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.PAROLLES.It is indeed.If you will have it in showing, you shallread it in what-do-ye-call't here.LAFEU.[Reading the ballad title] 'A Showing of a HeavenlyEffect in an Earthly Actor.'PAROLLES.That's it; I would have said the very same.LAFEU.Why, your dolphin is not lustier.'Fore me, I speak inrespect-PAROLLES.Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange; that is the briefand the tedious of it; and he's of a most facinerious spirit thatwill not acknowledge it to be the-LAFEU.Very hand of heaven.PAROLLES.Ay; so I say.LAFEU.In a most weak-PAROLLES.And debile minister, great power, great transcendence;which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than alonethe recov'ry of the King, as to be-LAFEU.Generally thankful.Enter KING, HELENA, and ATTENDANTSPAROLLES.I would have said it; you say well.Here comes the King.LAFEU.Lustig, as the Dutchman says.I'll like a maid the better,whilst I have a tooth in my head.Why, he's able to lead her acoranto.PAROLLES.Mort du vinaigre! Is not this Helen?LAFEU.'Fore God, I think so.KING.Go, call before me all the lords in court.Exit an ATTENDANTSit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd senseThou has repeal'd, a second time receiveThe confirmation of my promis'd gift,Which but attends thy naming.Enter three or four LORDSFair maid, send forth thine eye.This youthful parcelOf noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voiceI have to use.Thy frank election make;Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.HELENA.To each of you one fair and virtuous mistressFall, when love please.Marry, to each but one!LAFEU.I'd give bay Curtal and his furnitureMy mouth no more were broken than these boys',And writ as little beard.KING.Peruse them well.Not one of those but had a noble father.HELENA.Gentlemen,Heaven hath through me restor'd the King to health.ALL.We understand it, and thank heaven for you.HELENA.I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiestThat I protest I simply am a maid.Please it your Majesty, I have done already.The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me:'We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused,Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever,We'll ne'er come there again.'KING.Make choice and see:Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.HELENA.Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,And to imperial Love, that god most high,Do my sighs stream.Sir, will you hear my suit?FIRST LORD.And grant it.HELENA.Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.LAFEU.I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace for mylife.HELENA.The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes,Before I speak, too threat'ningly replies.Love make your fortunes twenty times aboveHer that so wishes, and her humble love!SECOND LORD.No better, if you please.HELENA.My wish receive,Which great Love grant; and so I take my leave.LAFEU.Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine I'd havethem whipt; or I would send them to th' Turk to make eunuchs of.HELENA.Be not afraid that I your hand should take;I'll never do you wrong for your own sake.Blessing upon your vows; and in your bedFind fairer fortune, if you ever wed!LAFEU.These boys are boys of ice; they'll none have her.Sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got 'em.HELENA.You are too young, too happy, and too good,To make yourself a son out of my blood.FOURTH LORD.Fair one, I think not so.LAFEU.There's one grape yet; I am sure thy father drunk wine-butif thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have knownthee already.HELENA.[To BERTRAM] I dare not say I take you; but I giveMe and my service, ever whilst I live,Into your guiding power.This is the man.KING.Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife.BERTRAM.My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your Highness,In such a business give me leave to useThe help of mine own eyes.KING.Know'st thou not, Bertram,What she has done for me?BERTRAM.Yes, my good lord;But never hope to know why I should marry her.KING.Thou know'st she has rais'd me from my sickly bed.BERTRAM.But follows it, my lord, to bring me downMust answer for your raising? I know her well:She had her breeding at my father's charge.A poor physician's daughter my wife! DisdainRather corrupt me ever!KING.'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the whichI can build up.Strange is it that our bloods,Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,Would quite confound distinction, yet stand offIn differences so mighty.If she beAll that is virtuous-save what thou dislik'st,A poor physician's daughter-thou dislik'stOf virtue for the name; but do not so.From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,The place is dignified by the doer's deed;Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,It is a dropsied honour.Good aloneIs good without a name.Vileness is so:The property by what it is should go,Not by the title.She is young, wise, fair;In these to nature she's immediate heir;And these breed honour.That is honour's scornWhich challenges itself as honour's bornAnd is not like the sire.Honours thriveWhen rather from our acts we them deriveThan our fore-goers.The mere word's a slave,Debauch'd on every tomb, on every graveA lying trophy; and as oft is dumbWhere dust and damn'd oblivion is the tombOf honour'd bones indeed.What should be said?If thou canst like this creature as a maid,I can create the rest.Virtue and sheIs her own dower; honour and wealth from me.BERTRAM.I cannot love her, nor will strive to do 't.KING.Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose.HELENA.That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad.Let the rest go.KING.My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,I must produce my power.Here, take her hand,Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift,That dost in vile misprision shackle upMy love and her desert; that canst not dreamWe, poising us in her defective scale,Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not knowIt is in us to plant thine honour whereWe please to have it grow.Check thy contempt;Obey our will, which travails in thy good;Believe not thy disdain, but presentlyDo thine own fortunes that obedient rightWhich both thy duty owes and our power claims;Or I will throw thee from my care for everInto the staggers and the careless lapseOf youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hateLoosing upon thee in the name of justice,Without all terms of pity.Speak; thine answer.BERTRAM
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