All's Well That Ends Well (17 page)

LAVATCH
    O madam, yonder's my lord your son with a
patch
⁸³

of velvet on's face. Whether there be a scar under't or no, the

velvet
knows
⁸⁵
, but 'tis a goodly patch of velvet: his left cheek

is a cheek of
two pile and a half
, but his right cheek is
worn
⁸⁶

bare.

LAFEW
    A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good
liv'ry
⁸⁸
of

honour, so
belike
⁸⁹
is that.

LAVATCH
    But it is your
carbonadoed
⁹⁰
face.

LAFEW
    Let us go see your son, I pray you. I long to talk with

the young noble soldier.

LAVATCH
    Faith, there's a dozen of 'em, with delicate fine hats

and most courteous feathers, which bow the head and nod

at every man.

HELEN
    But this
exceeding posting
¹
day and night

Must
wear
²
your spirits low. We cannot help it:

But since you have made the days and nights as one,

To wear your gentle limbs in my affairs,

Be
bold
you do so grow in
my requital
⁵

As nothing can unroot you.
In happy time.
⁶

This man may help me to his majesty's ear,

If he would
spend
⁸
his power. God save you, sir.

GENTLEMAN
    And you.

HELEN
    Sir, I have seen you in the court of France.

GENTLEMAN
    I have been sometimes there.

HELEN
    I do presume, sir, that you are not
fall'n
¹²

From the report that goes upon your goodness,

And therefore, goaded with most
sharp
occasions
¹⁴

Which lay
nice
manners by, I
put
¹⁵
you to

The use of your own virtues, for the which

I shall continue thankful.

GENTLEMAN
    What's your will?

HELEN
    That it will please you

To give this poor
petition
²⁰
to the king,

And aid me with that store of power you have

To come into his presence.

GENTLEMAN
    The king's not here.

HELEN
    Not here, sir?

GENTLEMAN
    Not, indeed.

He
hence removed
²⁶
last night, and with more haste

Than is his
use.
²⁷

WIDOW
    Lord, how we lose our
pains!
²⁸

HELEN
    All's well that ends well yet,

Though time seem so adverse and means unfit.

I do beseech you, whither is he gone?

GENTLEMAN
    Marry, as I take it, to Rossillion,

Whither I am going.

HELEN
    I do beseech you, sir,

Since you are
like
³⁵
to see the king before me,

Commend
the paper to his gracious hand,

Which I
presume
³⁷
shall render you no blame,

But rather make you thank your pains for it.

I will come after you with what good speed

Our
means will make us means.
⁴⁰

GENTLEMAN
    This I'll do for you.

HELEN
    And you shall find yourself to be well thanked,

Whate'er
falls more.
⁴³
We must to horse again.

Go, go,
provide.
⁴⁴

PAROLLES
    Good Monsieur
Lavache
¹
, give my lord

Lafew this letter. I have ere now, sir, been better

known to you, when I have held familiarity with fresher

clothes. But I am now, sir, muddied in Fortune's
mood
⁴
, and

smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure.

LAVATCH
    Truly, Fortune's displeasure is but
sluttish
⁶
if it smell

so strongly as thou speakest of. I will henceforth eat no fish of

Fortune's
butt'ring.
Prithee
allow the wind.
⁸

PAROLLES
    Nay, you need not to
stop
⁹
your nose, sir. I spake but

by a metaphor.

LAVATCH
    Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my

nose, or against any man's metaphor. Prithee get thee

further.

PAROLLES
    Pray you, sir, deliver
me
¹⁴
this paper.

LAVATCH
    Foh! Prithee stand away. A
paper
¹⁵
from Fortune's

close-stool
¹⁶
to give to a nobleman! Look, here he comes

himself.

Here is a
purr
¹⁸
of Fortune's, sir, or of Fortune's cat — but not

a
musk-cat
¹⁹
— that has fallen into the unclean fishpond of

her displeasure, and as he says, is muddied
withal.
²⁰
Pray you,

sir, use the
carp
²¹
as you may, for he looks like a poor, decayed,

ingenious
²²
, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his distress in my

smiles of comfort
²³
and leave him to your lordship.

PAROLLES
    My lord, I am a man whom Fortune hath cruelly

scratched.

LAFEW
    And what would you have me to do? 'Tis too late to

pare
²⁷
her nails now. Wherein have you played the knave with

Fortune that she should scratch you, who of herself is a good

lady and would not have knaves thrive long under her? There's

a
cardecue
for you. Let the
justices
³⁰
make you and

Fortune friends; I am for other business.

PAROLLES
    I beseech your honour to hear me one single word.

LAFEW
    You beg a single penny more. Come, you shall ha't,

save your word.

PAROLLES
    My name, my good lord, is Parolles.

LAFEW
    You beg more than
‘word'
then.
Cox
my passion!
³⁶

Give me your hand. How does your drum?

PAROLLES
    O my good lord, you were the first that found
me.
³⁸

LAFEW
    Was I, in
sooth?
And I was the first that
lost
³⁹
thee.

PAROLLES
    It lies in you, my lord, to bring me
in
some
grace
⁴⁰
, for

you did bring me
out.
⁴¹

LAFEW
    
Out upon thee
⁴²
, knave! Dost 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. The

King's coming. I know by his trumpets. Sirrah,
inquire
⁴⁵

further after me. I had talk of you last night. Though you are

a fool and a knave, you shall eat. Go to, follow.

PAROLLES
    I praise God for you.

KING
    We lost a jewel
of
her, and
our esteem
¹

Was made much poorer by it: but your son,

As mad in folly, lacked the sense to know

Her estimation
home.
⁴

COUNTESS
    'Tis past, my liege,

And I beseech your majesty to
make
⁶
it

Natural
rebellion, done
i'th'blade
⁷
of youth,

When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force,

O'erbears it and burns on.

KING
    My honoured lady,

I have forgiven and forgotten all,

Though my revenges were
high bent
¹²
upon him,

And
watched
¹³
the time to shoot.

LAFEW
    This I must say,

But first I beg
my pardon
¹⁵
, the young lord

Did to his majesty, his mother and his lady

Offence of mighty note; but to himself

The greatest wrong of all. He lost a wife

Whose beauty did
astonish
the
survey
¹⁹

Of
richest
²⁰
eyes, whose words all ears took captive,

Whose dear perfection hearts that scorned to serve

Humbly called mistress.

KING
    Praising what is lost

Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither.

We are reconciled, and the first
view
shall
kill
²⁵

All repetition. Let him not ask our pardon.

The nature of his great offence is
dead
²⁷
,

And deeper than oblivion we do bury

Th'
incensing relics
²⁹
of it. Let him approach

A
stranger
³⁰
, no offender; and inform him

So 'tis our will he should.

GENTLEMAN
³²
    I shall, my liege.

KING
    What says he to your daughter? Have you

spoke?

LAFEW
    All that he is
hath reference to
³⁵
your highness.

KING
    Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent me

That sets him high in fame.

LAFEW
    He looks well on't.

KING
    I am not a
day of
season
³⁹
,

For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail

In me at once. But to the brightest beams

Distracted
⁴²
clouds give way, so stand thou forth.

The time is fair again.

BERTRAM
    My
high-repented blames
⁴⁴
,

Dear sovereign, pardon
to
⁴⁵
me.

KING
    All is
whole.
⁴⁶

Not one word more of the
consumèd
⁴⁷
time.

Let's
take the instant by the forward top
⁴⁸
,

For we are old, and on our
quick'st
⁴⁹
decrees

Th'inaudible and noiseless foot of time

Steals ere we can effect them. You remember

The daughter of this lord?

BERTRAM
    Admiringly, my liege. At first

I
stuck
⁵⁴
my choice upon her, ere my heart

Durst
make too bold a
herald
⁵⁵
of my tongue,

Where
the
impression
of mine eye
infixing
⁵⁶
,

Contempt his scornful
perspective
⁵⁷
did lend me,

Which warped the line of every other
favour
⁵⁸
,

Scorned a
fair colour
, or
expressed
it
stol'n
⁵⁹
,

Extended or contracted
⁶⁰
all proportions

To a most hideous
object.
⁶¹
Thence it came

That
she
⁶²
whom all men praised and whom myself,

Since I have lost, have loved, was in mine eye

The dust that did offend it.

KING
    Well excused.

That thou didst love her, strikes some
scores
⁶⁶
away

From the
great count.
⁶⁷
But love that comes too late,

Like a
remorseful
pardon
slowly carried
⁶⁸
,

To the great sender
turns
⁶⁹
a sour offence,

Crying, ‘That's good that's gone.' Our rash faults

Make trivial price
⁷¹
of serious things we have,

Not
knowing
them until we
know their grave.
⁷²

Oft our
displeasures
⁷³
, to ourselves unjust,

Destroy our friends and after
weep
their
dust.
⁷⁴

Our own love waking cries to see what's done,

While shameful hate sleeps
out
⁷⁶
the afternoon.

Be this sweet Helen's
knell
⁷⁷
, and now forget her.

Send forth your amorous token for fair
Maudlin.
⁷⁸

The
main consents
⁷⁹
are had, and here we'll stay

To see our widower's second marriage day,

Which better than the first, O dear heaven, bless!

Or, ere
they meet
, in me, O nature,
cesse!
⁸²

LAFEW
    Come on, my son, in whom my house's name

Must be
digested
, give a
favour
⁸⁴
from you

To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter,

That she may quickly
come.
⁸⁶