All's Well That Ends Well — Act 2, Scene 1

KING

Farewell, young lords; these warlike principlesDo not throw from you: and you, my lords, farewell:Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain, allThe gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,And is enough for both.

First Lord

'Tis our hope, sir,After well enter'd soldiers, to returnAnd find your grace in health.

KING

No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heartWill not confess he owes the maladyThat doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;Whether I live or die, be you the sonsOf worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy,--Those bated that inherit but the fallOf the last monarchy,--see that you comeNot to woo honour, but to wed it; whenThe bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.

Second 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.

Both

Our hearts receive your warnings.

KING

Farewell. Come hither to me.

First Lord

O, my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!

PAROLLES

'Tis not his fault, the spark.

Second Lord

O, 'tis brave wars!

PAROLLES

Most admirable: I have seen those wars.

BERTRAM

I am commanded here, and kept a coil with'Too young' and 'the next year' and ''tis too early.'

PAROLLES

An thy mind stand to't, boy, steal away bravely.

BERTRAM

I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,Till honour be bought up and no sword wornBut one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal away.

First Lord

There's honour in the theft.

PAROLLES

Commit it, count.

Second Lord

I am your accessary; and so, farewell.

BERTRAM

I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.

First Lord

Farewell, captain.

Second Lord

Sweet Monsieur Parolles!

PAROLLES

Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Goodsparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shallfind in the regiment of the Spinii one CaptainSpurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, hereon his sinister cheek; it was this very swordentrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe hisreports for me.

First Lord

We shall, noble captain.

PAROLLES

Mars dote on you for his novices! what will ye do?

BERTRAM

Stay: the king.

PAROLLES

[To BERTRAM] Use a more spacious ceremony to thenoble lords; you have restrained yourself within thelist of too cold an adieu: be more expressive tothem: for they wear themselves in the cap of thetime, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, andmove under the influence of the most received star;and though the devil lead the measure, such are tobe followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.

BERTRAM

And I will do so.

PAROLLES

Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.

LAFEU

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

KING

I'll fee thee to stand up.

LAFEU

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.

LAFEU

Good faith, across: but, my good lord 'tis thus;Will you be cured of your infirmity?

KING

No.

LAFEU

O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an ifMy royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicineThat's able to breathe life into a stone,Quicken a rock, and make you dance canaryWith spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,And write to her a love-line.

KING

What 'her' is this?

LAFEU

Why, Doctor She: my lord, there's one arrived,If you will see her: now, by my faith and honour,If seriously I may convey my thoughtsIn this my light deliverance, I have spokeWith one that, in her sex, her years, profession,Wisdom and constancy, hath amazed me moreThan I dare blame my weakness: will you see herFor 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 theeMay spend our wonder too, or take off thineBy wondering how thou took'st it.

LAFEU

Nay, I'll fit you,And not be all day neither.

KING

Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.

LAFEU

Nay, come your ways.

KING

This haste hath wings indeed.

LAFEU

Nay, come your ways:This is his majesty; say your mind to him:A traitor you do look like; but such traitorsHis majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,That dare leave two together; fare you well.

KING

Now, fair one, does your business follow us?

HELENA

Ay, my good lord.Gerard de Narbon was my father;In what he did profess, well found.

KING

I knew him.

HELENA

The rather will I spare my praises towards him:Knowing him is enough. On's bed of deathMany receipts he gave me: chiefly one.Which, as the dearest issue of his practise,And of his old experience the oily darling,He bade me store up, as a triple eye,Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so;And hearing your high majesty is touch'dWith that malignant cause wherein the honourOf my dear father's gift stands chief in power,I come to tender it and my applianceWith all bound humbleness.

KING

We thank you, maiden;But may not be so credulous of cure,When our most learned doctors leave us andThe congregated college have concludedThat labouring art can never ransom natureFrom her inaidible estate; I say we must notSo stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,To prostitute our past-cure maladyTo empirics, or to dissever soOur great self and our credit, to esteemA senseless help when help past sense we deem.

HELENA

My duty then shall pay me for my pains:I will no more enforce mine office on you.Humbly entreating from your royal thoughtsA 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 giveAs 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.

HELENA

What I can do can do no hurt to try,Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.He that of greatest works is finisherOft does them by the weakest minister:So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,When judges have been babes; great floods have flownFrom simple sources, and great seas have driedWhen miracles have by the greatest been denied.Oft expectation fails and most oft thereWhere most it promises, and oft it hitsWhere hope is coldest and despair most fits.

KING

I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.

HELENA

Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:It is not so with Him that all things knowsAs 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;But most it is presumption in us whenThe help of heaven we count the act of men.Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.I am not an impostor that proclaimMyself against the level of mine aim;But know I think and think I know most sureMy art is not past power nor you past cure.

KING

Are thou so confident? within what spaceHopest thou my cure?

HELENA

The great'st grace lending graceEre twice the horses of the sun shall bringTheir fiery torcher his diurnal ring,Ere twice in murk and occidental dampMoist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp,Or four and twenty times the pilot's glassHath told the thievish minutes how they pass,What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,Health shall live free and sickness freely die.

KING

Upon thy certainty and confidenceWhat darest thou venture?

HELENA

Tax of impudence,A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shameTraduced by odious ballads: my maiden's nameSear'd otherwise; nay, worse--if worse--extendedWith vilest torture let my life be ended.

KING

Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speakHis powerful sound within an organ weak:And what impossibility would slayIn common sense, sense saves another way.Thy life is dear; for all that life can rateWorth name of life in thee hath estimate,Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, allThat happiness and prime can happy call:Thou this to hazard needs must intimateSkill infinite or monstrous desperate.Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try,That ministers thine own death if I die.

HELENA

If I break time, or flinch in propertyOf what I spoke, unpitied let me die,And well deserved: not helping, death's my fee;But, if I help, what do you promise me?

KING

Make thy demand.

HELENA

But will you make it even?

KING

Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.

HELENA

Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly handWhat husband in thy power I will command:Exempted be from me the arroganceTo choose from forth the royal blood of France,My low and humble name to propagateWith any branch or image of thy state;But such a one, thy vassal, whom I knowIs free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

KING

Here is my hand; the premises observed,Thy will by my performance shall be served:So make the choice of thy own time, for I,Thy resolved patient, on thee still rely.More should I question thee, and more I must,Though more to know could not be more to trust,From whence thou camest, how tended on: but restUnquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceedAs high as word, my deed shall match thy meed.