Count. It must be an answer of most.monstrous size, that must fit all demands.

Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't: ask me, if I am a courtier; it shall do you no harm to learn.

Count. To be young again, if we could :-I will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, Sir, are you a courtier ? Clo. O Lord, Sir,-There's a simple putting off; more, more, a hundred of them.

Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you.

Clo. O Lord, Sir,-Thick, thick, spare not me. Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.

Clo. O Lord, Sir,-Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.

Count. You were lately whipp'd, Sir, as I think. Clo. O Lord, Sir,-Spare not me.

Count. Do you cry, O Lord. Sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, Sir, is very sequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.

Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in myO Lord, Sir: I see, things may serve long, but not

erve ever.

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 un-" derstand me?

Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs. Count. Haste you again. [Exeunt severally.

SCENE III.-Paris.-A Room in the KING'S Palace.

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES. Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have Properly follows.

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, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times.

Ber. And so 'tis.

Laf. To be relinquish'd of the artists,

Par. So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows,-
Par. Right, so I say.

Laf. That gave him out incurable,

Par. Why, there 'tis; so say I too.

Laf. Not to be help'd,

Par. Right; as 'twere a man assured of an-
Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death.

Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said. Laf. I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world. Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in shewing, you shall read it in,-What do you call there? Laf. A shewing of a heavenly effect in an earthly

actor.

Par. That's it I would have said; the very same. Laf. Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me I speak in respect

Par. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis 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

• Ordinary.

+Fear means here the object of fear.

The dauphin.

§ Wicked.

Lustigh is the Dutch word for lusty, chearful. VOL, II.

Hh

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,

[Exit an Attendant.

Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;

And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promised gift,
Which but attends thy naining.

Enter several LORDS.

Fair maid, send forth thine eye; this youthful parcel

Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,

O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice *

I have to use: thy frank election make;

Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.

Hel. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress Fall, when love please!-Marry, to each, but one+! 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, restored the king to health.

All. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. Hel. I am a simple maid; and therein wealthiest, That, I protest, I simply am a maid ;

Please it your majesty, I have done already:
The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,

We blush, that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused,
Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;
We'll ne'er come there again.

King. Make choice; and, see,

Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me.
Hel. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly;

And to imperial love, that god most high,

Do my sighs stream.-Sir, will you hear my suit? 1 Lord. And grant it.

They were wards as well as subjects. + Except one, meaning Bertram. A docked horse.

Hel. Thanks, Sir; all the rest is mute*.

Laf. I had rather be in this choice, than throw ames-ace for my life t.

Hel. The honour, Sir, that flames in your fair eyes, Before I speak, too threateningly replies:

Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
2 Lord. No better, if you please.

Hel. 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, I'd have them whipp'd; or I would send them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of.

Hel. Be not afraid [To a Lord] 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 100 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. I dare not say, I take you; [To Bertram] 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

The help of mine own eyes.

King. Know'st thou not, Bertram,

What she has done for me?

Ber. Yes, my good lord;

But never hope to know why I should marry her, King, Thou know'st, she has raised 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:

i. e. I have no more to say to you.
The lowest chance of the dice.

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 altogether,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty: if she be

All that is virtuous, (save what thou dislikest,
A poor physician's daughter, thou dislikest
Of virtue for the name: but do not so:

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:

Where great additions swell t, and virtue none
It is a dropsied honour: good alone

Is good, without a name; vileness is sot:

The property by what it is should go,

Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she's immediate heir;

And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born.
And is not like the sire: honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy; and as oft is damb,

Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said ?
If thon canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue, and she,

Is her own dower; honour, and wealth, from me.
Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.
King. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst
strive to choose.

Hel. That you are well restored, my lord, I am glad;

Let the rest go.

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

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

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

i. e. The want of title.

+ Titles.

Good is good independent of any worldly dis tinction, and so is vileness vile.