for you: Let the juftices make you and fortune friends; I am for other business.

PAR. I beseech your honour to hear me one fingle word. LAF. You beg a fingle penny more: come, you fhall ha't; fave your word.

PAR. My name, my good lord, is Parolles.

LAF. You beg more than word then. - Cox' my paffion! give me your hand: How does your drum ?

PAR. O my good lord, you were the first that found me. LAF. Was I, infooth? and I was the first that loft thee. PAR. It lies on you, my lord, to bring me in fome grace, for you did bring me out.

LAF. Out upon thee, knave! doft thou put upon me at once both the office of God and the devil? one brings thee in grace, and the other brings thee out. — [Trumpet.] The king's coming, I know by his trumpets. Sirrah, inquire further after me; I had talk of you laft night: though you are a fool, and a knave, you fhall eat; go to, follow.

PAR. I praise God for

you.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The fame. A Room of State in the Palace. Flourish. Enter King, Countefs, LAFEU,

Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, &c.

Kin. We loft a jewel of her; and our esteem
Was made much poorer by it: but your

As mad in folly, lack'd the fenfe to know
Her eftimation home.

Cou. 'Tis paft, my liege:

And I beseech your majefty to make it

fon,

Natural rebellion, done i'the blaze of youth;
When oil and fire, too ftrong for reason's force,

I lies in you 31 blade of

O'er-bears it, and burns on.

Kin. My honour'd lady,

I have forgiven, and forgotten, all:

Though my revenges were high bent upon him,
And watch'd the time to fhoot.

LAF. This I must say,

But first I beg my pardon, -The

young lord

Did to his majesty, his mother, and his lady,
Offence of mighty note; but to himself
The greateft wrong of all: he loft a wife,
Whose beauty did aftonish the furvey

Of richeft eyes; whose words all ears took captive;
Whose dear perfection, hearts, that scorn'd to serve,
Humbly call'd miftrefs.

Kin. Praising what is loft

Makes the remembrance dear.___Well, call him hither; .
We are reconcil❜d, and the first view shall kill

All repetition: Let him not afk our pardon;
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion we do bury

The incenfing reliques of it: let him approach,
A ftranger, no offender; and inform him,
So 'tis our will he should.

Gen. I fhall, my liege.
[Exit Gentleman.
Kin. What fays he to your daughter? have you spoke?
LAF. All that he is hath reference to your highness.
Kin. Then fhall we have a match. I have letters fent
That fet him high in fame.

Enter BERTRAM.

LAF. He looks well on't.

Kin. I am not a day of feason,

But thou may'ft fee a funshine and a hail

28 fets

[me,

In me at once: But to the brightest beams
Diftracted clouds give way; fo ftand thou forth,
The time is fair again.

BER. My high-repented blames,

Dear fovereign, pardon to me.

Kin. All is whole;

Not one word more of the confumed time.
Let's take the inftant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiselefs foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them: You remember
The daughter of this lord?

BER. Admiringly, my liege; At the first light
I ftuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue :
Where the impreffion of mine eye enfixing,
Contempt his fcornful perfpective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or expreff'd it stoln;
Extended, or contracted, all proportions,
To a most hideous object: Thence it came,
That she, whom all men prais'd, and whom myself,
Since I have loft, have lov'd, was in mine eye

The duft that did offend it.

Kin. Well excus'd:

That thou did't love her, strikes fome scores away From the great compt: But love, that comes too late, Like a remorfeful pardon flowly carry'd,

To the great fender turns a four offence,

Crying, That's good that's gone: our own rash faults Make trivial price of ferious things we have,

Not knowing them, until we know their

grave:

Oft our difpleasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends, and after weep their duft :
Our own love waking cries to fee what's done,
While fhameful hate fleeps out the afternoon.
Be this fweet Helen's knell, and now forget her.
Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin :
The main confents are had; and here we'll stay,
To see our widower's fecond marriage-day.

Cou. Which, better than the firft, o dear heaven, bless! Or, ere they meet, in me, o nature, cease!

LAF. Come on, my fon, in whom my house's name Muft be digefted, give a favour from you,

To fparkle in the fpirits of my daughter,

That he may quickly come. By my old beard,

And every

[receiving a Ring from Bertram.

hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead, Was a fweet creature; such a ring as this,

The last that e'er fhe took her leave at court,

I faw upon her finger.

BER. Her's it was not.

Kin. Now, pray you, let me fee it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't.— This ring was mine; and, when I gave it Helen, I bad her, if her fortunes ever stood

Neceffity'd to help, that by this token

I would relieve her: Had you that craft, to 'reave her Of what should stead her moft?

BER. My gracious fovereign,

Howe'er it pleases you to take it fo,

The ring was never her's.

Cou. Son, on my life,

I have seen her wear it; and fhe reckon'd it

At her life's rate.

LAF. I am fure, I saw her wear it.

BER. You are deceiv'd, my lord, she never saw it : In Florence was it from a casement thrown me, Wrapt in a paper, which contain'd the name Of her that threw it: noble she was, and thought I ftood ungag'd; but when I had fubfcrib'd To mine own fortune, and inform'd her fully, I could not answer in that courfe of honour As fhe had made the overture, the ceaf'd, In heavy satisfaction, and would never Receive the ring again.

Kin. Plutus himself,

That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,
Hath not in nature's mystery more science

Than I have in this ring: 'twas mine, 'twas Helen's,
Whoever gave it you: Then, if you know
That you are well acquainted with yourself,
Confefs 'twas her's, and by what rough enforcement
You got
it from her: fhe call'd the faints to furety,
That she would never put it from her finger,
Unless she gave it to yourself in bed,

Where you have never come, or fent it us

Upon her great disaster.

BER. She never faw it.

fo;

Kin. Thou fpeak'ft it falfely, as I love mine honour; And mak'ft conjectural fears to come into me, Which I fhould fain fhut out: If it should prove That thou art fo inhuman, 'twill not prove And yet I know not thou did't hate her deadly, And she is dead; which nothing, but to close Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,

7 ingag'd 13 Platus