I love your son.

My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:
Be not offended; for it hurts not him
That he is loved of me: I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous suit;
Nor would I have him till I do deserve him
Yet never know how that desert should be.
I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet in this captious and intenible sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,

;

But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,
Let not your hate encounter with my love
For loving where you do but if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever in so true a flame of liking
Wish chastely and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love; O, then, give pity
To her, whose state is such that cannot choose
But lend and give where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But riddle-like lives sweetly where she dies!

Count. Had you not lately an intent,-speak
truly,-

To go to Paris?

Hel.

Count.

Madam, I had.

Wherefore? tell true.
Hel. I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear.
You know my father left me some prescriptions
Of rare and proved effects, such as his reading.

201. friends, kindred.

208. captious and intenible, apt to receive but not to hold.

200

210

220

210. to lose still, though still losing.

216. cites, announces, bears witness to.

And manifest experience had collected

For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me
In heedfull'st reservation to bestow them,
As notes whose faculties inclusive were
More than they were in note: amongst the rest
There is a remedy, approved, set down,

To cure the desperate languishings whereof
The king is render'd lost.

Count.

For Paris, was it? speak.

This was your motive

Hel. My lord your son made me to think of this; Else Paris and the medicine and the king

Had from the conversation of my thoughts

Haply been absent then.

Count.

But think you, Helen,

If you should tender your supposed aid,

He would receive it? he and his physicians

Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him,
They, that they cannot help: how shall they credit
A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,

Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off

The danger to itself?

Hel.

There's something in 't,

More than my father's skill, which was the greatest Of his profession, that his good receipt

Shall for my legacy be sanctified

By the luckiest stars in heaven: and, would your honour

But give me leave to try success, I 'ld venture

230. general sovereignty, sovereign remedies in all cases.

231. In heedfull' st reservation to bestow them, to keep them with the utmost care.

232. notes, etc., prescriptions more potent than was generally known. The expression is slightly confused, 'whose ...

230

240

250

in note' referring strictly, not to the prescriptions, which were not known at all, but to the particular medicaments prescribed.

234. approved, tried.
236. render'd, reported.
247. Embowell'd, exhausted.

The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure

By such a day and hour.

Count.

Dost thou believe 't?

Hel. Ay, madam, knowingly.

Count. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave
and love,

Means and attendants and my loving greetings
To those of mine in court: I'll stay at home
And pray God's blessing into thy attempt:
Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this,
What I can help thee to thou shalt not miss.

[Exeunt.

260

ACT II.

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, fare

well:

Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain, all

The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,

And is enough for both.

First Lord.

254. on his grace's cure by such a day and hour, on having cured him by a specified day

and hour.

Sc. I. In this scene the first and second' Lords' are called in

'Tis our hope, sir,

the Ff Lord G.' and 'Lord E.'

respectively. G. and E. probably stood for two of the actors, the list of whom prefixed to F1 includes the names Gilburne, Gough, and Ecclestone.

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.

lords;

Farewell, young

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 loud: I say, farewell.

Sec. 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.

[Exit, attended.

First Lord. O my sweet lord, that you will stay

behind us!

6. After well-enter'd soldiers, when we are thoroughly initiated in war.

9. owes, has.

12. let higher Italy, etc. The general sense is: Let the Italians, those mere inheritors of the fall of Rome, see,' etc. But both higher and bated are obscure, and probably corrupt. Higher Italy has been variously explained as 'upper Italy' (to which neither Florence nor

20

Sienna belongs) or the 'noblest Italians'; bated as 'excepted' or 'beaten down." Coleridge proposed hired,' Hanmer bastards'; both words seem too disparaging for the context. Schmidt's 'high' Italy is plausible.

15. Not merely to aspire to honour, but to make it exclusively yours.

16. questant, aspirant.

Par. 'Tis not his fault, the spark.

Sec. Lord.
O, 'tis brave wars!
Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars.
Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil
with

'Too young' and 'the next year' and 'tis too
early.'

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

Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, 30 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.

Par.

Commit it, count.

Sec. Lord. I am your accessary; and so, farewell.

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

First Lord. Farewell, captain.

Sec. Lord. Sweet Monsieur Parolles !

Par. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are 40 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.

[Exeunt Lords.

Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! what