All's Well That Ends Well: ACT II , SCENE III. 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

	About the Play

	Feedback



	Search:
	for:

SCENE III. Paris. The KING's palace.

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES

LAFEU

      They say miracles are past; and we have our
      philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar,
      things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that
      we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves
5     into seeming knowledge, when we should submit
      ourselves to an unknown fear.

PAROLLES

Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath
shot out in our latter times.

BERTRAM

And so 'tis.

LAFEU

10 To be relinquish'd of the artists,--

PAROLLES

So I say.

LAFEU

Both of Galen and Paracelsus.

PAROLLES

So I say.

LAFEU

Of all the learned and authentic fellows,--

PAROLLES

15 Right; so I say.

LAFEU

That gave him out incurable,--

PAROLLES

Why, there 'tis; so say I too.

LAFEU

Not to be helped,--

PAROLLES

Right; as 'twere, a man assured of a--

LAFEU

20 Uncertain life, and sure death.

PAROLLES

Just, you say well; so would I have said.

LAFEU

I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world.

PAROLLES

It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you
shall read it in--what do you call there?

LAFEU

25 A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.

PAROLLES

That's it; I would have said the very same.

LAFEU

Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me,
I speak in respect--

PAROLLES

      Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the
30    brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a most
      facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the--

LAFEU

Very hand of heaven.

PAROLLES

Ay, so I say.

LAFEU

In a most weak--

pausing

35    and debile minister, great power, great
      transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a
      further use to be made than alone the recovery of
      the king, as to be--

pausing

generally thankful.

PAROLLES

40 I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.

Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants. LAFEU and PAROLLES retire

LAFEU

      Lustig, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the
      better, whilst I have a tooth in my head: why, he's
      able to lead her a coranto.

PAROLLES

Mort du vinaigre! is not this Helen?

LAFEU

45 'Fore God, I think so.

KING

      Go, call before me all the lords in court.
      Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;
      And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
      Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
50    The confirmation of my promised gift,
      Which but attends thy naming.

Enter three or four Lords

      Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel
      Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
      O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice
55    I have to use: thy frank election make;
      Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.

HELENA

To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when Love please! marry, to each, but one!

LAFEU

      I'ld give bay Curtal and his furniture,
60    My mouth no more were broken than these boys',
      And writ as little beard.

KING

Peruse them well:
Not one of those but had a noble father.

HELENA

Gentlemen,
65 Heaven hath through me restored the king to health.

All

We understand it, and thank heaven for you.

HELENA

      I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest,
      That I protest I simply am a maid.
      Please it your majesty, I have done already:
70    The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,
      'We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused,
      Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;
      We'll ne'er come there again.'

KING

Make choice; and, see,
75 Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.

HELENA

      Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,
      And to imperial Love, that god most high,
      Do my sighs stream. Sir, will you hear my suit?

First Lord

And grant it.

HELENA

80 Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.

LAFEU

I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace
for my life.

HELENA

      The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes,
      Before I speak, too threateningly replies:
85    Love make your fortunes twenty times above
      Her that so wishes and her humble love!

Second Lord

No better, if you please.

HELENA

My wish receive,
Which great Love grant! and so, I take my leave.

LAFEU

90    Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine,
      I'd have them whipped; or I would send them to the
      Turk, to make eunuchs of.

HELENA

      Be not afraid that I your hand should take;
      I'll never do you wrong for your own sake:
95    Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed
      Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!

LAFEU

      These boys are boys of ice, they'll none have her:
      sure, they are bastards to the English; the French
      ne'er got 'em.

HELENA

100 You are too young, too happy, and too good,
To make yourself a son out of my blood.

Fourth Lord

Fair one, I think not so.

LAFEU

      There's one grape yet; I am sure thy father drunk
      wine: but if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth
105   of fourteen; I have known thee already.

HELENA

      (To BERTRAM) I dare not say I take you; but I give
      Me and my service, ever whilst I live,
      Into your guiding power. This is the man.

KING

Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife.

BERTRAM

110   My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,
      In such a business give me leave to use
      The help of mine own eyes.

KING

Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What she has done for me?

BERTRAM

115 Yes, my good lord;
But never hope to know why I should marry her.

KING

Thou know'st she has raised me from my sickly bed.

BERTRAM

      But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
      Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
120   She had her breeding at my father's charge.
      A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain
      Rather corrupt me ever!

KING

      'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
      I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
125   Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
      Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
      In differences so mighty. If she be
      All that is virtuous, save what thou dislikest,
      A poor physician's daughter, thou dislikest
130   Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
      From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
      The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
      Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,
      It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
135   Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
      The property by what it is should go,
      Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
      In these to nature she's immediate heir,
      And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,
140   Which challenges itself as honour's born
      And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
      When rather from our acts we them derive
      Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave
      Debosh'd on every tomb, on every grave
145   A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
      Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
      Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?
      If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
      I can create the rest: virtue and she
150   Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.

BERTRAM

I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.

KING

Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose.

HELENA

That you are well restored, my lord, I'm glad:
Let the rest go.

KING

155   My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,
      I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
      Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
      That dost in vile misprision shackle up
      My love and her desert; that canst not dream,
160   We, poising us in her defective scale,
      Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
      It is in us to plant thine honour where
      We please to have it grow. Cheque thy contempt:
      Obey our will, which travails in thy good:
165   Believe not thy disdain, but presently
      Do thine own fortunes that obedient right
      Which both thy duty owes and our power claims;
      Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
      Into the staggers and the careless lapse
170   Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate
      Loosing upon thee, in the name of justice,
      Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer.

BERTRAM

      Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
      My fancy to your eyes: when I consider
175   What great creation and what dole of honour
      Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late
      Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
      The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
      Is as 'twere born so.

KING

180   Take her by the hand,
      And tell her she is thine: to whom I promise
      A counterpoise, if not to thy estate
      A balance more replete.

BERTRAM

I take her hand.

KING

185   Good fortune and the favour of the king
      Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
      Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
      And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast
      Shall more attend upon the coming space,
190   Expecting absent friends. As thou lovest her,
      Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.

Exeunt all but LAFEU and PAROLLES

LAFEU

(Advancing) Do you hear, monsieur? a word with you.

PAROLLES

Your pleasure, sir?

LAFEU

Your lord and master did well to make his
195 recantation.

PAROLLES

Recantation! My lord! my master!

LAFEU

Ay; is it not a language I speak?

PAROLLES

A most harsh one, and not to be understood without
bloody succeeding. My master!

LAFEU

200 Are you companion to the Count Rousillon?

PAROLLES

To any count, to all counts, to what is man.

LAFEU

To what is count's man: count's master is of
another style.

PAROLLES

You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

LAFEU

205 I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which
title age cannot bring thee.

PAROLLES

What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

LAFEU

      I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty
      wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy
210   travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs and the
      bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from
      believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen. I
      have now found thee; when I lose thee again, I care
      not: yet art thou good for nothing but taking up; and
215   that thou't scarce worth.

PAROLLES

Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,--

LAFEU

      Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou
      hasten thy trial; which if--Lord have mercy on thee
      for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee
220   well: thy casement I need not open, for I look
      through thee. Give me thy hand.

PAROLLES

My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

LAFEU

Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.

PAROLLES

I have not, my lord, deserved it.

LAFEU

225 Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not
bate thee a scruple.

PAROLLES

Well, I shall be wiser.

LAFEU

      Even as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at
      a smack o' the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound
230   in thy scarf and beaten, thou shalt find what it is
      to be proud of thy bondage. I have a desire to hold
      my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge,
      that I may say in the default, he is a man I know.

PAROLLES

My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.

LAFEU

235   I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor
      doing eternal: for doing I am past: as I will by
      thee, in what motion age will give me leave.

Exit

PAROLLES

      Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off
      me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, I must
240   be patient; there is no fettering of authority.
      I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with
      any convenience, an he were double and double a
      lord. I'll have no more pity of his age than I
      would of--I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.

Re-enter LAFEU

LAFEU

245 Sirrah, your lord and master's married; there's news
for you: you have a new mistress.

PAROLLES

      I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make
      some reservation of your wrongs: he is my good
      lord: whom I serve above is my master.

LAFEU

250 Who? God?

PAROLLES

Ay, sir.

LAFEU

      The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thou
      garter up thy arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of
      sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set
255   thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine
      honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'ld beat
      thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and
      every man should beat thee: I think thou wast
      created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.

PAROLLES

260 This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

LAFEU

      Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a
      kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond and
      no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords
      and honourable personages than the commission of your
265   birth and virtue gives you heraldry. You are not
      worth another word, else I'ld call you knave. I leave you.

Exit

PAROLLES

Good, very good; it is so then: good, very good;
let it be concealed awhile.

Re-enter BERTRAM

BERTRAM

Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever!

PAROLLES

270 What's the matter, sweet-heart?

BERTRAM

Although before the solemn priest I have sworn,
I will not bed her.

PAROLLES

What, what, sweet-heart?

BERTRAM

O my Parolles, they have married me!
275 I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her.

PAROLLES

France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits
The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!

BERTRAM

There's letters from my mother: what the import is,
I know not yet.

PAROLLES

280   Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!
      He wears his honour in a box unseen,
      That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home,
      Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
      Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
285   Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions
      France is a stable; we that dwell in't jades;
      Therefore, to the war!

BERTRAM

      It shall be so: I'll send her to my house,
      Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,
290   And wherefore I am fled; write to the king
      That which I durst not speak; his present gift
      Shall furnish me to those Italian fields,
      Where noble fellows strike: war is no strife
      To the dark house and the detested wife.

PAROLLES

295 Will this capriccio hold in thee? art sure?

BERTRAM

      Go with me to my chamber, and advise me.
      I'll send her straight away: to-morrow
      I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.

PAROLLES

      Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard:
300   A young man married is a man that's marr'd:
      Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:
      The king has done you wrong: but, hush, 'tis so.

Exeunt

Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene