Countess of Roufillen, Mother to Bertram. PAROLLES, a parafitical Follower of Bertram; a HELENA, Daughter to Gerard de Narbon, a famous Coward, but vain, and a great Pretender to Valour. Physician, fome Time fince dead. An old Widow of Florence. Count. I Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majefty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in fubjection. Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam;-you, fir, a father: He that so generally is at all times good, muft of neceffity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would ftir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance. Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandon'd his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath perfecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the lofing of hope by time. Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (0, that bad! how fad a passage 2 'tis! whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd so far, it would have made nature immortal, and death should have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's fake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. 1. Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam? Count. He was famous, fir, in his profeffion, and it was his great right to be fo: Gerard de Narbon. Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have liv'd ftill, if knowledge could have been fet up againft mortality. Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languithes of? Laf. A fiftula, my lord. Ber. I heard not of it before.. Laf. I would, it were not notorious.-Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His fole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her difpofitions the inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer: for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too 3; in her they are the better for their fimpleness 4; she derives her honesty, and atchieves her goodness. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can feafon her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have. The heirs of great fortunes were anciently the king's wards. 2 Paffage means any thing that paffes, and is here applied in the fame sense as when we say the paffage of a book. 3 Dr. Jonnfon thus comments upon this passage: " Eftimable and useful qualities, joined with an evil difpofition, give that evil difpofition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence." 4 í. e. her excellencies are the better because they are artiets and open, without fraud, without design. T3 more Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too. Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it foon mortal 1. Ber. Madam, I defire your holy wishes. Laf. How understand we that? [father Count. Be thou blest, Bertram! and fucceed thy In manners, as in shape! Thy blood, and virtue, Contend for empire in thee; and thy goodness Share with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence, • But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will, That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, Fall on thy head! Farewell. My lord, 'Tis an unseason'd courtier, good my lord, Advise him. Laf. He cannot want the best, That shall attend his love. Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram. [Exit Countess. Ber. [To Helena.] The best wishes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be fervants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your father. [Ex. Bertram and Lafeu. Hel. Oh, were that all!-I think not on my father; And these great tears 2 grace his remembrance more, Enter Parolles. One that goes with him: I love him for his fake; Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we fee Cold + wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly. Par. No. Hel. And no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity ? Hel. Ay. You have fome 5 stain of foldier in you; let me ask you a question: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him ? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he aflails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak; unfold to us fome warlike refiftance. Par. There is none; man, fitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up. Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men? Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first loft. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found; by being ever kept, is ever loft: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To fpeak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all fanctified limit, as a defperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; confumes itself to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding its own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited fin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot chuse but lofe by't: Out with't; within ten years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with 't. Hel. How might one do, fir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me fee: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of re, queft. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unfuitable: just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pye • That is, " if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess." 2 i. e. the tears of the king and countofs. 3 1. e. fome peculiar feature of his face. naked, and thus contraited with fuperfluous or over-cloathed. 5 Meaning, fome was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble beg. 4 Cold is here put for colour of foldier. Parolles i. e. forbidden fin. and and your porridge, than in your cheek: And Hel. Not my virginity yet. Hel. That I wish well-'Tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine igno- Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Hel. The wars have kept you so under, that you Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead muft needs be born under Mars. Par. When he was predominant. Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather. Hel. You go fo much backward, when you fight. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the fofety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well. For ampleft credence. King. He hath arm'd our anfwer, 2 Lord. It may well ferve Par. I am fo full of businesses, I cannot answer Enter Bertram, Lafea, and Parolles. King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; ■ Shakspeare here quibbles on the word date, which means both age, and a kind of candied fruit. 2 Dr. Warburton is of opinion, that the eight lines following friend, is the nonfenfe of fome foolish conceited player, who finding a thousand loves fpoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a mother's, a mistress's, and a friend's, would help out the number by the intermediate nonfenfe. The meaning of Helen, however, in this paffage may be, that the shall prove every thing to Bertram. 3 A metaphor taken from falconry; and meaning, a virtue that will fly high, 4 Dr. Johnfon explains thefe lines thus; " Nature brings like qualities and difpositions to meet through any distance that fortune may have fet between them; the joins them, and makes them kiss like things born together." $ The Senois were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was sienna, and with whom the Florentines were at constant variance. Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts) Ber. My thanks and duty are your majesty's. In their poor praise he humbled 3: Such a man Ber. His good remembrance, fir, King. Would, I were with him! 'He would al ways fay, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, To give fome labourer room. 2 Lord. You are lov'd, fir; They, that least lend it you, shall lack you firft. A Room in the Count's Palace. Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown 6. Count. I will now hear what say you of this gentlewoman? Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content 7, I with might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearness of our defervings, when of ourselves we publish them. Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, firrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours 8. Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, that I am a poor fellow. Count. Well, fır. Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor: though many of the rich are damn'd: But, if I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world 9, Ifbel the woman and I will do as we may. Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar ? Clo. In Isbel's cafe, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the blefling of God, till I have iffue of my body; for, they fay, bearns are bleffings. Count. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry. Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the fieth; and he must needs go, that the devil drives. Count. Is this all your worship's reafon? Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, fuch as they are. Count. May the world know them? Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, King. I fill a place, I know 't.-How long is't as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I count, do marry, that I may repent. That is, cover petty faults with great merit. 2 i. e. he made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. 3 i. e. by condescending to ftoop to his inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he humbled even his humility. 4 Approof is approbation. 5 Mr. Tollet explains this paffage thus: "His epitaph or infcription on his tomb is not so much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech." 6 A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jefter, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, tince fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. 7 i. e. to equal your defires. 8 i. e. You are fool enough to commit those irregu larities you are charged with, and yet not fo much fool neither, as to difcredit the accusation by any defect in your ability. 9 i. e, to be married. See note 4, p. 128. Count Count. Thy marriage, fooner than thy wickedness. Clo. I am out of friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's fake. Count. Well, now. Steru. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman intirely. Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeath'd her to Clo. You are shallow, madam, in great friends; me; and the herself, without other advantage, may for the knaves come to do that for me, which I lawfully make title to as much love as the finds: am aweary of. He, that ears my land, spares there is more owing her, than is paid; and more my team, and gives me leave to inn the crop if I shall be paid her, than the'll demand. be his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that com- Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her forts my wife, is the cherisher of my fleth and than, I think, the with'd me alone the was, and blood; he that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves did communicate to herfelf, her own words to her my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they blood, is my friend: ergo, he that kiffes my wife, touch'd not any ftranger sense. Her matter was, is my friend. If men could be contented to be the lov'd your fon Fortune, the faid, was no godwhat they are, there were no fear in marriage; defs, that had put fuch difference betwixt their for young Charbon the puritan, and old Poyfam two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend the papift, howfoe'er their hearts are severed in his might, only where qualities were level: Diana, religion, their heads are both one, they may joul horns together, like any deer i' the herd. Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and caJumnious knave ? no queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight to be furprised without rescue in the first atfault, or ransom afterward: This she deliver'd in the most bitter touch of forrow, that e'er I heard Clo. A prophet 2, I, madam: and I fpeak the a virgin exclaim in which I held y duty, fpeeditruth the next 3 way. For I the ballad will repeat, Which men full true shall find; Count. Get you gone, fir; I'll talk with you more anon. Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid Heien come to you; of her I am to fpeak. Count. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman, I would speak with her: Helen I mean. Clo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, [Singing. Was this king Priam's joy. Count. What, one good in ten? you corrupt the fong, firrah. Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the fong: 'Would God would ferve the world fo all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe-woman, if I were the parion: One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one. Count. You'll be gone, fir knave, and do as 1 command you? ly to acquaint you withal; fithence, in the lofs that Enter Helena. Count. Even so it was with me, when I was young: If we are nature's, these are ours: this thorn I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Count. Nay, a mother; Why not a mother? When I faid, a mother, Clo. That man should be at a woman's com- Yet I expreis to you a mother's care :-mand, and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood, be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear To fay, I am thy mother? What's the matter, the furplice of humility over the black gown of That this diftemper'd messenger of wet, a big heart. I am going, forfooth: the bufiness is The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye? for Helen to come hither. [Fxit. Why that you are my daughter? • To ear is to plough. 2 It is a fuperftition, which hath run through all ages and people, that natural fools have fomething in them of divinity; on which account they were efteemed facred. 31. c. the nearest way. 4 Fond here means foolishly done. i. e, according to our recollection, Hel. |