Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA. Laf. Nay, come your ways. This haste hath wings indeed. Laf. Nay, come your ways: This is his majesty, say your mind to him: [Exit. King. Now, fair one, does your business follow us? Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was My father; in what he did profess, well found. King. I knew him. Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so: And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd King. To empiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give, As one near death to those that wish him live; But, what at full I know, thou know'st no part; I knowing all my peril, thou no art. Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, From simple sources; and great seas have dried, Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. The greatest grace lending grace, Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring; Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus bath quench'd his sleepy lamp; Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass; What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly, Health shall live free, and sickness freely die. King. Upon thy certainty and confidence, What dar'st thou venture? Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended. King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit His powerful sound, within an organ weak: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, trust; From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,-But Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest.Give me some help here, ho!-If thou proceed As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE II. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clo. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court. Count. To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off the with such contempt? But to the court! Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's can, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither! Jands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, such a fel'ow, to say precisely, were not for the court: but, for me, I have an answer will serve all men. Count. Marry, that's a bountiful answer, that fits all questions. Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. Count. Will your answer serve fit to all questions? Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for Mayday, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions? Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your constable, it will fit any question. 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,-Tick, thick, spare not me. Count. think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat. Clo. O Lord, sir,-Nay, put me to't, I warrant you. Count. Yo ere lately whipped, 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, isy sequent to your whipping; you would ser very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to 't. Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in my -O Lord, sir: I see, things may serve long, but not serve 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 And urge her to a present answer back : 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. [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 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. VOL. III. D |