Enter BERTRAM, the Countess of Rousillon, Helena, and

LAFEU, in mourning.

rtram in

Countess.
IN delivering my son from me, I bury a second hur-

band.
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, lir, 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 abandon'd his physicians, madam ; under whole practices he hath perfecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the losing of hope by time.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that bad! how sad a passage 'tis !) whose skill was almost as great as his honesty, had it stretch'd so far, would have

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made

in power

made nature immortal, and death should have play for. If the lack of work. 'Would, for the king's fake, he were livsifoon m ing! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. Nadam,

How un Laf. How call’d you the man you speak of, madam?"

Count. He was famous, fir, in his profession, and it was . Be the his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.

20ers, as Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very for em lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly: he was with thy skilful enough to have liv'd still, if knowledge could be ng to no set up against mortality.

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of thy own Laf. A fistula, my lord.

kter tax'd Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would, it were not notorious.-Was this gentle a thy head woman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon ?

an unseason Count. His fole child, my lord; and bequeathed to iny overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her He education promises : her dispositions the inherits, which hall atten make fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carriet zet. Heaven virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the bet... The bei ter for their fimpleness; the derives her honesty, anosits, (To H achieves her goodness.

Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.

Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her. Farewell, praise in. The remembrance of her father never apdívar father. proaches her heart, but the tyranny of her sorrows takes?. , were t all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helenaga these great t go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a fora a those I the row, than to have.

Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have it too.
Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, aundone ;

th excessive grief the enemy to the living. 7

Coum. I hould lo

ale to my m

are forgot hini bies no favour

Bertram be av

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

Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. Laf. How understand we that? Count. Be thou blest, Bertram! and succeed thy father n manners, as in shape! thy blood, and virtue, Fontend for empire in thee; and thy goodness hare with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few, Do

wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
father in power, than use; and keep thy friend
Inder thy own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,
that thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
-.all on thy head ! Farewell.—My lord,
Tis an unseason'd courtier ; good my lord,
Advise him.

He cannot the best
That shall attend his love.
Count. Heaven bless him !-Farewell, Bertram.

[Exit Countess. Ber. The best wishes, that can be forged in your houghts, [To Helena.} be servants to you! Be comortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of

0

ti Laf.

eder.

father ;

# J.af. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit
f
your
father.

[Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU.
Hel. O, were that all! I think not on my
And these great tears grace his remembrance more,
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in it, but Bertram's.

am undone ; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,

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And

-0.

Con

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 fit 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 relicks. Who comes here?

Enter PAROLLES.

a

One that goes with him : I love him for his fake;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward ;
Yet these fix'd evils fit fo fit in him,
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in 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?
Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in

you;

let 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 fome warlike resistance,

Par.

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 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 politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Lofs of virginity is rational increase; and there was never, virgin got, till virginity was first loft. 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 loft : 'tis too cold a companion ; away with it.

Hel, I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die'a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in't ; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin : virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all fanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese ; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach, Besides, virginity is peevith, proud, idle, made of selflove, which is the most inhibited fin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't: Out with’t : within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase ; and the principal itself not much the worse : Away with't.

Hel. How might one do, fir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it

likes,

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