ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Rousillon. The Count's palace.

Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black.

Count. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.

Ber. And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.

Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.

Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and

ACT I. SCENE I.] Actus Primus. Scana Prima. Ff.

Enter......] Enter yong Bertram, Count of Rossillion, his Mother, and Helena, Lord Lafew, all in blacke. Ff.

1. Count.] Mother. Ff, and afterwards Mo.

delivering] delivering up Han

mer. dissevering Warburton.

son from me,] son, for me or son, 'fore me, Becket conj.

3. And I in going, madam] F1. And in going Madam F2 F3 F4 And in going, madam, I Rowe.

9. lack] slack Theobald (Warburton).

13. persecuted] prosecuted Hanmer.

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ΙΟ

finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father,—O, that 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis !-whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease.

Laf. How called you the man you speak of, madam? Count. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so,-Gerard de Narbon.

Laf. He was excellent indeed madam: the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.

Ber.

What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?
Laf. A fistula, my lord.

Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would it were not notorious. Was this gentle

woman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?

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20

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Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her edu- 35 cation promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too: in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.

Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from that her good Anon. conj.

17. passage preface Hanmer. presage Warburton. pesage Becket conj.

was] om. Collier (Collier MS.). 18. would] it would Rowe. 't would Singer.

19. have have had Hanmer.

play] play'd Warburton.

29, 31, 52. Ber.] Ros. Ff.

35. hopes of her good that her] good hopes of her that her or hopes of her

36. promises; her] Rowe. promises her Ff. promises her; Pope.

her dispositions] the honesty of her dispositions Staunton conj.

dispositions] disposition Rowe. 39. their] her Hanmer (Warbur ton).

41. from her tears] tears from her Pope.

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her cheek. No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than to have

Hel. I do affect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too. Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief the enemy to the living.

Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.

Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes.

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Laf. How understand we that?

Count. Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father

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In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head! Farewell, my lord;

'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord,
Advise him.

Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram.

Ber. [To Helena] The best wishes that can be forged in your thoughts be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

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Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of your father. [Exeunt Bertram and Lafeu. I think not on my father;

Hel. O, were that all!

What was he like?

And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Than those I shed for him.
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in 't but Bertram's.
I am undone: there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind that would be mated by the lion

Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?

Enter PAROLLES.

[Aside] One that goes with him: I love him for his sake; And yet I know him a notorious liar,

Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;

Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,

That they take place, when virtue's steely bones

Look bleak i' the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

Par. Save you, fair queen!

Hel. And you, monarch!

Par. No.

Hel. And no.

Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

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Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you: let 105 me ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him?

Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant,

in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike 110 resistance.

Par. There is none: man, sitting down before you, will undermine you and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers and blowers up! Is there no military policy, how virgins 115 might blow up men?

Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. 120 Loss of virginity is rational increase and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't!

98. Look] Rowe. Lookes F, F2. for Hanmer. Looks F3 F4.

109. assails] assails us S. Walker conj.

109, 110. valiant, in the defence yet] Ff. valiant in the defence, yet Steevens.

ITO.

2.

112.

114.

Save] 'Save Hanmer. 105. stain] strain Halliwell conj. 107. barricado] Rowe. barracedo F.. barrocado F2 F3 F4.

107-109. him? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But] him to keep him out? VOL. III.

I'

to us] F us F2 F3 F4.
sitting] Johnson. setting Ff.
Bless]'Bless Capell conj. MS.

121. rational] national Hanmer
(Theobald conj.). natural Anon. ap.
Halliwell conj.

122. got] F2 F3 F4 goe F1.

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