his inducement.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Indeed, good lady,</LINE>
<LINE>The fellow has a deal of that too much,</LINE>
<LINE>Which holds him much to have.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You're welcome, gentlemen.</LINE>
<LINE>I will entreat you, when you see my son,</LINE>
<LINE>To tell him that his sword can never win</LINE>
<LINE>The honour that he loses: more I'll entreat you</LINE>
<LINE>Written to bear along.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We serve you, madam,</LINE>
<LINE>In that and all your worthiest affairs.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not so, but as we change our courtesies.</LINE>
<LINE>Will you draw near!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt COUNTESS and Gentlemen</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.'</LINE>
<LINE>Nothing in France, until he has no wife!</LINE>
<LINE>Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France;</LINE>
<LINE>Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is't I</LINE>
<LINE>That chase thee from thy country and expose</LINE>
<LINE>Those tender limbs of thine to the event</LINE>
<LINE>Of the none-sparing war? and is it I</LINE>
<LINE>That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou</LINE>
<LINE>Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark</LINE>
<LINE>Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers,</LINE>
<LINE>That ride upon the violent speed of fire,</LINE>
<LINE>Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,</LINE>
<LINE>That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord.</LINE>
<LINE>Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;</LINE>
<LINE>Whoever charges on his forward breast,</LINE>
<LINE>I am the caitiff that do hold him to't;</LINE>
<LINE>And, though I kill him not, I am the cause</LINE>
<LINE>His death was so effected: better 'twere</LINE>
<LINE>I met the ravin lion when he roar'd</LINE>
<LINE>With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere</LINE>
<LINE>That all the miseries which nature owes</LINE>
<LINE>Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rousillon,</LINE>
<LINE>Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,</LINE>
<LINE>As oft it loses all: I will be gone;</LINE>
<LINE>My being here it is that holds thee hence:</LINE>
<LINE>Shall I stay here to do't?  no, no, although</LINE>
<LINE>The air of paradise did fan the house</LINE>
<LINE>And angels officed all: I will be gone,</LINE>
<LINE>That pitiful rumour may report my flight,</LINE>
<LINE>To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day!</LINE>
<LINE>For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  Florence. Before the DUKE's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish. Enter the DUKE of Florence, BERTRAM,
PAROLLES, Soldiers, Drum, and Trumpets</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The general of our horse thou art; and we,</LINE>
<LINE>Great in our hope, lay our best love and credence</LINE>
<LINE>Upon thy promising fortune.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, it is</LINE>
<LINE>A charge too heavy for my strength, but yet</LINE>
<LINE>We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake</LINE>
<LINE>To the extreme edge of hazard.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then go thou forth;</LINE>
<LINE>And fortune play upon thy prosperous helm,</LINE>
<LINE>As thy auspicious mistress!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This very day,</LINE>
<LINE>Great Mars, I put myself into thy file:</LINE>
<LINE>Make me but like my thoughts, and I shall prove</LINE>
<LINE>A lover of thy drum, hater of love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter COUNTESS and Steward</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas! and would you take the letter of her?</LINE>
<LINE>Might you not know she would do as she has done,</LINE>
<LINE>By sending me a letter? Read it again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR></LINE>
<LINE>I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone:</LINE>
<LINE>Ambitious love hath so in me offended,</LINE>
<LINE>That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon,</LINE>
<LINE>With sainted vow my faults to have amended.</LINE>
<LINE>Write, write, that from the bloody course of war</LINE>
<LINE>My dearest master, your dear son, may hie:</LINE>
<LINE>Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far</LINE>
<LINE>His name with zealous fervor sanctify:</LINE>
<LINE>His taken labours bid him me forgive;</LINE>
<LINE>I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth</LINE>
<LINE>From courtly friends, with camping foes to live,</LINE>
<LINE>Where death and danger dogs the heels of worth:</LINE>
<LINE>He is too good and fair for death and me:</LINE>
<LINE>Whom I myself embrace, to set him free.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words!</LINE>
<LINE>Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much,</LINE>
<LINE>As letting her pass so: had I spoke with her,</LINE>
<LINE>I could have well diverted her intents,</LINE>
<LINE>Which thus she hath prevented.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Steward</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon me, madam:</LINE>
<LINE>If I had given you this at over-night,</LINE>
<LINE>She might have been o'erta'en; and yet she writes,</LINE>
<LINE>Pursuit would be but vain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What angel shall</LINE>
<LINE>Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive,</LINE>
<LINE>Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear</LINE>
<LINE>And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath</LINE>
<LINE>Of greatest justice. Write, write, Rinaldo,</LINE>
<LINE>To this unworthy husband of his wife;</LINE>
<LINE>Let every word weigh heavy of her worth</LINE>
<LINE>That he does weigh too light: my greatest grief.</LINE>
<LINE>Though little he do feel it, set down sharply.</LINE>
<LINE>Dispatch the most convenient messenger:</LINE>
<LINE>When haply he shall hear that she is gone,</LINE>
<LINE>He will return; and hope I may that she,</LINE>
<LINE>Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,</LINE>
<LINE>Led hither by pure love: which of them both</LINE>
<LINE>Is dearest to me. I have no skill in sense</LINE>
<LINE>To make distinction: provide this messenger:</LINE>
<LINE>My heart is heavy and mine age is weak;</LINE>
<LINE>Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE V.  Florence. Without the walls. A tucket afar off.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA,
and MARIANA, with other Citizens</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we</LINE>
<LINE>shall lose all the sight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They say the French count has done most honourable service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is reported that he has taken their greatest</LINE>
<LINE>commander; and that with his own hand he slew the</LINE>
<LINE>duke's brother.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Tucket</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary</LINE>
<LINE>way: hark! you may know by their trumpets.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with</LINE>
<LINE>the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this</LINE>
<LINE>French earl: the honour of a maid is her name; and</LINE>
<LINE>no legacy is so rich as honesty.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited</LINE>
<LINE>by a gentleman his companion.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a</LINE>
<LINE>filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the</LINE>
<LINE>young earl. Beware of them, Diana; their promises,</LINE>
<LINE>enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of</LINE>
<LINE>lust, are not the things they go under: many a maid</LINE>
<LINE>hath been seduced by them; and the misery is,</LINE>
<LINE>example, that so terrible shows in the wreck of</LINE>
<LINE>maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession,</LINE>
<LINE>but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten</LINE>
<LINE>them. I hope I need not to advise you further; but</LINE>
<LINE>I hope your own grace will keep you where you are,</LINE>
<LINE>though there were no further danger known but the</LINE>
<LINE>modesty which is so lost.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You shall not need to fear me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I hope so.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA, disguised like a Pilgrim</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Look, here comes a pilgrim: I know she will lie at</LINE>
<LINE>my house; thither they send one another: I'll</LINE>
<LINE>question her. God save you, pilgrim! whither are you bound?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To Saint Jaques le Grand.</LINE>
<LINE>Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>At the Saint Francis here beside the port.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is this the way?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, marry, is't.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>A march afar</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Hark you! they come this way.</LINE>
<LINE>If you will tarry, holy pilgrim,</LINE>
<LINE>But till the troops come by,</LINE>
<LINE>I will conduct you where you shall be lodged;</LINE>
<LINE>The rather, for I think I know your hostess</LINE>
<LINE>As ample as myself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is it yourself?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you shall please so, pilgrim.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You came, I think, from France?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I did so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here you shall see a countryman of yours</LINE>
<LINE>That has done worthy service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His name, I pray you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The Count Rousillon: know you such a one?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him:</LINE>
<LINE>His face I know not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Whatsome'er he is,</LINE>
<LINE>He's bravely taken here. He stole from France,</LINE>
<LINE>As 'tis reported, for the king had married him</LINE>
<LINE>Against his liking: think you it is so?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, surely, mere the truth: I know his lady.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There is a gentleman that serves the count</LINE>
<LINE>Reports but coarsely of her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's his name?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Monsieur Parolles.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, I believe with him,</LINE>
<LINE>In argument of praise, or to the worth</LINE>
<LINE>Of the great count himself, she is too mean</LINE>
<LINE>To have her name repeated: all her deserving</LINE>
<LINE>Is a reserved honesty, and that</LINE>
<LINE>I have not heard examined.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas, poor lady!</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis a hard bondage to become the wife</LINE>
<LINE>Of a detesting lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I warrant, good creature, wheresoe'er she is,</LINE>
<LINE>Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her</LINE>
<LINE>A shrewd turn, if she pleased.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How do you mean?</LINE>
<LINE>May be the amorous count solicits her</LINE>
<LINE>In the unlawful purpose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He does indeed;</LINE>
<LINE>And brokes with all that can in such a suit</LINE>
<LINE>Corrupt the tender honour of a maid:</LINE>
<LINE>But she is arm'd for him and keeps her guard</LINE>
<LINE>In honestest defence.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The gods forbid else!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So, now they come:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Drum and Colours</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and the whole army</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>That is Antonio, the duke's eldest son;</LINE>
<LINE>That, Escalus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which is the Frenchman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He;</LINE>
<LINE>That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow.</LINE>
<LINE>I would he loved his wife: if he were honester</LINE>
<LINE>He were much goodlier: is't not a handsome gentleman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I like him well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis pity he is not honest: yond's that same knave</LINE>
<LINE>That leads him to these places: were I his lady,</LINE>
<LINE>I would Poison that vile rascal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which is he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That jack-an-apes with scarfs: why is he melancholy?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Perchance he's hurt i' the battle.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lose our drum! well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's shrewdly vexed at something: look, he has spied us.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, hang you!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and army</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The troop is past. Come, pilgrim, I will bring you</LINE>
<LINE>Where you shall host: of enjoin'd penitents</LINE>
<LINE>There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound,</LINE>
<LINE>Already at my house.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I humbly thank you:</LINE>
<LINE>Please it this matron and this gentle maid</LINE>
<LINE>To eat with us to-night, the charge and thanking</LINE>
<LINE>Shall be for me; and, to requite you further,</LINE>
<LINE>I will bestow some precepts of this virgin</LINE>
<LINE>Worthy the note.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We'll take your offer kindly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE VI.  Camp before Florence.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM and the two French Lords</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his</LINE>
<LINE>way.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no</LINE>
<LINE>more in your respect.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>On my life, my lord, a bubble.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you think I am so far deceived in him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge,</LINE>
<LINE>without any malice, but to speak of him as my</LINE>
<LINE>kinsman, he's a most notable coward, an infinite and</LINE>
<LINE>endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner</LINE>
<LINE>of no one good quality worthy your lordship's</LINE>
<LINE>entertainment.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in</LINE>
<LINE>his virtue, which he hath not, he might at some</LINE>
<LINE>great and trusty business in a main danger fail you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would I knew in what particular action to try him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None better than to let him fetch off his drum,</LINE>
<LINE>which you hear him so confidently undertake to do.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly</LINE>
<LINE>surprise him; such I will have, whom I am sure he</LINE>
<LINE>knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hoodwink</LINE>
<LINE>him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he</LINE>
<LINE>is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries, when</LINE>
<LINE>we bring him to our own tents. Be but your lordship</LINE>
<LINE>present at his examination: if he do not, for the</LINE>
<LINE>promise of his life and in the highest compulsion of</LINE>
<LINE>base fear, offer to betray you and deliver all the</LINE>
<LINE>intelligence in his power against you, and that with</LINE>
<LINE>the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never</LINE>
<LINE>trust my judgment in any thing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum;</LINE>
<LINE>he says he has a stratagem for't: when your</LINE>
<LINE>lordship sees the bottom of his success in't, and to</LINE>
<LINE>what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be</LINE>
<LINE>melted, if you give him not John Drum's</LINE>
<LINE>entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed.</LINE>
<LINE>Here he comes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>  O, for the love of laughter,</LINE>
<LINE>hinder not the honour of his design: let him fetch</LINE>
<LINE>off his drum in any hand.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your</LINE>
<LINE>disposition.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A pox on't, let it go; 'tis but a drum.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'But a drum'! is't 'but a drum'? A drum so lost!</LINE>
<LINE>There was excellent command,--to charge in with our</LINE>
<LINE>horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That was not to be blamed in the command of the</LINE>
<LINE>service: it was a disaster of war that Caesar</LINE>
<LINE>himself could not have prevented, if he had been</LINE>
<LINE>there to command.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some</LINE>
<LINE>dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is</LINE>
<LINE>not to be recovered.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It might have been recovered.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It might; but it is not now.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is to be recovered: but that the merit of</LINE>
<LINE>service is seldom attributed to the true and exact</LINE>
<LINE>performer, I would have that drum or another, or</LINE>
<LINE>'hic jacet.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, if you have a stomach, to't, monsieur: if you</LINE>
<LINE>think your mystery in stratagem can bring this</LINE>
<LINE>instrument of honour again into his native quarter,</LINE>
<LINE>be magnanimous in the enterprise and go on; I will</LINE>
<LINE>grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you</LINE>
<LINE>speed well in it, the duke shall both speak of it.</LINE>
<LINE>and extend to you what further becomes his</LINE>
<LINE>greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your</LINE>
<LINE>worthiness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But you must not now slumber in it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll about it this evening: and I will presently</LINE>
<LINE>pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my</LINE>
<LINE>certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation;</LINE>
<LINE>and by midnight look to hear further from me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know not what the success will be, my lord; but</LINE>
<LINE>the attempt I vow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know thou'rt valiant; and, to the possibility of</LINE>
<LINE>thy soldiership, will subscribe for thee. Farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I love not many words.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No more than a fish loves water. Is not this a</LINE>
<LINE>strange fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems</LINE>
<LINE>to undertake this business, which he knows is not to</LINE>
<LINE>be done; damns himself to do and dares better be</LINE>
<LINE>damned than to do't?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it</LINE>
<LINE>is that he will steal himself into a man's favour and</LINE>
<LINE>for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but</LINE>
<LINE>when you find him out, you have him ever after.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of</LINE>
<LINE>this that so seriously he does address himself unto?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None in the world; but return with an invention and</LINE>
<LINE>clap upon you two or three probable lies: but we</LINE>
<LINE>have almost embossed him; you shall see his fall</LINE>
<LINE>to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship's respect.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case</LINE>
<LINE>him. He was first smoked by the old lord Lafeu:</LINE>
<LINE>when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a</LINE>
<LINE>sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this</LINE>
<LINE>very night.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your brother he shall go along with me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As't please your lordship: I'll leave you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now will I lead you to the house, and show you</LINE>
<LINE>The lass I spoke of.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But you say she's honest.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's all the fault: I spoke with her but once</LINE>
<LINE>And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her,</LINE>
<LINE>By this same coxcomb that we have i' the wind,</LINE>
<LINE>Tokens and letters which she did re-send;</LINE>
<LINE>And this is all I have done. She's a fair creature:</LINE>
<LINE>Will you go see her?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>With all my heart, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE VII.  Florence. The Widow's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA and Widow</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you misdoubt me that I am not she,</LINE>
<LINE>I know not how I shall assure you further,</LINE>
<LINE>But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Though my estate be fallen, I was well born,</LINE>
<LINE>Nothing acquainted with these businesses;</LINE>
<LINE>And would not put my reputation now</LINE>
<LINE>In any staining act.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nor would I wish you.</LINE>
<LINE>First, give me trust, the count he is my husband,</LINE>
<LINE>And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken</LINE>
<LINE>Is so from word to word; and then you cannot,</LINE>
<LINE>By the good aid that I of you shall borrow,</LINE>
<LINE>Err in bestowing it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I should believe you:</LINE>
<LINE>For you have show'd me that which well approves</LINE>
<LINE>You're great in fortune.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take this purse of gold,</LINE>
<LINE>And let me buy your friendly help thus far,</LINE>
<LINE>Which I will over-pay and pay again</LINE>
<LINE>When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,</LINE>
<LINE>Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,</LINE>
<LINE>Resolved to carry her: let her in fine consent,</LINE>
<LINE>As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it.</LINE>
<LINE>Now his important blood will nought deny</LINE>
<LINE>That she'll demand: a ring the county wears,</LINE>
<LINE>That downward hath succeeded in his house</LINE>
<LINE>From son to son, some four or five descents</LINE>
<LINE>Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds</LINE>
<LINE>In most rich choice; yet in his idle fire,</LINE>
<LINE>To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,</LINE>
<LINE>Howe'er repented after.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now I see</LINE>
<LINE>The bottom of your purpose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You see it lawful, then: it is no more,</LINE>
<LINE>But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,</LINE>
<LINE>Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter;</LINE>
<LINE>In fine, delivers me to fill the time,</LINE>
<LINE>Herself most chastely absent: after this,</LINE>
<LINE>To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns</LINE>
<LINE>To what is passed already.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have yielded:</LINE>
<LINE>Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,</LINE>
<LINE>That time and place with this deceit so lawful</LINE>
<LINE>May prove coherent. Every night he comes</LINE>
<LINE>With musics of all sorts and songs composed</LINE>
<LINE>To her unworthiness: it nothing steads us</LINE>
<LINE>To chide him from our eaves; for he persists</LINE>
<LINE>As if his life lay on't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why then to-night</LINE>
<LINE>Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,</LINE>
<LINE>Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed</LINE>
<LINE>And lawful meaning in a lawful act,</LINE>
<LINE>Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:</LINE>
<LINE>But let's about it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT IV</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Without the Florentine camp.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Second French Lord, with five or six other
Soldiers in ambush</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He can come no other way but by this hedge-corner.</LINE>
<LINE>When you sally upon him, speak what terrible</LINE>
<LINE>language you will: though you understand it not</LINE>
<LINE>yourselves, no matter; for we must not seem to</LINE>
<LINE>understand him, unless some one among us whom we</LINE>
<LINE>must produce for an interpreter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good captain, let me be the interpreter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, sir, I warrant you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>E'en such as you speak to me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He must think us some band of strangers i' the</LINE>
<LINE>adversary's entertainment. Now he hath a smack of</LINE>
<LINE>all neighbouring languages; therefore we must every</LINE>
<LINE>one be a man of his own fancy, not to know what we</LINE>
<LINE>speak one to another; so we seem to know, is to</LINE>
<LINE>know straight our purpose: choughs' language,</LINE>
<LINE>gabble enough, and good enough. As for you,</LINE>
<LINE>interpreter, you must seem very politic. But couch,</LINE>
<LINE>ho! here he comes, to beguile two hours in a sleep,</LINE>
<LINE>and then to return and swear the lies he forges.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ten o'clock: within these three hours 'twill be</LINE>
<LINE>time enough to go home. What shall I say I have</LINE>
<LINE>done? It must be a very plausive invention that</LINE>
<LINE>carries it: they begin to smoke me; and disgraces</LINE>
<LINE>have of late knocked too often at my door. I find</LINE>
<LINE>my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the</LINE>
<LINE>fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not</LINE>
<LINE>daring the reports of my tongue.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue</LINE>
<LINE>was guilty of.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What the devil should move me to undertake the</LINE>
<LINE>recovery of this drum, being not ignorant of the</LINE>
<LINE>impossibility, and knowing I had no such purpose? I</LINE>
<LINE>must give myself some hurts, and say I got them in</LINE>
<LINE>exploit: yet slight ones will not carry it; they</LINE>
<LINE>will say, 'Came you off with so little?' and great</LINE>
<LINE>ones I dare not give. Wherefore, what's the</LINE>
<LINE>instance? Tongue, I must put you into a</LINE>
<LINE>butter-woman's mouth and buy myself another of</LINE>
<LINE>Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is it possible he should know what he is, and be</LINE>
<LINE>that he is?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would the cutting of my garments would serve the</LINE>
<LINE>turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We cannot afford you so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in</LINE>
<LINE>stratagem.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Twould not do.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hardly serve.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How deep?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thirty fathom.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would I had any drum of the enemy's: I would swear</LINE>
<LINE>I recovered it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You shall hear one anon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A drum now of the enemy's,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Alarum within</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>All</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Cargo, cargo, cargo, villiando par corbo, cargo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, ransom, ransom! do not hide mine eyes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>They seize and blindfold him</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Boskos thromuldo boskos.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know you are the Muskos' regiment:</LINE>
<LINE>And I shall lose my life for want of language;</LINE>
<LINE>If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch,</LINE>
<LINE>Italian, or French, let him speak to me; I'll</LINE>
<LINE>Discover that which shall undo the Florentine.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Boskos vauvado: I understand thee, and can speak</LINE>
<LINE>thy tongue. Kerely bonto, sir, betake thee to thy</LINE>
<LINE>faith, for seventeen poniards are at thy bosom.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, pray, pray, pray! Manka revania dulche.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Oscorbidulchos volivorco.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The general is content to spare thee yet;</LINE>
<LINE>And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on</LINE>
<LINE>To gather from thee: haply thou mayst inform</LINE>
<LINE>Something to save thy life.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, let me live!</LINE>
<LINE>And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,</LINE>
<LINE>Their force, their purposes; nay, I'll speak that</LINE>
<LINE>Which you will wonder at.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But wilt thou faithfully?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If I do not, damn me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Acordo linta.</LINE>
<LINE>Come on; thou art granted space.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit, with PAROLLES guarded. A short alarum within</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go, tell the Count Rousillon, and my brother,</LINE>
<LINE>We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled</LINE>
<LINE>Till we do hear from them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Captain, I will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A' will betray us all unto ourselves:</LINE>
<LINE>Inform on that.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So I will, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Till then I'll keep him dark and safely lock'd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Florence. The Widow's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM and DIANA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They told me that your name was Fontibell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my good lord, Diana.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Titled goddess;</LINE>
<LINE>And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul,</LINE>
<LINE>In your fine frame hath love no quality?</LINE>
<LINE>If quick fire of youth light not your mind,</LINE>
<LINE>You are no maiden, but a monument:</LINE>
<LINE>When you are dead, you should be such a one</LINE>
<LINE>As you are now, for you are cold and stem;</LINE>
<LINE>And now you should be as your mother was</LINE>
<LINE>When your sweet self was got.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She then was honest.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So should you be.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No:</LINE>
<LINE>My mother did but duty; such, my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>As you owe to your wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No more o' that;</LINE>
<LINE>I prithee, do not strive against my vows:</LINE>
<LINE>I was compell'd to her; but I love thee</LINE>
<LINE>By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever</LINE>
<LINE>Do thee all rights of service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, so you serve us</LINE>
<LINE>Till we serve you; but when you have our roses,</LINE>
<LINE>You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves</LINE>
<LINE>And mock us with our bareness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How have I sworn!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth,</LINE>
<LINE>But the plain single vow that is vow'd true.</LINE>
<LINE>What is not holy, that we swear not by,</LINE>
<LINE>But take the High'st to witness: then, pray you, tell me,</LINE>
<LINE>If I should swear by God's great attributes,</LINE>
<LINE>I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths,</LINE>
<LINE>When I did love you ill? This has no holding,</LINE>
<LINE>To swear by him whom I protest to love,</LINE>
<LINE>That I will work against him: therefore your oaths</LINE>
<LINE>Are words and poor conditions, but unseal'd,</LINE>
<LINE>At least in my opinion.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Change it, change it;</LINE>
<LINE>Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy;</LINE>
<LINE>And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts</LINE>
<LINE>That you do charge men with. Stand no more off,</LINE>
<LINE>But give thyself unto my sick desires,</LINE>
<LINE>Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever</LINE>
<LINE>My love as it begins shall so persever.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I see that men make ropes in such a scarre</LINE>
<LINE>That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll lend it thee, my dear; but have no power</LINE>
<LINE>To give it from me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Will you not, my lord?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is an honour 'longing to our house,</LINE>
<LINE>Bequeathed down from many ancestors;</LINE>
<LINE>Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world</LINE>
<LINE>In me to lose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mine honour's such a ring:</LINE>
<LINE>My chastity's the jewel of our house,</LINE>
<LINE>Bequeathed down from many ancestors;</LINE>
<LINE>Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world</LINE>
<LINE>In me to lose: thus your own proper wisdom</LINE>
<LINE>Brings in the champion Honour on my part,</LINE>
<LINE>Against your vain assault.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here, take my ring:</LINE>
<LINE>My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine,</LINE>
<LINE>And I'll be bid by thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window:</LINE>
<LINE>I'll order take my mother shall not hear.</LINE>
<LINE>Now will I charge you in the band of truth,</LINE>
<LINE>When you have conquer'd my yet maiden bed,</LINE>
<LINE>Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:</LINE>
<LINE>My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them</LINE>
<LINE>When back again this ring shall be deliver'd:</LINE>
<LINE>And on your finger in the night I'll put</LINE>
<LINE>Another ring, that what in time proceeds</LINE>
<LINE>May token to the future our past deeds.</LINE>
<LINE>Adieu, till then; then, fail not. You have won</LINE>
<LINE>A wife of me, though there my hope be done.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For which live long to thank both heaven and me!</LINE>
<LINE>You may so in the end.</LINE>
<LINE>My mother told me just how he would woo,</LINE>
<LINE>As if she sat in 's heart; she says all men</LINE>
<LINE>Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me</LINE>
<LINE>When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him</LINE>
<LINE>When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,</LINE>
<LINE>Marry that will, I live and die a maid:</LINE>
<LINE>Only in this disguise I think't no sin</LINE>
<LINE>To cozen him that would unjustly win.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  The Florentine camp.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter the two French Lords and some two or three Soldiers</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have not given him his mother's letter?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have delivered it an hour since: there is</LINE>
<LINE>something in't that stings his nature; for on the</LINE>
<LINE>reading it he changed almost into another man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking</LINE>
<LINE>off so good a wife and so sweet a lady.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Especially he hath incurred the everlasting</LINE>
<LINE>displeasure of the king, who had even tuned his</LINE>
<LINE>bounty to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a</LINE>
<LINE>thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the</LINE>
<LINE>grave of it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in</LINE>
<LINE>Florence, of a most chaste renown; and this night he</LINE>
<LINE>fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour: he hath</LINE>
<LINE>given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself</LINE>
<LINE>made in the unchaste composition.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, God delay our rebellion! as we are ourselves,</LINE>
<LINE>what things are we!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course</LINE>
<LINE>of all treasons, we still see them reveal</LINE>
<LINE>themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends,</LINE>
<LINE>so he that in this action contrives against his own</LINE>
<LINE>nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is it not meant damnable in us, to be trumpeters of</LINE>
<LINE>our unlawful intents? We shall not then have his</LINE>
<LINE>company to-night?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That approaches apace; I would gladly have him see</LINE>
<LINE>his company anatomized, that he might take a measure</LINE>
<LINE>of his own judgments, wherein so curiously he had</LINE>
<LINE>set this counterfeit.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We will not meddle with him till he come; for his</LINE>
<LINE>presence must be the whip of the other.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In the mean time, what hear you of these wars?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I hear there is an overture of peace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, I assure you, a peace concluded.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What will Count Rousillon do then? will he travel</LINE>
<LINE>higher, or return again into France?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I perceive, by this demand, you are not altogether</LINE>
<LINE>of his council.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let it be forbid, sir; so should I be a great deal</LINE>
<LINE>of his act.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, his wife some two months since fled from his</LINE>
<LINE>house: her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques</LINE>
<LINE>le Grand; which holy undertaking with most austere</LINE>
<LINE>sanctimony she accomplished; and, there residing the</LINE>
<LINE>tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her</LINE>
<LINE>grief; in fine, made a groan of her last breath, and</LINE>
<LINE>now she sings in heaven.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How is this justified?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The stronger part of it by her own letters, which</LINE>
<LINE>makes her story true, even to the point of her</LINE>
<LINE>death: her death itself, which could not be her</LINE>
<LINE>office to say is come, was faithfully confirmed by</LINE>
<LINE>the rector of the place.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hath the count all this intelligence?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from</LINE>
<LINE>point, so to the full arming of the verity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am heartily sorry that he'll be glad of this.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our losses!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And how mightily some other times we drown our gain</LINE>
<LINE>in tears! The great dignity that his valour hath</LINE>
<LINE>here acquired for him shall at home be encountered</LINE>
<LINE>with a shame as ample.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and</LINE>
<LINE>ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our</LINE>
<LINE>faults whipped them not; and our crimes would</LINE>
<LINE>despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter a Messenger</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now! where's your master?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Servant</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He met the duke in the street, sir, of whom he hath</LINE>
<LINE>taken a solemn leave: his lordship will next</LINE>
<LINE>morning for France. The duke hath offered him</LINE>
<LINE>letters of commendations to the king.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They shall be no more than needful there, if they</LINE>
<LINE>were more than they can commend.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They cannot be too sweet for the king's tartness.</LINE>
<LINE>Here's his lordship now.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now, my lord! is't not after midnight?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have to-night dispatched sixteen businesses, a</LINE>
<LINE>month's length a-piece, by an abstract of success:</LINE>
<LINE>I have congied with the duke, done my adieu with his</LINE>
<LINE>nearest; buried a wife, mourned for her; writ to my</LINE>
<LINE>lady mother I am returning; entertained my convoy;</LINE>
<LINE>and between these main parcels of dispatch effected</LINE>
<LINE>many nicer needs; the last was the greatest, but</LINE>
<LINE>that I have not ended yet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If the business be of any difficulty, and this</LINE>
<LINE>morning your departure hence, it requires haste of</LINE>
<LINE>your lordship.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I mean, the business is not ended, as fearing to</LINE>
<LINE>hear of it hereafter. But shall we have this</LINE>
<LINE>dialogue between the fool and the soldier? Come,</LINE>
<LINE>bring forth this counterfeit module, he has deceived</LINE>
<LINE>me, like a double-meaning prophesier.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bring him forth: has sat i' the stocks all night,</LINE>
<LINE>poor gallant knave.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No matter: his heels have deserved it, in usurping</LINE>
<LINE>his spurs so long. How does he carry himself?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have told your lordship already, the stocks carry</LINE>
<LINE>him. But to answer you as you would be understood;</LINE>
<LINE>he weeps like a wench that had shed her milk: he</LINE>
<LINE>hath confessed himself to Morgan, whom he supposes</LINE>
<LINE>to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance to</LINE>
<LINE>this very instant disaster of his setting i' the</LINE>
<LINE>stocks: and what think you he hath confessed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nothing of me, has a'?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his</LINE>
<LINE>face: if your lordship be in't, as I believe you</LINE>
<LINE>are, you must have the patience to hear it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES guarded, and First Soldier</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A plague upon him! muffled! he can say nothing of</LINE>
<LINE>me: hush, hush!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hoodman comes! Portotartarosa</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He calls for the tortures: what will you say</LINE>
<LINE>without 'em?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will confess what I know without constraint: if</LINE>
<LINE>ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bosko chimurcho.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Boblibindo chicurmurco.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are a merciful general. Our general bids you</LINE>
<LINE>answer to what I shall ask you out of a note.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And truly, as I hope to live.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  'First demand of him how many horse the</LINE>
<LINE>duke is strong.' What say you to that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Five or six thousand; but very weak and</LINE>
<LINE>unserviceable: the troops are all scattered, and</LINE>
<LINE>the commanders very poor rogues, upon my reputation</LINE>
<LINE>and credit and as I hope to live.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Shall I set down your answer so?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do: I'll take the sacrament on't, how and which way you will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All's one to him. What a past-saving slave is this!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You're deceived, my lord: this is Monsieur</LINE>
<LINE>Parolles, the gallant militarist,--that was his own</LINE>
<LINE>phrase,--that had the whole theoric of war in the</LINE>
<LINE>knot of his scarf, and the practise in the chape of</LINE>
<LINE>his dagger.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword</LINE>
<LINE>clean. nor believe he can have every thing in him</LINE>
<LINE>by wearing his apparel neatly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, that's set down.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Five or six thousand horse, I said,-- I will say</LINE>
<LINE>true,--or thereabouts, set down, for I'll speak truth.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's very near the truth in this.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But I con him no thanks for't, in the nature he</LINE>
<LINE>delivers it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Poor rogues, I pray you, say.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, that's set down.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth, the</LINE>
<LINE>rogues are marvellous poor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  'Demand of him, of what strength they are</LINE>
<LINE>a-foot.' What say you to that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By my troth, sir, if I were to live this present</LINE>
<LINE>hour, I will tell true. Let me see: Spurio, a</LINE>
<LINE>hundred and fifty; Sebastian, so many; Corambus, so</LINE>
<LINE>many; Jaques, so many; Guiltian, Cosmo, Lodowick,</LINE>
<LINE>and Gratii, two hundred and fifty each; mine own</LINE>
<LINE>company, Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred and</LINE>
<LINE>fifty each: so that the muster-file, rotten and</LINE>
<LINE>sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand</LINE>
<LINE>poll; half of the which dare not shake snow from off</LINE>
<LINE>their cassocks, lest they shake themselves to pieces.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What shall be done to him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nothing, but let him have thanks. Demand of him my</LINE>
<LINE>condition, and what credit I have with the duke.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, that's set down.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>'You shall demand of him, whether one Captain Dumain</LINE>
<LINE>be i' the camp, a Frenchman; what his reputation is</LINE>
<LINE>with the duke; what his valour, honesty, and</LINE>
<LINE>expertness in wars; or whether he thinks it were not</LINE>
<LINE>possible, with well-weighing sums of gold, to</LINE>
<LINE>corrupt him to revolt.' What say you to this? what</LINE>
<LINE>do you know of it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of</LINE>
<LINE>the inter'gatories: demand them singly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you know this Captain Dumain?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know him: a' was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris,</LINE>
<LINE>from whence he was whipped for getting the shrieve's</LINE>
<LINE>fool with child,--a dumb innocent, that could not</LINE>
<LINE>say him nay.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, by your leave, hold your hands; though I know</LINE>
<LINE>his brains are forfeit to the next tile that falls.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, is this captain in the duke of Florence's camp?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay look not so upon me; we shall hear of your</LINE>
<LINE>lordship anon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is his reputation with the duke?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The duke knows him for no other but a poor officer</LINE>
<LINE>of mine; and writ to me this other day to turn him</LINE>
<LINE>out o' the band: I think I have his letter in my pocket.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, we'll search.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there,</LINE>
<LINE>or it is upon a file with the duke's other letters</LINE>
<LINE>in my tent.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here 'tis; here's a paper: shall I read it to you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do not know if it be it or no.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Our interpreter does it well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Excellently.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  'Dian, the count's a fool, and full of gold,'--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That is not the duke's letter, sir; that is an</LINE>
<LINE>advertisement to a proper maid in Florence, one</LINE>
<LINE>Diana, to take heed of the allurement of one Count</LINE>
<LINE>Rousillon, a foolish idle boy, but for all that very</LINE>
<LINE>ruttish: I pray you, sir, put it up again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, I'll read it first, by your favour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My meaning in't, I protest, was very honest in the</LINE>
<LINE>behalf of the maid; for I knew the young count to be</LINE>
<LINE>a dangerous and lascivious boy, who is a whale to</LINE>
<LINE>virginity and devours up all the fry it finds.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Damnable both-sides rogue!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  'When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it;</LINE>
<LINE>After he scores, he never pays the score:</LINE>
<LINE>Half won is match well made; match, and well make it;</LINE>
<LINE>He ne'er pays after-debts, take it before;</LINE>
<LINE>And say a soldier, Dian, told thee this,</LINE>
<LINE>Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss:</LINE>
<LINE>For count of this, the count's a fool, I know it,</LINE>
<LINE>Who pays before, but not when he does owe it.</LINE>
<LINE>Thine, as he vowed to thee in thine ear,</LINE>
<LINE>PAROLLES.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He shall be whipped through the army with this rhyme</LINE>
<LINE>in's forehead.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold</LINE>
<LINE>linguist and the armipotent soldier.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I could endure any thing before but a cat, and now</LINE>
<LINE>he's a cat to me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I perceive, sir, by the general's looks, we shall be</LINE>
<LINE>fain to hang you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid to</LINE>
<LINE>die; but that, my offences being many, I would</LINE>
<LINE>repent out the remainder of nature: let me live,</LINE>
<LINE>sir, in a dungeon, i' the stocks, or any where, so I may live.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We'll see what may be done, so you confess freely;</LINE>
<LINE>therefore, once more to this Captain Dumain: you</LINE>
<LINE>have answered to his reputation with the duke and to</LINE>
<LINE>his valour: what is his honesty?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister: for</LINE>
<LINE>rapes and ravishments he parallels Nessus: he</LINE>
<LINE>professes not keeping of oaths; in breaking 'em he</LINE>
<LINE>is stronger than Hercules: he will lie, sir, with</LINE>
<LINE>such volubility, that you would think truth were a</LINE>
<LINE>fool: drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will</LINE>
<LINE>be swine-drunk; and in his sleep he does little</LINE>
<LINE>harm, save to his bed-clothes about him; but they</LINE>
<LINE>know his conditions and lay him in straw. I have but</LINE>
<LINE>little more to say, sir, of his honesty: he has</LINE>
<LINE>every thing that an honest man should not have; what</LINE>
<LINE>an honest man should have, he has nothing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I begin to love him for this.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For this description of thine honesty? A pox upon</LINE>
<LINE>him for me, he's more and more a cat.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What say you to his expertness in war?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English</LINE>
<LINE>tragedians; to belie him, I will not, and more of</LINE>
<LINE>his soldiership I know not; except, in that country</LINE>
<LINE>he had the honour to be the officer at a place there</LINE>
<LINE>called Mile-end, to instruct for the doubling of</LINE>
<LINE>files: I would do the man what honour I can, but of</LINE>
<LINE>this I am not certain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath out-villained villany so far, that the</LINE>
<LINE>rarity redeems him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A pox on him, he's a cat still.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His qualities being at this poor price, I need not</LINE>
<LINE>to ask you if gold will corrupt him to revolt.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, for a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple</LINE>
<LINE>of his salvation, the inheritance of it; and cut the</LINE>
<LINE>entail from all remainders, and a perpetual</LINE>
<LINE>succession for it perpetually.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's his brother, the other Captain Dumain?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why does be ask him of me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>E'en a crow o' the same nest; not altogether so</LINE>
<LINE>great as the first in goodness, but greater a great</LINE>
<LINE>deal in evil: he excels his brother for a coward,</LINE>
<LINE>yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is:</LINE>
<LINE>in a retreat he outruns any lackey; marry, in coming</LINE>
<LINE>on he has the cramp.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If your life be saved, will you undertake to betray</LINE>
<LINE>the Florentine?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, and the captain of his horse, Count Rousillon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>  I'll no more drumming; a plague of all</LINE>
<LINE>drums! Only to seem to deserve well, and to</LINE>
<LINE>beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy</LINE>
<LINE>the count, have I run into this danger. Yet who</LINE>
<LINE>would have suspected an ambush where I was taken?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There is no remedy, sir, but you must die: the</LINE>
<LINE>general says, you that have so traitorously</LINE>
<LINE>discovered the secrets of your army and made such</LINE>
<LINE>pestiferous reports of men very nobly held, can</LINE>
<LINE>serve the world for no honest use; therefore you</LINE>
<LINE>must die. Come, headsman, off with his head.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O Lord, sir, let me live, or let me see my death!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That shall you, and take your leave of all your friends.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Unblinding him</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>So, look about you: know you any here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good morrow, noble captain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>God bless you, Captain Parolles.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>God save you, noble captain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Captain, what greeting will you to my Lord Lafeu?</LINE>
<LINE>I am for France.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Lord</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good captain, will you give me a copy of the sonnet</LINE>
<LINE>you writ to Diana in behalf of the Count Rousillon?</LINE>
<LINE>an I were not a very coward, I'ld compel it of you:</LINE>
<LINE>but fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt BERTRAM and Lords</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are undone, captain, all but your scarf; that</LINE>
<LINE>has a knot on't yet</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who cannot be crushed with a plot?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Soldier</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you could find out a country where but women were</LINE>
<LINE>that had received so much shame, you might begin an</LINE>
<LINE>impudent nation. Fare ye well, sir; I am for France</LINE>
<LINE>too: we shall speak of you there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit with Soldiers</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,</LINE>
<LINE>'Twould burst at this. Captain I'll be no more;</LINE>
<LINE>But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft</LINE>
<LINE>As captain shall: simply the thing I am</LINE>
<LINE>Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,</LINE>
<LINE>Let him fear this, for it will come to pass</LINE>
<LINE>that every braggart shall be found an ass.</LINE>
<LINE>Rust, sword? cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live</LINE>
<LINE>Safest in shame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive!</LINE>
<LINE>There's place and means for every man alive.</LINE>
<LINE>I'll after them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  Florence. The Widow's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA, Widow, and DIANA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you,</LINE>
<LINE>One of the greatest in the Christian world</LINE>
<LINE>Shall be my surety; 'fore whose throne 'tis needful,</LINE>
<LINE>Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel:</LINE>
<LINE>Time was, I did him a desired office,</LINE>
<LINE>Dear almost as his life; which gratitude</LINE>
<LINE>Through flinty Tartar's bosom would peep forth,</LINE>
<LINE>And answer, thanks: I duly am inform'd</LINE>
<LINE>His grace is at Marseilles; to which place</LINE>
<LINE>We have convenient convoy. You must know</LINE>
<LINE>I am supposed dead: the army breaking,</LINE>
<LINE>My husband hies him home; where, heaven aiding,</LINE>
<LINE>And by the leave of my good lord the king,</LINE>
<LINE>We'll be before our welcome.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gentle madam,</LINE>
<LINE>You never had a servant to whose trust</LINE>
<LINE>Your business was more welcome.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nor you, mistress,</LINE>
<LINE>Ever a friend whose thoughts more truly labour</LINE>
<LINE>To recompense your love: doubt not but heaven</LINE>
<LINE>Hath brought me up to be your daughter's dower,</LINE>
<LINE>As it hath fated her to be my motive</LINE>
<LINE>And helper to a husband. But, O strange men!</LINE>
<LINE>That can such sweet use make of what they hate,</LINE>
<LINE>When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts</LINE>
<LINE>Defiles the pitchy night: so lust doth play</LINE>
<LINE>With what it loathes for that which is away.</LINE>
<LINE>But more of this hereafter. You, Diana,</LINE>
<LINE>Under my poor instructions yet must suffer</LINE>
<LINE>Something in my behalf.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let death and honesty</LINE>
<LINE>Go with your impositions, I am yours</LINE>
<LINE>Upon your will to suffer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yet, I pray you:</LINE>
<LINE>But with the word the time will bring on summer,</LINE>
<LINE>When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns,</LINE>
<LINE>And be as sweet as sharp. We must away;</LINE>
<LINE>Our wagon is prepared, and time revives us:</LINE>
<LINE>All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown;</LINE>
<LINE>Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE V.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter COUNTESS, LAFEU, and Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, no, no, your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta</LINE>
<LINE>fellow there, whose villanous saffron would have</LINE>
<LINE>made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in</LINE>
<LINE>his colour: your daughter-in-law had been alive at</LINE>
<LINE>this hour, and your son here at home, more advanced</LINE>
<LINE>by the king than by that red-tailed humble-bee I speak of.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would I had not known him; it was the death of the</LINE>
<LINE>most virtuous gentlewoman that ever nature had</LINE>
<LINE>praise for creating. If she had partaken of my</LINE>
<LINE>flesh, and cost me the dearest groans of a mother, I</LINE>
<LINE>could not have owed her a more rooted love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady: we may pick a</LINE>
<LINE>thousand salads ere we light on such another herb.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the</LINE>
<LINE>salad, or rather, the herb of grace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They are not herbs, you knave; they are nose-herbs.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir; I have not much</LINE>
<LINE>skill in grass.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Whether dost thou profess thyself, a knave or a fool?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A fool, sir, at a woman's service, and a knave at a man's.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your distinction?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would cozen the man of his wife and do his service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So you were a knave at his service, indeed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And I would give his wife my bauble, sir, to do her service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will subscribe for thee, thou art both knave and fool.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>At your service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, no, no.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, sir, if I cannot serve you, I can serve as</LINE>
<LINE>great a prince as you are.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who's that? a Frenchman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, sir, a' has an English name; but his fisnomy</LINE>
<LINE>is more hotter in France than there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What prince is that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The black prince, sir; alias, the prince of</LINE>
<LINE>darkness; alias, the devil.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hold thee, there's my purse: I give thee not this</LINE>
<LINE>to suggest thee from thy master thou talkest of;</LINE>
<LINE>serve him still.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am a woodland fellow, sir, that always loved a</LINE>
<LINE>great fire; and the master I speak of ever keeps a</LINE>
<LINE>good fire. But, sure, he is the prince of the</LINE>
<LINE>world; let his nobility remain in's court. I am for</LINE>
<LINE>the house with the narrow gate, which I take to be</LINE>
<LINE>too little for pomp to enter: some that humble</LINE>
<LINE>themselves may; but the many will be too chill and</LINE>
<LINE>tender, and they'll be for the flowery way that</LINE>
<LINE>leads to the broad gate and the great fire.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go thy ways, I begin to be aweary of thee; and I</LINE>
<LINE>tell thee so before, because I would not fall out</LINE>
<LINE>with thee. Go thy ways: let my horses be well</LINE>
<LINE>looked to, without any tricks.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If I put any tricks upon 'em, sir, they shall be</LINE>
<LINE>jades' tricks; which are their own right by the law of nature.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A shrewd knave and an unhappy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So he is. My lord that's gone made himself much</LINE>
<LINE>sport out of him: by his authority he remains here,</LINE>
<LINE>which he thinks is a patent for his sauciness; and,</LINE>
<LINE>indeed, he has no pace, but runs where he will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I like him well; 'tis not amiss. And I was about to</LINE>
<LINE>tell you, since I heard of the good lady's death and</LINE>
<LINE>that my lord your son was upon his return home, I</LINE>
<LINE>moved the king my master to speak in the behalf of</LINE>
<LINE>my daughter; which, in the minority of them both,</LINE>
<LINE>his majesty, out of a self-gracious remembrance, did</LINE>
<LINE>first propose: his highness hath promised me to do</LINE>
<LINE>it: and, to stop up the displeasure he hath</LINE>
<LINE>conceived against your son, there is no fitter</LINE>
<LINE>matter. How does your ladyship like it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>With very much content, my lord; and I wish it</LINE>
<LINE>happily effected.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His highness comes post from Marseilles, of as able</LINE>
<LINE>body as when he numbered thirty: he will be here</LINE>
<LINE>to-morrow, or I am deceived by him that in such</LINE>
<LINE>intelligence hath seldom failed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It rejoices me, that I hope I shall see him ere I</LINE>
<LINE>die. I have letters that my son will be here</LINE>
<LINE>to-night: I shall beseech your lordship to remain</LINE>
<LINE>with me till they meet together.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Madam, I was thinking with what manners I might</LINE>
<LINE>safely be admitted.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You need but plead your honourable privilege.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lady, of that I have made a bold charter; but I</LINE>
<LINE>thank my God it holds yet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Clown</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O madam, yonder's my lord your son with a patch of</LINE>
<LINE>velvet on's face: whether there be a scar under't</LINE>
<LINE>or no, the velvet knows; but 'tis a goodly patch of</LINE>
<LINE>velvet: his left cheek is a cheek of two pile and a</LINE>
<LINE>half, but his right cheek is worn bare.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery</LINE>
<LINE>of honour; so belike is that.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But it is your carbonadoed face.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let us go see your son, I pray you: I long to talk</LINE>
<LINE>with the young noble soldier.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith there's a dozen of 'em, with delicate fine</LINE>
<LINE>hats and most courteous feathers, which bow the head</LINE>
<LINE>and nod at every man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT V</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Marseilles. A street.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA, Widow, and DIANA, with two
Attendants</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But this exceeding posting day and night</LINE>
<LINE>Must wear your spirits low; we cannot help it:</LINE>
<LINE>But since you have made the days and nights as one,</LINE>
<LINE>To wear your gentle limbs in my affairs,</LINE>
<LINE>Be bold you do so grow in my requital</LINE>
<LINE>As nothing can unroot you. In happy time;</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter a Gentleman</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>This man may help me to his majesty's ear,</LINE>
<LINE>If he would spend his power. God save you, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I have seen you in the court of France.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have been sometimes there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do presume, sir, that you are not fallen</LINE>
<LINE>From the report that goes upon your goodness;</LINE>
<LINE>An therefore, goaded with most sharp occasions,</LINE>
<LINE>Which lay nice manners by, I put you to</LINE>
<LINE>The use of your own virtues, for the which</LINE>
<LINE>I shall continue thankful.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's your will?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That it will please you</LINE>
<LINE>To give this poor petition to the king,</LINE>
<LINE>And aid me with that store of power you have</LINE>
<LINE>To come into his presence.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The king's not here.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not here, sir!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not, indeed:</LINE>
<LINE>He hence removed last night and with more haste</LINE>
<LINE>Than is his use.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lord, how we lose our pains!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All's well that ends well yet,</LINE>
<LINE>Though time seem so adverse and means unfit.</LINE>
<LINE>I do beseech you, whither is he gone?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, as I take it, to Rousillon;</LINE>
<LINE>Whither I am going.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This I'll do for you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd,</LINE>
<LINE>Whate'er falls more. We must to horse again.</LINE>
<LINE>Go, go, provide.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Rousillon. Before the COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Clown, and PAROLLES, following</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good Monsieur Lavache, give my Lord Lafeu this</LINE>
<LINE>letter: I have ere now, sir, been better known to</LINE>
<LINE>you, when I have held familiarity with fresher</LINE>
<LINE>clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's</LINE>
<LINE>mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong</LINE>
<LINE>displeasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, fortune's displeasure is but sluttish, if it</LINE>
<LINE>smell so strongly as thou speakest of: I will</LINE>
<LINE>henceforth eat no fish of fortune's buttering.</LINE>
<LINE>Prithee, allow the wind.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I spake</LINE>
<LINE>but by a metaphor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my</LINE>
<LINE>nose; or against any man's metaphor. Prithee, get</LINE>
<LINE>thee further.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Clown</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Foh! prithee, stand away: a paper from fortune's</LINE>
<LINE>close-stool to give to a nobleman! Look, here he</LINE>
<LINE>comes himself.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter LAFEU</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Here is a purr of fortune's, sir, or of fortune's</LINE>
<LINE>cat,--but not a musk-cat,--that has fallen into the</LINE>
<LINE>unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he</LINE>
<LINE>says, is muddied withal: pray you, sir, use the</LINE>
<LINE>carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed,</LINE>
<LINE>ingenious, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his</LINE>
<LINE>distress in my similes of comfort and leave him to</LINE>
<LINE>your lordship.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly</LINE>
<LINE>scratched.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And what would you have me to do? 'Tis too late to</LINE>
<LINE>pare her nails now. Wherein have you played the</LINE>
<LINE>knave with fortune, that she should scratch you, who</LINE>
<LINE>of herself is a good lady and would not have knaves</LINE>
<LINE>thrive long under her? There's a quart d'ecu for</LINE>
<LINE>you: let the justices make you and fortune friends:</LINE>
<LINE>I am for other business.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech your honour to hear me one single word.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You beg a single penny more: come, you shall ha't;</LINE>
<LINE>save your word.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My name, my good lord, is Parolles.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You beg more than 'word,' then. Cox my passion!</LINE>
<LINE>give me your hand. How does your drum?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my good lord, you were the first that found me!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Was I, in sooth? and I was the first that lost thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace,</LINE>
<LINE>for you did bring me out.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Out upon thee, knave! dost thou put upon me at once</LINE>
<LINE>both the office of God and the devil? One brings</LINE>
<LINE>thee in grace and the other brings thee out.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Trumpets sound</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>The king's coming; I know by his trumpets. Sirrah,</LINE>
<LINE>inquire further after me; I had talk of you last</LINE>
<LINE>night: though you are a fool and a knave, you shall</LINE>
<LINE>eat; go to, follow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I praise God for you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish. Enter KING, COUNTESS, LAFEU, the two
French Lords, with Attendants</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem</LINE>
<LINE>Was made much poorer by it: but your son,</LINE>
<LINE>As mad in folly, lack'd the sense to know</LINE>
<LINE>Her estimation home.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis past, my liege;</LINE>
<LINE>And I beseech your majesty to make it</LINE>
<LINE>Natural rebellion, done i' the blaze of youth;</LINE>
<LINE>When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force,</LINE>
<LINE>O'erbears it and burns on.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My honour'd lady,</LINE>
<LINE>I have forgiven and forgotten all;</LINE>
<LINE>Though my revenges were high bent upon him,</LINE>
<LINE>And watch'd the time to shoot.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This I must say,</LINE>
<LINE>But first I beg my pardon, the young lord</LINE>
<LINE>Did to his majesty, his mother and his lady</LINE>
<LINE>Offence of mighty note; but to himself</LINE>
<LINE>The greatest wrong of all. He lost a wife</LINE>
<LINE>Whose beauty did astonish the survey</LINE>
<LINE>Of richest eyes, whose words all ears took captive,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn'd to serve</LINE>
<LINE>Humbly call'd mistress.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Praising what is lost</LINE>
<LINE>Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;</LINE>
<LINE>We are reconciled, and the first view shall kill</LINE>
<LINE>All repetition: let him not ask our pardon;</LINE>
<LINE>The nature of his great offence is dead,</LINE>
<LINE>And deeper than oblivion we do bury</LINE>
<LINE>The incensing relics of it: let him approach,</LINE>
<LINE>A stranger, no offender; and inform him</LINE>
<LINE>So 'tis our will he should.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall, my liege.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What says he to your daughter? have you spoke?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All that he is hath reference to your highness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent me</LINE>
<LINE>That set him high in fame.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He looks well on't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am not a day of season,</LINE>
<LINE>For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail</LINE>
<LINE>In me at once: but to the brightest beams</LINE>
<LINE>Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth;</LINE>
<LINE>The time is fair again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My high-repented blames,</LINE>
<LINE>Dear sovereign, pardon to me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All is whole;</LINE>
<LINE>Not one word more of the consumed time.</LINE>
<LINE>Let's take the instant by the forward top;</LINE>
<LINE>For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees</LINE>
<LINE>The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time</LINE>
<LINE>Steals ere we can effect them. You remember</LINE>
<LINE>The daughter of this lord?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Admiringly, my liege, at first</LINE>
<LINE>I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart</LINE>
<LINE>Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue</LINE>
<LINE>Where the impression of mine eye infixing,</LINE>
<LINE>Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,</LINE>
<LINE>Which warp'd the line of every other favour;</LINE>
<LINE>Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stolen;</LINE>
<LINE>Extended or contracted all proportions</LINE>
<LINE>To a most hideous object: thence it came</LINE>
<LINE>That she whom all men praised and whom myself,</LINE>
<LINE>Since I have lost, have loved, was in mine eye</LINE>
<LINE>The dust that did offend it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well excused:</LINE>
<LINE>That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away</LINE>
<LINE>From the great compt: but love that comes too late,</LINE>
<LINE>Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,</LINE>
<LINE>To the great sender turns a sour offence,</LINE>
<LINE>Crying, 'That's good that's gone.' Our rash faults</LINE>
<LINE>Make trivial price of serious things we have,</LINE>
<LINE>Not knowing them until we know their grave:</LINE>
<LINE>Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,</LINE>
<LINE>Destroy our friends and after weep their dust</LINE>
<LINE>Our own love waking cries to see what's done,</LINE>
<LINE>While shame full late sleeps out the afternoon.</LINE>
<LINE>Be this sweet Helen's knell, and now forget her.</LINE>
<LINE>Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin:</LINE>
<LINE>The main consents are had; and here we'll stay</LINE>
<LINE>To see our widower's second marriage-day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which better than the first, O dear heaven, bless!</LINE>
<LINE>Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cesse!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come on, my son, in whom my house's name</LINE>
<LINE>Must be digested, give a favour from you</LINE>
<LINE>To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,</LINE>
<LINE>That she may quickly come.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>BERTRAM gives a ring</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>By my old beard,</LINE>
<LINE>And every hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead,</LINE>
<LINE>Was a sweet creature: such a ring as this,</LINE>
<LINE>The last that e'er I took her at court,</LINE>
<LINE>I saw upon her finger.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hers it was not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye,</LINE>
<LINE>While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't.</LINE>
<LINE>This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen,</LINE>
<LINE>I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood</LINE>
<LINE>Necessitied to help, that by this token</LINE>
<LINE>I would relieve her. Had you that craft, to reave</LINE>
<LINE>her</LINE>
<LINE>Of what should stead her most?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My gracious sovereign,</LINE>
<LINE>Howe'er it pleases you to take it so,</LINE>
<LINE>The ring was never hers.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Son, on my life,</LINE>
<LINE>I have seen her wear it; and she reckon'd it</LINE>
<LINE>At her life's rate.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am sure I saw her wear it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are deceived, my lord; she never saw it:</LINE>
<LINE>In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,</LINE>
<LINE>Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain'd the name</LINE>
<LINE>Of her that threw it: noble she was, and thought</LINE>
<LINE>I stood engaged: but when I had subscribed</LINE>
<LINE>To mine own fortune and inform'd her fully</LINE>
<LINE>I could not answer in that course of honour</LINE>
<LINE>As she had made the overture, she ceased</LINE>
<LINE>In heavy satisfaction and would never</LINE>
<LINE>Receive the ring again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Plutus himself,</LINE>
<LINE>That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath not in nature's mystery more science</LINE>
<LINE>Than I have in this ring: 'twas mine, 'twas Helen's,</LINE>
<LINE>Whoever gave it you. Then, if you know</LINE>
<LINE>That you are well acquainted with yourself,</LINE>
<LINE>Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough enforcement</LINE>
<LINE>You got it from her: she call'd the saints to surety</LINE>
<LINE>That she would never put it from her finger,</LINE>
<LINE>Unless she gave it to yourself in bed,</LINE>
<LINE>Where you have never come, or sent it us</LINE>
<LINE>Upon her great disaster.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She never saw it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour;</LINE>
<LINE>And makest conjectural fears to come into me</LINE>
<LINE>Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove</LINE>
<LINE>That thou art so inhuman,--'twill not prove so;--</LINE>
<LINE>And yet I know not: thou didst hate her deadly,</LINE>
<LINE>And she is dead; which nothing, but to close</LINE>
<LINE>Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,</LINE>
<LINE>More than to see this ring. Take him away.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Guards seize BERTRAM</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,</LINE>
<LINE>Shall tax my fears of little vanity,</LINE>
<LINE>Having vainly fear'd too little. Away with him!</LINE>
<LINE>We'll sift this matter further.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you shall prove</LINE>
<LINE>This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy</LINE>
<LINE>Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence,</LINE>
<LINE>Where yet she never was.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit, guarded</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter a Gentleman</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gracious sovereign,</LINE>
<LINE>Whether I have been to blame or no, I know not:</LINE>
<LINE>Here's a petition from a Florentine,</LINE>
<LINE>Who hath for four or five removes come short</LINE>
<LINE>To tender it herself. I undertook it,</LINE>
<LINE>Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech</LINE>
<LINE>Of the poor suppliant, who by this I know</LINE>
<LINE>Is here attending: her business looks in her</LINE>
<LINE>With an importing visage; and she told me,</LINE>
<LINE>In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern</LINE>
<LINE>Your highness with herself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR>  Upon his many protestations to marry me</LINE>
<LINE>when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won</LINE>
<LINE>me. Now is the Count Rousillon a widower: his vows</LINE>
<LINE>are forfeited to me, and my honour's paid to him. He</LINE>
<LINE>stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow</LINE>
<LINE>him to his country for justice: grant it me, O</LINE>
<LINE>king! in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer</LINE>
<LINE>flourishes, and a poor maid is undone.</LINE>
<LINE>DIANA CAPILET.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for</LINE>
<LINE>this: I'll none of him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The heavens have thought well on thee Lafeu,</LINE>
<LINE>To bring forth this discovery. Seek these suitors:</LINE>
<LINE>Go speedily and bring again the count.</LINE>
<LINE>I am afeard the life of Helen, lady,</LINE>
<LINE>Was foully snatch'd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, justice on the doers!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter BERTRAM, guarded</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I wonder, sir, sith wives are monsters to you,</LINE>
<LINE>And that you fly them as you swear them lordship,</LINE>
<LINE>Yet you desire to marry.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Widow and DIANA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>What woman's that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine,</LINE>
<LINE>Derived from the ancient Capilet:</LINE>
<LINE>My suit, as I do understand, you know,</LINE>
<LINE>And therefore know how far I may be pitied.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Widow</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am her mother, sir, whose age and honour</LINE>
<LINE>Both suffer under this complaint we bring,</LINE>
<LINE>And both shall cease, without your remedy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come hither, count; do you know these women?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I neither can nor will deny</LINE>
<LINE>But that I know them: do they charge me further?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why do you look so strange upon your wife?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She's none of mine, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you shall marry,</LINE>
<LINE>You give away this hand, and that is mine;</LINE>
<LINE>You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine;</LINE>
<LINE>You give away myself, which is known mine;</LINE>
<LINE>For I by vow am so embodied yours,</LINE>
<LINE>That she which marries you must marry me,</LINE>
<LINE>Either both or none.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your reputation comes too short for my daughter; you</LINE>
<LINE>are no husband for her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend</LINE>
<LINE>Till your deeds gain them: fairer prove your honour</LINE>
<LINE>Than in my thought it lies.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Ask him upon his oath, if he does think</LINE>
<LINE>He had not my virginity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What say'st thou to her?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She's impudent, my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>And was a common gamester to the camp.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so,</LINE>
<LINE>He might have bought me at a common price:</LINE>
<LINE>Do not believe him. O, behold this ring,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose high respect and rich validity</LINE>
<LINE>Did lack a parallel; yet for all that</LINE>
<LINE>He gave it to a commoner o' the camp,</LINE>
<LINE>If I be one.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>COUNTESS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He blushes, and 'tis it:</LINE>
<LINE>Of six preceding ancestors, that gem,</LINE>
<LINE>Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath it been owed and worn. This is his wife;</LINE>
<LINE>That ring's a thousand proofs.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Methought you said</LINE>
<LINE>You saw one here in court could witness it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I did, my lord, but loath am to produce</LINE>
<LINE>So bad an instrument: his name's Parolles.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I saw the man to-day, if man he be.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Find him, and bring him hither.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit an Attendant</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What of him?</LINE>
<LINE>He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,</LINE>
<LINE>With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd;</LINE>
<LINE>Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth.</LINE>
<LINE>Am I or that or this for what he'll utter,</LINE>
<LINE>That will speak any thing?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She hath that ring of yours.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think she has: certain it is I liked her,</LINE>
<LINE>And boarded her i' the wanton way of youth:</LINE>
<LINE>She knew her distance and did angle for me,</LINE>
<LINE>Madding my eagerness with her restraint,</LINE>
<LINE>As all impediments in fancy's course</LINE>
<LINE>Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine,</LINE>
<LINE>Her infinite cunning, with her modern grace,</LINE>
<LINE>Subdued me to her rate: she got the ring;</LINE>
<LINE>And I had that which any inferior might</LINE>
<LINE>At market-price have bought.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I must be patient:</LINE>
<LINE>You, that have turn'd off a first so noble wife,</LINE>
<LINE>May justly diet me. I pray you yet;</LINE>
<LINE>Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband;</LINE>
<LINE>Send for your ring, I will return it home,</LINE>
<LINE>And give me mine again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have it not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What ring was yours, I pray you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, much like</LINE>
<LINE>The same upon your finger.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Know you this ring? this ring was his of late.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And this was it I gave him, being abed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The story then goes false, you threw it him</LINE>
<LINE>Out of a casement.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have spoke the truth.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I do confess the ring was hers.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You boggle shrewdly, every feather stars you.</LINE>
<LINE>Is this the man you speak of?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tell me, sirrah, but tell me true, I charge you,</LINE>
<LINE>Not fearing the displeasure of your master,</LINE>
<LINE>Which on your just proceeding I'll keep off,</LINE>
<LINE>By him and by this woman here what know you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So please your majesty, my master hath been an</LINE>
<LINE>honourable gentleman: tricks he hath had in him,</LINE>
<LINE>which gentlemen have.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, come, to the purpose: did he love this woman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, sir, he did love her; but how?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How, I pray you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How is that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He loved her, sir, and loved her not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As thou art a knave, and no knave. What an</LINE>
<LINE>equivocal companion is this!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am a poor man, and at your majesty's command.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty orator.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you know he promised me marriage?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, I know more than I'll speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But wilt thou not speak all thou knowest?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PAROLLES</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, so please your majesty. I did go between them,</LINE>
<LINE>as I said; but more than that, he loved her: for</LINE>
<LINE>indeed he was mad for her, and talked of Satan and</LINE>
<LINE>of Limbo and of Furies and I know not what: yet I</LINE>
<LINE>was in that credit with them at that time that I</LINE>
<LINE>knew of their going to bed, and of other motions,</LINE>
<LINE>as promising her marriage, and things which would</LINE>
<LINE>derive me ill will to speak of; therefore I will not</LINE>
<LINE>speak what I know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say</LINE>
<LINE>they are married: but thou art too fine in thy</LINE>
<LINE>evidence; therefore stand aside.</LINE>
<LINE>This ring, you say, was yours?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, my good lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Where did you buy it? or who gave it you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It was not given me, nor I did not buy it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who lent it you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It was not lent me neither.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Where did you find it, then?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I found it not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If it were yours by none of all these ways,</LINE>
<LINE>How could you give it him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I never gave it him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This woman's an easy glove, my lord; she goes off</LINE>
<LINE>and on at pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This ring was mine; I gave it his first wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It might be yours or hers, for aught I know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take her away; I do not like her now;</LINE>
<LINE>To prison with her: and away with him.</LINE>
<LINE>Unless thou tell'st me where thou hadst this ring,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou diest within this hour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll never tell you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take her away.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll put in bail, my liege.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think thee now some common customer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By Jove, if ever I knew man, 'twas you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Wherefore hast thou accused him all this while?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Because he's guilty, and he is not guilty:</LINE>
<LINE>He knows I am no maid, and he'll swear to't;</LINE>
<LINE>I'll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.</LINE>
<LINE>Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life;</LINE>
<LINE>I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She does abuse our ears: to prison with her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Widow</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for,</LINE>
<LINE>And he shall surety me. But for this lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Who hath abused me, as he knows himself,</LINE>
<LINE>Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him:</LINE>
<LINE>He knows himself my bed he hath defiled;</LINE>
<LINE>And at that time he got his wife with child:</LINE>
<LINE>Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick:</LINE>
<LINE>So there's my riddle: one that's dead is quick:</LINE>
<LINE>And now behold the meaning.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Widow, with HELENA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is there no exorcist</LINE>
<LINE>Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?</LINE>
<LINE>Is't real that I see?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my good lord;</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see,</LINE>
<LINE>The name and not the thing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Both, both. O, pardon!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my good lord, when I was like this maid,</LINE>
<LINE>I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring;</LINE>
<LINE>And, look you, here's your letter; this it says:</LINE>
<LINE>'When from my finger you can get this ring</LINE>
<LINE>And are by me with child,' &amp;c. This is done:</LINE>
<LINE>Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BERTRAM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,</LINE>
<LINE>I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If it appear not plain and prove untrue,</LINE>
<LINE>Deadly divorce step between me and you!</LINE>
<LINE>O my dear mother, do I see you living?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LAFEU</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To PAROLLES</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher: so,</LINE>
<LINE>I thank thee: wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee:</LINE>
<LINE>Let thy courtesies alone, they are scurvy ones.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>KING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let us from point to point this story know,</LINE>
<LINE>To make the even truth in pleasure flow.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To DIANA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,</LINE>
<LINE>Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;</LINE>
<LINE>For I can guess that by thy honest aid</LINE>
<LINE>Thou keep'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.</LINE>
<LINE>Of that and all the progress, more or less,</LINE>
<LINE>Resolvedly more leisure shall express:</LINE>
<LINE>All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,</LINE>
<LINE>The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>
<STAGEDIR>Flourish</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

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

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</EPILOGUE>
</ACT>
</PLAY>