Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so: 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 empiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. Hel. 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 grate ful: : 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. Hel. 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 dry'd, When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits, King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid; Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid: King. Art thou so confident? Within what space Hop'st thou my cure? Hel. The greatest grace lending grace, Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fieri 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? Hel. Tax of impudence, -- King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; His powerful sound, within an organ weak: In common sense, sense saves another way. Hel. 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. Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my scepter, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, trust; From whence thou cam'st, how tended on, But rest Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest. If thou proceed Give me some help here, ho! As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. [Exeunt.] SCENE II. Rousillon. A Room in the Count's Palace. 4 Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clown. I will shew myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court. Count. To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court! Clown. Truly, madam, if God have lenta man any manners, he may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the court: but, for me, I have an answer will serve all men. Count. Marry, that's a bountiful answer, that fits all questions. Clown. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn buttock, or any buttock. Count. Will your answer serve fit to all questions? Clown. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffaty punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for Shrove-tuesday, a morris for Mayday, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, ( as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions? Clown. From below your duke, to beneath your constable, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous size, that must fit all demands. Clown. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't: Ask me, if I am a courtier; it shall do you no harm to learn. I Count. To be young again, if we could: will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, sir, are you a courtier? Clown. O Lord, sir, There's a simple put ting off: more, more, a hundred of them. Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you. Clown. O Lord, sir, - Thick, thick, spare not me. Count. I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat. Clown. O Lord, sir, - Nay, put me to't, I warrant you. Count. You were lately whip'd, sir, as I think, Clown. O Lord, sir, - Spare not me. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord sir, is very sequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't. Clown. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in my - O Lord, sir: I see, things may servelong, but not serve ever. Count. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool. |