Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him is enough. On 's bed of death King. 120 We thank you, maiden; But may not be so credulous of cure, When our most learned doctors leave us, and The congregated college have concluded That labouring art can never ransom nature From her inaidible estate,-I say we must not So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malady To émpirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. Hel. My duty, then, shall pay me for my pains: I will no more enforce mine office on you; Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modest one, to bear me back again. 131 Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward. Hel. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:5 It is not so with Him that all things knows, As 't is with us that square our guess by shows; But most it is presumption in us when The help of heaven we count the act of men. Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent; Of heaven, not me, make an experiment. I am not an impostor, that proclaim 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 space Hop'st thou my cure? 159 Hel. The great'st grace lending grace, Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring; Ere twice in murk and occidental damp Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp; Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass 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? Hel. Tax of impudence,— 173 A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; nay, worse-if worse-extended 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 slay SCENE II. 180 In common sense, sense saves another way. That happiness and prime1 can happy call: But, if I help, what do you promise me? Hel. 191 But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand What husband in thy power I will command: Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of My low and humble name to propagate 200 Rousillon. The hall of the Enter COUNTESS with a letter, and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clo. I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught: I know my business is but to? the court. Count. To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court! 7 Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put 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 answer will serve all men. Count. Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits all questions. Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks, the pin-buttock," the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. Count. Will your answer serve fit to all questions? 21 Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffeta7 punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean? to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions? 31 Clo. From below your duke to beneath your constable, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of most mon-> strous size that must fit all demands. Clo. But a trifle neither, 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. Count. To be young again, if we could:-I{ 5 Pin-buttock, i.e. thin and pointed like a pin. 6 Quatch-buttock, a squat or flat buttock. 7 Taffeta, a thin, soft, silk stuff. 8 A morris, a morris (Moorish) dance. 9 Quean, a hussy. Count. I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat. Clo. "O Lord, sir!"-Nay, put me to 't, I warrant you. 51 Count. You were lately whipped, sir, as I think. Clo. "O Lord, sir!"-Spare not me. Count. Do you cry, "O Lord, sir!" at your whipping, and "Spare not me"? Indeed, your "O Lord, sir!" is very sequent to your whipping: you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to 't.1 Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life in my "O Lord, sir!" I see things may serve long, but not serve ever. 61 dern2 and familiar, things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.4 Par. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our latter times. Ber. And so 't is. Laf. To be relinquished of the artists,— 10 Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows, Par. Right; so I say. Laf. That gave him out incurable,— Par. Why, there 't is; so say I too. Laf. Not to be helped,- 20 Par. Right; as 't were a man assured of a— Laf. Uncertain life, and sure death. Par. Just, you say well; so would I have said. Laf. I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world. Par. It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it in-what do ye call there? Laf. A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor. Par. That's it; I would have said the very |