All's Well, that Ends Well. A& 2 scen
Helena, Gerard de Narbonne was my Father &c.
Published by Vernor & Hood,1 Feb. 1
Laf. Why, doctor fhe: My lord, there's one arriv'd,
If you will fee her,-now, by my faith and honour,
If feriously I may convey my thoughts
In this my light deliverance, I have spoke
With one, that, in her fex, her years, profeffion,
Wisdom, and conftancy, hath amaz'd me more
Than I dare blame my weakness: Will you fee her,
(For that is her demand,) and know her business?
That done, laugh well at me.
King.
Now, good Lafeu,
Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
May spend our wonder too, or take off thine,
By wond'ring how thou took'ft it.
And not be all day neither.
King. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.
Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA.
Laf. Nay, come your ways.
This hafte hath wings indeed.
Laf. Nay, come your ways;
This is his majefty, fay your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but fuch traitors
His majefty feldom fears: I am Creffid's uncle,
That dare leave two together; fare you well.
King. Now, fair one, does your bufinefs follow us?
Hel. Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was
My father; in what he did profefs, well found.
King. I knew him.
Hel. The rather will I fpare my praifes towards him; Knowing him, is enough. On his bed of death
Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
Which, as the dearest iffue of his practice,
C 4
And of his old experience the only darling,
He bad me ftore up, as a triple eye,
Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have fo:
And, hearing your high majefty is touch'd
With that malignant cause wherein the honour
Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,
I come to tender it, and my appliance,
With all bound humbleness.
We thank you, maiden;
But may not be fo credulous of cure,—
When our most learned doctors leave us; and
The congregated college have concluded
That labouring art can never ransom nature
From her inaidable eftate,-I say we must not
So ftain our judgement, or corrupt our hope,
To prostitute our past-cure malady
To empiricks; or to diffever fo
Our great felf and our credit, to esteem
A fenfeless help, when help past sense we deem.
Hel. My duty then shall pay me for my pains :
I will no more enforce mine office on you;
Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
A modest one, to bear me back again.
King. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful :
Thou thought'ft to help me, and fuch thanks I give,
As one near death to thofe that wish him live:
But, what at full I know, thou know'st no part ;
I knowing all my peril, thou no art.
Hel. What I can do, can do no hurt to try,
Since you fet up your reft 'gainst remedy :
He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister :
So holy writ in babes hath judgement shown,
When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown
From fimple fources; and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.
King. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;
Thy pains, not us'd, muft by thyself be paid:
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Hel. Infpired merit fo by breath is barr'd:
It is not fo with him that all things knows,
As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows :
But most it is prefumption in us, when
The help of heaven we count the act of men.
Dear fir, to my endeavours give consent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impoftor, that proclaim
Myself against the level of mine aim;
But know I think, and think I know most sure,
My art is not past power, nor you past cure.
King. Art thou fo confident? Within what space
Hop'st thou my cure?
Hel.
The greatest grace lending grace,
Ere twice the horses of the fun fhall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moift Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievifh minutes how they pass;
What is infirm from your found parts shall fly,
Health fhall live free, and fickness freely die.
King. Upon thy certainty and confidence,
What dar'ft thou venture?
A ftrumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,
Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwife; no worfe of worst extended,
With vileft torture let my life be ended.
King. Methinks, in thee fome blessed spirit doth speak;
His powerful found, within an organ weak :
And what impoffibility would slay
In common sense, sense faves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate
Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate;
Youth, beauty, wifdom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness and prime can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monftrous defperate.
Sweet practifer, thy phyfick I will try;
That minifters thine own death, if I die.
Hel. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die;
And well deferv'd: Not helping, death's my fee;
But, if I help, what do you promise me?
King. Make thy demand.
But will you make it even?
King. Ay, by my fceptre, and my hopes of heaven. Hel. Then fhalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand, What husband in thy power I will command:
Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood of France;
My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or image of thy state:
But fuch a one, thy vaffal, whom I know
Is free for me to afk, thee to bestow.
King. Here is my hand; the premises obferv'd,
Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd:
So make the choice of thy own time; for I,
Thy refolv'd patient, on thee still rely.
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