TPTT All's Well That Ends Well: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Florence. The DUKE's palace.
SCENE II. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
SCENE III. Florence. Before the DUKE's palace.
SCENE IV. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
SCENE V. Florence. Without the walls. A tucket afar off.
SCENE VI. Camp before Florence.
SCENE VII. Florence. The Widow's house.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
Enter COUNTESS and Clown
COUNTESS
      It hath happened all as I would have had it, save
      that he comes not along with her.
Clown
      By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very
      melancholy man.
COUNTESS
5     By what observance, I pray you?
Clown
      Why, he will look upon his boot and sing; mend the
      ruff and sing; ask questions and sing; pick his
      teeth and sing. I know a man that had this trick of
      melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.
COUNTESS
10    Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come.
Opening a letter
Clown
      I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court: our
      old ling and our Isbels o' the country are nothing
      like your old ling and your Isbels o' the court:
      the brains of my Cupid's knocked out, and I begin to
15    love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach.
COUNTESS
      What have we here?
Clown
      E'en that you have there.
Exit
COUNTESS
      (Reads) I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she hath
      recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded
20    her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the 'not'
      eternal. You shall hear I am run away: know it
      before the report come. If there be breadth enough
      in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty
      to you. Your unfortunate son,
25    BERTRAM.
      This is not well, rash and unbridled boy.
      To fly the favours of so good a king;
      To pluck his indignation on thy head
      By the misprising of a maid too virtuous
30    For the contempt of empire.
Re-enter Clown
Clown
      O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two
      soldiers and my young lady!
COUNTESS
      What is the matter?
Clown
      Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some
35    comfort; your son will not be killed so soon as I
      thought he would.
COUNTESS
      Why should he be killed?
Clown
      So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does:
      the danger is in standing to't; that's the loss of
40    men, though it be the getting of children. Here
      they come will tell you more: for my part, I only
      hear your son was run away.
Exit
Enter HELENA, and two Gentlemen
First Gentleman
      Save you, good madam.
HELENA
      Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.
Second Gentleman
45    Do not say so.
COUNTESS
      Think upon patience. Pray you, gentlemen,
      I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief,
      That the first face of neither, on the start,
      Can woman me unto't: where is my son, I pray you?
Second Gentleman
50    Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of Florence:
      We met him thitherward; for thence we came,
      And, after some dispatch in hand at court,
      Thither we bend again.
HELENA
      Look on his letter, madam; here's my passport.

Reads

55    When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which
      never shall come off, and show me a child begotten
      of thy body that I am father to, then call me
      husband: but in such a 'then' I write a 'never.'
      This is a dreadful sentence.
COUNTESS
60    Brought you this letter, gentlemen?
First Gentleman
      Ay, madam;
      And for the contents' sake are sorry for our pain.
COUNTESS
      I prithee, lady, have a better cheer;
      If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine,
65    Thou robb'st me of a moiety: he was my son;
      But I do wash his name out of my blood,
      And thou art all my child. Towards Florence is he?
Second Gentleman
      Ay, madam.
COUNTESS
      And to be a soldier?
Second Gentleman
70    Such is his noble purpose; and believe 't,
      The duke will lay upon him all the honour
      That good convenience claims.
COUNTESS
      Return you thither?
First Gentleman
      Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.
HELENA
75    (Reads) Till I have no wife I have nothing in France.
      'Tis bitter.
COUNTESS
      Find you that there?
HELENA
      Ay, madam.
First Gentleman
      'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which his
80    heart was not consenting to.
COUNTESS
      Nothing in France, until he have no wife!
      There's nothing here that is too good for him
      But only she; and she deserves a lord
      That twenty such rude boys might tend upon
85    And call her hourly mistress. Who was with him?
First Gentleman
      A servant only, and a gentleman
      Which I have sometime known.
COUNTESS
      Parolles, was it not?
First Gentleman
      Ay, my good lady, he.
COUNTESS
90    A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.
      My son corrupts a well-derived nature
      With his inducement.
First Gentleman
      Indeed, good lady,
      The fellow has a deal of that too much,
95    Which holds him much to have.
COUNTESS
      You're welcome, gentlemen.
      I will entreat you, when you see my son,
      To tell him that his sword can never win
      The honour that he loses: more I'll entreat you
100   Written to bear along.
Second Gentleman
      We serve you, madam,
      In that and all your worthiest affairs.
COUNTESS
      Not so, but as we change our courtesies.
      Will you draw near!
Exeunt COUNTESS and Gentlemen
HELENA
105   'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.'
      Nothing in France, until he has no wife!
      Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France;
      Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is't I
      That chase thee from thy country and expose
110   Those tender limbs of thine to the event
      Of the none-sparing war? and is it I
      That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou
      Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark
      Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers,
115   That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
      Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,
      That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord.
      Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;
      Whoever charges on his forward breast,
120   I am the caitiff that do hold him to't;
      And, though I kill him not, I am the cause
      His death was so effected: better 'twere
      I met the ravin lion when he roar'd
      With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere
125   That all the miseries which nature owes
      Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rousillon,
      Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,
      As oft it loses all: I will be gone;
      My being here it is that holds thee hence:
130   Shall I stay here to do't? no, no, although
      The air of paradise did fan the house
      And angels officed all: I will be gone,
      That pitiful rumour may report my flight,
      To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day!
135   For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away.
Exit
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