King. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, And ask'd thee mercy for't. Laf. Good faith, across :7 But, my good lord, 'tis thus; Will you be cur'd King. No. Laf. O, will you eat No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will, Could reach them: I have seen a medicine, 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, King. What her is this? Laf. Why, doctor she: My lord, there's one arriv'd, If 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 With one, that, in her sex, her years, profession, Than I dare blame my weakness: Will you see her King. Now, good Lafeu, Bring in the admiration; that we with thee May spend our wonder too, or take off thine, By wondering how thou took'st it. Laf. Nay, I'll fit you, And not be all day neither. [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: A traitor you do look like; but such traitors [7] This word, as has been already observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries. JOHNSON, See As you like it, Act III sc. iv. p. 52. STEEVENS [] Mr Rich. Brome, mentions this among other dances: "As for corantoes, la voltos, jis measures, pavins, brawls, galliards, or canaries: I speak it not swellingly, but I subscribe to no man." DR. GREY. His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,9 [Exit. King. Now, fair one, does your business follow us? Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so: King. We thank you, maiden; But may not be so credulous of cure,- To empiricks; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. A modest one, to bear me back again. King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful: 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, [9] I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Cressida. JOHNSON. When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown Where most it promises; and oft it hits, King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid; But know I think, and think I know most sure, Hel. The greatest grace lending grace, Hel. Tax of impudence, A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,- [1] The allusion is to St. Matthew's Gospel, xi. 25: "O Father, Lord of heaven and earth; I thank thee, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prodent, and revealed them unto babes." See also 1 Cor. i. 27:"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty." MALONE." See the Book of Exodus, particularly chap. xvii. 5, 6, &c. HENLEY. f21 I would bear (says she) the tax of impudence, which is the denotement of a strumpet; would endure a shame resulting from my failure in what I have under King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak; 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; King. Make thy demand. Hel. But will you make it even? King. Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command: Exempted be from me the arrogance To choose from forth the royal blood of France; King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, More should I question thee, and more I must; -Give me some help here, ho!—If thou proceed [Flourish. Exeunt. taken, and thence become the subject of odious ballads; let my maiden reputation be otherwise branded; and, no worse of worst extended, i e provided nothing worse is offered to me (meaning violation) le my life be ended with the worst of tortures. The poet, for the sake of thyme, has obscure the sense of the passage. The worst that can befal a woman being extended to me, seems to be the meaning of the last line. STEEVENS. SCENE II. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding. Clo. I will show 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 ? Bu to the court! Clo. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any man ners, he may easily put it off at court: he that canno make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, suci 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 a questions. Clo. 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? Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Tib rush for Tom's fore-finger,3 as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole. the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrang ling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, a the pudding to his skin. Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness fo all questions? Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your consta ble, it will fit any question. Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous size, that must fit all demands. Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned [3] The allusion is to an ancient practice of marrying with a rush ring, as well it other countries as in England. Breval, in his Antiquities of Faris, mentions it as a kind of espousal used in France, by such persons as meant to live together in a state of concubinage; but in England it was scarce ever practised except by desiguing men, for the purpose of corrupting those young women to whom they pretended love. Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury, in his Constitutions, anni, 1217, forbids the putting of rush rings, or any the like matter, on women's fingers, in order to the debauching them more readily and he insinuates, as the reason for the prohibition, that there were some people weak enough to believe, that what was thus done in jest, was a real marriage. Sir J. HAWKINS. |