ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. King of France. PERSONS REPRESENTE D. Duke of Florence. BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon. LAFEU, an old Lord. PAROLLES, a parasitical Follower of Bertram; a Coward, but vain, and a great Pretender to Valour. Several young French Lords, that serve with Bertram in the Florentine War. Countess of Rousilion, Mother to Bertram. DIANA, Daughter to the Widow. Lords attending on the King; Officers, Soldiers, &c. Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward1, 10 evermore in subjection. Laf. You shall find of the king a husband,| madam ;-you, sir, a father: He that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir 15 it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance. Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandon'd his physicians, ma-20 dam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the losing of hope by time. Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (0, that had! how sad a passage' 'tis !) whose 25 skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd so far, it would have made nature im mortal, and death should have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. 30 Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam? Count. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon. Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have liv'd still, if knowledge could have been set up against mortality. Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? Lef. A fistula, my lord. Ber. I heard not of it before. Laf. I would it were not notorious.-Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer: for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too'; in her they are the better for their simpleness1; she derives her honesty, and achieves her goodness. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No 2 The heirs of great fortune were anciently the king's wards. Passage means any thing that passes, and is here applied in the same sense as when we say the passage of a book. 'Dr. Johnson thus comments upon this passage: "Estimable and useful qualities, joined with an evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence." i. e. her excellences are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design. more more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow, than to have. Hel. I do attect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too. Lay. Moderate lamentation is the right of the 5 dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. It the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal'. Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see Cold' wisdom waiting on superfluous folly, Hel. And no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. Ay. You have some' stain of soldier in you; let me ask you a question: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak; unfold to us 15 some warlike resistance. Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. Laf. He cannot want the best, 20 Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram. 25 [Exit Countess. Ber. [To Helena.] The best wishes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistres, and make much of her. Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your father. [Ex. Bertram and Lafeu. Hel. Oh, were that all!-I think not on my 30 Par. There is none; man, sitting down be fore you, will undermine you, and blow you up. Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men? Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Pur. There's little can be said in't ; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of vir ginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified li40mit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding its own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which 45 is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot chu-e but lose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with't. father; 50 One that goes with him: I love him for his 55 That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Hel. How might one do so, sir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying the longer kept, the less worth: off with't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unsuitable: just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pye 5 4 That is, if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess." i. e. the tears of the king and countess. i. e. some peculiar feature of his face. Cold is here put for naked, and thus contrasted with superfluous or over-clothed. Meaning, some colour of soldier. Parolles was in red, as appears froni his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee. ‘i e. forbidden sin. an and your porridge, than in your cheek': And your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears: it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear: it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a wither'd pear: Will you any thing with it? Hel. Not my virginity yet. There shall your master have a thousand loves, Hel. That I wish well.'Tis pity—— Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Which might be felt: that we, the poorer born, Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes, Might with effects of them follow our friends, And shew what we alone must think; which neReturns us thanks. [ver [you. 5 thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away; farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast none, remember thy friends: get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee; so farewel. [Exit. Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. 10 What power is it, which mounts my love so high; That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye? The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things. Impossible be strange attempts, to those 15 That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, What hath been cannot be: Who ever strove To shew her merit, that did miss her love? The king's disease-my projectmay deceive me, But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me. [Exit. 20 SCENE II. The Court of France. 23 Flourish Cornets. Enter the King of France, Enter Page. Page. Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for 30 [Exit Page. Par. Little Helen, farewel: if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court. Hel. Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star. Par. Under Mars, I. Hel. I especially think, under Mars. Par. Why under Mars? Hel. The wars have kept you so under, that you must needs be born under Mars. Par. When he was predominant. Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather. Par. Why think you so? [fight. Hel. You go so much backward, when you Par. That's for advantage. Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing', and I like the wear well, the ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue 1 Lord. So 'tis reported, sir. [ceive it 1 Lord. His love and wisdom, Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead 40 For amplest credence. 45 Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer|50| thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which,my instruction shall serve tonaturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of courtier's counsel, and understandwhat advice shall thrust upon thee; else King. He hath arm'd our answer, 2 Lord. It may well serve A nursery to our gentry, who are sick King. What's he comes here? Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. 1 Lord. It is the count Rousillon, my good Young Bertram, flord, King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; Frank nature, rather curious than in haste, Shakspeare here quibbles on the word date, which means both age and a kind of candied fruit. Dr. Warburton is of opinion, that the eight lines following friend, is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player, who finding a thousand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a mother's, a mistress's, and a friend's, would help out the number by the intermediate nonsense. The meaning of Helen, however, in this passage may be, that she shall prove every thing to Ber- . tram. A metaphor taken from falconry; and meaning, a cirtue that will fly high." Dr. Johnson explains these lines thus: "Nature brings like qualities and dispositions to meet through any distance that fortune may have set between them; she joins them, and makes them kiss like things born together." The Senois were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna and with whom the Florentines were at constant variance. Hathwell compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts In their poor praise he humbled': Such a man [now, Ber. His good remembrance, sir, King. Would, I were with him! He would al ways say, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive word Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours". Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, that I am a poor fellow. Count. Well, sir. Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor, thought many of the rich are damn'd: But, if I may have your Ladyship's good-will to go to the world', Isbel the woman and I will do as we 35 may. Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar? Service Cto. In Isbel's case, and mine own. 40 is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the blessing of God, till I have issue of my body; for, they say, bearns are blessings. Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, 2 Lord. You are lov'd, sir; They, that least lend it you, shall lack you first. King. I fill a place, I know't-How long is't, count, 4 50 [ry. Count. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marClo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives. Count. Is this all your worship's reason? Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are. Count. May the world know them? Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent. That is, cover petty faults with great merit. i. e. he made allowances for their conduct, and hore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. í. e. by condescending to stoop to his inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, be humbled even his humility. Approof is approbation. Mr. Tollet explains this pas sage thus; His epitaph or inscription on his tomb is not so much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech." A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. i. e. to equal your desires. i. e. You are tool enough to commit those irregularities you are charged with, and yet not so much fool neither, as to discredit the accusation by any defect in your ability. 9 i. e. to be married. See note', p. 128. Count. Count. Thymarriage, sooner thanthywickedness. Clo. I am out of triends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's sake. Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. Clo. You are sha low, madam, in great friends: 5 for the knaves come to do that for me, which }| am aweary of. He that ears' my land, spares my team, and gives me leave to inn the crop: If 1 be his cukold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; he that cherishes my flesh and biood, loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and blood, is my friend: ergo, he that kisses my wife is my friend. If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage for young Charbon the puritan, and old Poysam the papist, howsoe'er their hearts are severed in religion, their heads are both one, they may joul horns together, like any deer i' the herd. 15 Count. Well, now. Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman intirely. Count. Faith, I do : her father bequeathed her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as she inds: there is more owing her, than is paid: and more shall be paid her, than she'll demand. Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her 10than, I think, she wish'd me: alone she was, and did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they touch'd not any stranger sense. Her matter was, she lov'd your son: Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two estates: Love, no god, that would not extend his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight to be surprised without rescue in the first assault, or ransom afterward: This she deliver'd in the most bitter touch of sorrow, that e'er I heard a virgin exclaim in: which I held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal; sithence, in the loss that mayhappen,it concerns you something to know it. Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouthed and 20 calumnious knave? Clo. A prophet', I, madam: and I speak the truth the next' way. For I the ballad will repeat, Which men full true shall find; more anon. [25] Stew. May it please you, madam, that he bid 30 Was this king Priam's joy. Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the song: 'Would God would serve the world so all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe-woman, if I were the parson : One Count. You have discharg'd this honestly; keep Enter Helena. young: 35 If we are nature's, these are ours: this thorn 45I am a mother to you. Hel. Mine honourable mistress. Count. Nay, a mother; Why not a mother? When I said, a mother, in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good wo-50That you start at it? I say, I am your mother; man born but every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one. Count. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you? And put you in the catalogue of those 55 You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan, Clo. That man should be at a woman's com mand, and yet no hurt done!-Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it wil wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.-I am going, forsooth: the bu-60 siness is for Helen to come hither. [Exit. To ear is to plough. It is a superstition, which hath run through all ages and people, that natural fools have something in them of divinity; on which account they were esteemed sacred. i. e. the nearest way. * Fond here means foolishly done. i. e. according to our recollection. Hel. |