He that of greatest works is finisher,

Oft does them by the weakest minister:

So holy writ in babes hath judgement shown,
When judges bave been babes, Great foods have
Aown

From simple sources; 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, must by thyself be paid:
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.

Hel. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd: It is not so with him that all things knows, As is with us that square our guess by shows: But most it is presumption in us, when The help of heaven we count the act of men. Dear Sir to my endeavours give consent; Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.

1 am not an impostor, that proclaimMyself 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 so confident? Within what space

Hop'st thou my cure?

Hel. The greatest grace lending grace,

Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;

Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp;
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass;

What

What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly, Health shall live free, and sickness, freely die.

King. Upon thy certainty and confidence, What dar'st thou venture?

Hel. Tax of impudence,

A 'strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame, Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended, With vilest torture let my life be ended.

King. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak;

His powerful sound, within an organ weak:
And what impossibility would slay

It common sense, sense saves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all, that life can rate
Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate;
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all
That happiness and prime can happy call:
Thou this to hazard, needs must intimate
Skill infinite, or monstrous desperate.
Sweet practiser, thy physick I will try;
That ministers thine own death, if I die.
Hel. If 1 break time, or flinch in property

Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die;

And well deserv'd: Not helping, death's my feet
But, if I help, what do you promise me?
King. Make thy demand.

1

Hel. But will you make it even?

King, Ay, by my sceptre, and my hopes of heaven.

Hel. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly haud,

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

VOL. V.

With any branch or image of thy state:
But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

King. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd,
Thy will by my performance shall be serv❜d:
So make the choice of thy own time; for I,
Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely,

More should I question thee, and more I must; Though, more to know, could not be more to

trust;

From whence thou cam'st, how tended on,

But rest

Unquestion'd welcome, and undoubted blest. -
If thou proceed
Give me some help here, ho!

-

As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. Flourish. Exeunt.

Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess and Clown.

Count. Come, on, Sir; I shall now put you to the height of your breeding.

Clo. I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught: I know my business is but to the court. Count, To the court! why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court!

Clo. Truly, Madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and, indeed, such a fellow, to say

precisely, were not for the court: but, for me, I have an answer will serve all men.

Count, Marry, that's a bountiful answer, that fits all questions.

Glo. It is like. a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks; the pin buttock, the quatch buttock, the brawn buttock, or any buttock.

Count, Will your answer serve fit to all ques tions?

Clo. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an -attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Ti's rush for Tom's fore finger, as a pancake for Shrove-tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth; nay, as the pud ding to his skin..

Count. Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for all questions?

Clo. From below your Duke, to 'beneath your constable, it will fit any question.

Count. It must be an answer of most monstrous size, that must fit all demands.

Clo. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned, should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that belongs to't: Ask me, if I am a courtier; it shall do you no harm to learn.

I

Count. To be young again, if we could: will be a fool in question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, Sir, are you a courtier ?

Clo, O Lord, Sir,

There's a simple putting

off; more, more, a hundred of them.

Count. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that

loves you.

Clo. O Lord, Sir,

Thick, thick, spare not me.

Count. I think, Sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.

Clo. O Lord, Sir,

rant you.

Count. You were lately whipp'd, Sir, I think.

Clo. O Lord, Sir, Spare not me. Count. Do you cry, O Lord, Sir, at your whipping, and spare not me? Indeed, your O Lord, Sir, is very sequent to your whipping; you would answer very well to a whipping,' if you were but bound tot,

Clo. I ne'er had worse luck in my life, in my O Lord, Sir: I see things may serve löng,

but not serve ever.

Count. I play the noble housewife with the time, to entertain it so merrily with a fool. Clo. O Lord, Sir,

again.

Why, there't serves well

Count. An end, Sir, to your business: Give Helen this,

And urge her to a present answer back:
Commend me to my kinsmen, and my sout
This is not much.

Clo. Not much commendation to them."

Count. Not much employment for you: You understand me?

Clo. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs. Count. Haste you again. [Exeunt severally.

Paris. A Room in the King's Palace.

Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.

Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and