That shall attend his love. Par. There's little can be said in't; 'tis against Count. Heaven bless him!-Farewell, Bertram. the rule of nature. To speak on the part of vir[Exit Countess. ginity, is to accuse your mothers: which is most Ber. The best wishes, that can be forged in your infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is thoughts, [To Helena.] be servants to you! Be a virgin virginity murders itself; and should be comfortable to my mother, your inistress, and make buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as much of her. a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the breeds mites, much like a cheese; consum.es itself credit of your father. [Exe. Bertram and Lafeu. to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own Hel. O, were that all !-I think not on my father; stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, And these great tears grace his remembrance more made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin Than those I shed for him. What was he like? I have forgot him: my imagination One that goes with him: I love him for his sake; That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Hel. And you, monarch. Par. No. Hel. And no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier 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 assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance. Par. There is none; man, sitting 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 politic in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational inerease; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though there fore I die a virgin. (1) i. e. May you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring them to effect. (2) Helena considers her heart as the tablet on which his resemblance was portrayed. (3) Peculiarity of feature. (4) Countenance, in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't; Out with't: within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: Away with't. Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own iliking? Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that There shall your master have a thousand loves, Hel. That I wish well.-'Tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Returns us thanks. Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well. King. I would I had that corporal soundness now, As when thy father, and myself, in friendship First try'd our soldiership! He did look far Into the scrvice of the time, and was Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long; But on us both did haggish age steal on, Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer And wore us out of act. It much repairs me thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the To talk of your good father: In his youth which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, He had the wit, which I can well observe so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel, To-day in our young lords; but they may jest and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; Till their own scorn return to them unnoted, else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine Ere they can hide their levity in honour. ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When thou So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, none, remember thy friends: get thee a good hus- His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, band, and use him as he uses thee: so farewell. Clock to itself, knew the true minute when [Exit. Exception bid him speak, and, at this time, His tongue obey'd his hand: who were below him He us'd as creatures of another place; And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, Making them proud of his humility, Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, [Exit. In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man Ber. King. 'Would, I were with him! He would al ways say, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, 2 Lord. count, Since the physician at your father's died? Ber. Ber. Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. Thank your majesty. 1 Lord. It is the count Rousillon, my good lord, SCENE III-Rousillon. A Room in the CounYoung Bertram. ; King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face Ber. My thanks and duty are your majesty's. (1) i. e. Thou wilt comprehend it. (2) Things formed by nature for each other. (3) The citizens of the small republic of which] Sienna is the capital. (4) To repair, here signifies to renovate. tess's Palace. Clown. Enter Countess, Steward, and modesty, and make foul the clearness of our de-| servings, when of ourselves we publish them. Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours. Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow. Count. Well, sir. may Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damned: But, if have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may. Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar? Clo. I do beg your good will in this case. Count. In what case? Clo. In Isbel's case, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the blessing of God, till I have issue of my body; for, they say, bearns are blessings. Count. Tell me the reason why thou wilt marry. Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives. Count. Is this all your worship's reason? Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are. Count. May the world know them? Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent. Was this king Priam's joy? And gave this sentence then; Count. What, one good in ten? you corrupt the song, sirrah. Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the song: 'Would God would serve the world so all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe-woman, if I were the parson: 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, sir knave, and do as I command you? Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty be no pu ritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the sur plice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.-I am going, forsooth: the business is for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown. Count. Well, now. Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds: there is more owing her, than is paid; and Count. Thy marriage, sooner than thy wicked-more shall be paid her, than she'll demand. ness. Stern, Madam, I was very late more near her Clo. I am out of friends, madam; and I hope to than, I think, she wished me: alone she was, and have friends for my wife's sake. did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they touched not any stranger sense. Her matter was, Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. Clo. You are shallow, madam; e'en great friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no a-weary of. He, that ears my land, spares my goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their team, and gives me leave to inn the crop: If I be two estates; Love, no god, that would not extend his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor he, that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves my knight to be surprised, without rescue, in the first flesh and blood; he, that loves my flesh and blood, assault, or ransome afterward: This she delivered is my friend: erge, he that kisses my wife, is my in the most bitter touch of sorrow, that e'er I heard friend. If men could be contented to be what they virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty, speedily are, there were no fear in marriage; for young to acquaint you withal; sithence, in the loss that Charbon the puritan, and old Poysam the papist, may happen, it concerns you something to know it. howsoe'er their hearts are severed in religion, their Count. You have discharged this honestly; keep heads are both one, they may joll horns together, it to yourself: many likelihoods informed me of like any deer i' the herd. this before, which hung so tottering in the balance Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouthed and that I could neither believe, nor misdoubt: Pray calumnious knave? you, leave me: stall this in your bosom, and I Clo. A prophet I, madam; and I speak the thank you for your honest care: I will speak with truth the next way: you further anon. For I the ballad will repeat, Count. Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you more anon. Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you; of her I am to speak. Enter Helena. [Exit Steward. Count. Even so it was with me, when I was young: If we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; Count. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman, I would By our remembrances of days foregone, speak with her; Helen I mean. Clo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, 6 [Singing. Why the Grecians sacked Troy? Fond done, done fond, I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Nay, a mother; That I am not. Count. were (So that my lord, your son, were not my brother,) I love your son : My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love: The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian Madam, I had. Hel. Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-As notes, whose faculties inclusive were, in-law; God shield, you mean it not! daughter, and mother, That truth should be suspected: Speak, is't so? Hel. Good madam, pardon me! Count. Do you love my son? Your pardon, noble mistress! Hel. Do not you love him, madam? More than they were in note: amongst the rest, For Paris, was it? speak. This was your motive Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this; Count. But think you, Helen, if you should tender your supposed aid, Hel. By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a But give me leave to try success, I'd venture bond, The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure, Whereof the world takes note: come, come, dis-By such a day, and hour. close The state of your affection; for your passions Hel. (1) i. e. I care as much for: I wish it equally. (3) The source, the cause of your grief. (4) According to their nature. (6) i. e. Whose respectable conduct in age proves King. Farewell, young lord, these warlike principles, Do not throw from you:-and you, my lord, fare- Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, 1 Lord. It is our hope, sir, King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords; 2 Lord. Health, at your bidding, serve your King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; Par. 'Tis not his fault; the spark- Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, 1 Lord. Farewell, captain. 2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles! Par. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals:You shall find in the regiment of the Spinii, one] captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very (1) i. e. Those excepted who possess modern Italy, the remains of the Roman empire. (2) Seeker, inquirer. (3) Be not captives before you are soldiers. (4) With a noise, bustle. (5) In Shakspeare's time it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on. sword entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his reports for me. 2 Lord. We shall, noble captain. Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! [Exeunt Lords.] What will you do? Ber. Stay; the king- [Seeing him rise. Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble of too cold an adicu: be more expressive to them; lords; you have restrained yourself within the list for they wear themselves in the cap of time, there, do muster true gait, eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell. Ber. And I will do so. Par. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men. [Exe. Bertram and Parolles. Enter Lafeu. Laf. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me and King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, Laf. No. O, will you eat If you will see her,-now, by my faith and honour, King. Laf. Nay, come your ways. This haste hath wings indeed (6) They are the foremost in the fashion. (10) A female physician. (11) A kind of dance. (12) By profession is meant her declaration of the object of her coming. |