DRAMATIS PERSON Æ.

KING of France.

DUKE of Florence.

BERTRAM, Count of Roufillon.
LAFEU, an old Lord

PAROLLES, a parafitical follower of Bertram; a coward, but vain, and a great pretender to valour.

Two young French LORDS, that ferve with Bertram is the Florentine war.

ASTEWARD,
CLOWN,

} Servants

to the Countess of Roufillon,

COUNTESS of Roufillon, Mother to Bertram. HELENA, Daughter to Gerard de Narbon, a famous Pby fician, fome time fince dead.

An old WIDOW of Florence.

DIANA, Daughter to the Widow.

VIOLENTA, Neighbours and friends to the Widow. MARIANA,

Lords attending on the King, Officers, Soldiers, &c.

SCENE lyes partly in France, and partly in Tuscany.

The plot taken from Boccace, Decam. 3. Nov. 9.

ALL's

Enter Bertram, the Countess of Roufillon, Helena, and Lafeu, all in mourning.

Count."

N delivering up my fon from me, I bury a second husband.

Ber. And in going, Madam, I weep o'er my father's death anew; but I must attend his Majefty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in fubjection.

Laf. You fhall find of the King a husband, Madam ; you, Sir, a father. He that fo generally is at all times good muft of neceffity hold his virtue to you, whofe worthiness would ftir it up where it wanted, rather than slack it where there is fuch abundance.

Count. What hope is there of his Majefty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandon'd his phyficians, Madam, under whofe practices he hath profecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the lofing of hope by time.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that bad! how fad a preface 'tis!) whose skill was almost as great as his honefty; had it ftretch'd fo far, it would have made nature immortal, and death fhould have had play for lack of work. Would, for the King's fake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the King's disease Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of, Madam?

N 3

Сом

Count. He was famous, Sir, in his profeffion, and it was his great right to be fo: Gerard de Narbon.

Laf. He was excellent indeed, Madam; the King very lately fpoke of him admiringly and mourningly? he was fkilful enough to have liv'd ftill, if knowledge could be fet up against mortality,

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the King languishes of?
Laf. A fiftula, my lord.

Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?

Count, His fele child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have thofe hopes of her good, that her education promifes: her difpofition the inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too: in her they are the better for her fimpleness, the derives her honefty, and atchieves her goodness.

Laf. Your commendations, Madam, get tears from her. Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena,go to, no more, left you be rather thought to affect a forrow, than to have. Hel. I do affect a forrow indeed, but I have it too.

Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, exceffive grief the enemy of the living.

Count. If the living be not enemy to the grief, the exeefs makes it foon mortal.

Ber. Madam, I defire your holy wishes.

Laf. How understand we that?

Count. Be thou bleft, Bertram, and fucceed thy father

In manners as in fhape! thy blood and virtue

Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend

• By virtuous qualities here are not meant thofe of a moral kind, bat fion as are acquired by erudition and good breeding.

Under

Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for fpeech. What heav'n more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head! Farewel, my lord; tis an
Unfeafon'd courtier, good my lord, advise him.
Laf. He cannot want the beft that shall attend
His love.

Count. May heaven blefs him! Farewel, Bertram.

[Exit Count Ber. [To Hel.] The best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts be fervants to you! be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. Laf. Farewel, pretty lady, you must hold the credit of your father. [Exeunt Ber. and Laf,

SCENE II.

Hel. Oh were that all!--I think not on my father,
And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Than they are fhed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him. My imagination
Carries no favour in it, but my Bertram's.
I am undone, there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one
That I fhould love a bright partic❜lar ftar,
And think to wed it; he is fo above me :
In this bright radiance and collateral light
Muft I be comforted, not in his fphere.
Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself;
The hind that would be mated by the lion,
Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, tho' a plague,
To fee 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 fweet favour,
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Muft fanctifie his relicks. Who comes here?
Enter Parolles.

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, wholly a coward;
Yet thefe fix'd evils fit fo fit in him,

That

That they take place, when virtue's fteely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind; full oft we fee
Cold Wifdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

SCENE

III.

Par. Are you meditating on virginity?

:

Hel. Ay you have some stain of foldier in you; let me afk you a question. Man is enemy to virginity, how may we barricado it against him to keep him out? for he af fails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us fome warlike refiftance.

Par. There is none: man fetting down before you will undermine you and blow you up.

Hel. Blefs 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 your felves made you lofe your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature, to preferve virginity. Lofs of virginity is national increase, and there was never virgin got, 'till virginity was firft loft. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever loft; 'tis too cold a companion; away with't.

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

Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To fpeak on the part of virginity, is to accufe your mother; which is most infallible difobedience, He that hangs himself is like a virgin : virginity murders it felf, and fhould be buried in high ways out of all fanctified limits, as a defperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheefe; confumes it felf to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding on its own ftomach. Befides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of felf-love, which is the most prohibited fin in the canon. Keep