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
All's Well That Ends Well Page 5