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All’s Well That Ends Well: Act II, Scene 1

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All’s Well That Ends Well
Act II, Scene 1

Scene 1

Paris . The King’s palace .

  1. Enter the King , with divers young Lords taking leave for the
  2. Florentine war , ( Bertram ) Count Roussillon , and Parolles .
  3. Flourish cornets .

King of France

1 - 5
  1. Farewell , young lords , these warlike principles
  2. Do not throw from you ; and you , my lords , farewell .
  3. Share the advice betwixt you ; if both gain all ,
  4. The gift doth stretch itself as ’tis receiv’d ,
  5. And is enough for both .

First French Lord Dumaine

6 - 8
  1.                         ’Tis our hope , sir ,
  2. After well - ent’red soldiers , to return
  3. And find your Grace in health .

King of France

9 - 18
  1. No , no , it cannot be ; and yet my heart
  2. Will not confess he owes the malady
  3. That doth my life besiege . Farewell , young lords ,
  4. Whether I live or die , be you the sons
  5. Of worthy Frenchmen . Let higher Italy
  6. ( Those bated that inherit but the fall
  7. Of the last monarchy ) see that you come
  8. Not to woo honor , but to wed it , when
  9. The bravest questant shrinks . Find what you seek ,
  10. That fame may cry you loud . I say farewell .

Second French Lord Dumaine

19
  1. Health , at your bidding , serve your Majesty !

King of France

20 - 23
  1. Those girls of Italy , take heed of them .
  2. They say our French lack language to deny
  3. If they demand . Beware of being captives
  4. Before you serve .

Both French Lords

24
  1.                   Our hearts receive your warnings .

King of France

25
  1. Farewell .— Come hither to me .
  1. The King retires apart with some Lords .

First French Lord Dumaine

26
  1. O my sweet lord , that you will stay behind us !

Parolles

27
  1. ’Tis not his fault , the spark .

Second French Lord Dumaine

28
  1.                                O , ’tis brave wars !

Parolles

29
  1. Most admirable ! I have seen those wars .

Bertram

30 - 31
  1. I am commanded here , and kept a coil with ,
  2. “ Too young ” and “ the next year ” and “ ’tis too early .”

Parolles

32
  1. And thy mind stand to’t , boy , steal away bravely .

Bertram

33 - 36
  1. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock ,
  2. Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry ,
  3. Till honor be bought up , and no sword worn
  4. But one to dance with ! By heaven , I’ll steal away .

First French Lord Dumaine

37
  1. There’s honor in the theft .

Parolles

38
  1.                             Commit it , Count .

Second French Lord Dumaine

39
  1. I am your accessary , and so farewell .

Bertram

40
  1. I grow to you , and our parting is a tortur’d body .

First French Lord Dumaine

41
  1. Farewell , captain .

Second French Lord Dumaine

42
  1. Sweet Monsieur Parolles !

Parolles

43 - 48
  1. Noble heroes ! My sword and yours are kin . Good sparks and
  2. lustrous , a word , good metals : you shall find in the
  3. regiment of the Spinii one Captain Spurio , with his
  4. cicatrice , an emblem of war , here on his sinister cheek ; it
  5. was this very sword entrench’d it . Say to him I live , and
  6. observe his reports for me .

First French Lord Dumaine

49
  1. We shall , noble captain .

Parolles

50 - 51
  1. Mars dote on you for his novices !
  2. Exeunt Lords .
  3. What will ye do ?

Bertram

52
  1. Stay the King .

Parolles

53 - 59
  1. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords ; you have
  2. restrain’d yourself within the list of too cold an adieu . Be
  3. more expressive to them , for they wear themselves in the cap
  4. of the time , there do muster true gait ; eat , speak , and move
  5. under the influence of the most receiv’d star , and though
  6. the devil lead the measure , such are to be follow’d . After
  7. them , and take a more dilated farewell .
Helena and Count Bertram before the King of France

Helena and Count Bertram before the King of France

Francis Wheatley, 1793

Bertram

60
  1. And I will do so .

Parolles

61
  1. Worthy fellows , and like to prove most sinewy swordmen .
  1. Exeunt Bertram and Parolles .
  1. Enter Lafew .
  1. The King comes forward .

Lafew

62
  1. Kneeling .
  2. Pardon , my lord , for me and for my tidings .

King of France

63
  1. I’ll see thee to stand up .

Lafew

64 - 66
  1. Then here’s a man stands that has brought his pardon .
  2. I would you had kneel’d , my lord , to ask me mercy ,
  3. And that at my bidding you could so stand up .

King of France

67 - 68
  1. I would I had , so I had broke thy pate ,
  2. And ask’d thee mercy for’t .

Lafew

69 - 71
  1.                             Good faith , across !
  2. But , my good lord , ’tis thus : will you be cur’d
  3. Of your infirmity ?

King of France

72
  1.                    No .

Lafew

73 - 82
  1.     O , will you eat
  2. No grapes , my royal fox ? Yes , but you will
  3. My noble grapes , and if my royal fox
  4. Could reach them . I have seen a medicine
  5. That’s able to breathe life into a stone ,
  6. Quicken a rock , and make you dance canary
  7. With spritely fire and motion , whose simple touch
  8. Is powerful to araise King Pippen , nay ,
  9. To give great Charlemain a pen in ’s hand
  10. And write to her a love - line .

King of France

83
  1.                               What her is this ?

Lafew

84 - 92
  1. Why , Doctor She ! My lord , there’s one arriv’d ,
  2. If you will see her . Now by my faith and honor ,
  3. If seriously I may convey my thoughts
  4. In this my light deliverance , I have spoke
  5. With one , that in her sex , her years , profession ,
  6. Wisdom , and constancy , hath amaz’d me more
  7. Than I dare blame my weakness . Will you see her —
  8. For that is her demand — and know her business ?
  9. That done , laugh well at me .

King of France

93 - 96
  1.                              Now , good Lafew ,
  2. Bring in the admiration , that we with thee
  3. May spend our wonder too , or take off thine
  4. By wond’ring how thou took’st it .

Lafew

97 - 98
  1.                                   Nay , I’ll fit you ,
  2. And not be all day neither .
  1. Goes to the door .

King of France

99
  1. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues .

Lafew

100
  1. Nay , come your ways .
  1. Enter Helen .

King of France

101
  1.                      This haste hath wings indeed .

Lafew

102 - 106
  1. Nay , come your ways ;
  2. This is his Majesty , say your mind to him .
  3. A traitor you do look like , but such traitors
  4. His Majesty seldom fears . I am Cressid’s uncle ,
  5. That dare leave two together ; fare you well .
  1. Exit .

King of France

107
  1. Now , fair one , does your business follow us ?

Helena

108 - 110
  1. Ay , my good lord .
  2. Gerard de Narbon was my father ,
  3. In what he did profess , well found .

King of France

111
  1.                                     I knew him .

Helena

112 - 123
  1. The rather will I spare my praises towards him ,
  2. Knowing him is enough . On ’s bed of death
  3. Many receipts he gave me ; chiefly one ,
  4. Which as the dearest issue of his practice ,
  5. And of his old experience th’ only darling ,
  6. He bade me store up , as a triple eye ,
  7. Safer than mine own two , more dear . I have so ,
  8. And hearing your high Majesty is touch’d
  9. With that malignant cause wherein the honor
  10. Of my dear father’s gift stands chief in power ,
  11. I come to tender it , and my appliance ,
  12. With all bound humbleness .

What I can do can do no hurt to try

John Thurston, 1825

King of France

124 - 134
  1.                            We thank you , maiden ,
  2. But may not be so credulous of cure ,
  3. When our most learned doctors leave us , and
  4. The congregated college have concluded
  5. That laboring art can never ransom nature
  6. From her inaidible estate ; I say we must not
  7. So stain our judgment , or corrupt our hope ,
  8. To prostitute our past - cure malady
  9. To empirics , or to dissever so
  10. Our great self and our credit , to esteem
  11. A senseless help when help past sense we deem .

Helena

135 - 138
  1. My duty then shall pay me for my pains .
  2. I will no more enforce mine office on you ,
  3. Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
  4. A modest one , to bear me back again .

King of France

139 - 143
  1. I cannot give thee less , to be call’d grateful .
  2. Thou thought’st to help me , and such thanks I give
  3. As one near death to those that wish him live .
  4. But what at full I know , thou know’st no part ,
  5. I knowing all my peril , thou no art .

Helena

144 - 154
  1. What I can do can do no hurt to try ,
  2. Since you set up your rest ’gainst remedy .
  3. He that of greatest works is finisher
  4. Oft does them by the weakest minister :
  5. So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown ,
  6. When judges have been babes ; great floods have flown
  7. From simple sources ; and great seas have dried
  8. When miracles have by the great’st been denied .
  9. Oft expectation fails , and most oft there
  10. Where most it promises ; and oft it hits
  11. Where hope is coldest , and despair most fits .

King of France

155 - 157
  1. I must not hear thee ; fare thee well , kind maid ,
  2. Thy pains not us’d must by thyself be paid .
  3. Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward .

Helena

158 - 168
  1. Inspired merit so by breath is barr’d .
  2. It is not so with Him that all things knows
  3. As ’tis with us that square our guess by shows ;
  4. But most it is presumption in us when
  5. The help of heaven we count the act of men .
  6. Dear sir , to my endeavors give consent ,
  7. Of heaven , not me , make an experiment .
  8. I am not an imposture that proclaim
  9. Myself against the level of mine aim ,
  10. But know I think , and think I know most sure ,
  11. My art is not past power , nor you past cure .

King of France

169 - 170
  1. Art thou so confident ? Within what space
  2. Hop’st thou my cure ?

Helena

171 - 179
  1.                      The greatest grace lending grace ,
  2. Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
  3. Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring ,
  4. Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
  5. Moist Hesperus hath quench’d her sleepy lamp ,
  6. Or four and twenty times the pilot’s glass
  7. Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass ,
  8. What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly ,
  9. Health shall live free , and sickness freely die .
Hesperus as Personification of the Evening

Hesperus as Personification of the Evening

Anton Raphael Mengs, circa 1765

King of France

180 - 181
  1. Upon thy certainty and confidence
  2. What dar’st thou venter ?

Helena

182 - 186
  1.                          Tax of impudence ,
  2. A strumpet’s boldness , a divulged shame ,
  3. Traduc’d by odious ballads ; my maiden’s name
  4. Sear’d otherwise ; ne worse of worst — extended
  5. With vildest torture , let my life be ended .

King of France

187 - 198
  1. Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak
  2. His powerful sound within an organ weak ;
  3. And what impossibility would slay
  4. In common sense , sense saves another way .
  5. Thy life is dear , for all that life can rate
  6. Worth name of life in thee hath estimate :
  7. Youth , beauty , wisdom , courage , all
  8. That happiness and prime can happy call .
  9. Thou this to hazard needs must intimate
  10. Skill infinite , or monstrous desperate .
  11. Sweet practicer , thy physic I will try ,
  12. That ministers thine own death if I die .

Helena

199 - 202
  1. If I break time , or flinch in property
  2. Of what I spoke , unpitied let me die ,
  3. And well deserv’d . Not helping , death’s my fee ,
  4. But if I help , what do you promise me ?

King of France

203
  1. Make thy demand .

Helena

204
  1.                  But will you make it even ?

King of France

205
  1. Ay , by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven .

Helena

206 - 213
  1. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand
  2. What husband in thy power I will command .
  3. Exempted be from me the arrogance
  4. To choose from forth the royal blood of France ,
  5. My low and humble name to propagate
  6. With any branch or image of thy state ;
  7. But such a one thy vassal , whom I know
  8. Is free for me to ask , thee to bestow .

King of France

214 - 223
  1. Here is my hand , the premises observ’d ,
  2. Thy will by my performance shall be serv’d .
  3. So make the choice of thy own time , for I ,
  4. Thy resolv’d patient , on thee still rely .
  5. More should I question thee , and more I must —
  6. Though more to know could not be more to trust —
  7. From whence thou cam’st , how tended on , but rest
  8. Unquestion’d welcome and undoubted blest .—
  9. Give me some help here ho !— If thou proceed
  10. As high as word , my deed shall match thy deed .
  1. Flourish . Exeunt .
Presentation of Helena to the King

Presentation of Helena to the King

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1891

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