you'll run again, rather than suffer question for your residence.

Ber. It may be you have mistaken him, my lord.

Laf. And shall do so ever, though I took him at's prayers. Fare you well, my lord; and believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes : trust him not in matter of heavy consequence; I have kept of them tame, and know their natures. — Farewell, monsieur: I have spoken better of you than you have wit or will to deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil. Par. An idle lord, I swear.

Ber.

Par. Why, do you know him?

I think not so.

[Exit.

Ber. Yes, I do know him well; and common speech Gives him a worthy pass. Here comes my clog.

Enter HELENA.

Hel. I have, sir, as I was commanded from you, Spoke with the King, and have procured his leave For present parting; 5 only, he desires

Some private speech with you.

Ber.

I shall obey his will.

You must not marvel, Helen, at my course,

Which holds not colour with the time, nor does
The ministration and requirèd office

On my particular. Prepared I was not

For such a business; therefore am I found

So much unsettled: this drives me to entreat you,

spouting some doggerel verses, leap boldly into a huge custard prepared for the purpose. Ben Jonson, in The Devil is an Ass, i. 1, has the following: "He may perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner, skip with a rhyme o' the table, from New-nothing, and take his Almain leap into a custard."

4 Idle, here, means trifling, foolish, or worthless.

5 Parting for departing; the two being used interchangeably.

That presently you take your way for home,
And rather muse 6 than ask why I entreat you ;
For my respects are better than they seem,
And my appointments have in them a need
Greater than shows itself, at the first view,
To you that know them not. This to my mother :

"Twill be two days ere I shall see you; so,
I leave you to your wisdom.

Hel.

[Giving a letter.

Sir, I can nothing say,

But that I am your most obedient servant.
Ber. Come, come, no more of that.
Hel.

And ever shall

With true observance seek to eke out that
Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd

To equal my great fortune.

My haste is very great: farewell; hie home.

Hel. Pray, sir, your pardon.
Ber.

Well, what would you say?

Hel. I am not worthy of the wealth I owe;8
Nor dare I say 'tis mine, - and yet it is;

But, like a timorous thief, most fain would steal
What law does vouch mine own.

Ber.

What would you have?

Hel. Something; and scarce so much: nothing, indeed.

I would not tell you what I would, my lord :

Faith, yes:

Strangers and foes do sunder, and not kiss.

Ber. I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse.
Hel. I shall not break your bidding, good my lord.

6 In old English, to muse commonly has the sense of to wonder.
7 Respects for reasons, considerations, or motives. Often so.
8 Owe, again, as usual, for own or possess. See page 36, note 2.

Ber. Where are my other men, monsieur? — Farewell :

[Exit HELENA.

Go thou toward home; where I will never come,
Whilst I can shake my sword, or hear the drum. —
Away, and for our flight.

Par.

Bravely, coragio !

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Florence. A Room in the Duke's Palace.

Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, attended; two French Lords and Soldiers.

Duke. So that, from point to point, now have you heard The fundamental reasons of this war;

Whose great decision hath much blood let forth,

Duke. Therefore we marvel much our cousin France

Would, in so just a business, shut his bosom

Against our borrowing-prayers.

I Lord.

Good my lord,

The reasons of our State I cannot yield,
But like a common and an outward man,2
That the great figure of a council frames

1 Party for part. The Poet has it so elsewhere, as also part for party. 2 "An outward man" is a man not in the secret of affairs. Shakespeare uses inward repeatedly in just the opposite sense.

By self-unable notion :3 therefore dare not
Say what I think of it, since I have found
Myself in my incertain grounds to fail
As often as I guess'd.

2 Lord. But I am sure the younger of our nation, That surfeit on their ease, will day by day

Come here for physic.

Duke.

Welcome shall they be ;

And all the honours that can fly from us

Shall on them settle. You know your places well;

When better fall, for your avails they fall:

To-morrow to the field.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE II.—Rousillon. A Room in the House of the Countess.

Enter the Countess and Clown.

Count. It hath happen'd all as I would have had it, save that he comes not along with her.

Clo. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.

Count. By what observance, I pray you?

Clo. Why, he will look upon his boot, and sing; mend the ruff, and sing; ask questions, and sing; pick his teeth, and sing. I knew a man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.

Count. Let me see what he writes, and when he means to [Opening a letter.

come.

3 "That conceives the great scheme or policy of a State council with a mind unequal of itself to so large a subject." The Poet several times has notion for mind, judgment, or conception. So in King Lear, i. 4: “Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied."

1 The ruff is the ruffle of the boot; that is, the top of the boot, which turned over and hung loosely; sometimes fringed with lace, ornamentally.

Clo. I have no mind to Isbel, since I was at Court: our oldlings and our Isbels o' the country are nothing like your oldlings and your Isbels o' the Court: the brains of my Cupid's knock'd out; and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach.

Count. What have we here?

Clo. E'en that you have there.

[Exit.

Count. [Reads.] I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she hath recovered the King, and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the not eternal. You shalt hear I am run away: know it before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you. Your unfortunate son, BERTRAM.

This is not well, rash and unbridled boy,

To fly the favours of so good a King;

To pluck his indignation on thy head
By the misprising of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

Re-enter the Clown.

Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two soldiers and my young lady!

Count. What is the matter?

Clo. Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not be kill'd so soon as I thought he would.

Count. Why should he be kill'd?

Clo. So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does : the danger is in standing to't; that's the loss of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come will tell you more: for my part, I only heard your son was run away. [Exit.

The termination -ling is used here, I take it, just as in various other words, such as foundling, groundling, sapling, worldling, youngling, &c. See Critical Notes.