Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate,
Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer.
Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
My fancy to your eyes. When I consider,
What great creation, and what dole of honor,
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 A counterpoise; if not to thy estate,

A balance more replete.

I take her hand.

Ber.
King. Good fortune, and the favor of the king,
Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be performed to-night: 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 King, BERTRAM, HELENA, Lords, and Attendants.

Laf. Do you hear, monsieur? A word with you. Par. Your pleasure, sir?

Laf. Your lord and master did well to make his re

cantation.

Par. Recantation! My lord? My master?
Laf. Ay; is it not a language I speak?

Par. A most harsh one; and not to be understood without bloody succeeding. My master?

Laf. Are you companion to the count Rousillon ? Par. To any count; to all counts; to what is

man.

Laf. To what is count's man; count's master is of another style.

1 Shakspeare uses expedient and expediently in the sense of expeditiously; and brief in the sense of a short note or intimation concerning any business, and sometimes without the idea of writing.

Par. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

Laf. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee.

Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

Laf. 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 vessel of too great a burden. 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 art scarce worth. Par. Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,

2

Laf. 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.

Par. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity. Laf. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy

of it.

Par. I have not, my lord, deserved it.

Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not bate thee a scruple.

Par. Well, I shall be wiser.

Laf. E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack o' the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf, and beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be 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,3 he is a man I know. Par. My lord, you do me most insupportable vex

ation.

Laf. I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my

1 i. e. while I sat twice with thee at dinner.

2 To take up is to contradict, to call to account; as well as to pick off the ground.

3 i. e. at a need.

1

poor doing eternal: for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave.' [Exit. Par. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord!-Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age, than I would have of—l'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.

Re-enter LAFEU.

Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's married; there's news for you; you have a new mistress.

Par. I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs. He is my good lord; whom I serve above, is my master.

Laf. Who? God?

Par. Ay, sir.

Laf. The devil it is, that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? Dost make hose of thy sleeves? Do other servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine honor, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat thee; methinks thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee. Par. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

2

Laf. Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for pick ing a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller; you are more saucy with lords, and honorable personages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission. You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit.

1 There is a poor conceit here hardly worth explaining:-"Doing I am past," says Lafeu, "as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave;" i. e. " as I will pass by thee as fast as I am able:" and he immediately goes out.

2 Exercise.

VOL. II.

49

Enter BERTRAM.

Par. Good, very good; it is so then.-Good, very good; let it be concealed awhile.

Ber. Undone, and forfeited to cares forever!
Par. What is the matter, sweet heart?

Ber. Although before the solemn priest I have

sworn,

I will not bed her.

Par. What? what, sweet heart?

Ber. O my Parolles, they have married me!I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her.

Par. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits The tread of a man's foot. To the wars!

Ber. There's letters from my mother; what the import is,

I know not yet.

Par. Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!

He wears his honor in a box unseen,

That hugs his kicksy-wicksy1 here at home,
Spending his manly marrow in her arms,

Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions!
France is a stable; we, that dwell in't, jades;
Therefore, to the war!

Ber. It shall be so; I'll send her to my house,
Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,
And wherefore I am fled; write to the king
That which I durst not speak. His present gift
Shall furnish me to those Italian fields

Where noble fellows strike. War is no strife
To the dark house and the detested wife.

2

Par. Will this capricio hold in thee, art sure? Ber. Go with me to my chamber, and advise me. I'll send her straight away. To-morrow

I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.

1 A cant term for a wife.

• The dark house is a house made gloomy by discontent.

Par. Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it.

'Tis hard;

A young man, married, is a man that's marred:
Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go.

The king has done you wrong; but, hush! 'tis so.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The same.

Another Room in the same.

Enter HELENA and Clown.

Hel. My mother greets me kindly; is she well? Clo. She is not well; but yet she has her health; she's very merry; but yet she is not well: but thanks be given, she's very well, and wants nothing i'the world; but yet she is not well.

Hel. If she be very well, what does she ail, that she's not very well?

Clo. Truly, she's very well, indeed, but for two things.

Hel. What two things?

Clo. One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her quickly! the other, that she's in earth, from whence God send her quickly!

Enter PAROLLES.

Par. Bless you, my fortunate lady!

Hel. I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own good fortunes.

Par. You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them on, have them still.-O, my knave! how does my old lady?

Clo. So that you had her wrinkles, and I her money, I would she did as you say.

Par. Why, I say nothing.

Clo. Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing. To say nothing, to do nothing, to know nothing, and to have nothing, is to be a great part of your title; which is within a very little of nothing.