Count. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool. Clo. O Lord, Sir! - why, there 't serves well again. Count. An end, Sir: to your business. Give Helen this, And urge her to a present answer back: Commend me to my kinsmen, and my son. This is not much. Clo. Not much commendation to them. Count. Not much employment for you: you understand me? Clo. Most fruitfully: I am there before my legs. Count. Haste you again. SCENE III. [Exeunt severally. Paris. A Room in the KING'S Palace. Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES. Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it, that we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear. Par. Why, 't is the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times. Ber. And so 't is. Laf. To be relinquished of the artists, Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows, - Laf. That gave him out incurable, Par. Why, there't is; so say I too. Laf. Not to be helped, Par. Right; as 't were a man assured of an Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death. Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said. Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in, — what do you call there? Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor. Laf. Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me, I speak in respect Par. Nay, 't is strange; 't is very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he is of a most facinorous spirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the — Laf. Very hand of heaven. Par. Ay, so I say. Laf. In a most weak Par. And debile minister, great power, 'great transcendence; which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made, than alone the recovery of the king, as to be Laf. Generally thankful. Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants. Par. I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king. Laf. Lustick, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the better, whilst I have a tooth in my head. Why, he's able to lead her a coranto. Par. Mort du vinaigre! Is not this Helen? Laf. 'Fore God, I think so. King. Go, call before me all the lords in court. Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side: [Exit an Attendant. And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense The confirmation of my promis'd gift, Which but attends thy naming. Enter several Lords. Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress Laf. I'd give bay curtal, and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken than these boys', And writ as little beard. King. Peruse them well: Not one of those but had a noble father. Hel. Gentlemen, Heaven hath through me restor'd the king to health. Please it your majesty, I have done already: "We blush, that thou should'st choose; but, be refus'd, We'll ne'er come there again." King. Make choice; and, see, Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly, And to imperial Love, that god most high, Do my sighs stream. Sir, will 1 Lord. And grant it. Hel. hear you my suit? Thanks, Sir: all the rest is mute. Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life. Hel. The honour, Sir, that flames in your fair eyes, My wish receive, Which great Love grant! and so I take my leave. Laf. Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine, have them whipped, or I would send them to the Turk to make eunuchs of. I'd Hel. [To 3 Lord.] Be not afraid that I your hand should take; I'll never do you wrong for your own sake: Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed! Laf. These boys are boys of ice, they 'll none have her: sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got them. Hel. You are too young, too happy, and too good, To make yourself a son out of my blood. 4 Lord. Fair one, I think not so. Laf. There's one grape yet, I am sure, thy father drank wine. But if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen: I have known thee already. Hel. [To BERTRAM.] I dare not say, I take you; but I give Me, and my service, ever whilst I live, Into your guiding power. This is the man, King. Why then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife. Ber. My wife, my liege? I shall beseech your highness, In such a business give me leave to use But never hope to know why I should marry her. King. Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my sickly bed. Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down Must answer for your raising? I know her well: She had her breeding at my father's charge. A poor physician's daughter my wife? — Disdain Rather corrupt me ever! King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which I can build up. Strange is it, that our bloods, Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together, All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislik'st, From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, Where great additions swell's, and virtue none, It is a dropsied honour: good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so : If thou canst like this creature as a maid, I can create the rest: virtue, and she Is her own dower; honour, and wealth from me. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st strive to choose. Hel. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am glad. King. My honour's at the stake, which to defeat My love, and her desert; that canst not dream, |