Par. O my good lord, you were the first that found

me.

Laf. Was 1, in sooth? and I was the first that lost thee.

Par. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace,

for

you did bring me out. Laf. Out upon thee, 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. [Trumpets sound.] The king's coming, I know by his trumpets.

Sirrah, inquire further after me: 1 had talk of you last night: though you are a fool and a knave, you shall eat; go to, follow. Par. I praise God for you.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same.

A Room in the Countess's Palace. Flourish.

Enter King, Countess, LAFEU, Lords, Gentlemen,

Guards, foc.
King. We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem?
Was made much poorer by it: but your son,
As mad in folly, lacked the sense to know
Her estimation home.?
Count.

'Tis past, my liege:
And I beseech your majesty to make it
Natural rebellion, done i’the blade 3 of youth ;
When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force,
O'erbears it, and burns on.
King.

My honored lady,
I have

forgiven and forgotten all ; Though my revenges were high bent upon him, And watched the time to shoot.

Laf.

This I must say,

1 i. e. in losing her we lost a large portion of our esteem, which she possessed.

2 Completely, in its full extent.
3 Theobald proposes to read blaze.
VOL. II.

55

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 greatest wrong of all. He lost a wife Whose beauty did astonish the survey Of richest 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
All repetition.”—Let him not ask our pardon :
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion do we bury
The incensing relics of it. Let him approach,
A stranger, no offender; and inform him,
So 'tis our will he should.
Gent.

I shall, my liege.

[Exit Gentleman. King. What says he to your daughter? Have you

spoke ? Laf. All that he is hath reference to your highness. King. Then shall we have a match. I have letters

sent me,

That set him high in fame.

Enter BERTRAM.

3

Laf

He looks well on't, King. I am not a day of season, For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail In me at once; but to the brightest beams Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth, The time is fair again.

1 So in As You Like It.-to have seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands."

2 i. e. the first interview shall put an end to all recollection of the past.

3 i. e. a seasonable day: a mixture of sunshine and hail, of winter and summer, is unseasonable.

Ber.

My high-repented blames,
Dear sovereign, pardon to me.
King.

All is whole ;
Not one word more of the consumed time.
Let's take the instant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals ere we can affect them. You remember
The daughter of this lord ?

Ber. Admirably, my liege : at first
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue;
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warped the line of every other favor ;
Scorned a fair color, or expressed it stolen ;
Extended or contracted all proportions
To a most hideous object. Thence it came,
That she, 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 away
From the great compt. But love, that comes too late,
Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried,
To the great sender turns a sour offence,
Crying, that's good that's gone. Our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them, until we know their

grave.
Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,
Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust.
Our own love waking cries to see what's done,
While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon.
Be this sweet Helen's knell, and now forget her.
Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin;
The main consents are had ; and here we'll

stay To see our widower's second marriage-day.

1 This obscure couplet seems to mean, that “Our love awaking to the worth of the lost object, too late laments; our shameful hate or dislike baving slept out the period when our fault was remediable.”

Count. Which better than the first, О dear Heaven,

bless! Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease!

Laf. Come on, my son, in whom my house's name Must be digested, give a favor from you, To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter, That she may quickly come.—By my old beard, And every hair that's on't, Helen, that's dead, Was a sweet creature ; such a ring as this, The last that e'er I took her leave at court, I saw upon her finger. Ber.

Hers it was not. King. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fastened to't.This ring was mine, and, when I gave it Helen, I bade her, if her fortune ever stood Necessitied to help, that by this token I would relieve her. Had you that craft to reave her Of what should stead her most? Ber.

My gracious sovereign,
Howe'er it pleases you to take it so,
The ring was never hers.
Count.

Son, on my life,
I have seen her wear it; and she reckoned it
At her life's rate.
Laf.

I am sure I saw her wear it.
Ber. You are deceived, my lord; she never saw it.
In Florence was it from a casement thrown me
Wrapped in a paper, which contained the name
Of her that threw it; noble she was, and thought
I stood ingaged ; 2 but when I had subscribed 3
To mine own fortune, and informed her fully,
I could not answer in that course of honor
As she had made the overture, she ceased,
In heavy satisfaction, and would never
Receive the ring again.
King

Plutus himself,

1 «The last time that ever I took leave of her at court."
2 Ingaged, i. e. pledged to her, having received her pledge.
3 Subscribed, i. e. submitted.

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,
Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough enforcement
You got it from her.

it from her. She called the saints to surety, That she would never put it from her finger Unless she gave it to yourself in bed, Where

you have never come,) or sent it us Upon her great disaster. Ber.

She never saw it. King. Thou speak’st it falsely, as I love mine honor, And mak'st conjectural fears to come into me, Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove That thou art so inhuman,-'twill not prove so ;And yet I know not :-thou didst hate her deadly, And she is dead; which nothing, but to close Her eyes myself, could win me to believe, More than to see this ring.–Take him away:

[Guards seize BERTRAM.
My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall,
Shall tax my fears of little vanity,
Having vainly feared too little. -Away with him ;-
We'll sift this matter further.

Ber. If
This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy
Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence,
Where

yet
she never was.

[Exit BERTRAM, guarded.

you

shall prove

Enter a Gentleman.
King. I am wrapped in dismal thinkings.
Gent.

Gracious sovereign, Whether I have been to blame, or no, I know not; Here's a petition from a Florentine,

i The proofs which I have already had are sufficient to show that my fears were not vain and irrational. I have unreasonably feared too little.