Clown.
Cou.
It hath happen'd all as I would have had it, save,
that he comes not along with her.
Clo.
By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very
melancholy man.
Cou.
By what observance, I pray you?
Clo.
Why, he will look upon his boot, and sing;
mend the ruff note, and sing; ask questions, and sing; pick
his teeth, and sing: I know note a man, that had this trick
of melancholy, sold a note goodly manor for a song.
Cou.
Let me see what he writes, and when he means
to come.
[opening the Letter.
Clo.
I have no mind to Isbel, since I was at court:
our old ling note, and our Isbels, o'the note country, are nothing
like your old ling, and note your Isbels o' the court: the brains note
of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an
old man loves money, with no stomack.
Cou.
What have we here?
Clo.
E'en that note you have there.
[Exit Clown.
Cou. [reads.]
I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she
hath recovered the king, and undone me: I have wedded
her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the not
eternal. You shall hear, I am run away; know it, before
the report come: if there be breadth enough in the
world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you.
Your unfortunate son,
Bertram.
This is not well, rash and unbridl'd boy,
To fly the favours of so good a king;
To pluck his indignation on thy head,
By the misprising of a maid too virtuous
-- 49 --
For the contempt of empire.
Re-enter Clown.
Clo.
O, madam, yonder is heavy news within, between
two soldiers and my young lady.
Cou.
What is the matter?
Clo.
Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some
comfort; your son will not be kill'd so soon as I thought
he would.
Cou.
Why should he be kill'd?
Clo.
So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he
does: the danger is in standing to't; that's the loss of
men, though it be the getting of children. Here they
come, will tell you more: for my part, I only hear,
your son was run away.
[Exit Clown.
Enter Helena, and two Gentlemen.14Q0400
2. G.
Save you, good madam.
Hel.
Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.
1. G.
Do not say so.
Cou.
Think upon patience.—Pray you, gentlemen,—
I have felt so many quirks of joy, and grief,
That the first face of neither, on the start,
Can woman me unto't,—where is my son, I pray you?
1. G.
Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of Florence:
We met him thitherward; for thence we came,
And, after some dispatch in hand at court,
Thither we bend again.
Hel.
Look on his note letter, madam, here's † my passport.
[reads.]
When thou can'st get the ring upon my finger,
which never shall come off, and shew me a child begotten
of thy body, that I am father to, then call me
husband: but in such a then I write a never.
This is a dreadful sentence.
-- 50 --
Cou.
Brought you this letter, gentlemen?
1. G.
Ay, madam;
And, for the contents' sake, are sorry for our pains.
Cou.
I pr'ythee, lady, have a better cheer;
If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine note,
Thou rob'st me of a moiety: He was my son;
But I do wash his name out of my blood,
And thou art all my child.—Towards Florence is he?
1. G.
Ay, madam.
Cou.
And to be a soldier?
1. G.
Such is his noble purpose: and, believe't,
The duke will lay upon him all the honour
That good convenience claims.
Cou.
Return you thither?
2. G.
Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.
Hel. [reads.]
'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in
France.—'Tis bitter note.
Cou.
Find you that there?
Hel.
Ay, madam.
2. G.
'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply note, which
His heart was not consenting to.
Cou.
Nothing in France, until he have no wife!
There's nothing here, that is too good for him,
But only she; and she deserves a lord,
That twenty such rude boys might tend upon,
And call her hourly mistress.—Who was with him?
2. G.
A servant only, and a gentleman
Which I have sometime known.
Cou.
Parolles, was't not?
2. G.
Ay, my good lady, he.
Cou.
A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness:
My son corrupts a well-derived nature
-- 51 --
With his inducement.
2. G.
Why, indeed, good lady,
The fellow has a deal of that, too much,
Which holds him much to have.14Q0401
Cou.
You're welcome, gentlemen.
I will intreat you, when you see my son,
To tell him, that his sword can never win
The honour that he loses: more I'll intreat you
Written to bear along.
1. G.
We serve you, madam,
In that and all your worthiest affairs.
Cou.
Not so, but as we change our courtesies.
Will you draw near?
[Exeunt Cou. and Gen.
Hel.
'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.
Nothing in France, until he has no wife!
Thou shalt have none, Rosillion, none in France,
Then hast thou all again. Poor lord, is't I
That chace thee from thy country, and expose
Those tender limbs of thine to the event
Of the none-sparing war? and is it I
That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou
Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark
Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers,
That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
Fly with false aim; pierce the still-moving note note air,
That sings note with piercing, do not touch my lord!
Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;
Whoever charges on his forward breast,
I am the caitiff that do hold him to't;
And, though I kill him not, I am the cause
His death was so effected: better 'twere,
I met the ravin note lion when he roar'd
-- 52 --
With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere,
That all the miseries, which nature owes,
Were mine at once: No, come thou home, Rosillion,
Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,
As oft it loses all14Q0402; I will be gone;
My being here it is, that holds thee hence;
Shall I stay here to do't? no, no, although
The air of paradise did fan the house,
And angels note offic'd all: I will be gone;
That pitiful rumour may report my flight,
To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day;
For, with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away.
[Exit.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
