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Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph
As in your royal speech.

King. Would I were with him! He would always say,

Methinks I hear him now; his plausive words
He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there, and to bear,-"Let me not
live,"

This his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
When it was out,-"Let me not live," quoth he,

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66 After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff 59 Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive1 senses All but newthings disdain; whose judgments are Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies

Expire before their fashions:"-this he wish'd:
I, after him, do after him wish too,

Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home,
I quickly were dissolved from my hive,
To give some labourers room.

Sec. Lord.
You're loved, sir;
They that least lend it2 you shall lack3 you first.
King. I fill a place, I know 't. -How long
is 't, count,

Since the physician at your father's died? 70 He was much fam'd.

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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. Count. Thy marriage, wickedness.

sooner than thy

41

Clo. I am out o' friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's sake.

Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave.

Clo. You're shallow, madam, in great friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a-weary of. He that ears my land spares my team, and gives me leave to in the crop; if I be his cuckold, he's my drudge: he that comforts my wife is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; he that cherishes my flesh and blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and blood is my friend: ergo, he that kisses my wife is my friend. If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage; for young Charbon the puritan and old Poysam the papist, howsome'er their hearts are severed in religion, their heads are both one, they may joul horns together, like any deer i' the herd. Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouthed and calumnious knave?

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Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you: of her I am to speak. Count. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman I would speak with her; Helen I mean.

Clo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth she,
Why the Grecians sacked Troy?
Fond2 done, done fond,

Was this King Priam's joy?
With that she sighed as she stood,
With that she sighed as she stood,

And gave this sentence then;
Among nine bad if one be good,
Among nine bad if one be good,
There's yet one good in ten.

80

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 tithe-woman, if I were the parson: one in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but one every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 't would mend the lottery well: a man may draw his heart out, ere 'a pluck one.

93

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Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her than I think she wished me: alone she was, and 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, she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two estates; Love no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; [Dian no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight surprised, without rescue in the first assault, or ransom afterward.] This she delivered in the most bitter touch3 of sorrow that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal; sithence, in the loss that may happen, it concerns you something to know it.

126

Count. You have discharged this honestly; [keep it to yourself: many likelihoods informed me of this before, which hung so tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe nor misdoubt.] Pray you, leave me: stall this in your bosom; and I thank you for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon. [Exit Steward.

Enter HELENA. [Even so it was with me when I was young: If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn

Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong;

Our blood to us, this to our blood is born; It is the show and seal of nature's truth, Where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth:

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So that my lord your son were not my brotherIndeed my mother!- --or were you both our mothers, 2

I care no more for3 than I do for heaven, 170
So I were not his sister. Can't no other,4
But I your daughter, he must be my brother?
Count. Yes, Helen, you might be my daugh-
ter-in-law:

[God shield, you mean it not! "daughter" and "mother"

So strive upon your pulse.] What, pale again? My fear hath catch'd your fondness: now I see [The mystery of your loneliness, and find Your salt tears' head: now to all sense 't is gross]

You love my son; invention is asham'd, Against the proclamation of thy passion, 180

1 Native, kindred, as in i. 1. 238.

2 Both our mothers, the mother of both of us.

3 I care no more for, I care as much for, wish it equally.

4 Can't no other. Can it not be otherwise, but that if I am your daughter, &c.

To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
[But tell me then, 't is so;-for, look, thy cheeks'
Confess it, th' one to th' other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,
That truth should be suspected. Speak, is't so?]
If it be so, you've wound a goodly clew;
If it be not, forswear 't: howe'er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,"
To tell me truly.

Hel.
Good madam, pardon me! 191
Count. Do you love my son?
Hel.
Count. Love you my son?

Hel.

Your pardon, noble mistress!

Do not you love him, madam? Count. Go not about; my love hath in 't a bond,8

Whereof the world takes note: come, come,

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My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:
Be not offended; for it hurts not him,
That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous suit;
Nor would I have him till I do deserve him;
Yet never know how that desert should be.
[I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet in this captious and intenible 10 sieve
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore

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After well enter'd soldiers, to return
And find your grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart

Will not confess he owes the malady
That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young
lords;

Whether I live or die, be you the sons
Of worthy Frenchmen: let high Italy—
Those bated that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy-see that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when

7 Gain, profit.
8 Owes, owns.
Bated, beaten down, subdued.

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