E'er twice in Murk and Occidental Damp,
Moist Hefperus hath quench'd his sleepy Lamp;
Or four and twenty times the Pilot's Glass
Hath told the thiovish Minutes how they pass,
What is infirm, from your found Parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and Sickness freely die.

King. Upon thy Certainty and Confidence,
What dar'lt thou venture ?

Hel. Tax of Impudence,
A Strumpet's boldness, a divulged Shame
Traduc'd by odious Ballads: My Maiden's Name
Sear'd otherwise, no worse of worst extended,
With vilest Torture let my Life be ended.

King. Methinks in thee some blessed Spirit doth speak
His powerful Sound, within an Organ weak;
And what Impossibility would llay
In common Sense, Senie faves another way,
Thy Life is dear, for all that Life can rate
Worth name of Life, in thee hath estimate :
Youth, Beauty, Wisdom, Courage, all
That Happiness and Prime can happy call;
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate;
Sweet Practiser, thy Phyfick I will try,
That ministers thine own Death if I die.

Hel. If I break Time, or flinch in Property
Of what I spoke, unpiticd let me dic,
And well deservd : Not helping, Death's my

Fee;
But if I help, what do you promise me?

King. Make thy Demand.
Hel. But will you make it even?
King. Ay, by my Scepter, and my hopes of help.

Hel. Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand,
What Husband in thy Power I will command.
Exempted be from me the Arrogance
To chuse from forth the Royal Blood of France,
My low and humble Name to propagate
With any Branch or Image of thy State:
But such a one thy Vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

King. Here is my hand, the Premises observ’d,
Thy Will by my Performance shall be serv'd:
So make the choice of thine own time, for I,
Thy resolvd Patient, on thee still rely;
More should I question thee, and more I must,
Tho' more to know, could not be more to trust:
From whence thou cam'ft, how tended on, but rest
Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest.
Give me some help here hoa! if ihou proceed,
As high as word, my Deed fhall match thy Deed.

[Excunt. Enter Countess and Clown. Count. Come on, Sir, I Mall now put you to the height of your breeding.

Clown. I will thew my self highly fed, and lowly taught; I know my Business is but to the Court!

Count. To the Court, why what place make you fpecial, when you put off that with fuch Contempt'; but to the Court?

Clo. Truly, Madam, if God have lent a Man any Manners, he may easily put it off at Court: He that cannot make a Leg, put off's Cap, kiss his Hand, and say nothing, has neither Leg, Hards, Lip, nor Cap; and indeed such a Fellow, to say precisely, were not for the Court; but for me, I have an Answer will serve all Men.

Count. Marry that's a bountiful Answer that fits all Que stions,

Clo. It is like a Barber's Chair, that fits all Buttocks, the pin Buttock, the quatch Buttock, the brawn Buttock, or any Buttock. Count. Will

your

Answer serve fit to all Questions? Clo. As fit as ten Groats is for the Hand of an Attorney, as your French Crown for your Taffary Punk, as Tib's Rush for Tom's Fore-finger, as a Pancake for Shrove! uesday, a Morris for May-day, as the Nail to his hole, the Cuckold to his Horn, as a scolding Quean to a wrangling Knave, as the Nun's Lip to the Friar's Mouth, nay, as the Pudding to his Skin.

Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all Questions?

Clo.

Clo. From below your Duke, to bencath your Constable, it will fit any Question.

Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous size, that muft fit all Demands.

Clo. But a Trifle neither in good faith, if the Learned should speak truth of it: Here it is, and all that belongs to't. Ask me if I am a Courtier, it ihall do you no harm to learn.

Count. To be young again, if we could : I will be a Fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, Sir, are you a Courtier?

Clo. O Lord, Sirathere's a simple putting off: More, more, a hundred of them.

Count. Sir, I am a poor Friend of your’s, that loves you.
Clo. O Lord, Sir-thick, thick, spare not me.
Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely
Meat.

Clo. O Lord, Sinay put me to't, I warrant you.
Count. You were lately whip’d, Sir, as I think.
Clo. O Lord, Sirpare not me.

Count. Do you cry, O Lord, Sir, at your whipping, and spare not me ? Indeed, your O Lord Sir, is very sequent to your whipping : You would answer very well to a whipping if you were but bound to’t.

Clo. Í ne'er had worse luck in my Life, in my, O Lord Sir; I see things may serve long, and not serve ever.

Count. I play the noble Huswife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a Fool.

Clo. O Lord, Sir-why there't serves well again.

Count. An end, Sir, to your Business: Give Hellen this,
And urge her to a present answer back,
Commend me to my Kinsmen, and my Son:
This is not much.

Clo. Not much Commendation to them.
Count. Not much Imployment for you, you understand

1

me.

Clo. Most fruitfully, I am there before my Legs.
Count. Haste thou again.

[Exeunt.
Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles.
Laf. They say Miracles are past, and we have our Philo-
sophical Person, to make modern and familiar things super-

natural and causeless. Hence is it, that we make Trifles of Terrors, 'ensconfing our felves into seeming Knowledge, when we should fubmit our felves to an unknown Fear.

Par. Why 'tis the rarest Argument of wonder, that hath shot out in our latter times.

Ber. And so’ris. .
Laf. To be relinquish'd of the Artists.
Pár. So I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Laf. Of all the learned and authentick Fellows,
Par. Right, so I say.
Laf. That gave him out incurable.
Par. Why there ’tis, fo say I too.
Laf. Not to be help’d.
Par. Right, as 'twere a Man afsurid of an-
Laf. Uncertain Life, and sure Death.'
Par. Just, you say well: So would I have said.
Laf. I may truly fay, it is a Novelty to the World.

Par. It is indeed, if you will have it in the Thewing, you shall read it in what do you call there.

Laf. A Thewing of a heav'nly Effe& in an earthly A&or.
Par. That's it, I would have said the very fame.

Laf. Why your Dolphin is not lustier: For me, I speak in respect

Par. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it, and he's of a most facinerious Spirit, that will not acknowledge it to be the

Laf. Very hand of Heav'n.
Par. Ay, fo I say.
Laf. In a most weak-

Par. And debile Minister, great Power, great Transcen-
dence, which should indeed give us a further use to be made,
than only the recov'ry of the King, as to bem
Laf. Generally thankful.

Enter King, Helena, and Attendants,
Par. I would have said it, you said well : Here comes
- 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. Mor du Vinaigre, is not this Hellen?
Laf. Fore God I think so.

the King

King. Go call before me all the Lords in Court.
Sit, my Preserver, by thy Patient's fide,
And with this healthtal Hand, whose banish'd senfe
Thou hast repeald, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promisd Gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

Enter three or four Lords.
Fair Maid, fend forth thine Eye; this youthful parcel
Of Noble Barchellors, ftand at my bestowing,
O'er whom both Sovereign Power, and Father's Voice
I have to use; thy frank Ele&ion make,
Thou haft 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 Curral, 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 her self to a Lord.
Hel. Gentlemer, Heav'n hath, through me, restor'd' che
King to Health.
All. We understand it, and thank Heav'n for

you.
Hel. I'am a simple Maid, and therein wealthieft,
That I protest, I simply am a Maid
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 refused;
Let the white Death fit on thy Cheeks for ever,
We'll ne'er come there again.

King. Make choice and fee,
Who shuns thy Love, shuns all his Love in me.

Hel. Now Dian from thy Altar do I fly,
And to impartial Jove, that God most high
Do my fighs stream : Sir, will you hear my Suits

i Lord. And grant it.
Hel. Thanks, Sir, all the rest is mute.

Laf. I had rather be in this Choice, than throw
A Deaux-ace for my Life.

Hel. The Honour, Sir, that flames in your fair Eyes, Before I speak, too threatningly replies: