ACT II.

SCENE I. Paris.

A Room in the King's Palace.

Flourish.

Enter King, with young Lords taking leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and Attendants.

King. Farewell, young lord1, these warlike principles

Do not throw from you:-and you, my lord, farewell:

Share the advice betwixt you: if both gain all,

The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd,

And is enough for both.

1 Lord.

It is our hope, sir,

After well enter'd soldiers, to return

And find your grace in health.

King. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart Will not confess he owes the malady

That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;
Whether I live or die, be you the sons

Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy
(Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy 3) see, that you come

1 In this and the following instance the folio reads lords. The correction was suggested by Tyrwhitt.

2 i. e. as the common phrase runs, I am still heart-whole; my spirits, by not sinking under my distemper, do not acknowledge its influence.

3 I prefer Johnson's explanation of this obscure passage to any that has been offered:- Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is to the overthrow, of those who inherit but the fall of the last monarchy, or the remains of the Roman empire.' Bated and abated are used elsewhere by Shakspeare in a kindred sense.

Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when

4

The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek, That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.

2 Lord. Health,at your bidding, serve your majesty! King. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; They say, our French lack language to deny, If they demand: beware of being captives, Before you serve 5.

Both.

Our hearts receive your warnings.

King. Farewell.-Come hither to me.

[The King retires to a Couch.

1 Lord. O my sweet lord, that you will stay be

hind us!

Par. 'Tis not his fault; the spark

2 Lord. O, 'tis brave wars! Par. Most admirable: I have seen those wars. Ber. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with; Too young, and the next year, and 'tis too early. Par. An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely.

Ber. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn, But one to dance with7! By heaven, I'll steal away. 1 Lord. There's honour in the theft.

Par.

Commit it, count.

2 Lord. I am your accessary; and so farewell. Ber. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body 8.

1 Lord. Farewell, captain.

4 Seeker, inquirer.

5 Be not captives before you are soldiers.

6 To be kept a coil is to be vexed or troubled with a stir or noise.

7 In Shakspeare's time it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on.

8 'I grow to you, and our parting is as it were to dissever or torture a body.'

2 Lord. Sweet monsieur Parolles!

Par. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals:You shall find in the regiment of the Spinii, one captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his reports for me.

2 Lord. We shall, noble captain.

Par. Mars dote on you for his novices! [Exeunt Lords.] What will you do? Ber. Stay; the king

[Seeing him rise. Par. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords: you have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the time 9, there do muster true gait 10; eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure 11, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.

Ber. And I will do so.

Par.Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men. [Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROlles.

Enter LAFEU.

Laf. Pardon, my lord, [Kneeling.] for me and

for my tidings.

King. I'll fee thee to stand up.

9 They are the foremost in the fashion.

10 It seems to me that this passage has been wrongly pointed and improperly explained, there do muster true gait; if addressed to Bertram, it means there exercise yourself in the gait of fashion; eat, &c. But perhaps we should read they instead of there, or else insert they after gait; either of these slight emendations would render this obscure passage perfectly intelligible.

11 The dance.

Laf.

Then here's a man

Stands, that has brought his pardon. I would, you
Had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy; and
That, at my bidding, you could so stand up.
King. I would, I had; so I had broke thy pate,
And ask'd thee mercy for't.

Laf.

Goodfaith, across 12:

But, my good lord, 'tis thus; Will you be cur'd
Of your infirmity?

No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will,
My noble grapes, an if my royal fox

Could reach them: I have seen a medicine 13,
That's able to breathe life into a stone;

Quicken a rock, and make dance canary 14,

you

With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch'
Is powerful to araise king Pepin, nay,

To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand,
And write to her a love-line 15.

What her is this?

King. 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 16,

12 This word, which is taken from breaking a spear across in chivalric exercises, is used elsewhere by Shakspeare where a pass of wit miscarries. See As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 4, note 4. 13 Medicine is here used by Lafeu ambiguously for a female physician.

14 It has been before observed that the canary was a kind of lively dance.

15 Malone thinks something has been omitted here: to complete the sense the line should read:

'And cause him write to her a love line.'

16 By profession is meant her declaration of the object of her coming.

Wisdom, and constancy, hath amaz'd me more Than I dare blame my weakness 17: Will you see her, (For that is her demand,) and know her business? That done, laugh well at me.

King.

Now, good Lafeu,

Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
May spend our wonder too, or take off thine,
By wond'ring how thou took'st it.

Laf.

And not be all day neither.

Nay, I'll fit you,

[Exit LAFEU.

King. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.

Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA.

Laf. Nay, come your ways 18.

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
His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle 19,
That dare leave two together; fare you well. [Exit.
King. Now, fair one, does your business follow us?
Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was
My father; in what he did profess, well found 20.
King. I knew him.

Hel. The rather will I spare my praises towards him;
Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death
Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the dearest issue of his practice,

17 This is one of Shakspeare's perplexed expressions:- To acknowledge how much she has astonished me would be to acknowledge more weakness than I am willing to do.'

18 Steevens has inconsiderately stigmatized this with the title of vulgarism. Malone has justly defended it as the phraseology of the poet's age, and adduces a similar mode of expression from our excellent old version of the Bible.

19 I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Cressida. 20 Of known and acknowledged excellence.