READ STUDY GUIDE: Act II, Scenes i-iii |
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Act II, Scene i:
Paris. A room in the King's palace.
Paris. A room in the King's palace.
| [Flourish. Enter the King, with young LORDS taking leave for theFlorentine war; BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and Attendants.] |
| KING: |
| Farewell, young lord; these war-like principles |
| Do not throw from you:—and you, my lord, farewell;— |
| Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, |
| The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received, |
| And is enough for both. |
| FIRST LORD: |
| It is 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 aloud: I say farewell. |
| SECOND LORD: |
| Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty! |
| KING: |
| 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: |
| Farewell.—Come hither to me. |
| [The king retires to a couch.] |
| 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: |
| I am commanded here and kept a coil with, |
| 'Too young' and next year' and ''tis too early.' |
| PAROLLES: |
| An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely. |
| BERTRAM: |
| I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, |
| Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, |
| 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: |
| 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 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: |
| We shall, noble captain. |
| PAROLLES: |
| Mars dote on you for his novices! |
| [Exeunt LORDS.] |
| What will ye do? |
| BERTRAM: |
| Stay; the king— |
| PAROLLES: |
| Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords; you have |
| restrained yourself within the 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 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: |
| Pardon, my lord[kneeling], for me and for my tidings. |
| KING: |
| I'll fee thee to stand up. |
| LAFEU: |
| Then here's a man stands that has bought 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: |
| 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, and if 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 Pipin, nay, |
| To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand |
| And write to her a love-line. |
| KING: |
| What 'her' is that? |
| LAFEU: |
| Why, doctor 'she': my lord, there's one arriv'd, |
| If you will see her,—now, by my faith and honour, |
| 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 amaz'd me more |
| Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see her,— |
| 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 the |
| May spend our wonder too, or take off thine |
| By wondering how thou took'st it. |
| LAFEU: |
| Nay, I'll fit you, |
| And not be all day neither. |
| [Exit LAFEU.] |
| KING: |
| Thus he his special nothing ever prologues. |
| [Re-enter LAFEU with HELENA.] |
| LAFEU: |
| Nay, come your ways. |
| KING: |
| 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, |
| 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: |
| I knew him. |
| HELENA: |
| The rather will I spare my praises towards him. |
| Knowing him is enough. On his bed of death |
| Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one, |
| Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, |
| And of his old experience the only 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 |
| 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,— |
| When our most learned doctors leave us, and |
| The congregated college have concluded |
| That labouring art can never ransom nature |
| From her inaidable estate,—I say we must not |
| So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, |
| 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: |
| I will no more enforce mine office on you; |
| Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts |
| A modest one to bear me back again. |
| KING: |
| I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful. |
| Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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; |
| Thy pains, not used, must by thyself be paid: |
| Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward. |
| HELENA: |
| Inspired merit so by breath is barred: |
| It is not so with Him that all things knows, |
| As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows: |
| 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 |
| 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: |
| Art thou so confident? Within what space |
| Hop'st thou my cure? |
| HELENA: |
| The greatest 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; |
| 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 |
| What dar'st thou venture? |
| HELENA: |
| Tax of impudence,— |
| A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— |
| Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name |
| Sear'd otherwise; ne worse of worst extended, |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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; |
| And well deserv'd. 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: |
| 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 |
| 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 observ'd, |
| Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd; |
| So make the choice of thy own time, for I, |
| Thy resolv'd 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 cam'st, how tended on.—But rest |
| Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.— |
| Give me some help here, ho!—If thou proceed |
| As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. |
| [Flourish. Exeunt.] |
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