Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary, With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand, If King. What her is this? Laf. Why, doctor she: My lord, there's one arriv'd, 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 8 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. Now, good Lafeu, King. May spend our wonder too, or take off thine, Laf. And not be all day neither. Nay, I'll fit you. [Exit LAFEU. King. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues. Re-enter LAFEU, with HELEna. Laf. Nay, come your ways. King. This haste hath wings indeed. Laf. Nay, come your ways; This is his majesty, say your mind to him: 6 7 dance canary,] a kind of dance. her years, profession,] By profession is meant her declaration of the end and purpose of her coming. 8 Than I dare blame my weakness:] Lafeu's meaning appears to me to be this:-"That the amazement she excited in him was so great, that he could not impute it merely to his own weakness, but to the wonderful qualities of the object that occasioned it." M. MASON. A traitor you do look like; but such traitors Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was My father; in what he did profess, well found.' King. I knew him. Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so: 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 ransome 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 empiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. Cressida. 1 Cressid's uncle,] I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and well found.] i. e. of known, acknowledged, excellence. Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give, As one near death to those that wish him live: Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try, Oft does them by the weakest minister: From simple sources; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied.2 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits, Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: 2 When miracles have by the greatest been denied.] i. e. disbelieved, or contemned. Myself against the level of mine aim;] i, e. I am not an im But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. Hel. Tax of impudence,— A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,- King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; His powerful sound, within an organ weak: In common sense, sense saves another way.5 postor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud. 4- —no worse of worst extended,] i. e. to be be so defamed that nothing severer can be said against those who are most publickly reported to be infamous. 5 And what impossibility would slay In common sense, sense saves another way.] i. e. and that which, if I trusted to my reason, I should think impossible, I yet, perceiving thee to be actuated by some blessed spirit, think thee capable of effecting. MALONE. 6 in thee hath estimate;] May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by thee. JOHNSON. Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all Hel. 8 But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of hea ven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, 8 prime] Youth; the sprightly vigour of life. in property-] In property seems to be here used, with much laxity, for-in the due performance. 9 With any branch or image of thy state:] Branch refers to the collateral descendants of the royal blood, and image to the direct and immediate line. HENLEY. |