All's Well That Ends Well/Act 1

==ACT I.==
=== SCENE 1. Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS'S palace. ===
[Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black.]
COUNTESS.
:In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
BERTRAM.
:And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew;
:but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in
:ward, evermore in subjection.
LAFEU.
:You shall find of the king a husband, madam;—you, sir, a father:
:he that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold
:his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it
:wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.
COUNTESS.
:What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?
LAFEU.
:He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he
:hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in
:the process but only the losing of hope by time.
COUNTESS.
:This young gentlewoman had a father—O, that 'had!' how
:sad a passage 'tis!—whose skill was almost as great as his
:honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature
:immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for
:the king's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of
:the king's disease.
LAFEU.
:How called you the man you speak of, madam?
COUNTESS.
:He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right
:to be so—Gerard de Narbon.
LAFEU.
:He was excellent indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke
:of him admiringly and mourningly; he was skilful enough to have
:liv'd still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.
BERTRAM.
:What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?
LAFEU.
:A fistula, my lord.
BERTRAM.
:I heard not of it before.
LAFEU.
:I would it were not notorious.—Was this gentlewoman the
:daughter of Gerard de Narbon?
COUNTESS.
:His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have
:those hopes of her good that her education promises; her
:dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for
:where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there
:commendations go with pity,—they are virtues and traitors too:
:in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her
:honesty, and achieves her goodness.
LAFEU.
:Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.
COUNTESS.
:'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The
:remembrance of her father never approaches her heart but the
:tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No
:more of this, Helena,—go to, no more, lest it be rather thought
:you affect a sorrow than to have.
HELENA.
:I do affect a sorrow indeed; but I have it too.
LAFEU.
:Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief
:the enemy to the living.
COUNTESS.
:If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon
:mortal.
BERTRAM.
:Madam, I desire your holy wishes.
LAFEU.
:How understand we that?
COUNTESS.
:Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father
:In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue
:Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
:Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
:Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
:Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
:Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
:But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,
:That thee may furnish and my prayers pluck down,
:Fall on thy head! Farewell.—My lord,
:'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord,
:Advise him.
LAFEU.
:He cannot want the best
:That shall attend his love.
COUNTESS.
:Heaven bless him!—Farewell, Bertram.
[Exit COUNTESS.]
BERTRAM.
:The best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts [To HELENA.]
:be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress,
:and make much of her.
LAFEU.
:Farewell, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of your father.
[Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU.]
HELENA.
: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't 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:
:But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
:Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here?
:One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;
:And yet I know him a notorious liar,
:Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
:Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him
:That they take place when virtue's steely bones
:Looks bleak i' the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
:Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
[Enter PAROLLES.]
PAROLLES.
:Save you, fair queen!
HELENA.
:And you, monarch!
PAROLLES.
:No.
HELENA.
:And no.
PAROLLES.
:Are you meditating on virginity?
HELENA.
:Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you: let me ask you a
:question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it
:against him?
PAROLLES.
:Keep him out.
HELENA.
:But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the
:defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance.
PAROLLES.
:There is none: man, setting down before you, will undermine you
:and blow you up.
HELENA.
:Bless our poor virginity from underminers and blowers-up!—Is
:there no military policy how virgins might blow up men?
PAROLLES.
:Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up:
:marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves
:made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth
:of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational
:increase; and there was never virgin got till virginity was first
:lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity
:by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it
:is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it!
HELENA.
:I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.
PAROLLES.
: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 inhibited 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
:it!
HELENA.
:How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?
PAROLLES.
:Let me see: marry, ill to like him that ne'er it likes. '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
:the toothpick, which wear not now. Your date 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 drily; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was
:formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a wither'd pear. Will you
:anything with it?
HELENA.
:Not my virginity yet.
: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,
: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,—
PAROLLES.
:What one, i' faith?
HELENA.
:That I wish well.—'Tis pity—
PAROLLES.
:What's pity?
HELENA.
: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
:And show what we alone must think; which never
:Returns us thanks.
[Enter a PAGE.]
PAGE.
:Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for you.
[Exit PAGE.]
PAROLLES.
:Little Helen, farewell: if I can remember thee, I will
:think of thee at court.
HELENA.
:Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star.
PAROLLES.
:Under Mars, I.
HELENA.
:I especially think, under Mars.
PAROLLES.
:Why under Mars?
HELENA.
:The wars hath so kept you under that you must needs be born
:under Mars.
PAROLLES.
:When he was predominant.
HELENA.
:When he was retrograde, I think, rather.
PAROLLES.
:Why think you so?
HELENA.
:You go so much backward when you fight.
PAROLLES.
:That's for advantage.
HELENA.
:So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: but the
:composition that your valour and fear makes in you is a virtue of
:a good wing, and I like the wear well.
PAROLLES.
:I am so full of business I cannot answer thee acutely. I
:will return perfect courtier; in the which my instruction shall
:serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's
:counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else
:thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes
:thee away: farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers;
:when thou hast none, remember thy friends: get thee a good
:husband, and use him as he uses thee: so, farewell.
[Exit.]
HELENA.
:Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
:Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
:Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull
:Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
:What power is it which mounts my love so high,—
:That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
:The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
:To join like likes, and kiss like native things.
:Impossible be strange attempts to those
:That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose
:What hath been cannot be: who ever strove
:To show her merit that did miss her love?
:The king's disease,—my project may deceive me,
:But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me.
[Exit.]
===SCENE 2. Paris. A room in the King's palace.===
[Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING OF FRANCE, with letters; Lords and others attending.]
KING.
:The Florentines and Senoys are by the ears;
:Have fought with equal fortune, and continue
:A braving war.
FIRST LORD.
:So 'tis reported, sir.
KING.
:Nay, 'tis most credible; we here receive it,
:A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria,
:With caution, that the Florentine will move us
:For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend
:Prejudicates the business, and would seem
:To have us make denial.
FIRST LORD.
:His love and wisdom,
:Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead
:For amplest credence.
KING.
:He hath arm'd our answer,
:And Florence is denied before he comes:
:Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see
:The Tuscan service, freely have they leave
:To stand on either part.
SECOND LORD.
:It well may serve
:A nursery to our gentry, who are sick
:For breathing and exploit.
KING.
:What's he comes here?
[Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.]
FIRST LORD.
:It is the Count Rousillon, my good lord,
:Young Bertram.
KING.
:Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face;
:Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,
:Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts
:Mayst thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.
BERTRAM.
:My thanks and duty are your majesty's.
KING.
:I would I had that corporal soundness now,
:As when thy father and myself in friendship
:First tried our soldiership! He did look far
:Into the service of the time, and was
:Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long;
:But on us both did haggish age steal on,
:And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
:To talk of your good father. In his youth
:He had the wit which I can well observe
:To-day in our young lords; but they may jest
:Till their own scorn return to them unnoted,
:Ere they can hide their levity in honour
:So like a courtier: contempt nor bitterness
:Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,
:His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,
:Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
:Exception bid him speak, and at this time
:His tongue obey'd his hand: who were below him
:He us'd as creatures of another place;
:And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
:Making them proud of his humility,
:In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man
:Might be a copy to these younger times;
:Which, follow'd well, would demonstrate them now
:But goers backward.
BERTRAM.
:His good remembrance, sir,
:Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;
:So in approof lives not his epitaph
:As in your royal speech.
KING.
:Would I were with him! He would always say,—
:Methinks I hear him now; his plausive words
:He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them
:To grow there, and to bear,—'Let me not live,'—
:This his good melancholy oft began,
:On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
:When it was out,—'Let me not live' quoth he,
:'After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff
:Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses
:All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
: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.
SECOND LORD.
:You're 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.
BERTRAM.
:Some six months since, my lord.
KING.
:If he were living, I would try him yet;—
:Lend 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.
BERTRAM.
:Thank your majesty.
[Exeunt. Flourish.]
===SCENE 3. Rousillon. A Room in the Palace.===
[Enter COUNTESS, STEWARD, and CLOWN.]
COUNTESS.
:I will now hear: what say you of this gentlewoman?
STEWARD.
: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.
COUNTESS.
: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.
CLOWN.
:'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.
COUNTESS.
:Well, sir.
CLOWN.
: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, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may.
COUNTESS.
:Wilt thou needs be a beggar?
CLOWN.
:I do beg your good will in this case.
COUNTESS.
:In what case?
CLOWN.
:In Isbel'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 bairns are blessings.
COUNTESS.
:Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
CLOWN.
:My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the
:flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.
COUNTESS.
:Is this all your worship's reason?
CLOWN.
:Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are.
COUNTESS.
:May the world know them?
CLOWN.
:I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh
:and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry that I may repent.
COUNTESS.
:Thy marriage, sooner than thy wickedness.
CLOWN.
:I am out of friends, madam, and I hope to have friends for
:my wife's sake.
COUNTESS.
:Such friends are thine enemies, knave.
CLOWN.
:Y'are shallow, madam, in great friends: for the knaves come
:to do that for me which I am a-weary of. He that ears my land
:spares my team, and gives me leave to in the crop: if I be his
:cuckold, he's my drudge: he that comforts my wife is the
:cherisher of my flesh and blood; he that cherishes my flesh and
:blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and blood
:is my friend; ergo, he that kisses my wife is my friend. If men
:could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in
:marriage; for young Charbon the puritan and old Poysam the
:papist, howsome'er their hearts are severed in religion, their
:heads are both one; they may joll horns together like any deer
:i' the herd.
COUNTESS.
:Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and calumnious knave?
CLOWN.
:A prophet I, madam; and I speak the truth the next way:
: For I the ballad will repeat,
: Which men full true shall find;
: Your marriage comes by destiny,
: Your cuckoo sings by kind.
COUNTESS.
:Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you more anon.
STEWARD.
:May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you; of her I
:am to speak.
COUNTESS.
:Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman I would speak with her; Helen I mean.
CLOWN.
:[Sings.]
: Was this fair face the cause, quoth she
: Why the Grecians sacked Troy?
: Fond done, done fond,
: Was this King Priam's joy?
: With that she sighed as she stood,
: With that she sighed as she stood,
: And gave this sentence then:—
: Among nine bad if one be good,
: Among nine bad if one be good,
: There's yet one good in ten.
COUNTESS.
:What, one good in ten? you corrupt the song, sirrah.
CLOWN.
: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 before every blazing
:star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well: a man
:may draw his heart out ere he pluck one.
COUNTESS.
:You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you!
CLOWN.
: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.]
COUNTESS.
:Well, now.
STEWARD.
:I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely.
COUNTESS.
: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.
STEWARD.
: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 level; Diana no queen of virgins, that
:would suffer her poor knight surprise, 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.
COUNTESS.
: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.]
:Even so it was with me when I was young:
: If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn
: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:
:By our remembrances of days foregone,
:Such were our faults:—or then we thought them none.
[Enter HELENA.]
:Her eye is sick on't;—I observe her now.
HELENA.
:What is your pleasure, madam?
COUNTESS.
:You know, Helen,
:I am a mother to you.
HELENA.
:Mine honourable mistress.
COUNTESS.
: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?
:Why,—that you are my daughter?
HELENA.
:That I am not.
COUNTESS.
:I say, I am your mother.
HELENA.
: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.
COUNTESS.
:Nor I your mother?
HELENA.
: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,
: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?
COUNTESS.
: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.
HELENA.
:Good madam, pardon me!
COUNTESS.
:Do you love my son?
HELENA.
:Your pardon, noble mistress!
COUNTESS.
:Love you my son?
HELENA.
:Do not you love him, madam?
COUNTESS.
: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.
HELENA.
: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 lov'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 captious 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,
:Did ever, in so true a flame of liking,
:Wish chastely, and love dearly, that your Dian
:Was both herself and love; 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!
COUNTESS.
:Had you not lately an intent,—speak truly,—
:To go to Paris?
HELENA.
:Madam, I had.
COUNTESS.
:Wherefore? tell true.
HELENA.
:I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear.
:You know my father left me some prescriptions
:Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading
:And manifest experience had collected
:For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me
:In heedfullest reservation to bestow them,
:As notes whose faculties inclusive were
:More than they were in note: amongst the rest
:There is a remedy, approv'd, set down,
:To cure the desperate languishings whereof
:The king is render'd lost.
COUNTESS.
:This was your motive
:For Paris, was it? speak.
HELENA.
:My lord your son made me to think of this;
:Else Paris, and the medicine, and the king,
:Had from the conversation of my thoughts
:Haply been absent then.
COUNTESS.
:But think you, Helen,
:If you should tender your supposed aid,
:He would receive it? He and his physicians
:Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him;
:They, that they cannot help: how shall they credit
:A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,
:Embowell'd of their doctrine, have let off
:The danger to itself?
HELENA.
:There's something in't
:More than my father's skill, which was the greatest
:Of his profession, that his good receipt
:Shall, for my legacy, be sanctified
:By th' luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour
:But give me leave to try success, I'd venture
:The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure.
:By such a day and hour.
COUNTESS.
:Dost thou believe't?
HELENA.
:Ay, madam, knowingly.
COUNTESS.
:Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave, and love,
:Means, and attendants, and my loving greetings
:To those of mine in court: I'll stay at home,
:And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:
:Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
:What I can help thee to thou shalt not miss.
[Exeunt.]
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