COUNT. Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you more anon. 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? Was this King Priam's joy? And gave this sentence then ; Among nine bad if one be good, There's yet one good in ten. 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, 80 if I were the parson: one in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but one every blazing star, or 66 seq.] An obvious quotation from some old ballad about the siege of Troy. Cf. "St. George and the Dragon," in Percy's Reliques, which opens: "Of Hector's deeds did Homer sing; and of the sack of stately Troy, 80 tithe-woman] tenth woman. Probably the correct version of the song represented one woman to be bad out of every ten, a ratio which the clown roguishly reverses. at an earthquake, 't would mend the lottery well: a man may draw his heart out, ere a' pluck one. COUNT. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you. CLO. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done! Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. I am 90 going, forsooth: the business is for Helen to come hither. [Exit. COUNT. Well, now. STEW. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. COUNT. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds: there is more owing her than is paid; and more shall be paid her than she 'll demand. 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 89-90 wear the surplice . . . black gown] conform outwardly to the law. The reference is to the antipathy of the Puritan to the surplice which the law enjoined, and his exclusive devotion to the black gown. 98 level; 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 touch 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. 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. Enter HELENA Even so it was with me when I was young: [Exit Steward. 112 If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn 120 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: 106 queen of virgins] The obvious lacuna in this line evoked Theobald's brilliant emendation, Diana no queen of virgins, which is commonly adopted. This reading, which should be compared with line 203 ("your Dian"), implies that "poor knight" (1. 107) is "a poor female votary." This interpretation is fully supported by the Two Noble Kinsmen, V, i, 140-144: "O sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen who to thy female knights Allow'st no more blood," etc. Cf. Much Ado, V, iii, 13, where Hero is called "virgin knight." ... By our remembrances of days foregone, Such were our faults, or then we thought them none. I am a mother to you. HEL. Mine honourable mistress. COUNT. Why not a mother? You know, Helen, Nay, a mother: 130 Methought you saw a serpent: what's in "mother," That were enwombed mine: 't is often seen You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan, HEL. COUNT. I say, I am your mother. HEL. That I am not. Pardon, madam; The Count Rousillon cannot be my brother: 142-143] Cf. Lucrece, 1586, 1587: "And round about her tear-distained eye Blue circles stream'd, like rainbows in the sky." 140 No note upon my parents, his all noble: My master, my dear lord he is; and I COUNT. Nor I your mother? HEL. You are my mother, madam; would you were, So that my lord your son were not my brother, So I were not his sister. Can't no other, But I your daughter, he must be my brother? COUNT. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-inlaw: God shield you mean it not! daughter and mother 160 So strive .. pulse] So strain, excite your feeling. 162 loneliness] Theobald's admirable emendation for the old reading loveliness. 164-165 invention passion] Falsehood would be ashamed to deny the fact in face of the plain avowal you made of your passion. 150 160 |