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From fimple fources; and great feas have dry'd,
When mir'cles have by th' greatest been deny'd.
Oft expectation fails, and moft oft there
Where most it promises: and oft it hits
Where hope is coldeft, and defpair moft fits.
King. I muft not hear thee; fare thee well, kind
Maid;

Thy pains, not us'd, muft by thyself be paid:
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Hel. Infpired merit fo by breath is barr'd:
It is not fo with him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us, that fquare our guefs by fhows:
But most it is prefumption in us, when
The help of heav'n we count the act of men.
Dear Sir, to my endeavours give confent,
Of heav'n, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impoftor, that proclaim
4 Myself against the level of mine aim;
But know I think, and think I know most fure,
My art is not paft power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou fo confident? within what space
Hop'st thou my cure?

Hel. The greateft grace lending grace,
Ere twice the horfes of the fun fhall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moift Hesperus hath quench'd his fleepy lamp;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievifh minutes how they pafs;
What is infirm from your found parts fhall fly,
Health fhall live free, and fick nefs freely die.
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'ft thou venture?

Hel. Tax of impudence,

4 Myfelf against the level of mine aim ;] i. e. pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition.

A

A ftrumpet's boldnefs, a divulged fha.ne.
Traduc'd by odious ballads: my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwife, no worfe of worst extended;
With vileft torture let my life be ended.

King. Methinks, in thee fome bleffed Spirit doth fpeak:

His power full founds within an organ weak;
And what impoffibility would flay

In common fenfe, fenfe faves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate
Worth name of life, in thee hath eftimate:
Youth, beauty, wildom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness and prime can happy call;
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monftrous defperate.
Sweet Practifer, thy phyfick I will try;
That minifters thine own death, if I die.
Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,
And well deferv'd! Not helping, death's my fee
But if I help, what do you promife me?

5 Methinks, in thee fome blessed spirit doth Speak

His powerful found, within an organ weak;] To speak a found is a barbarism: For to speak fignifies to utter an articulaté found, i. e. a voice. So Shakespear, in Love's Labour Loft, fays with propriety, And when love speaks the voice of all the Gods. To fpeak a found therefore is improper, tho' to utter a found is not; because the word utter may be applied either to an articulate or inarticulate. Befides, the construction is vicious with the two ablatives, in thee, and, within an organ weak. The lines therefore should be thus read and pointed,

Methinks, in thee fome blessed spirit doth fpeak:

His power full founds within an organ weak.

But the Oxford Editor would be only fo far beholden to this emendation, as to enable him to make fenfe of the lines another way, whatever become of the rules of criticifm or ingenuous dealing.

It powerful founds within an organ weak.

6 Youth, Beauty, wisdom, courage, all] The verfe wants a foot. VIRTUE, by mifchance, has dropt out of the line.

VOL. III.

D

King,

King. Make thy demand.

Hel, But will you make it even?

King. Ay, by my scepter, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then fhalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What Husband in thy power I will command. Exempted be from me the arrogance

To chufe from forth the royal blood of France;
My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or impage of thy ftate:
But fuch a one thy vaffal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

King. Here is my hand, the premises obferv'd,
Thy will by my performance fhall be ferv'd:
So, make the choice of thine own time; for I,
Thy refolv'd Patient, on thee ftill rely.

More fhould I queftion thee, and more I muft;
(Tho' more to know, could not be more to truft :)
From whence thou cam'ft, how tended on,but rest
Unqueftion'd welcome, and undoubted bleft.
Give me fome help here, hoa! if thou proceed
As high as word, "my deed shall match thy deed.
[Exeunt.

King. Make thy demand.

Hel. But will you make it even!

King. Ay, by my feepter and my hopes of help.] The King could have but a very flight hope of help from her, fcarce enough to fwear by: and therefore Helen might fufpect he meant to equivocate with her. Befides, obferve, the greatest part of the fcene is ftrictly in rhyme, and there is no fhadow of reason why -it should be interrupted here. I rather imagine the poet wrote, Dr. Thirlby.

Ay, by my feepter, and my hopes of heaven.

8 With any branch or IMAGE of thy flate:] Shakespear unqueftionably wrote IMPAGE, grafting. IMPE a graff, or flip, or fucker: by which the means one of the fons of France. So Caxton calls our Prince Arthur, that noble IMPE of fame.

SCENE

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Count.

Changes to Roufillon.

Enter Countess and Clown.

COME on, Sir; I fhall now put you to

the height of your breeding.

Clo. I will fhew myfelf highly fed, and lowly taught; I know, my bufinefs is but to the court. Count. But to the court? why, what place make you fpecial, when you put off that with fuch contempt; but to the court!

Clo. Truly, Madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may eafily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kifs his hand, and fay nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, fuch a fellow, to fay precifely, were not for the court: but for me, I have an anfwer will ferve all men.

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Count. Marry, that's a bountiful anfwer that fits all questions.

Clo. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawnbuttock, or any buttock.

Count. Will your anfwer ferve fit to all questions? Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attor ney, as your French crown for your taffaty punk, as Tib's ruth for Tom's fore-finger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as á fcolding quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin.

Count. Have you, I fay, an anfwer of fuch fitness for all questions?

Clo. From below your duke, to beneath your conftable, it will fit any question. D 2

Counte

Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous fize, that muft fit all demands.

Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned fhould fpeak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't. Ask me, if I am a courtierit fhall do you no harm to learn.

Count. To be young again, if we could: I will be a fool in a queftion, hoping to be the wifer by your anfwer. I pray you, Sir, are you a courtier ? Clo. O lord, Sir there's a fimple putting off:

more, more, a hundred of them.

Gount. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves yousov

Clo. O lord, Sir-thick, thick, fpare not me. Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely

meat.

Clo. O lord, Sir

you.

nay, put me to't, I warrant

Count. You were lately whip'd, Sir, as I think. Clo. O lord, Sir-fpare not me.

Count. Do you cry, Olord, Sir, at your whipping, and fpare not me? indeed, your O lord, Sir, is very fequent to your whipping: you would anfwer very well to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.

Clo. I ne'er had worfe luck in my life, in my-0 lord, Sir; I fee, things may serve long, but not ferve

ever.

Count. I play the noble hufwife with the time, to entertain it fo merrily with a fool.

Clo. O lord, Sir-why, there't ferves well again. Count. An end, Sir; to your bufinefs: give Helen this, And urge her to a prefent anfwer back.

Commend me to my kinfmen, and my fon:
This is not much.

- 90 lord, Sir,] A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech then in vogue at court.

Clo.

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