Enter PAROlles. [Aside] One that goes with him: I love him for his sake; And yet I know him a notorious liar, 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? Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you let me ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak; unfold to us some warlike resistance. 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? 112. solely, absolutely. 114. take place, procure him rank, position. 114. steely, rigorous, inflexible. 115. Look. Ff 'lookes,' which may be right. 116. Cold, shivering. ib. superfluous, luxurious. 118. monarch. This is possibly a play on the 'fantastical monarcho' referred to in Love's Lab. Lost, iv. I. IOI. 121-178. This passage has been with reason suspected. It is rash to assert that Shakespeare's Helen, bold with the security of strength, could not have permitted herself such license of jest. But there is evidence of patching at v. 179; and the passage is probably a relic of the earlier play. See further, note to 179. 122. stain, dash. 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 politic 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 140 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 't! Hel. I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. 150 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 his 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 year it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and 160 the principal itself not much the worse: away with 't! Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: 155. his, its. 159. ten year... ten; Han mer's emendation for Ff ten year... two. off with 't while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion: richly suited, but unsuit- 170 able: just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now. Your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek: and your virginity, your old virginity, is like one. of our French withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will you any thing with it? Hel. Not my virginity yet.... There shall your master have a thousand loves, A phoenix, captain and an enemy, His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet, That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he 180 I know not what he shall. God send him well! 190 The court's a learning place, and he is one— Par. What one, i̇' faith? Hel. That I wish well. 'Tis pity Par. What's pity? Hel. That wishing well had not a body in 't, 172. date, (1) time of life, (2) the fruit. 179. There is clearly a hiatus here. Hanmer attempted to patch it by reading: yet. You're for the court in v. 179, Malone by reading with it? I am now bound for the court in v. 178. But neither forms a sufficient transition to Helen's speech. More probably the preceding dialogue (from v. 122) has been clumsily pieced with the context, involving the loss of at least several lines. 188. adoptious christendoms, names arbitrarily given. 189. That... gossips, for which Cupid stands sponsor; which Love invents. Which might be felt; that we, the poorer born, Enter Page. Page. Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for you. [Exit. Par. Little Helen, farewell: if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court. Hel. Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star. Par. Under Mars, I. Hel. I especially think, under Mars. Hel. The wars have so kept you under that you must needs be born under Mars. Par. When he was predominant. Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather. Hel. You go so much backward when you fight. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety but the composition that your valour and fear makes in you is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well. 200 210 Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot 220 answer thee acutely. I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy 199. alone must think, may only think. prayers; when thou hast none, remember thy [Exit. SCENE II. Paris. The KING'S palace. Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING OF FRANCE, with letters, and divers Attendants. King. The Florentines and Senoys are by the ears; Have fought with equal fortune and continue A braving war. First Lord. King. So 'tis reported, sir. Nay, 'tis most credible; we here re- A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria, 237. The mightiest space in fortune, things divided in fortune by the utmost space. 1. Senoys, Siennese. 3. braving, defiant. 6. move us, appeal to us. 240 |