Act 2, Scene 1

Paris. A room in the King's palace.

[Flourish. Enter the King, with young LORDS taking leave for the Florentine war; BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and Attendants.]
King of France
538 Farewell, young lord; these war-like principles
539 Do not throw from you:—and you, my lord, farewell;—
540 Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,
541 The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,
542 And is enough for both.
First Lord (Dumaine)
543 It is our hope, sir,
544 After well-enter'd soldiers, to return
545 And find your grace in health.
King of France
546 No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart
547 Will not confess he owes the malady
548 That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;
549 Whether I live or die, be you the sons
550 Of worthy Frenchmen; let higher Italy,—
551 Those bated that inherit but the fall
552 Of the last monarchy,—see that you come
553 Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
554 The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,
555 That fame may cry you aloud: I say farewell.
Second Lord (Dumaine)
556 Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty!
King of France
557 Those girls of Italy, take heed of them;
558 They say our French lack language to deny,
559 If they demand: beware of being captives
560 Before you serve.
Both
561 Our hearts receive your warnings.
King of France
562 Farewell.—Come hither to me.
[The king retires to a couch.]
First Lord (Dumaine)
563 O my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!
Parolles
564 'Tis not his fault; the spark—
Second Lord (Dumaine)
565 O, 'tis brave wars!
Parolles
566 Most admirable: I have seen those wars.
Bertram
567 I am commanded here and kept a coil with,
568 'Too young' and next year' and ''tis too early.'
Parolles
569 An thy mind stand to it, boy, steal away bravely.
Bertram
570 I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
571 Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
572 Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn
573 But one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal away.
First Lord (Dumaine)
574 There's honour in the theft.
Parolles
575 Commit it, count.
Second Lord (Dumaine)
576 I am your accessary; and so farewell.
Bertram
577 I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.
First Lord (Dumaine)
578 Farewell, captain.
Second Lord (Dumaine)
579 Sweet Monsieur Parolles!
Parolles
580 Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good sparks and
581 lustrous, a word, good metals.—You shall find in the regiment of
582 the Spinii one Captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of
583 war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword
584 entrenched it: say to him I live; and observe his reports for me.
First Lord (Dumaine)
585 We shall, noble captain.
Parolles
586 Mars dote on you for his novices!
[Exeunt LORDS.]
Parolles
587 What will ye do?
Bertram
588 Stay; the king—
Parolles
589 Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords; you have
590 restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu: be more
591 expressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the
592 time; there do muster true gait; eat, speak, and move, under the
593 influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead
594 the measure, such are to be followed: after them, and take a more
595 dilated farewell.
Bertram
596 And I will do so.
Parolles
597 Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.
[Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES.]
[Enter LAFEU.]
Lafew
598 Pardon, my lord
[kneeling]
Lafew
599 , for me and for my tidings.
King of France
600 I'll fee thee to stand up.
Lafew
601 Then here's a man stands that has bought his pardon.
602 I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy;
603 And that at my bidding you could so stand up.
King of France
604 I would I had; so I had broke thy pate,
605 And ask'd thee mercy for't.
Lafew
606 Good faith, across;
607 But, my good lord, 'tis thus: will you be cured
608 Of your infirmity?
King of France
609 No.
Lafew
610 O, will you eat
611 No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will
612 My noble grapes, and if my royal fox
613 Could reach them: I have seen a medicine
614 That's able to breathe life into a stone,
615 Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
616 With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch
617 Is powerful to araise King Pipin, nay,
618 To give great Charlemain a pen in his hand
619 And write to her a love-line.
King of France
620 What 'her' is that?
Lafew
621 Why, doctor 'she': my lord, there's one arriv'd,
622 If you will see her,—now, by my faith and honour,
623 If seriously I may convey my thoughts
624 In this my light deliverance, I have spoke
625 With one that in her sex, her years, profession,
626 Wisdom, and constancy, hath amaz'd me more
627 Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see her,—
628 For that is her demand,—and know her business?
629 That done, laugh well at me.
King of France
630 Now, good Lafeu,
631 Bring in the admiration; that we with the
632 May spend our wonder too, or take off thine
633 By wondering how thou took'st it.
Lafew
634 Nay, I'll fit you,
635 And not be all day neither.
[Exit LAFEU.]
King of France
636 Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.
[Re-enter LAFEU with HELENA.]
Lafew
637 Nay, come your ways.
King of France
638 This haste hath wings indeed.
Lafew
639 Nay, come your ways;
640 This is his majesty: say your mind to him.
641 A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
642 His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,
643 That dare leave two together: fare you well.
[Exit.]
King of France
644 Now, fair one, does your business follow us?
Helena
645 Ay, my good lord. Gerard de Narbon was
646 My father; in what he did profess, well found.
King of France
647 I knew him.
Helena
648 The rather will I spare my praises towards him.
649 Knowing him is enough. On his bed of death
650 Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one,
651 Which, as the dearest issue of his practice,
652 And of his old experience the only darling,
653 He bade me store up as a triple eye,
654 Safer than mine own two, more dear: I have so:
655 And, hearing your high majesty is touch'd
656 With that malignant cause wherein the honour
657 Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,
658 I come to tender it, and my appliance,
659 With all bound humbleness.
King of France
660 We thank you, maiden:
661 But may not be so credulous of cure,—
662 When our most learned doctors leave us, and
663 The congregated college have concluded
664 That labouring art can never ransom nature
665 From her inaidable estate,—I say we must not
666 So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
667 To prostitute our past-cure malady
668 To empirics; or to dissever so
669 Our great self and our credit, to esteem
670 A senseless help, when help past sense we deem.
Helena
671 My duty, then, shall pay me for my pains:
672 I will no more enforce mine office on you;
673 Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
674 A modest one to bear me back again.
King of France
675 I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful.
676 Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give
677 As one near death to those that wish him live:
678 But what at full I know, thou know'st no part;
679 I knowing all my peril, thou no art.
Helena
680 What I can do can do no hurt to try,
681 Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.
682 He that of greatest works is finisher
683 Oft does them by the weakest minister:
684 So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
685 When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown
686 From simple sources; and great seas have dried
687 When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
688 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
689 Where most it promises; and oft it hits
690 Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.
King of France
691 I must not hear thee: fare thee well, kind maid;
692 Thy pains, not used, must by thyself be paid:
693 Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Helena
694 Inspired merit so by breath is barred:
695 It is not so with Him that all things knows,
696 As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows:
697 But most it is presumption in us when
698 The help of heaven we count the act of men.
699 Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent:
700 Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
701 I am not an impostor, that proclaim
702 Myself against the level of mine aim;
703 But know I think, and think I know most sure,
704 My art is not past power nor you past cure.
King of France
705 Art thou so confident? Within what space
706 Hop'st thou my cure?
Helena
707 The greatest grace lending grace.
708 Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
709 Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring;
710 Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
711 Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp;
712 Or four-and-twenty times the pilot's glass
713 Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass;
714 What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
715 Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
King of France
716 Upon thy certainty and confidence
717 What dar'st thou venture?
Helena
718 Tax of impudence,—
719 A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,—
720 Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name
721 Sear'd otherwise; ne worse of worst extended,
722 With vilest torture let my life be ended.
King of France
723 Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak;
724 His powerful sound within an organ weak:
725 And what impossibility would slay
726 In common sense, sense saves another way.
727 Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate
728 Worth name of life in thee hath estimate:
729 Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all
730 That happiness and prime can happy call;
731 Thou this to hazard needs must intimate
732 Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.
733 Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try:
734 That ministers thine own death if I die.
Helena
735 If I break time, or flinch in property
736 Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die;
737 And well deserv'd. Not helping, death's my fee;
738 But, if I help, what do you promise me?
King of France
739 Make thy demand.
Helena
740 But will you make it even?
King of France
741 Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.
Helena
742 Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand
743 What husband in thy power I will command:
744 Exempted be from me the arrogance
745 To choose from forth the royal blood of France,
746 My low and humble name to propagate
747 With any branch or image of thy state:
748 But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
749 Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.
King of France
750 Here is my hand; the premises observ'd,
751 Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd;
752 So make the choice of thy own time, for I,
753 Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely.
754 More should I question thee, and more I must,—
755 Though more to know could not be more to trust,—
756 From whence thou cam'st, how tended on.—But rest
757 Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.—
758 Give me some help here, ho!—If thou proceed
759 As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed.
[Flourish. Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 553rhetorical device
“Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when The bravest questant shrinks”
The King distinguishes passive from active pursuit of honor. To 'woo' honor is to court it half-heartedly; to 'wed' it is to commit fully and irreversibly -- as in marriage, which takes you 'till death do part.' A 'questant' is one who goes on a quest or seeks something; 'when the bravest questant shrinks' means when even the most courageous seeker pulls back in fear, find what they fled from.
TLN 557historical topical
“Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; They say our French lack language to deny”
The King warns the young lords against Italian women with a double entendre: 'our French lack language to deny' means the French are too polite (or too weak-willed) to refuse when Italian women make demands -- with 'if they demand' and 'captives / Before you serve' carrying a sexual charge. 'Captives before you serve' means enslaved to lust before you have ever served in military action -- a soldier captured before a battle has been fought.
TLN 567archaic vocab
“commanded here and kept a coil with, 'Too young' and next year'”
'Kept a coil' means kept in a state of fuss, noise, and restraint -- constantly bothered with excuses and delays. Bertram is bitter that the King has ordered him to stay at court and given him nothing but patronizing reasons: 'too young,' 'next year,' 'it is too early.' The phrase captures the indignity of being managed like a child.
TLN 570wordplay
“I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry”
Bertram imagines himself as the 'forehorse' -- the lead horse of a team, the most decorated and conspicuous, but here leading nothing more than a woman's smock (a skirt, standing for domestic life at court). The image mixes contempt and self-pity: he will be a prize animal in a ladies' household, creaking his fine shoes across polished stone floors at court, while real men earn honor in battle. 'Sword worn but to dance with' extends the insult -- a sword only for peacetime display.
TLN 580cultural context
“Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good sparks and lustrous”
Parolles performs exactly the role of the classical 'braggart soldier': he flatters the lords with extravagant martial language ('noble heroes,' 'good sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals'), then sends a tall-tale message through them about a certain 'Captain Spurio' -- a name meaning 'bastard' or 'counterfeit' in Italian and Latin -- whose facial scar Parolles claims his own sword made. Every detail is designed to look impressive; none of it is likely true.
classical The miles gloriosus (the braggart soldier)
TLN 586classical allusion
“Mars dote on you for his novices”
Parolles blesses the departing lords with an invocation to Mars, the Roman god of war. 'Dote on you for his novices' means: may Mars love you as his newest and most promising devotees -- as a master is fond of his star pupils. The blessing is a small piece of the braggart-soldier pose: Parolles speaks as if he has a personal relationship with the war-god.
TLN 591cultural context
“they wear themselves in the cap of the time; there do muster true gait; eat, speak, and move, under the influence of the most received star”
Parolles urges Bertram to be more effusively courteous to the lords because they are the fashionable elite -- 'the cap of the time' means the very top of current fashion (a cap being the crown of a outfit). 'Muster true gait' means display the correct, fashionable walk; 'under the influence of the most received star' means guided by whatever is currently in vogue. The astrological image ('star') is deliberately vague, used to dress up mere trend-following in cosmic language.
TLN 606archaic vocab
“Good faith, across”
Lafew uses 'across' as a term from the tilt-yard meaning 'that was a poor hit' -- a blow delivered crosswise rather than straight, and so weak or awkward. The King has just said he would have cracked Lafew's head and then apologized for it; Lafew concedes the riposte was a glancing one: 'Good faith, across' means 'fair enough, but that was an ill-aimed blow.' The image is from jousting, where a lance struck 'across' (not square on) counted as a failed or feeble stroke.
TLN 610classical allusion
“will you eat No grapes, my royal fox? yes, but you will My noble grapes”
Lafew alludes to Aesop's fable of the fox who cannot reach a cluster of grapes and then dismisses them as sour. He calls the King 'my royal fox,' implying the King is refusing Helena's cure the same way -- insisting it is worthless precisely because he cannot believe it is within reach. Lafew turns the insult around immediately: 'yes, but you will' try the grapes when 'my royal fox could reach them,' meaning if you could truly have them you would want them.
TLN 615historical topical
“make you dance canary With spritely fire and motion”
The canary was a lively, quick dance, named either for the Canary Islands or for a song-and-dance performed to bird-like music. Lafew says Helena's medicine could give the King enough vigor to perform this energetic dance -- a vivid way of saying the cure would restore him to full physical health, not merely keep him alive. 'Spritely fire and motion' (spirited energy and agility) reinforces the image of restoration to youthful vitality.
TLN 636rhetorical device
“Thus he his special nothing ever prologues”
Alone for a moment, the King sums up Lafew's style with dry affection: Lafew always makes a great prologue out of something that turns out to be nothing -- or, in this case, turns out to be everything. 'Prologues his special nothing' means he introduces his news with extravagant build-up. The line is ironic because this time Lafew's 'nothing' is Helena, who will cure the King. The King's dismissive joke is immediately undercut by what enters next.
TLN 642classical allusion
“I am Cressid's uncle, That dare leave two together”
Lafew jokes that he is like Pandarus, Cressida's uncle in the Troy legend, who famously acted as a go-between arranging the lovers Troilus and Cressida to meet alone. In the Troilus story Pandarus left the two together in a bedroom -- a role that made his name a byword for a procurer or go-between (hence 'pander'). Lafew uses the allusion self-deprecatingly: he is daring enough to leave a young woman alone with the King, just as Pandarus left Cressida with Troilus.
TLN 650archaic vocab
“Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one, Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, And of his old experience the only darling, He bade me store up as a triple eye”
'Receipts' here means medical prescriptions or formulas -- what we would call recipes (the words share the same Latin root, recipere, 'to receive'). The specific cure is called the 'dearest issue of his practice' (the most precious product of his professional work) and 'the only darling' of his long experience. The 'triple eye' is harder: Helena says she was told to guard this remedy as a third eye -- more carefully than her two natural eyes, as the most precious thing she has.
TLN 663historical topical
“The congregated college have concluded That labouring art can never ransom nature From her inaidable estate”
The King refers to his court physicians as a 'congregated college' -- the assembled body of learned doctors who have conferred and concluded that no art (medicine) can save him from his 'inaidable estate' (condition beyond help). This language points directly at the Royal College of Physicians, chartered in 1518 by Henry VIII to license medical practice in England. The King is saying that the official, licensed experts have given up on him, which is precisely why Helena -- an unlicensed 'empiric' -- seems so implausible as a healer.
historical The King's fistula and the woman healer
TLN 682biblical allusion
“He that of greatest works is finisher Oft does them by the weakest minister: So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, When judges have been babes”
Helena argues from a biblical principle: God repeatedly works through the weak, the young, and the unlikely to accomplish what the powerful and wise cannot. 'So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, / When judges have been babes' recalls passages in which children or the lowly are given divine wisdom denied to their elders -- the infant Samuel, or the child Jesus who sits among the doctors in the Temple (Luke 2:46-47). The broader point is that God's power does not depend on human credentials.
TLN 708classical allusion
“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”
Helena sets a forty-eight-hour deadline in an elevated classical style. 'The horses of the sun' are the mythological steeds that pull the sun-god Phoebus Apollo's chariot across the sky each day; 'fiery torcher his diurnal ring' means the sun completing its daily circuit. 'Hesperus' is the evening star (the planet Venus as it appears at dusk), which signals sunset and night -- 'moist' because evening air was thought damp, 'occidental' because it sets in the west. The whole passage means: before two sunrises and two sunsets -- within two days.
TLN 718cultural context
“Tax of impudence,— A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame,— Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name Sear'd otherwise”
If she fails, Helena stakes her entire social reputation as a woman. She wagers 'a strumpet's boldness' -- being branded as sexually forward and shameless, the opposite of female modesty; 'a divulged shame' means a publicly revealed disgrace; 'traduc'd by odious ballads' means mocked and defamed in the cheap printed songs that circulated widely to spread scandal. 'My maiden's name sear'd otherwise' means her reputation for chastity burned away and replaced by its opposite. In a society where a young woman's honor was her most valuable possession, this is the maximum possible forfeit.
historical A woman's honour: chastity and the double standard
TLN 742historical topical
“Then shalt thou give me, with thy kingly hand What husband in thy power I will command”
Helena's demand reveals the full scope of her plan: she is not simply asking to be cured of poverty or loneliness but to be given, by royal command, the specific husband she has chosen -- Bertram. As a royal ward, Bertram is legally in the King's power to bestow in marriage. Helena carefully excludes the royal family ('Exempted be from me the arrogance / To choose from forth the royal blood of France') to show she knows her place while still claiming the right to name any other nobleman the King controls.
historical Giletta of Narbonne (the source story)