King. I would I had: so I had broke thy pate,

And afk'd thee mercy for't.

Laf. Goodfaith, across:

thus;

-but, my good lord, 'tis

Will you be cur'd of your infirmity?

King, No.

Laf. O, will you eat

No grapes, my royal fox?

but yes,

you will,

My noble grapes, an if my royal fox

d

Could reach them: I have feen a medecine

That's able to breathe life into a stone;

Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary

With fprightly fire and motion; whofe fimple touch
Is powerful to araise king Pepin, nay,

To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand,
And write to her a love-line.

If

King. What her is this?

Laf. Why, doctor fhe: My lord, there's one arriv'd,

you will fee her-now, by my faith and honour, If seriously I may convey my thoughts

In this my light deliverance, I have spoke

With one, that, in her fex, her years,

g

profeffion, Wisdom, and conftancy, hath amaz'd me more Than I dare blame my weakness: Will weakness: Will you fee her,

h

(For that is her demand) and know her bufinefs?

That done, laugh well at me.

King. Now, good Lafeu,

Bring in the admiration; that we with thee,

Goodfaith, across :]-Agreed, though you had broken it across: or,

you miss my meaning.

с

d a medecine]-a female phyfician, a doctress.

-a brifk dance.

canary]

f profeffion,]-declared defign of her expedition. and conftancy,]-perfeverance in that declaration.

h blame my weakness:]—can impute to my own weakness; wish to acknowledge the mere effect of my own credulity.

CC 4

May

May spend our wonder too, or take off thine,

By wond'ring how thou took'ft it.

Laf. Nay, I'll fit you,

And not be all day neither.

[Exit Lafeu.

[Bringing in Helena.

King. Thus he his fpecial nothing ever prologues.
Laf. [Returns.] Nay, come your ways.

King. This hafte hath wings indeed.

Laf. Nay, come your ways;

[Exit.

This is his majesty, fay your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but fuch traitors
His majefty feldom fears: I am 'Creffid's uncle,
That dare leave two together; fare you well,
King. Now, fair one, does your bufinefs 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 fpare my praises toward him;
Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death
Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the dearest iffue of his practice,
And of his old experience the only darling,
He bad me store up, as a triple eye,

Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have fo:
And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd
With that malignant cause, wherein the power
Of my dear father's gift ftands chief in honour,
I come to tender it, and my appliance,
With all bound humbleness,

King. We thank you, maiden;

But may not be fo credulous of cure,-
When our most learned doctors leave us; and
The congregated college have concluded,

iCreffid's uncle,]-like Pandarus.

* triple]-third.

That

That labouring art can never answer nature
From her inaidable eftate,-I say we must not
So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
To prostitute our paft-cure malady
To empericks; or to diffever fo

Our great felf and our credit, to esteem

A fenfeless help, when help past sense we deem.
Hel. My duty then fhall pay me for my pains:
I will no more enforce mine office on you;

Humbly intreating from your royal thoughts

A modeft one, to bear me back again.

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

Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try,
Since you " fet up your reft 'gainst remedy:
He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister :

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,

When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown
From fimple fources; and great seas have dry'd,
When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

Where most it promises; and oft it hits,

Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.

King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;

Thy pains, not us'd, muft by thyfelf be paid:

Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Hel. Infpired merit fo by breath is barr'd:

1 anfwer]-fupply the defects of-ranfom.

A modeft one,]-fuch an one as I may modeftly hope for on my difmiffion.

covery.

"fet up your reft 'gainft remedy ]-conclude yourself to be paft re• miracles]-the power of working them. It

P breath]-mortals.

It is not fo with him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us that fquare our guess by shows:
But most it is prefumption in us, when
The help of heaven we count the act of men.
Dear fir, to my endeavours give confent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impoftor, that proclaim
Myself against the level of mine aim;

But know I think, and think I know most sure,
My art is not ' past power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou fo confident? Within what space
Hop'ft thou my cure?

Hel. The greatest grace lending grace;
Ere twice the horses of the fun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring:
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his fleepy lamp;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glafs
Hath told the thievifh minutes how they pass;
What is infirm from your found parts shall fly,
Health fhall live free, and fickness freely die.
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'ft thou venture?

Hel. Tax of impudence,

A ftrumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,
Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden's name;
Sear'd otherwife; the worst of worst, extended
With vileft torture, let my life be ended.

that proclaim myself against the level of mine aim ;]—that pretend to what I have not a reasonable hope of accomplishing.

t

past power,]-ineffectual.

murk]-darkness.

Tax of impudence,]-I would bear the tax &c.-let my maiden reputation become the fubject of filthy ballads; let it be mangled by any other means; and (what is the worst of worst, the confummation of mifery) my body being extended on the rack by the moft cruel torture, let my life pay the forfeit of my prefumption.

King. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed fpirit doth speak ;

"His powerful found, within an organ weak;

And what impoffibility would flay

In common sense, fenfe faves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate
Worth name of life," in thee hath estimate;
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness in prime, can happy call :
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monftrous defperate.
Sweet practifer, thy phyfick I will try;
That minifters thine own death, if I die.
Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die;
And well deferv'd: Not helping, death's my
But, if I help, what do you promise me?
King. Make thy demand.

fee;

King. Ay, by my fcepter, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then fhalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command:

Exempted be from me the arrogance

To chufe from forth the royal blood of France;
My low and humble name to propagate

a

With any branch, or image of thy state:

But fuch a one, thy vaffal, whom I know
Is free for me to afk, thee to bestow.

King. Here is my hand; the premises obferv❜d,

His powerful found, within]—is heard, iffuing from.
in thee bath eftimate ;]-may be ranked among thy gifts.

x in prime,]-in its perfection-and prime.

▾ flinch in property of what I spoke,]-make not my profeffions good. 2 make it even?]-answer it.

a branch, or image of thy ftate :]-relative or reprefentative of thine, member of thy state.

Thy