SCENE VI.
Enter King, Helena, and Attendants.
Par.
I would have said it, you said well: here
comes the King.
Laf.
Lustick, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a
Maid the better, while I have a tooth in my head:
why, he's able to lead her a Corranto.
Par.
Mort du Vinaigre! is not this Helen?
Laf.
'Fore God, I think so.
King.
Go, call before me all the Lords in court.
Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;
And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promis'd gift;
Which but attends thy naming.
Enter three or four Lords.
Fair maid, send forth thine eye; this youthful parcel
Of noble batchelors stand at my bestowing,
O'er whom both sov'reign power and father's voice
I have to use; thy frank election make;
Thou hast power to chuse, and they none to forsake.
Hel.
To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
Fall, when love please! marry, to each but one.—
Laf.
I'd give bay curtal and his furniture,
My mouth no more were broken than these boys,
And writ as little beard.
King.
Peruse them well:
Not one of those, but had a noble father.
[She addresses herself to a Lord.
Hel.
Gentlemen, heaven hath, through me, restor'd
The King to health.
All.
We understand it, and thank heaven for you.
Hel.
I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest,
That, I protest, I simply am a maid.—
-- 40 --
Please it your Majesty, I have done already:
The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me,
We blush that thou should'st chuse, but be refus'd;
5 noteLet the white death sit on thy cheek for ever,
We'll ne'er come there again.
King.
Make choice, and see,
Who shuns thy love, shuns all his love in me.
Hel.
Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,
6 noteAnd to impartial Love, that God most high,
Do my sighs stream: Sir, will you hear my suit?
1 Lord.
And grant it.
Hel.
Thanks, Sir;—all the rest is mute.
Laf.
I had rather be in this choice, than throw
ames-ace for my life.
Hel.
The honour, Sir, that flames in your fair eyes,
Before I speak, too threatningly replies:
Love make your fortunes twenty times above
Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
2 Lord.
No better, if you please.
Hel.
My wish receive,
Which great Love grant! and so I take my leave.
Laf.
Do all they deny her? if they were sons of
mine, I'd have them whipt, or I would send them
to the Turk to make eunuchs of.
Hel.
Be not afraid that I your hand should take,
I'll never do you wrong for your own sake:
Blessing upon your vows, and in your bed
Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!
Laf.
These boys are boys of ice, they'll none of
her: sure, they are bastards to the English, the French
ne'er got 'em.
-- 41 --
Hel.
You are too young, too happy, and too good,
To make yourself a son out of my blood.
4 Lord.
Fair one, I think not so.
7 noteLaf.
There's one grape yet,—
Par.
I am sure, thy father drunk wine.—
Laf.
But if thou be'est not an ass, I am a
Youth of fourteen. I have known thee already.
Hel.
I dare not say, I take you; but I give
Me and my service, ever whilst I live,
Into your guided power: this is the man.
[To Bertram.
King.
Why then; young Bertram, take her, she's thy wife.
Ber.
My wife, my Liege? I shall beseech your Highness,
In such a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.
King.
Know'st thou not, Bertram,
What she hath done for me?
Ber.
Yes, my good Lord,
But never hope to know why I should marry her.
King.
Thou know'st, she has rais'd me from my sickly bed.
Ber.
But follows it, my Lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father's charge:
A poor physician's daughter my wife!—Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
King.
'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
I can build up: strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences, so mighty. If she be
All that is virtuous (save what thou dislik'st
A poor physician's daughter,) thou dislik'st
-- 42 --
Of virtue for the name: but do not so.
From lowest place (a) notewhen virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignify'd by th' doer's deed.
Where great addition swells, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour; 8 note
good alone
Is good; and, with a name, vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. 9 note
She is good, wise, fair;
In these, to nature she's immediate heir;
And these breed honour: That is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born,
-- 43 --
And is not like the sire. Honours best thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave
Debaucht on every tomb, on ev'ry grave;
A lying trophy; 1 noteand as oft is dumb,
Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
Of honour'd bones, indeed. What should be said?
If thou can'st like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue and she,
Is her own dow'r; honour and wealth from me.
Ber.
I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.
King.
Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou should'st strive to chuse.
Hel.
That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad:
Let the rest go.—
King.
My honour's at the stake; which to (a) notedefend,
I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift!
That doth in vile misprision shackle up
My love, and her desert; that canst not dream,
We, poizing us in her defective scale,
Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour, where
We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt:
Obey our will, which travels in thy good;
-- 44 --
Believe not thy disdain, but presently
Do thine own fortunes that obedient right,
Which both thy duty owes, and our power claims;
Or I will throw thee from my care for ever
Into the staggers, and the careless lapse
Of youth and ignorance; my revenge and hate
Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
Without all terms of pity. Speak, thine answer.
Ber.
Pardon, my gracious Lord; for I submit
My fancy to your eyes. When I consider,
What great creation, and what dole of honour
Flies where you bid; I find, that she, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
2 noteThe prised of the King; who, so enobled,
Is, as 'twere, born so.
King.
Take her by the hand,
And tell her, she is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoize; if not in thy estate,
A balance more repleat.
Ber.
I take her hand.
King.
Good fortune and the favour of the King
Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the new-born brief,
And be perform'd to night; the solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her,
Thy love's to me religious; else does err.
[Exeunt.
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].
