Count. What hope is there of his Majesty's amendment?

Laf. He hatl. abandon'd' his physicians, Madam, under whose practices he hath perfecuted 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 å presage 'tis!) whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd fo far, it would have made nature immortal, and death should have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the King's fake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the King's disease.

Laf. How call’d you the man you speak of, Madam ? i 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 fkilful enough to have liv'd still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.

Ber. What is it, my good Lord, the King languishes of?

Laf. A fiftula, my Lord. .
Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would it were not notorious. Was this geritlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?

Count. His fole child, my Lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises her: difpofition 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 her fimpleness; the derives her honesty, and atchieves 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 forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this,

Helena; * By virtuous qualities here are not meant those of a moral kind, but such as are acquired by, erudition and good breeding.

Helena; go to, no more; leit it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have it.

Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too.

Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living.

Count. If the living be not enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal:

Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes.
Laf. How understand we that?

Count. Be thou bless’d, Bertram, and succeed thy father
In manners as in shape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine

enemy
Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech. What heav'n more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck dowa,
Fall on thy head! farewell, my Lord;
'Tis an unseafond courtier, good my Lord,
Advise him.

Laf. He cannot want the best,
That shall attend his love.
Count. Heav'n bless him! Farewell, Bertram.

[Exit Countes. Ber. [To Hel.] The best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother your mistress, and make much of her.

Laf. Farewell, pretty Lady, you must hold the credit of your father.

[Exeunt Bertram and Lafeu.

SCENE II.

Hel. Oh, were that all! I think pot on my father; And these great tears grace his remembrance more Than those I shed for him. What was he like? I have forgot him. My imagination Carries no favour in it, but my Bertram's. I am undone; there is no living, none, If Bertram be away.

It were all one, That I should love a bright partic'lar itar, And think to wed it; he is so above me:

In his bright radiance and collateral * light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
Th' ambition in my love thus plagues-itself;
The hind that would be mated by the lion,
Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to fit, and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,

In our heart's table; heart too capable
2. Of every line and trick of his sweet favour!

But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here?

Enter Parolles.

One that goes with him: I love him for his fake,
“ And yet I know him a notorious liar;
“Think him a great way fool, folely a coward;
66 Yet these fix'd evils fit fo fit in tim,
“ That they take place, when Virtue's ftecly bones
« Look bleak in the cold wind;" full oft we fee
Cold + Wisdorn waiting on fuperfluous Tolly,

SCENE III.
Par, Save you, fair Queen.
Hel. And you, Monasch..
Par. No.
Hel. And no.
Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

Hel. Ay; 'you have some ftain I 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 affails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike refiitance.

Par. There is none: man, setting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you úp. 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 politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. Lofs of virginity is rational increafe; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first løft. That you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever loft; 'tis too cold a companion:

away with’t.

6

Hel

. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, 'tis to accuse your mother;, which is most infallible disobedience. As he that hangs himself, so is a virgin : · Vir

ginity murthers itself, and should be buried in highways "out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress a'gainst nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itfelf to the very paring, and so dies' with feeding its own stomach. Besides, virginity is

peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love; which is the: most prohibited fin in the canon. Keep it not, you cannot chufe but löfe 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 worfe. ' Away with't.'

Hel. How might one do, 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 toothpick, which we wear not now. Your date is better in your pye 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 dryly; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear: it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a .

withorld

A 3

wither'd pear. Will you any thing with it..

Hed. Not my virginity yet.
There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend * ;
I know not what he shall- -God send him well!
The court's a learning place and he is gone-

Par. What one, i' faith?
Hel. That I wish well 'tis pity
Par. What's pity?

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't
Which might be felt; that we the poorer born,
Whose baler stars do shut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends;
And shew what we alone must think, which pever.
Returns us thanks.

Enter Page.

Page. Monsieur Parolles,
My Lord calls for you.

[Exit Page. Par. Little Helen, farewell; 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 fo 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 fo?
Hel. You go fo much backward, when you fight.

Par

-and a friend,
A phenix, captain, and an enemy;
A guide, a goddess, and a fovereign :
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear:
His humble ambition, proud humility;
His jarring concord; and his discord dulcet;
His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty fond adoptious Christendoms.
That blinking Cupid goslips. Now shall be
I know not, ecc.