The bravest questant shrinks.17 Find what you seek,

  That fame may cry18 you loud. I say, farewell.

  SECOND LORD Health at your bidding serve your majesty!

  KING Those girls of Italy, take heed of them:

  They say our French lack language to deny21

  If they demand. Beware of being captives22

  Before you serve.23

  BOTH Our hearts receive your warnings.

  King steps aside with some lords

  KING Farewell.-- Come hither to me.

  To Bertram

  FIRST LORD O, my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!

  PAROLLES 'Tis not his fault, the spark.27

  SECOND LORD O, 'tis brave28 wars!

  PAROLLES Most admirable. I have seen those wars.

  BERTRAM I am commanded here, and kept a coil30 with

  'Too young' and 'the next year' and ''tis too early'.

  PAROLLES An thy mind stand to't, boy, steal away bravely.32

  BERTRAM I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock33,

  Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry34,

  Till honour be bought up35 and no sword worn

  But one to dance with. By heaven, I'll steal36 away.

  FIRST LORD There's honour in the theft.

  PAROLLES Commit it, count.

  SECOND LORD I am your accessary, and so farewell.

  BERTRAM I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.40

  FIRST LORD Farewell, captain.

  SECOND LORD Sweet Monsieur Parolles!

  PAROLLES Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good

  sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals.44 You shall find in

  the regiment of the Spinii one Captain Spurio45, with his

  cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister46 cheek; it was

  this very sword entrenched47 it. Say to him I live, and observe

  his reports48 for me.

  FIRST LORD We shall, noble captain.

  PAROLLES Mars dote on you for his novices!50--

  [Exeunt Lords]

  To Bertram

  What will ye do?

  Bertram and Parolles stand aside

  BERTRAM Stay52 the king.

  To Bertram

  PAROLLES Use a more spacious ceremony53 to the

  noble lords. You have restrained yourself within the list54 of

  too cold an adieu. Be more expressive to them, for they wear55

  themselves in the cap of the time, there do muster true56

  gait, eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most

  received star. And though the devil lead the measure58, such

  are to be followed. After them, and take a more dilated59

  farewell.

  BERTRAM And I will do so.

  The King comes forward

  PAROLLES Worthy fellows, and like62 to prove

  most sinewy63 sword-men.

  Exeunt [Bertram and Parolles]

  Enter Lafew

  Kneels

  LAFEW Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.64

  KING I'll fee65 thee to stand up.

  Rises

  LAFEW Then here's a man stands that has brought his pardon.66

  I would you had kneeled, my lord, to ask me mercy,

  And that at my bidding you could so stand up.

  KING I would I had, so I had broke thy pate69,

  And asked thee mercy for't.

  LAFEW Good faith, across.71 But, my good lord, 'tis thus:

  Will you be cured of your infirmity?

  KING No.

  LAFEW O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?74

  Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if75

  My royal fox could reach them. I have seen a medicine76

  That's able to breathe life into a stone,

  Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary78

  With sprightly fire and motion, whose simple79 touch,

  Is powerful to araise King Pippin80, nay,

  To give great Charlemain a pen81 in's hand

  And write to her a love-line.

  KING What 'her' is this?

  LAFEW Why, Doctor She: my lord, there's one arrived,

  If you will see her. Now, by my faith and honour,

  If seriously I may convey my thoughts

  In this my light deliverance87, I have spoke

  With one that, in her sex, her years, profession88,

  Wisdom and constancy, hath amazed me more

  Than I dare blame my weakness.90 Will you see her,

  For that is her demand, and know her business?

  That done, laugh well at me.

  KING Now, good Lafew,

  Bring in the admiration94 that we with thee

  May spend our wonder too, or take off95 thine

  By wondering how thou took'st96 it.

  LAFEW Nay, I'll fit97 you,

  And not be all day neither.

  Lafew goes to the door or exits and re-enters

  KING Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.99

  Enter Helen

  To Helen

  LAFEW Nay, come your ways.100

  KING This haste hath wings indeed.

  LAFEW Nay, come your ways.

  This is his majesty, say your mind to him.

  A traitor you do look like, but such traitors

  His majesty seldom fears. I am Cressid's uncle105,

  That dare leave two together. Fare you well.

  Exit

  KING Now, fair one, does your business follow107 us?

  HELEN Ay, my good lord.

  Gerard de Narbon was my father,

  In what he did profess, well found.110

  KING I knew him.

  HELEN The rather will I spare my praises towards him.

  Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death

  Many receipts114 he gave me, chiefly one

  Which, as the dearest issue115 of his practice,

  And of his old experience th'only116 darling,

  He bade me store up, as a triple117 eye,

  Safer118 than mine own two. More dear I have so,

  And hearing your high majesty is touched

  With that malignant cause wherein the honour120

  Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,

  I come to tender it and my appliance122

  With all bound123 humbleness.

  KING We thank you, maiden,

  But may not be so credulous125 of cure,

  When our most learned doctors leave us, and

  The congregated college127 have concluded

  That labouring art128 can never ransom nature

  From her inaidible129 estate. I say we must not

  So stain our judgement, or corrupt our hope,

  To prostitute131 our past-cure malady

  To empirics, or to dissever132 so

  Our great self and our credit, to esteem133

  A senseless help when help past sense we deem.134

  HELEN My duty then shall pay me for my pains135:

  I will no more enforce mine office136 on you,

  Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts

  A modest one to bear me back again.138

  KING I cannot give thee less, to139 be called grateful.

  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 part142,

  I knowing all my peril, thou no art.143

  HELEN What I can do can do no hurt to try,

  Since you set up your rest145 gainst remedy.

  He146 that of greatest works is finisher

  Oft does them by the weakest minister:

  So holy writ in babes148 hath judgement shown,

  When judges have been babes; great floods have flown149

  From simple sources, and great seas have dried150

  When miracles have by the great'st151 been denied.

&
nbsp; Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

  Where most it promises, and oft it hits153

  Where hope is coldest and despair most shifts.154

  KING I must not hear thee. Fare thee well, kind maid.

  Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid156:

  Proffers not took reap thanks for157 their reward.

  HELEN Inspired merit so by breath158 is barred.

  It is not so with him that all things knows

  As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows.160

  But most it is presumption in us when

  The help of heaven we count162 the act of men.

  Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent.

  Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.164

  I am not an impostor that proclaim165

  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 so confident? Within what space169

  Hop'st thou my cure?

  HELEN The greatest171 grace lending grace

  Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring

  Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring173,

  Ere twice in murk and occidental174 damp

  Moist Hesperus175 hath quenched her sleepy lamp,

  Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass176

  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?181

  HELEN Tax182 of impudence,

  A strumpet's183 boldness, a divulged shame

  Traduced184 by odious ballads: my maiden's name

  Seared otherwise, nay, worse of worst, extended185

  With vilest torture, let my life be ended.

  KING Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak

  His powerful sound within an organ weak:

  And what impossibility would slay189

  In common sense190, sense saves another way.

  Thy life is dear, for all that life can rate191

  Worth name of life in thee hath estimate192:

  Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all

  That happiness and prime194 can happy call.

  Thou this to hazard needs195 must intimate

  Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.196

  Sweet practicer, thy physic197 I will try,

  That ministers198 thine own death if I die.

  HELEN If I break time, or flinch in property199

  Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,

  And well deserved. Not201 helping, death's my fee.

  But if I help, what do you promise me?

  KING Make thy demand.

  HELEN But will you make it even?204

  KING Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.

  HELEN Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand

  What207 husband in thy power I will command:

  Exempted208 be from me the arrogance

  To choose from forth the royal blood of France,

  My low and humble name to propagate

  With any branch or image of thy state.

  But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know

  Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

  KING Here is my hand. The premises observed214,

  Thy will by my performance215 shall be served.

  So make the choice of216 thy own time, for I,

  Thy resolved patient, on thee still217 rely.

  More should I question thee, and more I must --

  Though more to know could not be more to trust --

  From whence thou cam'st, how tended on.220 But rest

  Unquestioned221 welcome and undoubted blest.--

  Give me some help here, ho!-- If thou proceed

  As high as word223, my deed shall match thy deed.

  Flourish. Exeunt [the King is carried out]

  [Act 2 Scene 2]

  running scene 5

  Enter Countess and Clown [Lavatch]

  COUNTESS Come on, sir, I shall now put you to the height1 of

  your breeding.2

  LAVATCH I will show myself highly fed and lowly3 taught. I

  know my business is but to the court.

  COUNTESS To the court! Why, what place make you5 special,

  when you put off6 that with such contempt? But to the court!

  LAVATCH Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any

  manners, he may easily put8 it off at court: he that cannot

  make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand and say nothing, has

  neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and indeed such a fellow, to

  say precisely, were not for the court. But for me, I have an

  answer12 will serve all men.

  COUNTESS Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits all

  questions.

  LAVATCH It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks: the

  pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn16-buttock, or any

  buttock.

  COUNTESS Will your answer serve fit18 to all questions?

  LAVATCH As fit as ten groats19 is for the hand of an attorney, as

  your French crown for your taffety punk, as Tib's rush20 for

  Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris21

  for May Day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn22,

  as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave23, as the nun's lip to

  the friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his24 skin.

  COUNTESS Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all

  questions?

  LAVATCH From below your duke to beneath your constable, it

  will fit any question.

  COUNTESS It must be an answer of most monstrous size that

  must fit all demands.

  LAVATCH But a trifle neither31, 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.

  COUNTESS To be young again, if we could. I will be a fool in34

  question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you,

  sir, are you a courtier?

  LAVATCH O lord, sir! There's a simple putting off.37 More, more,

  a hundred of them.

  COUNTESS Sir, I am a poor friend of yours that loves you.

  LAVATCH O lord, sir! Thick40, thick, spare not me.

  COUNTESS I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.41

  LAVATCH O lord, sir! Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.

  COUNTESS You were lately whipped, sir, as I think.

  LAVATCH O lord, sir! Spare not me.

  COUNTESS Do you cry, 'O lord, sir!' at your whipping, and

  'Spare not me'? Indeed your 'O lord, sir!' is very sequent46 to

  your whipping: you would answer47 very well to a whipping, if

  you were but bound to't.48

  LAVATCH I ne'er had worse luck in my life in my 'O lord, sir!' I

  see things may serve long, but not serve ever.

  COUNTESS I play the noble51 housewife with the time

  To entertain it so merrily with a fool.

  LAVATCH O lord, sir! Why, there't serves well again.

  COUNTESS An end, sir. To your business. Give Helen this,

  Gives a letter

  And urge her to a present answer back. Commend55

  me to my kinsmen and my son. This is not much.

  LAVATCH Not much commendation to them.

  COUNTESS Not much employment for you. You understand me?

  LAVATCH Most fruitfully. I am there before my legs.59

  COUNTESS Haste you again.60

  Exeunt [separately]

  [Act 2 Scene 3]

  running scene 6

  Enter Coun
t [Bertram], Lafew and Parolles

  LAFEW They say miracles are past, and we have our

  philosophical persons to make modern and familiar, things2

  supernatural and causeless.3 Hence is it that we make trifles

  of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into4 seeming knowledge

  when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.5

  PAROLLES Why, 'tis the rarest argument5 of wonder that hath

  shot out in our latter7 times.

  BERTRAM And so 'tis.

  LAFEW To be relinquished of the artists9--

  PAROLLES So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus.10

  LAFEW Of all the learned and authentic fellows11--

  PAROLLES Right, so I say.

  LAFEW That gave him out13 incurable--

  PAROLLES Why, there 'tis. So say I too.

  LAFEW Not to be helped --

  PAROLLES Right. As 'twere a man assured of a--

  LAFEW Uncertain life and sure death.

  PAROLLES Just18, you say well. So would I have said.

  LAFEW I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world.

  PAROLLES It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing20, you shall

  read it in-- what-do-ye-call there?

  Points to the ballad Lafew holds

  Reads

  LAFEW 'A showing of a heavenly effect in an

  earthly actor.'

  PAROLLES That's it. I would have said the very same.

  LAFEW Why, your dolphin is not lustier. 'Fore me25, I speak in

  respect--

  PAROLLES Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange. That is the brief27

  and the tedious of it, and he's of a most facinerious28 spirit

  that will not acknowledge it to be the--

  LAFEW Very hand of heaven.

  PAROLLES Ay, so I say.

  LAFEW In a most weak--

  PAROLLES And debile minister33, great power, great transcendence,

  which should indeed give us a further use to be made

  than alone the recovery of the king, as to be--

  LAFEW Generally36 thankful.

  Enter King, Helen and Attendants

  PAROLLES I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the

  king.

  Lafew and Parolles stand aside

  LAFEW Lustigue, as the Dutchman39 says. I'll like a maid the

  better whilst I have a tooth40 in my head. Why, he's able to lead

  her a coranto.41

  PAROLLES Mor du vinager!42 Is not this Helen?

  LAFEW 'Fore God, I think so.

  KING Go, call before me all the lords in court.

  [Exit Attendant]

  Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side,

  Helen sits

  And with this healthful hand, whose banished sense46

  Thou hast repealed47, a second time receive

  The confirmation of my promised gift,

  Which but attends49 thy naming.

  Enter three or four Lords

  Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel50

  Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing51,

  O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice

  I have to use. Thy frank election53 make.

  Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.54

  HELEN To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress