All's Well That Ends Well: ACT II , SCENE I. Paris. The KING's palace.

All's Well That Ends Well: ACT II


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

		SCENE I. Paris. The KING's palace.

		SCENE II. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.

		SCENE III. Paris. The KING's palace.

		SCENE IV. Paris. The KING's palace.

		SCENE V. Paris. The KING's palace.

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

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SCENE I. Paris. The KING's palace.

Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING, attended with divers young Lords taking leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM, and PAROLLES

KING

      Farewell, young lords; these warlike principles
      Do not throw from you: and you, my lords, farewell:
      Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain, all
      The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,
5     And is enough for both.

First Lord

      'Tis our hope, sir,
      After well enter'd soldiers, to return
      And find your grace in health.

KING

      No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart
10    Will not confess he owes the malady
      That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;
      Whether I live or die, be you the sons
      Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy,--
      Those bated that inherit but the fall
15    Of the last monarchy,--see that you come
      Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
      The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,
      That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.

Second Lord

Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty!

KING

20    Those girls of Italy, take heed of them:
      They say, our French lack language to deny,
      If they demand: beware of being captives,
      Before you serve.

Both

Our hearts receive your warnings.

KING

25 Farewell. Come hither to me.

Exit, attended

First Lord

O, my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!

PAROLLES

'Tis not his fault, the spark.

Second Lord

O, 'tis brave wars!

PAROLLES

Most admirable: I have seen those wars.

BERTRAM

30 I am commanded here, and kept a coil with
'Too young' and 'the next year' and ''tis too early.'

PAROLLES

An thy mind stand to't, boy, steal away bravely.

BERTRAM

      I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
      Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
35    Till honour be bought up and no sword worn
      But one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal away.

First Lord

There's honour in the theft.

PAROLLES

Commit it, count.

Second Lord

I am your accessary; and so, farewell.

BERTRAM

40 I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.

First Lord

Farewell, captain.

Second Lord

Sweet Monsieur Parolles!

PAROLLES

      Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good
      sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall
45    find in the regiment of the Spinii one Captain
      Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here
      on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword
      entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his
      reports for me.

First Lord

50 We shall, noble captain.

Exeunt Lords

PAROLLES

Mars dote on you for his novices! what will ye do?

BERTRAM

Stay: the king.

Re-enter KING. BERTRAM and PAROLLES retire

PAROLLES

      (To BERTRAM) Use a more spacious ceremony to the
      noble lords; you have restrained yourself within the
55    list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to
      them: for they wear themselves in the cap of the
      time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and
      move under the influence of the most received star;
      and though the devil lead the measure, such are to
60    be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.

BERTRAM

And I will do so.

PAROLLES

Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.

Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES

Enter LAFEU

LAFEU

(Kneeling) Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.

KING

I'll fee thee to stand up.

LAFEU

65    Then here's a man stands, that has brought his pardon.
      I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy,
      And that at my bidding you could so stand up.

KING

I would I had; so I had broke thy pate,
And ask'd thee mercy for't.

LAFEU

70 Good faith, across: but, my good lord 'tis thus;
Will you be cured of your infirmity?

KING

No.

LAFEU

      O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?
      Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if
75    My royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicine
      That's able to breathe life into a stone,
      Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
      With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,
      Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,
80    To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,
      And write to her a love-line.

KING

What 'her' is this?

LAFEU

      Why, Doctor She: my lord, there's one arrived,
      If you will see her: now, by my faith and honour,
85    If seriously I may convey my thoughts
      In this my light deliverance, I have spoke
      With one that, in her sex, her years, profession,
      Wisdom and constancy, hath amazed me more
      Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see her
90    For that is her demand, and know her business?
      That done, laugh well at me.

KING

      Now, good Lafeu,
      Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
      May spend our wonder too, or take off thine
95    By wondering how thou took'st it.

LAFEU

Nay, I'll fit you,
And not be all day neither.

Exit

KING

Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.

Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA

LAFEU

Nay, come your ways.

KING

100 This haste hath wings indeed.

LAFEU

      Nay, come your ways:
      This is his majesty; say your mind to him:
      A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
      His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,
105   That dare leave two together; fare you well.

Exit

KING

Now, fair one, does your business follow us?

HELENA

      Ay, my good lord.
      Gerard de Narbon was my father;
      In what he did profess, well found.

KING

110 I knew him.

HELENA

      The rather will I spare my praises towards him:
      Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death
      Many receipts he gave me: chiefly one.
      Which, as the dearest issue of his practise,
115   And of his old experience the oily darling,
      He bade me store up, as a triple eye,
      Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so;
      And hearing your high majesty is touch'd
      With that malignant cause wherein the honour
120   Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,
      I come to tender it and my appliance
      With all bound humbleness.

KING

      We thank you, maiden;
      But may not be so credulous of cure,
125   When our most learned doctors leave us and
      The congregated college have concluded
      That labouring art can never ransom nature
      From her inaidible estate; I say we must not
      So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
130   To prostitute our past-cure malady
      To empirics, or to dissever so
      Our great self and our credit, to esteem
      A senseless help when help past sense we deem.

HELENA

      My duty then shall pay me for my pains:
135   I will no more enforce mine office on you.
      Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
      A modest one, to bear me back a again.

KING

      I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful:
      Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give
140   As one near death to those that wish him live:
      But what at full I know, thou know'st no part,
      I knowing all my peril, thou no art.

HELENA

      What I can do can do no hurt to try,
      Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.
145   He that of greatest works is finisher
      Oft does them by the weakest minister:
      So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
      When judges have been babes; great floods have flown
      From simple sources, and great seas have dried
150   When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
      Oft expectation fails and most oft there
      Where most it promises, and oft it hits
      Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

KING

      I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;
155   Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:
      Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.

HELENA

      Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:
      It is not so with Him that all things knows
      As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;
160   But most it is presumption in us when
      The help of heaven we count the act of men.
      Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;
      Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
      I am not an impostor that proclaim
165   Myself against the level of mine aim;
      But know I think and think I know most sure
      My art is not past power nor you past cure.

KING

Are thou so confident? within what space
Hopest thou my cure?

HELENA

170   The great'st grace lending grace
      Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
      Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring,
      Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
      Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp,
175   Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
      Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass,
      What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
      Health shall live free and sickness freely die.

KING

Upon thy certainty and confidence
180 What darest thou venture?

HELENA

      Tax of impudence,
      A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame
      Traduced by odious ballads: my maiden's name
      Sear'd otherwise; nay, worse--if worse--extended
185   With vilest torture let my life be ended.

KING

      Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak
      His powerful sound within an organ weak:
      And what impossibility would slay
      In common sense, sense saves another way.
190   Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate
      Worth name of life in thee hath estimate,
      Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all
      That happiness and prime can happy call:
      Thou this to hazard needs must intimate
195   Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.
      Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try,
      That ministers thine own death if I die.

HELENA

      If I break time, or flinch in property
      Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,
200   And well deserved: not helping, death's my fee;
      But, if I help, what do you promise me?

KING

Make thy demand.

HELENA

But will you make it even?

KING

Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.

HELENA

205   Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand
      What husband in thy power I will command:
      Exempted be from me the arrogance
      To choose from forth the royal blood of France,
      My low and humble name to propagate
210   With any branch or image of thy state;
      But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
      Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

KING

      Here is my hand; the premises observed,
      Thy will by my performance shall be served:
215   So make the choice of thy own time, for I,
      Thy resolved patient, on thee still rely.
      More should I question thee, and more I must,
      Though more to know could not be more to trust,
      From whence thou camest, how tended on: but rest
220   Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.
      Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceed
      As high as word, my deed shall match thy meed.

Flourish. Exeunt

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