Hel.
O, were that all!—I think not on my father^{4 note}

And these great tears^{5 note}

The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table^{7 note}

But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relicks. Who comes here? Enter Parolles.
One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely^{9 note}
a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly^{1 note}.

Par.

Save you, fair queen.

Hel.

And you, monárch^{2 note}.

Par.

No.

Hel.

And no^{3 note}.

Par.

Are you meditating on virginity?

Hel.

Ay. You have some stain of soldier^{4 note}

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 assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance.

Par.

There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

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^{5 note}

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, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself^{6 note}; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin^{7 note}

in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself ten^{8 note}

the principal itself not much the worse: 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^{9 note}. '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 tooth-pick, which wear not now^{1 note}

Hel.
Not my virginity yet^{3 note}

There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phœnix^{4 note}

A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress^{6 note}

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^{7 note}

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 baser stars do shut us up in wishes,

Might with effects of them follow our friends,
And show what we alone must think^{8 note}; which never
Returns us thanks. Enter a 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 so kept you 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 so?

Hel.

You go so much backward, when you fight.

Par.

That's for advantage.

Hel.

So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing^{9 note}

Par.

I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel^{1 note}

Hel.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it, which mounts my love so high;
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye^{2 note}
?
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes, and kiss like native things^{3 note}

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