wanted, rather than slack it where there is such abundance. 12 Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amend ment ? Laf. He hath abandon'd 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. Count. This young gentlewoman had a father (0, that had! how sad a passage 'tis !) whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd so far, it would have made nature immortal, and death should have play'd 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. 25 Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam? Count. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon. Laf. 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 have been set up against mortality. Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? Laf. A fistula, my lord. Ber. I heard not of it before. 35 Laf. I would, it were not notorious.Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon ? Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her disposition 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. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. 49 : Count. '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. Hel. I do affect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too. Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal. Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. Laf. How understand we that? 60 Count. Be thou blest, Bertrám, and succeed thy father In manners as in shape! thy blood, and virtue Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend But But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will, That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, Fall on thy head! Farewel, my lord; 'Tis an unseason'd courtier, good my lord, Advise him. Laf. He cannot want the best, That shall attend his love. Count. Heaven bless him! Farewel, Bertram. 72 [Exit Countess. Ber. [To HELENA.] The best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. 81 Laf. Farewel, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of your father. [Exeunt BER. and LAF. Hel. Oh, 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, tho' a plague, To see him every hour; to sit and draw k 90 His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, Enter PAROLLES. One that goes with him: I love him for his sake; Think him a great way fool, solely a coward; That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Par. Save you, fair queen. Hel. And you, monarch. Par. No. Hel. And, no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity? 100 110 Hel. Ay: you have some stain of soldier in you; let me ask you a question. Man is enemy to virgi nity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, tho' valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance. 122 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, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick 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. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. 139 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 its 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 two, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with't. 154 Hel. |