Laf.
He looks well on't.

King.
I'm not a day of season,
For thou may'st see a sun-shine and a hail
In me at once; but to the brightest beams
Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth,

The time is fair again.

Ber.
My high repented blames,
Dear Sovereign, pardon to me.

King.
All is whole.
Not one word more of the consumed time,
Let's take the instant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them. You remember
The daughter of this Lord?

Ber.
Admiringly, my Liege. At first
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue:
Where the impression of mine eye enfixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stoll'n;^{5 note}

To a most hideous object: thence it came,
That she, whom all men prais'd, and whom myself,
Since I have lost, have lov'd, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.

King.
Well excus'd:—
That thou do'st love her, strikes some scores away
From the great 'compt; but love, that comes too late,
Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, that's good that is gone: our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them, until we know their grave.
Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends, and, after, weep their dust:
^{6 note}

Count.
^{7 note}
Which better than the first, O dear heav'n bless.

Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease!

Laf.
Come on, my son, in whom my house's name
Must be digested: give a favour from you
To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,
That she may quickly come. By my old beard,
And ev'ry hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead,
Was a sweet creature: such a ring as this,
The last that e'er she took her leave at court,
I saw upon her finger.

Ber.
Her's it was not.

King.
Now, pray you, let me see it: For mine eye,
While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't.
This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen,
I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood
Necessitied to help, that by this token
I would relieve her. Had you that craft to reave her
Of what should stead her most?

Ber.
My gracious Sovereign,
Howe'er it pleases you to take it so,
The ring was never her's.

Count.
Son, on my life,
I've seen her wear it, and she reckon'd it
At her life's rate.

Laf.
I'm sure, I saw her wear it.

Ber.
You are deceiv'd, my Lord, she never saw it;
In Florence was it from a casement thrown me,^{8 note}
Wrap'd in a paper, which contain'd the name

Of her that threw it: ^{9 note}

King.
Plutus himself,
That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,^{1 note}

Upon her great disaster.

Ber.
She never saw it.

King.
Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour;
And mak'st conject'ral fears to come into me,
Which I would fain shut out; if it should prove
That thou art so inhuman—'twill not prove so—
And yet I know not—thou didst hate her deadly,
And she is dead; which nothing, but to close
Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,
More than to see this ring. Take him away. [Guards seize Bertram.
My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,^{3 note}


Shall tax my fears of little vanity,
Having vainly fear'd too little. Away with him,
We'll sift this matter further.

Ber.
If you shall prove,
This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy
Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence,
Where yet she never was. [Exit Bertram guarded.

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