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HEL. GENT. He hence remov'd last night, and with more haste Than is his use.

WID.

Lord, how we lose our pains! HEL. All's well that ends well, yet; Though time seem so advérse, and means unfit.— I do beseech you, whither is he gone?

GENT. Marry, as I take it, to Rousillon;
Whither I am going.

HEL.
I do beseech you, sir,
Since you are like to see the king before me,
Commend the paper to his gracious hand;
Which, I presume, shall render you no blame,
But rather make you thank your pains for it.
I will come after you, with what good speed
Our means will make us means.

GENT.

This I'll do for you. HEL. And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd,

Whate'er falls more. We must to horse again ;Go, go, provide. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Rousillon. The inner Court of the Countess's Palace.

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PAR. 'Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper. CLO. Foh! pr'ythee stand away; a paper from fortune's close-stool to give to a nobleman! Look, here he comes himself.

Enter LAFEU.

Here is a pur of fortune's, sir, or of fortune's cat, (but not a musk-cat,) that has fallen into the unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he says, is muddied withal: pray you, sir, use the carp as you may, for he looks like a poor, decayed, ingenious, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his distress in my smiles of comfort, and leave him to your lordship. [Exit Clown.

PAR. My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched.

LAF. And what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her nails now. Wherein have you played the knave with fortune, that she should scratch you, who of herself is a good lady, and would not have knaves thrive long under her? There's

a quart d'écu for you: let the justices make you and fortune friends; I am for other business.

PAR. I beseech your honour, to hear me one single word.

LAF. You beg a single penny more: come, you shall ha't; save your word.

PAR. My name, my good lord, is Parolles. LAF. You beg more than word," then.-Cox' my passion! give me your hand. How does your drum?

PAR. O my good lord, you were the first that found me.

LAF. Was I, in sooth? and I was the first that lost thee.

PAR. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace, for you did bring me out.

LAF. Out upon thee, knave! dost thou put upon me at once both the office of God and the devil? one brings thee in grace, and the other brings thee out. Trumpets sound.] The king's coming, I know by his trumpets.-Sirrah, inquire further after me; I had talk of you last night; though you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat; go to, follow. PAR. I praise God for you.

[Exeunt.

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I have forgiven and forgotten all;
Though my revenges were high bent upon him,
And watch'd the time to shoot.
LAF.
This I must say,-
But first I beg my pardon,-the young lord
Did to his majesty, his mother, and his lady,
Offence of mighty note; but to himself
The greatest wrong of all: he lost a wife,
Whose beauty did astonish the survey

Of richest eyes, whose words all ears took captive;
Whose dear perfection, hearts that scorn'd to serve,
Humbly call'd mistress.

KING.

Praising what is lost, Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;

We are reconcil'd, and the first view shall kill
All repetition.-Let him not ask our pardon;
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion we do bury
The incensing relics of it: let him approach,
A stranger, no offender; and inform him,
So 'tis our will he should.
GENT.

I shall, my liege. [Exit Gentleman. KING. What says he to your daughter? have you spoke?

LAF. All that he is hath reference to your highness.

KING. Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent me, That set him high in fame.

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The inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them. You remember
The daughter of this lord?

BER. Admiringly, my liege: at first
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue:
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stol'n;
Extended or contracted all proportions,
To a most hideous object: thence it came, [self,
That she, whom all men prais'd, and whom my-
Since I have lost, have lov'd, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.

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That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away From the great compt: but love that comes too late,

Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, That's good that's gone. Our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them, until we know their grave:
Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust:
Our own love waking cries to see what's done,
While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.
Be this sweet Helen's knell, and now forget her.
Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin:
The main consents are had, and here we'll stay
To see our widower's second marriage-day.

COUNT. Which better than the first, O dear
heaven, bless!

Or, ere they meet, in me O nature cesse ! [name
LAF. Come on, my son, in whom my house's
Must be digested, give a favour from you,
To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,
That she may quickly come. By my old beard,
And every hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead,
Was a sweet creature; such a ring as this,
The last that e'er I took her leave at court,
I saw upon her finger.
BER.
Hers it was not.
KING. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine

eye,

b

While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to 't.
This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen,
I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood
Necessitied to help, that by this token

I would relieve her. Had you that craft, to 'reave her

a Which better than the first, &c.] These two lines form part of the King's speech in the original. Theobald made the present arrangement.

b The last that e'er I took her leave at court,-] Which means, The last time that ever I took leave of her at court.

• Ingag'd:] Ingaged is here used to imply unengaged, or disengaged, as the old writers employ inhabited to express uninhabited.

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And mak'st conjectural+ fears to come into me,
Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove
That thou art so inhuman,-'t will not prove so ;-
And yet I know not :-thou didst hate her deadly,
And she is dead; which nothing, but to close
Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,
More than to see this ring.-Take him away.-
My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,
Shall tax my fears of little vanity, d

Having vainly fear'd too little.-Away with him;-
We'll sift this matter further.

BER.

If you shall prove This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence, Where yet she never was.

(*) Old text, Platus.

[Exit BERTRAM, guarded.

(+) First folio, connectural. (1) First folio, taze.

d Shall tax my fears of little vanity,-] "The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational, I have rather been hitherto more easy than I ought, and have unreasonably had too little fear."-JOHNSON.

Enter a Gentleman.

Gracious sovereign,

KING. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings.
GENT.
Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not;
Here's a petition from a Florentine,

Who hath, for four or five removes, come short
To tender it herself. I undertook it,
Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech
Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know,
Is here attending: her business looks in her
With an importing visage, and she told me,
In a sweet verbal brief, it did concern
Your highness with herself.

KING. [Reads.] Upon his many protestations to marry me, when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the count Rousillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my honour's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, and I follow him to his country for justice. Grant it me, O king, in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor maid is undone. DIANA CAPULET.

LAF. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll; for this, I'll none of him.

[Lafeu,

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DIA. Why do you look so strange upon your
BER. She's none of mine, my lord.
If you shall marry,

DIA.

You give away this hand, and that is mine;
You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine;
You give away myself, which is known mine;
For I by vow am so embodied yours,

That she, which marries you, must marry me,
Either both or none.

LAF. Your reputation [To BERTRAM.] comes. too short for my daughter, you are no husband for her.

BER. My lord, this is a fond and desperate creature, [highness Whom sometime I have laugh'd with: let your Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour, Than for to think that I would sink it here.

KING. Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill
to friend,
[honour,
Till your deeds gain them: fairer prove your
Than in my thought it lies!
DIA.
Good my lord,
Ask him upon his oath, if he does think
He had not my virginity.

KING. What say'st thou to her?
BER.

She's impudent, my lord, And was a common gamester to the camp.

DIA. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so,
He might have bought me at a common price:
Do not believe him: O, behold this ring,
Whose high respect, and rich validity,
Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that,
He it to a commoner o' the camp,
gave
If I be one.

COUNT. He blushes, and 'tis it:
Of six preceding ancestors, that gem
Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue,
Hath it been ow'd and worn. This is his wife;
That ring's a thousand proofs.

KING.
Methought, you said,
You saw one here in court could witness it.
DIA. I did, my lord, but loath am to produce
So bad an instrument; his name's Parolles.
LAF. I saw the man to-day, if man he be.
KING. Find him, and bring him hither.
[Exit Attendants.
BER.
What of him?
He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,
With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd;
Whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth.

b I wonder, sir, since wives, &c.] The old text is, "I wonder, sir, sir, wives," &c. The correction is due to Tyrwhitt.

c Re-enter, &c.] In the ancient stage direction, "Enter Widow, Diana, and Parolles."

Am I or that, or this, for what he'll utter,
That will speak any thing?

KING.
She hath that ring of yours.
BER. I think, she has: certain it is, I lik'd her,
And boarded her i' the wanton way of youth:
She knew her distance, and did angle for me,
Madding my eagerness with her restraint,
As all impediments in fancy's course
Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine,
Her infinite cunning with her modern grace,
Subdued me to her rate; she got the ring,
And I had that, which any inferior might
At market-price have bought.

DIA.

I must be patient; You, that turn'd off a first so noble wife, May justly diet me. I pray you yet, (Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband,) Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.

I have it not.

BER.
KING. What ring was yours, I pray you u?
Sir, much like
[of late.

DIA.

The same upon your finger.

KING. Know you this ring? this ring was his DIA. And this was it I gave him, being a-bed. KING. The story then goes false, you threw it him

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charge you,

Not fearing the displeasure of your master, (Which, on your just proceeding, I'll keep off,) By him, and by this woman here, what know you?

PAR. So please your majesty, my master hath been an honourable gentleman; tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.

KING. Come, come, to the purpose: did he love this woman?

PAR. 'Faith, sir, he did love her; but how!
KING. How, I pray you?
[a woman.

PAR. He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves
KING. How is that?

PAR. He loved her, sir, and loved her not. KING. As thou art a knave, and no knave: what an equivocal companion is this?

a Her infinite cunning with her modern grace,-] The old copy reads, "Her insuite comming," &c. The extremely happy emendation in the text was first suggested by the late Mr. Sidney Walker, and has since been found among the annotations of Mr. Collier's "Old Corrector."

PAR. I am a poor man, and at your majesty's command.

LAF. He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty

orator.

DIA. Do you know, he promised me marriage? PAR. 'Faith, I know more than I'll speak. KING. But wilt thou not speak all thou know'st? PAR. Yes, so please your majesty; I did go between them, as I said; but more than that, he loved her—for, indeed, he was mad for her, and talked of Satan, and of limbo, and of furies, and I know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time, that I knew of their going to bed, and of other motions, as, promising her marriage, and things that would derive me ill-will to speak of, therefore I will not speak what I know.

KING. Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are married. But thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore stand aside.— This ring, you say, was yours?

DIA.
Ay, my good lord.
KING. Where did you buy it? or who gave it

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