The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/24/02_03

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 15KB | 422 lines

Paris. A Room in the King's Palace.
 Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.

Lafeu    They say miracles are past, and we have our philosophical
    persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural
    and causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors,
    ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should
    submit ourselves to an unknown fear.

Parolles    Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out
    in our latter times.

Bertram    And so 'tis.

Lafeu    To be relinquished of the artists-

Parolles    So I say - both of Galen and Paracelsus.

Lafeu    Of all the learned and authentic fellows-

Parolles    Right; so I say.

Lafeu    That gave him out incurable-

Parolles    Why, there 'tis; so say I too.

Lafeu    Not to be helped-

Parolles    Right; as 'twere a man assured of a-

Lafeu    Uncertain life and sure death.

Parolles    Just; you say well: so would I have said.

Lafeu    I may truly say it is a novelty to the world.

Parolles    It is indeed. If you will have it in showing, you shall
    read it in what-do-ye-call there.

Lafeu    [Reads.]    A showing of a heavenly effect 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 in
    respect-

Parolles    Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and
    the tedious of it; and he's of a most facinorous spirit
    that will 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
    alone the recov'ry of the king, as to be-

Lafeu    Generally thankful.

                   Enter KING, HELENA, and ATTENDANTS.

Parolles    I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.

Lafeu    Lustique, 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 a coranto.

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 ATTENDANT.
    Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;
    And with this healthful hand, whose banished sense
    Thou hast repealed, a second time receive
    The confirmation of my promised gift,
    Which but attends thy naming.

                            Enter four LORDS.

    Fair maid, send forth thine eye. This youthful parcel
    Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
    O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice
    I 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 mistress
    Fall, when love please! Marry, to each but one!

Lafeu    I'd give bay Curtal and his furniture
    My 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 restored the king to health.

All Lords    We understand it, and thank heaven for you.

Helena    I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest
    That 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.
        [To 1st LORD.]    Sir, will you hear my suit?

1st 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 my
    life.

Helena    [To 2nd LORD.]
    The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes
    Before I speak, too threateningly replies.
    Love make your fortunes twenty times above
    Her that so wishes, and her humble love!

2nd 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 have
    them whipped, or I would send them to th' Turk to make
    eunuchs of.

Helena    [To 3rd LORD.] 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 bed
    Find 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    [To 4th LORD.] You are too young, too happy, and too good,
    To make yourself a son out of my blood.

4th Lord    Fair one, I think not so.

Lafeu    There's one grape yet. I am sure thy father drunk wine. But
    if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen: I have
    known thee already.

Helena    [To BERTRAM.] I dare not say I take you; but I give
    Me 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 use
    The 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 raised me from my sickly bed.

Bertram    But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
    Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
    She had her breeding at my father's charge.
    A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain
    Rather corrupt me ever!

King    'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
    I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
    Of colour, weight, and heat, poured all together,
    Would quite confound distinction, yet stands off
    In differences so mighty. If she be
    All that is virtuous, save what thou dislik'st-
    A poor physician's daughter - thou dislik'st
    Of 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 alone
    Is 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 scorn
    Which challenges itself as honour's born,
    And is not like the sire. Honours thrive
    When rather from our acts we them derive
    Than our foregoers. The mere word's a slave,
    Debauched on every tomb, on every grave
    A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
    Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
    Of honoured bones indeed. What should be said?
    If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
    I can create the rest. Virtue and she
    Is 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 restored, 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 up
    My love and her desert; that canst not dream
    We, poising us in her defective scale,
    Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know
    It is in us to plant thine honour where
    We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt;
    Obey our will, which travails in thy good;
    Believe not thy disdain, but presently
    Do thine own fortunes that obedient right
    Which both thy duty owes and our power claims;
    Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
    Into the staggers and the careless lapse
    Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate
    Loosing upon thee, in the name of justice,
    Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer.

Bertram    Pardon, my gracious lord, for I submit
    My fancy to your eyes. When I consider
    What great creation and what dole of honour
    Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late
    Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
    The praisd of the king; who, so ennobled,
    Is as 'twere born so.

King                            Take her by the hand
    And tell her she is thine; to whom I promise
    A counterpoise, if not to thy estate,
    A balance more replete.

Bertram                                I take her hand.

King    Good fortune and the favour of the king
    Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
    Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
    And be performed tonight. The solemn feast
    Shall more attend upon the coming space,
    Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her,
    Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.
                          [Exeunt all but LAFEU and PAROLLES, who
                         stay behind, commenting of this wedding.

Lafeu    Do you hear, monsieur? A word with you.

Parolles    Your pleasure, sir?

Lafeu    Your lord and master did well to make his recantation.

Parolles    Recantation! My lord! My master!

Lafeu    Ay. Is it not a language I speak?

Parolles    A most harsh one, and not to be understood without bloody
    succeeding. My master!

Lafeu    Are you companion to the Count Rousillon?

Parolles    To any count; to all counts; to what is man.

Lafeu    To what is count's man; count's master is of another style.

Parolles    You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

Lafeu    I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age
    cannot bring thee.

Parolles    What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

Lafeu    I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise
    fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it
    might pass. Yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did
    manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too
    great a burden. I have now found thee; when I lose thee
    again, I care not. Yet art thou good for nothing but taking
    up, and that thou'rt scarce worth.

Parolles    Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee-

Lafeu    Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten
    thy trial, which if - Lord have mercy on thee for a hen!
    So, my good window of lattice, fare thee well; thy casement
    I need not open, for I look through thee. Give me thy hand.

Parolles    My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

Lafeu    Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.

Parolles    I have not, my lord, deserved it.

Lafeu    Yes, good faith, ev'ry dram of it; and I will not bate thee
    a scruple.

Parolles    Well, I shall be wiser.

Lafeu    E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a
    smack o'th' contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf
    and beaten, thou shall find what it is to be proud of thy
    bondage. I have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee,
    or rather my knowledge, that I may say in the default, 'He
    is a man I know'.

Parolles    My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.

Lafeu    I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing
    eternal; for doing I am past, as I will by thee, in what
    motion age will give me leave.
                                                [Exit.

Parolles    Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me,
    scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, I must be patient;
    there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my
    life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were
    double and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age
    than I would have of - I'll beat him an if I could but meet
    him again!

                             Re-enter LAFEU.

Lafeu    Sirrah, your lord and master's married. There's news for
    you; you have a new mistress.

Parolles    I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some
    reservation of your wrongs. He is my good lord; whom I
    serve above is my master.

Lafeu    Who? God?

Parolles    Ay, sir.

Lafeu    The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up
    thy arms o'this fashion? Dost make hose of thy sleeves? Do
    other servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where
    thy nose stands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours
    younger I'd beat thee. Methink'st thou art a general
    offence and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast
    created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.

Parolles    This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

Lafeu    Go to, sir. You were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel
    out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond and no true
    traveller; you are more saucy with lords and honourable
    personages than the commission of your birth and virtue
    gives you heraldry. You are not worth another word, else
    I'd call you knave. I leave you.
                                                [Exit.

Parolles    Good, very good; it is so then. Good, very good; let it be
    concealed awhile.

                            Re-enter BERTRAM.

Bertram    Undone and forfeited to cares for ever!

Parolles    What's the matter, sweet heart?

Bertram    Although before the solemn priest I have sworn,
    I will not bed her.

Parolles    What, what, sweet heart?

Bertram    O my Parolles, they have married me!
    I'll to the Tuscan wars and never bed her.

Parolles    France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits
    The tread of a man's foot. To the wars!

Bertram    There's letters from my mother: what the import is
    I know not yet.

Parolles    Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!
    He wears his honour in a box unseen,
    That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home,
    Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
    Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
    Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions!
    France is a stable; we that dwell in't jades;
    Therefore to the war!

Bertram    It shall be so. I'll send her to my house,
    Acquaint my mother with my hate to her
    And wherefore I am fled, write to the king
    That which I durst not speak. His present gift
    Shall furnish me to those Italian fields
    Where noble fellows strike. Wars is no strife
    To the dark house and the detested wife.

Parolles    Will this capriccio hold in thee - art sure?

Bertram    Go with me to my chamber and advise me.
    I'll send her straight away. Tomorrow
    I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.

Parolles    Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard:
    A young man married is a man that's marred:
    Therefore away, and leave her bravely. Go:
    The king has done you wrong; but hush 'tis so.
                                                [Exeunt.