Laf. He cannot want the best That shall attend his love.

of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin

Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your fathe

[Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU. Hel. O, were that all!--I think not on my father, And these great tears grace his remembrance more Than those I shed for him. What was he like? I have forgot him: my imagination Carries no favour in it, but Bertram's. I am undone; there is no living, none, If Bertram be away. It were all one, That I should love a bright particular star, And think to wed it, he is so above me: In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere. The ambition in my love thus plagues itself: The hind, that would be mated by the lion, Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague, To see him every hour; to sit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, In our heart's table; heart, too capable Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:4 But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here?

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men?

Par. Virginity, being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, im blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth

1 i. e. may you be mistress of your wishes, and have power to bring them to effect.

2 That is, Helen's own tears, which were caused in reality by the departure of Bertram, though attributed by Lafeu and the Countess to the loss of her father, and which, from this misapprehension of theirs, graced his memory more than those she actually shed for him.

3 Helena considers her heart as the tablet on which his resemblance was portrayed.

Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself is a virgin virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibitedió sin in the canon. Keep it not: you cannot choose but lose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase, and the principal itself not much the worse: Away with't.

11

Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?

Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes.12 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unsuitable : just like the brooch and toothpick, which wear13 not now: Your date14 is better in your pie and your porridge, than in your cheek: And your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French withered pears; it looks ill, it eats dryly; marry, 'tis a wi thered pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet, 'tis a withered pear: Will you any thing with it? Hel. Not my virginity yet.1.

There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster: with a world'
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms,16
That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he-
I know not what he shall:-God send him well!-
The court's a learning-place:—and he is one
Par. What one, i'faith?

Hel. That I wish well.-'Tis pity-
Par. What's pity?

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't,
Which might be felt: that we, the poorer born,
Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends,

itself tro.' The emendation is Hanmer's. Out with it, is used equivocally. Applied to virginity, it means, give it away; part with it: considered in another light, it signifies put it out to interest, it will produce you ten for one.

12 Parolles plays upon the word liking, and says, She must do it for virginity to be so lost, must like him that likes not virginity.

13 The old copy reads were, Rowe corrected it. Shakspeare here, as in other places, uses the active for the

14 A quibble on date, which means age, and a candied fruit then much used in pies.

15 I cannot but think, with Hanmer and Johnson, that some such clause as You're for the court,' has been omitted. Unless we suppose, with Malone, that the omission is in Parolles's speech, and that he may have said, I am now bound for the court. Something of the kind is necessary to connect Helena's rhapsodical speech; she could not mean to say, that she shall prove every thing to Bertram.

16 i. e. a number of pretty, fond, adopted appellations or Christian names, to which blind Cupid stands godfather. It is often used for baptism by old writers.

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.

2 Lord.* You are lov'd, sir; They, that least lend it you, shall lack you first. King. I fill a place, I know't.-How long is't, count,

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

Ber.

Some six months since, my lord.
King. If he were living, I would try him yet;
Lead me an arm;-the rest have worn me out
With several applications:-nature and sickness
Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, count;
My son's no dearer.
Ber.

Thank your majesty.
[Exeunt. Flourish.

SCENE III. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown.'

Count. I will now hear; what say you of this gentlewoman?

Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.

Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours. Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.

Count. Well, sir.

Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damned: But, if I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isabel the woman and I will do as we may.

Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar?
Clo. I do beg your goodwill in this case.
Count. In what case?

Clo. In Isabel's case, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the blessing of God, till I have issue of my body: for, they say, bearns are blessings.

Count. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry. 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, sooner than thy wicked

ness.

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

Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. Clo. You are shallow, madam; e'en great friends; I Who have no other use of their faculties than to invent new modes of dress.

2 So in Macbeth:

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,
[Singing.

Why the Grecians sacked Troy?
Fond done, done fond,

12

Was this king Priam's joy.11
With that she sighed as she stood,
With that she sighed as she stood,

And gave this sentence then j
Among nine bad if one be good,
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, if I were the parson: One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born, but on14 every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he 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 going, forsooth: the business is for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown.

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 13 The name of Helen brings to the Clown's memory this fragment of an old ballad; something has escaped him it appears, for Paris was king Priam's only joy,' as Helen was Sir Paris's. According to two fragments. quoted by the commentators.

14 The old copy reads one. Malone substituted on. 15 The clown answers, with the licentious petulance allowed to the character, that if a man does as a wo man commands, it is likely he will do amiss;' that he does not amiss, he makes the effect not of his lady's goodness, but of his own honesty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of supe riors; and wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart;' will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection.

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; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight to be 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. [Exit Steward.

Enter HELENA.

2

Hel. Mine honourable mistress.
Count.
Nay, a mother;
Why not a mother? When I said, a mother,
Methought you saw a serpent: What's in mother,
That you start at it? I say I am your mother;
And put you in the catalogue of those

That were enwombed mine: "Tis often seen,.
Adoption strives with nature: and choice breeds
A native slip to us from foreign seeds:
You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan,
Yet I express to you a mother's care :—
God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood,
To say, I am thy mother? What's the matter,
That this distemper'd messenger of wet,
The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?5
Why ?- -that you are my daughter?
Hel.

Count. I say, I am your mother.

Hel.

That I am not.

Pardon, madam;
The count Rousillon cannot be my brother:
I am from humble, he from honour'd name;
No note upon my parents, his all noble:
My master, my dear lord he is; and I
His servant live, and will his vassal die :
He must not be my brother.

Count.
Nor I your mother?
Hel. You are my mother, madam; 'Would, you

were

(So that my lord, your son, were not my brother,) Indeed, my mother!-or were you both our mothers,

1 The old copies omit Diana. Theobald inserted the word.

2 Since.

I care no more for, than I do for heaven,
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-
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 'tis gross,
You love my son; invention is asham'd,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,
To say, thou dost not: therefore tell me true:
But tell me then, 'tis so:-for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, one to the 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 have wound a goodly clue;
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! Count. Do you love my son? Hel. Your pardon, noble mistress! Count. Love you my son? Hel.

Do not you love him, madam? Count. Go not about; my love hath in't a bond, Whereof the world takes note: come, come, disclose The state of your affection; for your passions Have to the full appeach'd.

Hel.

Then, I confess,
Here on my knee, before high heaven and you,
That before you, and next unto high heaven,
I love your son :-

My friends were poor, but honest: so's my love:
Be not offended; for it hurts not him,
That he is loy'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 captious12 and intenible 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

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,
Let not your hate encounter with my love,
For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,12
Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love;14 O then give pity
To her, whose state is such, that cannot choose
But lend and give, where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies.
Count. Had you not lately an intent, speak truly,
To go to Paris?

Madam, I had.

Hel. Count. Wherefore? tell true. Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself, I swear, You know, my father left me some prescriptions Of rare and proved effects, such as his reading, And manifest experience, had collected

12 Johnson is perplexed about this word captious, which (says he) I never found in this sense, yet I can

4 i. e. according to our recollection.

Farmer supposes captious to be a contraction of capacious! Steevens believes that captious meant recipient!

6 There is a designed ambiguity, i. e. I care as much for: I wish it equally.

7 i. e. can it be no other way, but if I be your daughter, he must be my brother?

8 Contend.

9 The old copy reads loveliness. The emendation is Theobald's. It has been proposed to read lowliness. 10 The source, the cause of your grief. 11 In their language, according to their nature.

which is printed in the old copy intemible by mistake. 13 i. c. whose respectable conduct in age proces that you were no less virtuous when young.

14 Helena means to say-If ever you wished that the deity who presides over chastity, and the queen of amorous rites, were one and the same person, or, in other words, if ever you wished for the honest and lawful completion of your chaste desires.' Malone thinks the line should be thus read :

Love dearly, and wish chastely, that your Dian,' &c