All's Well That Ends Well/Act 4

==ACT IV.==
=== SCENE 1. Without the Florentine camp. ===
[Enter first Lord with five or six Soldiers in ambush.]
FIRST LORD.
:He can come no other way but by this hedge-corner. When you sally
:upon him, speak what terrible language you will; though you
:understand it not yourselves, no matter; for we must not seem to
:understand him, unless some one among us, whom we must produce
:for an interpreter.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Good captain, let me be the interpreter.
FIRST LORD.
:Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?
FIRST SOLDIER.
:No, sir, I warrant you.
FIRST LORD.
:But what linsey-woolsey has thou to speak to us again?
FIRST SOLDIER.
:E'en such as you speak to me.
FIRST LORD.
:He must think us some band of strangers i' the adversary's
:entertainment. Now he hath a smack of all neighbouring languages,
:therefore we must every one be a man of his own fancy; not to
:know what we speak one to another, so we seem to know, is to know
:straight our purpose: choughs' language, gabble enough, and good
:enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very politic. But
:couch, ho! here he comes; to beguile two hours in a sleep, and
:then to return and swear the lies he forges.
[Enter PAROLLES.]
PAROLLES.
:Ten o'clock. Within these three hours 'twill be time enough to go
:home. What shall I say I have done? It must be a very plausive
:invention that carries it ;they begin to smoke me: and disgraces
:have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is
:too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and
:of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.
PAROLLES.
:What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this
:drum: being not ignorant of the impossibility, and knowing I had
:no such purpose? I must give myself some hurts, and say I got
:them in exploit: yet slight ones will not carry it: they will say
:Came you off with so little? and great ones I dare not give.
:Wherefore, what's the instance? Tongue, I must put you into a
:butter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule,
:if you prattle me into these perils.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is?
PAROLLES.
:I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn, or the
:breaking of my Spanish sword.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:We cannot afford you so.
PAROLLES.
:Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in stratagem.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:'Twould not do.
PAROLLES.
:Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:Hardly serve.
PAROLLES.
:Though I swore I leap'd from the window of the citadel,—
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:How deep?
PAROLLES.
:Thirty fathom.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.
PAROLLES.
:I would I had any drum of the enemy's; I would swear I recovered
:it.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
:You shall hear one anon.
PAROLLES.
:A drum now of the enemy's!
[Alarum within.]
FIRST LORD.
:Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.
ALL.
:Cargo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo.
PAROLLES.
:O, ransom, ransom! Do not hide mine eyes.
[They seize and blindfold him.]
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Boskos thromuldo boskos.
PAROLLES.
:I know you are the Muskos' regiment,
:And I shall lose my life for want of language:
:If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch,
:Italian, or French, let him speak to me;
:I'll discover that which shall undo the Florentine.
SECOND SOLDIER.
:Boskos vauvado:—I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue.
:Kerelybonto:—Sir,
:Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards
:Are at thy bosom.
PAROLLES.
:O!
FIRST SOLDIER.
:O, pray, pray, pray!—
:Manka revania dulche.
FIRST LORD.
:Oscorbi dulchos volivorco.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:The General is content to spare thee yet;
:And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on
:To gather from thee: haply thou mayst inform
:Something to save thy life.
PAROLLES.
:O, let me live,
:And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,
:Their force, their purposes: nay, I'll speak that
:Which you will wonder at.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:But wilt thou faithfully?
PAROLLES.
:If I do not, damn me.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Acordo linta.—
:Come on; thou art granted space.
[Exit, with PAROLLES guarded.]
FIRST LORD.
:Go, tell the Count Rousillon and my brother
:We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled
:Till we do hear from them.
SECOND SOLDIER.
:Captain, I will.
FIRST LORD.
:'A will betray us all unto ourselves;—
:Inform 'em that.
SECOND SOLDIER.
:So I will, sir.
FIRST LORD.
:Till then I'll keep him dark, and safely lock'd.
[Exeunt.]
===SCENE 2. Florence. A room in the WIDOW'S house.===
[Enter BERTRAM and DIANA.]
BERTRAM.
:They told me that your name was Fontibell.
DIANA.
:No, my good lord, Diana.
BERTRAM.
:Titled goddess;
:And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul,
:In your fine frame hath love no quality?
:If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
:You are no maiden, but a monument;
:When you are dead, you should be such a one
:As you are now, for you are cold and stern;
:And now you should be as your mother was
:When your sweet self was got.
DIANA.
:She then was honest.
BERTRAM.
:So should you be.
DIANA.
:No:
:My mother did but duty; such, my lord,
:As you owe to your wife.
BERTRAM.
:No more of that!
:I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:
:I was compell'd to her; but I love thee
:By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
:Do thee all rights of service.
DIANA.
:Ay, so you serve us
:Till we serve you; but when you have our roses
:You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
:And mock us with our bareness.
BERTRAM.
:How have I sworn?
DIANA.
:'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth,
:But the plain single vow that is vow'd true.
:What is not holy, that we swear not by,
:But take the Highest to witness: then, pray you, tell me,
:If I should swear by Jove's great attributes
:I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths
:When I did love you ill? This has no holding,
:To swear by him whom I protest to love
:That I will work against him: therefore your oaths
:Are words and poor conditions; but unseal'd,—
:At least in my opinion.
BERTRAM.
:Change it, change it;
:Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy;
:And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts
:That you do charge men with. Stand no more off,
:But give thyself unto my sick desires,
:Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever
:My love as it begins shall so persever.
DIANA.
:I see that men make hopes in such a case,
:That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring.
BERTRAM.
:I'll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power
:To give it from me.
DIANA.
:Will you not, my lord?
BERTRAM.
:It is an honour 'longing to our house,
:Bequeathed down from many ancestors;
:Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world
:In me to lose.
DIANA.
:Mine honour's such a ring:
:My chastity's the jewel of our house,
:Bequeathed down from many ancestors;
:Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world
:In me to lose. Thus your own proper wisdom
:Brings in the champion honour on my part
:Against your vain assault.
BERTRAM.
:Here, take my ring:
:My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine,
:And I'll be bid by thee.
DIANA.
:When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window;
:I'll order take my mother shall not hear.
:Now will I charge you in the band of truth,
:When you have conquer'd my yet maiden-bed,
:Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:
:My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them
:When back again this ring shall be deliver'd;
:And on your finger in the night, I'll put
:Another ring; that what in time proceeds
:May token to the future our past deeds.
:Adieu till then; then fail not. You have won
:A wife of me, though there my hope be done.
BERTRAM.
:A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee.
[Exit.]
DIANA.
:For which live long to thank both heaven and me!
:You may so in the end.—
:My mother told me just how he would woo,
:As if she sat in's heart; she says all men
:Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me
:When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him
:When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,
:Marry that will, I live and die a maid:
:Only, in this disguise, I think't no sin
:To cozen him that would unjustly win.
[Exit.]
===SCENE 3. The Florentine camp.===
[Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers.]
FIRST LORD.
:You have not given him his mother's letter?
SECOND LORD.
:I have deliv'red it an hour since: there is something in't that
:stings his nature; for on the reading, it he changed almost into
:another man.
FIRST LORD.
:He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off so good a
:wife and so sweet a lady.
SECOND LORD.
:Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the
:king, who had even tuned his bounty to sing happiness to him. I
:will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with
:you.
FIRST LORD.
:When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the grave of it.
SECOND LORD.
:He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most
:chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of
:her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks
:himself made in the unchaste composition.
FIRST LORD.
:Now, God delay our rebellion: as we are ourselves, what things
:are we!
SECOND LORD.
:Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all
:treasons, we still see them reveal themselves till they attain
:to their abhorred ends; so he that in this action contrives
:against his own nobility, in his proper stream, o'erflows
:himself.
FIRST LORD.
:Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful
:intents? We shall not then have his company to-night?
SECOND LORD.
:Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour.
FIRST LORD.
:That approaches apace: I would gladly have him see his
:company anatomized, that he might take a measure of his own
:judgments, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit.
SECOND LORD.
:We will not meddle with him till he come; for his presence must
:be the whip of the other.
FIRST LORD.
:In the meantime, what hear you of these wars?
SECOND LORD.
:I hear there is an overture of peace.
FIRST LORD.
:Nay, I assure you, a peace concluded.
SECOND LORD.
:What will Count Rousillon do then? will he travel higher, or
:return again into France?
FIRST LORD.
:I perceive, by this demand, you are not altogether of his
:counsel.
SECOND LORD.
:Let it be forbid, sir: so should I be a great deal of his act.
FIRST LORD.
:Sir, his wife, some two months since, fled from his house: her
:pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques-le-Grand: which holy
:undertaking with most austere sanctimony she accomplished; and,
:there residing, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to
:her grief; in fine, made a groan of her last breath; and now she
:sings in heaven.
SECOND LORD.
:How is this justified?
FIRST LORD.
:The stronger part of it by her own letters, which makes her story
:true, even to the point of her death: her death itself which
:could not be her office to say is come, was faithfully confirmed
:by the rector of the place.
SECOND LORD.
:Hath the count all this intelligence?
FIRST LORD.
:Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from point, to the
:full arming of the verity.
SECOND LORD.
:I am heartily sorry that he'll be glad of this.
FIRST LORD.
:How mightily, sometimes, we make us comforts of our losses!
SECOND LORD.
:And how mightily, some other times, we drown our gain in tears!
:The great dignity that his valour hath here acquired for him
:shall at home be encountered with a shame as ample.
FIRST LORD.
:The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together:
:our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and
:our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our
:virtues.—
[Enter a Servant.]
:How now? where's your master?
SERVANT.
:He met the duke in the street, sir; of whom he hath taken
:a solemn leave: his lordship will next morning for France. The
:duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the king.
SECOND LORD.
:They shall be no more than needful there, if they were more than
:they can commend.
FIRST LORD.
:They cannot be too sweet for the king's tartness. Here's his
:lordship now.
[Enter BERTRAM.]
:How now, my lord, is't not after midnight?
BERTRAM.
:I have to-night despatch'd sixteen businesses, a month's length
:apiece; by an abstract of success: I have conge'd with the duke,
:done my adieu with his nearest; buried a wife, mourned for her;
:writ to my lady mother I am returning; entertained my convoy; and
:between these main parcels of despatch effected many nicer needs:
:the last was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet.
SECOND LORD.
:If the business be of any difficulty and this morning your
:departure hence, it requires haste of your lordship.
BERTRAM.
:I mean the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it
:hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the fool and
:the soldier?—Come, bring forth this counterfeit module has
:deceived me like a double-meaning prophesier.
SECOND LORD.
:Bring him forth.
[Exeunt Soldiers.]
:Has sat i' the stocks all night, poor gallant knave.
BERTRAM.
:No matter; his heels have deserved it, in usurping his
:spurs so long. How does he carry himself?
FIRST LORD.
:I have told your lordship already; the stocks carry him. But to
:answer you as you would be understood: he weeps like a wench that
:had shed her milk; he hath confessed himself to Morgan, whom he
:supposes to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance to this
:very instant disaster of his setting i' the stocks: and what
:think you he hath confessed?
BERTRAM.
:Nothing of me, has he?
SECOND LORD.
:His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his face; if
:your lordship be in't, as I believe you are, you must have the
:patience to hear it.
[Re-enter Soldiers, with PAROLLES.]
BERTRAM.
:A plague upon him! muffled! he can say nothing of me; hush, hush!
:FIRST LORD.
:Hoodman comes! Porto tartarossa.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:He calls for the tortures: what will you say without 'em?
PAROLLES.
:I will confess what I know without constraint; if ye pinch me
:like a pasty I can say no more.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Bosko chimurcho.
FIRST LORD.
:Boblibindo chicurmurco.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:You are a merciful general:—Our general bids you answer to what
:I shall ask you out of a note.
PAROLLES.
:And truly, as I hope to live.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:'First demand of him how many horse the duke is strong.' What say
:you to that?
PAROLLES.
:Five or six thousand; but very weak and unserviceable: the troops
:are all scattered, and the commanders very poor rogues, upon my
:reputation and credit, and as I hope to live.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Shall I set down your answer so?
PAROLLES.
:Do; I'll take the sacrament on 't, how and which way you will.
BERTRAM.
:All's one to him. What a past-saving slave is this!
FIRST LORD.
:You are deceived, my lord; this is Monsieur Parolles, the gallant
:militarist (that was his own phrase),that had the whole theoric
:of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practice in the chape of
:his dagger.
SECOND LORD.
:I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword clean; nor
:believe he can have everything in him by wearing his apparel
:neatly.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Well, that's set down.
PAROLLES.
:'Five or six thousand horse' I said—I will say true—or
:thereabouts, set down,—for I'll speak truth.
FIRST LORD.
:He's very near the truth in this.
BERTRAM.
:But I con him no thanks for't in the nature he delivers it.
PAROLLES.
:Poor rogues, I pray you say.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Well, that's set down.
PAROLLES.
:I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth, the rogues are
:marvellous poor.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:'Demand of him of what strength they are a-foot.' What say you to
:that?
PAROLLES.
:By my troth, sir, if I were to live this present hour, I will
:tell true. Let me see: Spurio, a hundred and fifty, Sebastian, so
:many; Corambus, so many; Jaques, so many; Guiltian, Cosmo,
:Lodowick, and Gratii, two hundred fifty each; mine own company,
:Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred fifty each: so that the
:muster-file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to
:fifteen thousand poll; half of the which dare not shake the snow
:from off their cassocks lest they shake themselves to pieces.
BERTRAM.
:What shall be done to him?
FIRST LORD.
:Nothing, but let him have thanks. Demand of him my condition, and
:what credit I have with the duke.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Well, that's set down. 'You shall demand of him whether one
:Captain Dumain be i' the camp, a Frenchman; what his reputation
:is with the duke, what his valour, honesty, expertness in wars;
:or whether he thinks it were not possible, with well-weighing
:sums of gold, to corrupt him to a revolt.'
:What say you to this? what do you know of it?
PAROLLES.
:I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of the
:inter'gatories: demand them singly.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Do you know this Captain Dumain?
PAROLLES.
:I know him: he was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris, from whence he
:was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child: a dumb
:innocent that could not say him nay.
[FIRST LORD lifts up his hand in anger.]
BERTRAM.
:Nay, by your leave, hold your hands; though I know his brains are
:forfeit to the next tile that falls.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Well, is this captain in the Duke of Florence's camp?
PAROLLES.
:Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy.
FIRST LORD.
:Nay, look not so upon me; we shall hear of your lordship anon.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:What is his reputation with the duke?
PAROLLES.
:The duke knows him for no other but a poor officer of mine; and
:writ to me this other day to turn him out o' the band: I think I
:have his letter in my pocket.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Marry, we'll search.
PAROLLES.
:In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there or it is upon
:a file, with the duke's other letters, in my tent.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Here 'tis; here's a paper. Shall I read it to you?
PAROLLES.
:I do not know if it be it or no.
BERTRAM.
:Our interpreter does it well.
FIRST LORD.
:Excellently.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:[Reads.] 'Dian, the Count's a fool, and full of gold,—'
PAROLLES.
:That is not the duke's letter, sir; that is an advertisement to a
:proper maid in Florence, one Diana, to take heed of the
:allurement of one Count Rousillon, a foolish idle boy, but for
:all that very ruttish: I pray you, sir, put it up again.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:Nay, I'll read it first by your favour.
PAROLLES.
:My meaning in't, I protest, was very honest in the behalf of the
:maid; for I knew the young count to be a dangerous and lascivious
:boy, who is a whale to virginity, and devours up all the fry it
:finds.
BERTRAM.
:Damnable! both sides rogue!
FIRST SOLDIER.
:[Reads.]
:'When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it:
: After he scores, he never pays the score;
:Half won is match well made; match, and well make it;
: He ne'er pays after-debts, take it before;
:And say a soldier, 'Dian,' told thee this:
:Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss;
:For count of this, the count's a fool, I know it,
:Who pays before, but not when he does owe it.
: Thine, as he vow'd to thee in thine ear,
: PAROLLES.
BERTRAM.
:He shall be whipped through the army with this rhyme in his
:forehead.
SECOND LORD.
:This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist, and the
:armipotent soldier.
BERTRAM.
:I could endure anything before but a cat, and now he's a cat to
:me.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:I perceive, sir, by our general's looks we shall be fain to hang
:you.
PAROLLES.
:My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid to die, but that,
:my offences being many, I would repent out the remainder of
:nature: let me live, sir, in a dungeon, i' the stocks, or
:anywhere, so I may live.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:We'll see what may be done, so you confess freely; therefore,
:once more to this Captain Dumain: you have answered to his
:reputation with the duke, and to his valour: what is his honesty?
PAROLLES.
:He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister: for rapes and
:ravishments he parallels Nessus. He professes not keeping of
:oaths; in breaking them he is stronger than Hercules. He will
:lie, sir, with such volubility that you would think truth were a
:fool: drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine-drunk;
:and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes
:about him; but they know his conditions and lay him in straw. I
:have but little more to say, sir, of his honesty; he has
:everything that an honest man should not have; what an honest man
:should have he has nothing.
FIRST LORD.
:I begin to love him for this.
BERTRAM.
:For this description of thine honesty? A pox upon him for me;
:he's more and more a cat.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:What say you to his expertness in war?
PAROLLES.
:Faith, sir, has led the drum before the English tragedians,—to
:belie him I will not,—and more of his soldiership I know not,
:except in that country he had the honour to be the officer at a
:place there called Mile-end to instruct for the doubling of
:files: I would do the man what honour I can, but of this I am not
:certain.
FIRST LORD.
:He hath out-villanied villainy so far that the rarity redeems
:him.
BERTRAM.
:A pox on him! he's a cat still.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:His qualities being at this poor price, I need not to ask you if
:gold will corrupt him to revolt.
PAROLLES.
:Sir, for a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple of his
:salvation, the inheritance of it; and cut the entail from all
:remainders and a perpetual succession for it perpetually.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:What's his brother, the other Captain Dumain?
SECOND LORD.
:Why does he ask him of me?
FIRST SOLDIER.
:What's he?
PAROLLES.
:E'en a crow o' the same nest; not altogether so great as the
:first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. He excels
:his brother for a coward, yet his brother is reputed one of the
:best that is; in a retreat he outruns any lackey: marry, in
:coming on he has the cramp.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:If your life be saved, will you undertake to betray the
:Florentine?
PAROLLES.
:Ay, and the captain of his horse, Count Rousillon.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:I'll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure.
PAROLLES.
:[Aside.] I'll no more drumming; a plague of all drums! Only to
:seem to deserve well, and to beguile the supposition of that
:lascivious young boy the count, have I run into this danger: yet
:who would have suspected an ambush where I was taken?
FIRST SOLDIER.
:There is no remedy, sir, but you must die: the general says you
:that have so traitorously discovered the secrets of your army,
:and made such pestiferous reports of men very nobly held, can
:serve the world for no honest use; therefore you must die. Come,
:headsman, off with his head.
PAROLLES.
:O Lord! sir, let me live, or let me see my death.
FIRST SOLDIER.
:That shall you, and take your leave of all your friends.
[Unmuffling him.]
:So look about you; know you any here?
BERTRAM.
:Good morrow, noble captain.
SECOND LORD.
:God bless you, Captain Parolles.
FIRST LORD.
:God save you, noble captain.
SECOND LORD.
:Captain, what greeting will you to my Lord Lafeu? I am for
:France.
FIRST LORD.
:Good Captain, will you give me a copy of the sonnet you writ to
:Diana in behalf of the Count Rousillon? an I were not a very
:coward I'd compel it of you; but fare you well.
[Exeunt BERTRAM, Lords, &c.]
FIRST SOLDIER.
:You are undone, captain: all but your scarf; that has a knot on't
:yet.
PAROLLES.
:Who cannot be crushed with a plot?
FIRST SOLDIER.
:If you could find out a country where but women were that had
:received so much shame, you might begin an impudent nation. Fare
:ye well, sir; I am for France too: we shall speak of you there.
[Exit.]
PAROLLES.
:Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,
:'Twould burst at this. Captain I'll be no more;
:But I will eat, and drink, and sleep as soft
:As captain shall: simply the thing I am
:Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
:Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
:That every braggart shall be found an ass.
:Rust, sword! cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live
:Safest in shame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive.
:There's place and means for every man alive.
:I'll after them.
[Exit.]
===SCENE 4. Florence. A room in the Widow's house.===
[Enter HELENA, Widow, and DIANA.]
HELENA.
:That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you!
:One of the greatest in the Christian world
:Shall be my surety; 'fore whose throne 'tis needful,
:Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel:
:Time was I did him a desired office,
:Dear almost as his life; which gratitude
:Through flinty Tartar's bosom would peep forth,
:And answer, thanks: I duly am informed
:His grace is at Marseilles; to which place
:We have convenient convoy. You must know
:I am supposed dead: the army breaking,
:My husband hies him home; where, heaven aiding,
:And by the leave of my good lord the king,
:We'll be before our welcome.
WIDOW.
:Gentle madam,
:You never had a servant to whose trust
:Your business was more welcome.
HELENA.
:Nor you, mistress,
:Ever a friend whose thoughts more truly labour
:To recompense your love: doubt not but heaven
:Hath brought me up to be your daughter's dower,
:As it hath fated her to be my motive
:And helper to a husband. But, O strange men!
:That can such sweet use make of what they hate,
:When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts
:Defiles the pitchy night! so lust doth play
:With what it loathes, for that which is away:
:But more of this hereafter.—You, Diana,
:Under my poor instructions yet must suffer
:Something in my behalf.
DIANA.
:Let death and honesty
:Go with your impositions, I am yours
:Upon your will to suffer.
HELENA.
:Yet, I pray you:
:But with the word the time will bring on summer,
:When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns,
:And be as sweet as sharp. We must away;
:Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us:
:All's well that ends well: still the fine's the crown;
:Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.
[Exeunt.]
===SCENE 5. Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS'S palace.===
[Enter COUNTESS, LAFEU, and CLOWN.]
LAFEU.
:No, no, no, son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there,
:whose villanous saffron would have made all the unbaked and
:doughy youth of a nation in his colour: your daughter-in-law
:had been alive at this hour, and your son here at home, more
:advanced by the king than by that red-tail'd humble-bee I speak
:of.
COUNTESS.
:I would I had not known him! It was the death of the most
:virtuous gentlewoman that ever nature had praise for creating: if
:she had partaken of my flesh, and cost me the dearest groans of a
:mother, I could not have owed her a more rooted love.
LAFEU.
:'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady: we may pick a thousand
:salads ere we light on such another herb.
CLOWN.
:Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the salad, or,
:rather, the herb of grace.
LAFEU.
:They are not salad-herbs, you knave; they are nose-herbs.
CLOWN.
:I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir; I have not much skill in
:grass.
LAFEU.
:Whether dost thou profess thyself,—a knave or a fool?
CLOWN.
:A fool, sir, at a woman's service, and a knave at a man's.
LAFEU.
:Your distinction?
CLOWN.
:I would cozen the man of his wife, and do his service.
LAFEU.
:So you were a knave at his service, indeed.
CLOWN.
:And I would give his wife my bauble, sir, to do her service.
LAFEU.
:I will subscribe for thee; thou art both knave and fool.
CLOWN.
:At your service.
LAFEU.
:No, no, no.
CLOWN.
:Why, sir, if I cannot serve you, I can serve as great a
:prince as you are.
LAFEU.
:Who's that? a Frenchman?
CLOWN.
:Faith, sir, 'a has an English name; but his phisnomy is more
:hotter in France than there.
LAFEU.
:What prince is that?
CLOWN.
:The black prince, sir; alias, the prince of darkness; alias,
:the devil.
LAFEU.
:Hold thee, there's my purse: I give thee not this to suggest
:thee from thy master thou talkest of; serve him still.
CLOWN.
:I am a woodland fellow, sir, that always loved a great fire;
:and the master I speak of ever keeps a good fire. But, sure, he
:is the prince of the world; let his nobility remain in his court.
:I am for the house with the narrow gate, which I take to be too
:little for pomp to enter: some that humble themselves may; but
:the many will be too chill and tender; and they'll be for the
:flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.
LAFEU.
:Go thy ways, I begin to be a-weary of thee; and I tell thee
:so before, because I would not fall out with thee. Go thy ways;
:let my horses be well looked to, without any tricks.
CLOWN.
:If I put any tricks upon 'em, sir, they shall be jades' tricks,
:which are their own right by the law of nature.
[Exit.]
LAFEU.
:A shrewd knave, and an unhappy.
COUNTESS.
:So he is. My lord that's gone made himself much sport out of him;
:by his authority he remains here, which he thinks is a patent for
:his sauciness; and indeed he has no pace, but runs where he will.
LAFEU.
:I like him well; 'tis not amiss. And I was about to tell you,
:since I heard of the good lady's death, and that my lord your son
:was upon his return home, I moved the king my master to speak in
:the behalf of my daughter; which, in the minority of them both,
:his majesty out of a self-gracious remembrance did first propose:
:His highness hath promised me to do it; and, to stop up the
:displeasure he hath conceived against your son, there is no
:fitter matter. How does your ladyship like it?
COUNTESS.
:With very much content, my lord; and I wish it happily effected.
LAFEU.
:His highness comes post from Marseilles, of as able body as
:when he numbered thirty; he will be here to-morrow, or I am
:deceived by him that in such intelligence hath seldom failed.
COUNTESS.
:It rejoices me that I hope I shall see him ere I die. I have
:letters that my son will be here to-night: I shall beseech
:your lordship to remain with me till they meet together.
LAFEU.
:Madam, I was thinking with what manners I might safely be
:admitted.
COUNTESS.
:You need but plead your honourable privilege.
LAFEU.
:Lady, of that I have made a bold charter; but, I thank my
:God, it holds yet.
[Re-enter CLOWN.]
CLOWN.
:O madam, yonder's my lord your son with a patch of velvet
:on's face; whether there be a scar under it or no, the velvet
:knows; but 'tis a goodly patch of velvet: his left cheek is a
:cheek of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn bare.
LAFEU.
:A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery of honour; so
:belike is that.
CLOWN.
:But it is your carbonadoed face.
LAFEU.
:Let us go see your son, I pray you; I long to talk with the young
:noble soldier.
CLOWN.
:Faith, there's a dozen of 'em, with delicate fine hats, and
:most courteous feathers, which bow the head and nod at every man.
[Exeunt.]
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