The arden shakespeare co.., p.36
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 36
facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be
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the –
LAFEW Very hand of heaven.
PAROLLES Ay, so I say.
LAFEW In a most weak –
PAROLLES And debile minister; great power, great
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transcendence, which should indeed give us a further
use to be made than alone the recov’ry of the king, as
to be –
LAFEW Generally thankful.
Enter KING, HELENA and attendants.
PAROLLES I would have said it; you say well. Here
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comes the king.
LAFEW Lustique, as the Dutchman says. I’ll like a maid
the better whilst I have a tooth in my head. Why, he’s
able to lead her a coranto.
PAROLLES Mor du vinager! Is not this Helen?
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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,
And with this healthful hand, whose banish’d sense
Thou hast repeal’d, a second time receive
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The confirmation of my promis’d gift,
Which but attends thy naming.
Enter three or four Lords.
Fair maid, send forth thine eye. This youthful parcel
Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
O’er whom both sovereign power and father’s voice
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I have to use. Thy frank election make;
Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.
HELENA To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when love please! Marry, to each but one!
LAFEW I’d give bay curtal and his furniture
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My mouth no more were broken than these boys’,
And writ as little beard.
KING Peruse them well.
Not one of those but had a noble father.
[She addresses her to a Lord.]
HELENA Gentlemen,
Heaven hath through me restor’d the king to health.
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ALL We understand it, and thank heaven for you.
HELENA I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest
That I protest I simply am a maid.
Please it your majesty, I have done already.
The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me:
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‘We blush that thou should’st choose; but, be refused,
Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever,
We’ll ne’er come there again.’
KING Make choice, and see,
Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.
HELENA Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,
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And to imperial Love, that god most high
Do my sighs stream.
[to First Lord] Sir, will you hear my suit?
1 LORD And grant it.
HELENA Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.
LAFEW I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-
ace for my life.
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HELENA [to Second Lord]
The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes
Before I speak, too threat’ningly replies.
Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
2 LORD No better, if you please.
HELENA My wish receive,
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Which great Love grant; and so I take my leave.
LAFEW Do all they deny her? And they were sons of
mine I’d have them whipp’d, or I would send them to
th’ Turk to make eunuchs of.
HELENA [to Third Lord]
Be not afraid that I your hand should take;
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I’ll never do you wrong, for your own sake.
Blessing upon your vows, and in your bed
Find fairer fortune if you ever wed!
LAFEW These boys are boys of ice; they’ll none have
her. Sure they are bastards to the English; the French
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ne’er got ’em.
HELENA [to Fourth Lord]
You are too young, too happy, and too good,
To make yourself a son out of my blood.
4 LORD Fair one, I think not so.
LAFEW There’s one grape yet. I am sure thy father
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drunk wine; but if thou be’st not an ass, I am a youth
of fourteen; I have known thee already.
HELENA [to Bertram] I dare not say I take you, but I give
Me and my service, ever whilst I live,
Into your guiding power. This is the man.
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KING
Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she’s thy wife.
BERTRAM
My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,
In such a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.
KING Know’st thou not, Bertram,
What she has done for me?
BERTRAM Yes, my good lord,
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But never hope to know why I should marry her.
KING
Thou know’st she has rais’d me from my sickly bed.
BERTRAM But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father’s charge –
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A poor physician’s daughter my wife! Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
KING ’Tis only title thou disdain’st in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour’d all together,
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Would quite confound distinction, yet stands off
In differences so mighty. If she be
All that is virtuous, save what thou dislik’st –
A poor physician’s daughter – thou dislik’st
Of virtue for the name. But do not so.
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From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by th’ doer’s deed.
Where great additions swell’s and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good, without a name; vileness is so:
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The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she’s immediate heir,
And these breed honour; that is honour’s scorn
Which challenges itself as honour’s born
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And is not like the sire. Honours thrive
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers. The mere word’s a slave,
Debosh’d on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb,
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Where dust and damn’d oblivion is the tomb
Of honour’d bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest. Virtue and she
Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.
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BERTRAM I cannot love her nor will strive to do’t.
KING
Thou wrong’st thyself if thou should’st strive to choose.
HELENA
That you are well restor’d, my lord, I’m glad.
Let the rest go.
KING My honour’s at the stake, which to defeat,
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I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud, scornful boy, unworthy this good gift,
That dost in vile misprision shackle up
My love and her desert; that canst not dream
We, poising us in her defective scale,
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Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know
It is in us to plant thine honour where
We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt;
Obey our will which travails in thy good;
Believe not thy disdain, but presently
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Do thine own fortunes that obedient right
Which both thy duty owes and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
Into the staggers and the careless lapse
Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate
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Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity. Speak. Thine answer.
BERTRAM Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
My fancy to your eyes. When I consider
What great creation and what dole of honour
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Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
Is as ’twere born so.
KING Take her by the hand
And tell her she is thine; to whom I promise
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A counterpoise, if not to thy estate,
A balance more replete.
BERTRAM I take her hand.
KING Good fortune and the favour of the king
Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
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And be perform’d tonight. The solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting absent friends. As thou lov’st her
Thy love’s to me religious; else, does err. Exeunt.
PAROLLES and LAFEW stay behind, commenting of this wedding.
LAFEW Do you hear, monsieur? A word with you.
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PAROLLES Your pleasure, sir.
LAFEW Your lord and master did well to make his
recantation.
PAROLLES Recantation! My lord! My master!
LAFEW Ay. Is it not a language I speak?
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PAROLLES A most harsh one, and not to be understood
without bloody succeeding. My master!
LAFEW Are you companion to the Count Rossillion?
PAROLLES To any Count; to all Counts; to what is man.
LAFEW To what is Count’s man; Count’s master is of
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another style.
PAROLLES You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are
too old.
LAFEW I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which
title age cannot bring thee.
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PAROLLES What I dare too well do, I dare not do.
LAFEW I did think thee for two ordinaries to be a pretty
wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel;
it might pass. Yet the scarfs and the bannerets about
thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a
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vessel of too great a burthen. I have now found thee;
when I lose thee again I care not. Yet art thou good for
nothing but taking up, and that thou’rt scarce worth.
PAROLLES Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity
upon thee –
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LAFEW Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou
hasten thy trial; which if – Lord have mercy on thee
for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee
well; thy casement I need not open, for I look through
thee. Give me thy hand.
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PAROLLES My lord, you give me most egregious
indignity.
LAFEW Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.
PAROLLES I have not, my lord, deserv’d it.
LAFEW Yes, good faith, ev’ry dram of it; and I will not
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bate thee a scruple.
PAROLLES Well, I shall be wiser.
LAFEW Ev’n as soon as thou canst; for thou hast to pull
at a smack a’ th’ contrary. If ever thou be’st bound in
thy scarf and beaten thou shall find what it is to be
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proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold my
acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge, that
I may say, in the default, ‘He is a man I know’.
PAROLLES My lord, you do me most insupportable
vexation.
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LAFEW I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my
poor doing eternal; for doing I am past, as I will by
