You must not marvel, Helen, at my course,
Which holds not colour with the time, nor does
The miniftration and required office

On my particular. Prepar'd I was not
For fuch a bufinefs; therefore am I found

So much unfettled : This drives me to intreat you,
That presently you take your way for home;
And rather mufe, than afk, why I intreat you:
For my refpects are better than they feem;
And my appointments have in them a need
Greater than fhews itself at the first view,

To you that know them not. This to my mother.

'Twill be two days ere I fhall fee

I leave you to your wisdom.

Hel. Sir, I can nothing fay,

[Giving a letter.

you; fo

But that I am your moft obedient fervant.
Ber. Come, come, no more of that.
Hel. And ever shall

With true obfervance feek to eke out That,
Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd
To equal my great fortune.

Ber. Let That go:

My hafte is very great. Farewel; hie home.
Hel. Pray, fir, your pardon.

Ber. Well, what would you fay?

Hel. I am not worthy of the wealth I owe;

Nor dare I fay, 'tis mine; and yet it is;

But, like a timorous thief, moft fain would fteaf

What law does vouch mine own.

Ber. What would you have?

Hel. Something, and fcarce fo much :-nothing, indeed.

I would not tell you what I would; my lord,-'faith,

yes;

Strangers and foes do funder, and not kifs.

Ber. I pray you, ftay no, but in hafte to horse.

Hel. I fhall not break your bidding, good my [Exit Helena. Ber. Where are my other men, monfieur?-Fare

lord.

wel.

Go thou toward home, where I will never come, Whilft I can shake my fword, or hear the drum :Away, and for our flight.

Par. Bravely, coragio!

[Excunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

The Duke's court in Florence.

Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, two French Lords, with foldiers.

DUKE.

10 that, from point to point, now have you heard The fundamental reasons of this war;

Whofe great decifion hath much blood let forth,
And more thirsts after.

1 Lord. Holy feems the quarrel

Upon your grace's part; black and fearful
On the oppofer.

+ In former copies :

Hel. Ihall not break your bidding, goed my lord:
Where are my other men? Monfieur, farewel.

Ber, Go thou toward home, where I will never come.]

What other men is Helen here enquiring after? Or who is the fuppofed to ask for them? The old Countefs, 'tis certain, did not fend her to the court without fome attendants: but neither the Clown, nor any of her retinue, are now upon the ftage: Bertram, obferving Helen to linger fondly, and wanting to fhift her off, puts on a fhew of hafte, afks Parolles for his fervants, and then gives his wife an abrupt difmiffion. THEOBALD.

Duke. Therefore we marvel much, our coufin

France

Would, in fo just a business, shut his bosom
Against our borrowing prayers.

2 Lord. Good my lord,

The reasons of our ftate I cannot yield',
But like a common and an outward man
That the great figure of a council frames.
By felf-unable motion: therefore dare not
Say what I think of it; fince I have found
Myself in my incertain grounds to fail
As often as I guest,

Duke. Be it his pleasure.

2 Lord. But I am fure, the younger of our nature', That surfeit on their eafe, will, day by day Come here for phyfick.

Duke. Welcome fhall they be ;

And all the honours, that can fly from us,

Shall on them fettle. You know your places well:
When better fall, for your avails they fell;
To-morrow, to the field,

[Exeunt.

5 I cannot yield,] I cannot inform you of the reasons.

JOHNSON.

an outward man,] i. e. one not in the fecret of affairs. WARBURTON. So inward is familiar, admitted to fecrets. I was an inward of his. Meafure for Measure. JOHNSON.

"By felf-unable MOTION;-] We should read NOTION.

WARBURTON. This emendation had been recommended by Mr. Upton.

STREVENS.

i. e. as we fay at prefent, our young fellows. The modern editors read nation. I have restored the old reading. STEEVENS,

SCENE

SCENE II.

Roufillon, in France.

Enter Countess and Clown.

Count. It hath happened all as I would have had it; fave, that he comes not along with her.

Col. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.

Count. By what obfervance, 1 pray you?

Clo. Why, he will look upon his boot, and fing; mend the ruff, and fing; afk queftions, and fing; pick his teeth, and fing. I knew a man that had this trick of melancholy, fold a goodly manor for a fong'. Count. Let me fee what he writes, and when he [Reads the letter.

means to come.

Clo. I have no mind to Ifbel, fince I was at court. Our old ling, and our Ifbels o'the country, are nothing like your old ling, and your Ifbels o'the court: the brain of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no ftomach. Count. What have we here?

Clo. E'en that you have there.

Countess reads a letter.

[Exit.

I have fent you a daughter-in-law: She bath recovered the King, and undone me. I bave wedded her, not bedded ber; and fworn to make the not eternal. You shall bear, I am run away; know it, before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you.

9

Your unfortunate fon,

BERTRAM.

- fold a goodly manor for a song.] Thus the modern editors. The old copy reads-hold a goodly, &c. The emendation however seems neceffary. STEEVENS.

F 4

This

This is not well, rash and unbridled boy,
To fly the favours of fo good a King;
To pluck his indignation on thy head,
By the mifprizing of a maid, too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

Re-enter Clown.

Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two foldiers and my young lady.

Count. What is the matter?

Clo. Nay, there is fome comfort in the news, fome comfort; your fon will not be kill'd fo foon as I thought he would.

Count. Why fhould he be kill'd?

Clo. So fay I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does the danger is in standing to't; that's the lofs of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come, will tell you more. For my part, I only hear, your fon was run away.

Enter Helena, and two gentlemen.

1 Gen. Save you, good madam,

Hel. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.2 Gen. Do not fay fo.

Count. Think upon patience.-'Pray you, gentle

men,

I have felt fo many quirks of joy and grief,
That the first face of neither, on the start,

Can woman me unto't. Where is my fon, I pray you?
2 Gen. Madam, he's gone to ferve the duke of.
Florence.

We met him thitherward; for thence we came,

And, after fome difpatch in hand at court,

Thither we bend again.

Hel. Look on this letter, madam; here's my pass

port.

When