Act 2, Scene 3

Paris. The KING'S palace.

[Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES.]
Lafew
816 They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical
817 persons to make modern and familiar things supernatural and
818 causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors,
819 ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge when we should submit
820 ourselves to an unknown fear.
Parolles
821 Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our
822 latter times.
Bertram
823 And so 'tis.
Lafew
824 To be relinquish'd of the artists,—
Parolles
825 So I say; both of Galen and Paracelsus.
Lafew
826 Of all the learned and authentic fellows,—
Parolles
827 Right; so I say.
Lafew
828 That gave him out incurable,—
Parolles
829 Why, there 'tis; so say I too.
Lafew
830 Not to be helped,—
Parolles
831 Right; as 'twere a man assured of a,—
Lafew
832 Uncertain life and sure death.
Parolles
833 Just; you say well: so would I have said.
Lafew
834 I may truly say, it is a novelty to the world.
Parolles
835 It is indeed: if you will have it in showing, you shall read it
836 in,—What do you call there?—
Lafew
837 A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor.
Parolles
838 That's it; I would have said the very same.
Lafew
839 Why, your dolphin is not lustier: 'fore me, I speak in
840 respect,—
Parolles
841 Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange; that is the brief and the
842 tedious of it; and he's of a most facinerious spirit that will
843 not acknowledge it to be the,—
Lafew
844 Very hand of heaven.
Parolles
845 Ay; so I say.
Lafew
846 In a most weak,—
Parolles
847 And debile minister, great power, great transcendence: which
848 should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than alone
849 the recov'ry of the king, as to be,—
Lafew
850 Generally thankful.
Parolles
851 I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.
[Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants.]
Lafew
852 Lustic, as the Dutchman says: I'll like a maid the better, whilst
853 I have a tooth in my head: why, he's able to lead her a coranto.
Parolles
854 'Mort du vinaigre!' is not this Helen?
Lafew
855 'Fore God, I think so.
King of France
856 Go, call before me all the lords in court.—
[Exit an Attendant.]
King of France
857 Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side;
858 And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
859 Thou has repeal'd, a second time receive
860 The confirmation of my promis'd gift,
861 Which but attends thy naming.
[Enter severaol Lords.]
King of France
862 Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel
863 Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
864 O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice
865 I have to use: thy frank election make;
866 Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.
Helena
867 To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress
868 Fall, when love please!—marry, to each, but one!
Lafew
869 I'd give bay Curtal and his furniture,
870 My mouth no more were broken than these boys',
871 And writ as little beard.
King of France
872 Peruse them well:
873 Not one of those but had a noble father.
Helena
874 Gentlemen,
875 Heaven hath through me restor'd the king to health.
All
876 We understand it, and thank heaven for you.
Helena
877 I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest
878 That I protest I simply am a maid.—
879 Please it, your majesty, I have done already:
880 The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me—
881 'We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be refus'd,
882 Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever;
883 We'll ne'er come there again.'
King of France
884 Make choice; and, see:
885 Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.
Helena
886 Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly,
887 And to imperial Love, that god most high,
888 Do my sighs stream.—Sir, will you hear my suit?
First Lord (Dumaine)
889 And grant it.
Helena
890 Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute.
Lafew
891 I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace for my life.
Helena
892 The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes,
893 Before I speak, too threateningly replies:
894 Love make your fortunes twenty times above
895 Her that so wishes, and her humble love!
Second Lord (Dumaine)
896 No better, if you please.
Helena
897 My wish receive,
898 Which great Love grant; and so I take my leave.
Lafew
899 Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine I'd have them
900 whipped; or I would send them to the Turk to make eunuchs of.
[To third Lord.]
Helena
901 Be not afraid that I your hand should take;
902 I'll never do you wrong for your own sake:
903 Blessing upon your vows! and in your bed
904 Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed!
Lafew
905 These boys are boys of ice: they'll none have her:
906 Sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got 'em.
Helena
907 You are too young, too happy, and too good,
908 To make yourself a son out of my blood.
Fourth Lord
909 Fair one, I think not so.
Lafew
910 There's one grape yet,—I am sure thy father drank wine.—But
911 if thou beest not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known
912 thee already.
[To BERTRAM.]
Helena
913 I dare not say I take you; but I give
914 Me and my service, ever whilst I live,
915 Into your guiding power.—This is the man.
King of France
916 Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife.
Bertram
917 My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,
918 In such a business give me leave to use
919 The help of mine own eyes.
King of France
920 Know'st thou not, Bertram,
921 What she has done for me?
Bertram
922 Yes, my good lord;
923 But never hope to know why I should marry her.
King of France
924 Thou know'st she has rais'd me from my sickly bed.
Bertram
925 But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
926 Must answer for your raising? I know her well;
927 She had her breeding at my father's charge:
928 A poor physician's daughter my wife!—Disdain
929 Rather corrupt me ever!
King of France
930 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
931 I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
932 Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
933 Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
934 In differences so mighty. If she be
935 All that is virtuous,—save what thou dislik'st,
936 A poor physician's daughter,—thou dislik'st
937 Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
938 From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
939 The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
940 Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,
941 It is a dropsied honour: good alone
942 Is good without a name; vileness is so:
943 The property by what it is should go,
944 Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
945 In these to nature she's immediate heir;
946 And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn
947 Which challenges itself as honour's born,
948 And is not like the sire: honours thrive
949 When rather from our acts we them derive
950 Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave,
951 Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave
952 A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb
953 Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
954 Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?
955 If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
956 I can create the rest: virtue and she
957 Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.
Bertram
958 I cannot love her, nor will strive to do 't.
King of France
959 Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose.
Helena
960 That you are well restor'd, my lord, I am glad:
961 Let the rest go.
King of France
962 My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,
963 I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
964 Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
965 That dost in vile misprision shackle up
966 My love and her desert; that canst not dream
967 We, poising us in her defective scale,
968 Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know
969 It is in us to plant thine honour where
970 We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt:
971 Obey our will, which travails in thy good;
972 Believe not thy disdain, but presently
973 Do thine own fortunes that obedient right
974 Which both thy duty owes and our power claims
975 Or I will throw thee from my care for ever,
976 Into the staggers and the careless lapse
977 Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate
978 Loosing upon thee in the name of justice,
979 Without all terms of pity. Speak! thine answer!
Bertram
980 Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit
981 My fancy to your eyes: when I consider
982 What great creation, and what dole of honour
983 Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late
984 Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
985 The praised of the king; who, so ennobled,
986 Is as 'twere born so.
King of France
987 Take her by the hand,
988 And tell her she is thine: to whom I promise
989 A counterpoise; if not to thy estate,
990 A balance more replete.
Bertram
991 I take her hand.
King of France
992 Good fortune and the favour of the king
993 Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
994 Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
995 And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast
996 Shall more attend upon the coming space,
997 Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her,
998 Thy love's to me religious; else, does err.
[Exeunt KING, BERTAM, HELENA, Lords, and Attendants.]
Lafew
999 Do you hear, monsieur? a word with you.
Parolles
1000 Your pleasure, sir?
Lafew
1001 Your lord and master did well to make his recantation.
Parolles
1002 Recantation!—my lord! my master!
Lafew
1003 Ay; is it not a language I speak?
Parolles
1004 A most harsh one, and not to be understood without bloody
1005 succeeding. My master!
Lafew
1006 Are you companion to the Count Rousillon?
Parolles
1007 To any count; to all counts; to what is man.
Lafew
1008 To what is count's man: count's master is of another style.
Parolles
1009 You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.
Lafew
1010 I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age cannot
1011 bring thee.
Parolles
1012 What I dare too well do, I dare not do.
Lafew
1013 I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise
1014 fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might
1015 pass: yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly
1016 dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden. I
1017 have now found thee; when I lose thee again I care not: yet art
1018 thou good for nothing but taking up; and that thou art scarce
1019 worth.
Parolles
1020 Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,—
Lafew
1021 Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy
1022 trial; which if—Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good
1023 window of lattice, fare thee well: thy casement I need not open,
1024 for I look through thee. Give me thy hand.
Parolles
1025 My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.
Lafew
1026 Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.
Parolles
1027 I have not, my lord, deserved it.
Lafew
1028 Yes, good faith, every dram of it: and I will not bate thee
1029 a scruple.
Parolles
1030 Well, I shall be wiser.
Lafew
1031 E'en as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack
1032 o' th' contrary. If ever thou beest bound in thy scarf and
1033 beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I
1034 have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my
1035 knowledge, that I may say in the default, he is a man I know.
Parolles
1036 My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.
Lafew
1037 I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing
1038 eternal: for doing I am past; as I will by thee, in what motion
1039 age will give me leave.
[Exit.]
Parolles
1040 Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me;
1041 scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord!—Well, I must be patient; there
1042 is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can
1043 meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a
1044 lord. I'll have no more pity of his age than I would have of—
1045 I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.
[Re-enter LAFEU.]
Lafew
1046 Sirrah, your lord and master's married; there's news for you; you
1047 have a new mistress.
Parolles
1048 I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation
1049 of your wrongs: he is my good lord: whom I serve above is my
1050 master.
Lafew
1051 Who? God?
Parolles
1052 Ay, sir.
Lafew
1053 The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up thy
1054 arms o' this fashion? dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other
1055 servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose
1056 stands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat
1057 thee: methink'st thou art a general offence, and every man should
1058 beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe
1059 themselves upon thee.
Parolles
1060 This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.
Lafew
1061 Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel
1062 out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller:
1063 you are more saucy with lords and honourable personages than the
1064 heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commission. You are
1065 not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you.
[Exit.]
Parolles
1066 Good, very good, it is so then.—Good, very good; let it
1067 be concealed awhile.
[Enter BERTRAM.]
Bertram
1068 Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever!
Parolles
1069 What's the matter, sweet heart?
Bertram
1070 Although before the solemn priest I have sworn,
1071 I will not bed her.
Parolles
1072 What, what, sweet heart?
Bertram
1073 O my Parolles, they have married me!—
1074 I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her.
Parolles
1075 France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits
1076 The tread of a man's foot:—to the wars!
Bertram
1077 There's letters from my mother; what the import is
1078 I know not yet.
Parolles
1079 Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!
1080 He wears his honour in a box unseen
1081 That hugs his kicksy-wicksy here at home,
1082 Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
1083 Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
1084 Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions!
1085 France is a stable; we that dwell in't, jades;
1086 Therefore, to the war!
Bertram
1087 It shall be so; I'll send her to my house,
1088 Acquaint my mother with my hate to her,
1089 And wherefore I am fled; write to the king
1090 That which I durst not speak: his present gift
1091 Shall furnish me to those Italian fields
1092 Where noble fellows strike: war is no strife
1093 To the dark house and the detested wife.
Parolles
1094 Will this caprichio hold in thee, art sure?
Bertram
1095 Go with me to my chamber and advise me.
1096 I'll send her straight away: to-morrow
1097 I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.
Parolles
1098 Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard:
1099 A young man married is a man that's marr'd:
1100 Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:
1101 The king has done you wrong: but, hush, 'tis so.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 816historical topical
“miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons”
Lafew opens the scene by observing that modern 'philosophical persons' explain away wonders as natural causes, leaving no room for the miraculous. This picks up a real controversy in Shakespeare's England between traditional providential thinking and the rising tide of natural philosophy (early science), which sought mechanical explanations for events once called divine.
TLN 825historical topical
“both of Galen and Paracelsus”
Galen (Greek physician, 2nd century CE) was the supreme authority of traditional university medicine; Paracelsus (Swiss physician and alchemist, c. 1493-1541) was his great challenger, who rejected Galenic humoral theory and proposed a chemical basis for disease. Naming both together covers the entire medical establishment: even these opposite schools agreed the King was incurable.
historical The King's fistula and the woman healer
TLN 839archaic vocab
“your dolphin is not lustier”
Lafew means the French 'Dauphin' (the French crown prince, literally 'the dolphin,' from the region of Dauphine) is not more vigorous. The word was spelled 'dolphin' in Elizabethan English. Lafew's point is that the now-healthy King is as lively as the young heir apparent.
TLN 842archaic vocab
“facinerious spirit”
'Facinerious' (from Latin facinoriosus) means atrociously wicked. Parolles, unable to finish Lafew's sentences on his own, here alone supplies a word — one so rare and grandiose that it reads as comic over-reach. The OED cites this as one of very few uses.
TLN 847archaic vocab
“debile minister, great power, great transcendence”
'Debile' means weak or feeble (from Latin debilis). A 'minister' here is an agent or instrument. Parolles is saying that a weak instrument (the young woman Helena) was used by great power (heaven) to produce a transcendent effect (the King's cure). The word-choice ironically over-elevates the thought, given that Parolles has just been parroting Lafew's sentences.
historical The King's fistula and the woman healer
TLN 852archaic vocab
“Lustic, as the Dutchman says”
'Lustic' is English phonetic spelling of Dutch 'lustig,' meaning lively, vigorous, or merry. Lafew is saying the King looks hearty enough to lead a young woman in a coranto. A coranto (also written 'courant') was a fast, leaping court dance popular in the late 1590s; to 'lead' the dance was the man's role.
TLN 854archaic vocab
“'Mort du vinaigre!'”
A mock French oath meaning roughly 'death of the vinegar' — a comic, bowdlerised substitute for the genuine oath 'mort Dieu' (death of God). Using a nonsense oath in place of a real blasphemy was a standard comic device. Parolles's French exclamation also marks him as the affected soldier-traveller who drops foreign phrases to seem sophisticated.
TLN 862historical topical
“this youthful parcel Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing”
The King presents a group ('parcel') of young noble bachelors and tells Helena she has sovereign authority to choose among them: 'they none to forsake' means none of them can refuse her choice. The King exercises his royal prerogative as their feudal overlord to compel any of his wards into the match Helena selects. This forced-marriage power was a real feature of English royal wardship law.
historical Giletta of Narbonne (the source story)
TLN 869archaic vocab
“I'd give bay Curtal and his furniture”
Lafew says he would give his bay (reddish-brown) horse, a docked-tailed ('curtal') one, along with its saddle and trappings ('furniture'), if only he were as young and smooth-cheeked as the bachelors before him. He is expressing mock-envy at not being eligible for Helena's choice. A 'curtal' horse had its tail docked; 'furniture' here means equestrian equipment.
TLN 882archaic vocab
“Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever”
Helena imagines being refused by every lord: if her blushes (which she personifies as voicing her embarrassment) are rebuffed, they will turn to 'white death' — permanent pallor, the white of shame rather than the flush of bold choice. 'White death' picks up the Elizabethan medical idea that extreme fear or humiliation could cause the face to drain to deathly white.
TLN 886classical allusion
“Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly, And to imperial Love, that god most high”
Helena announces she is abandoning her vow of virginity to Diana (the virgin goddess of the moon) and surrendering herself to Love (Cupid or Venus). In Roman myth Diana, goddess of the hunt and moon, was the patroness of chastity. Helena has kept herself chaste; now, choosing Bertram, she formally renounces that protection and places herself under the dominion of Love. The moment prepares for the play's central motif of Helena pursuing Bertram despite every obstacle.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 891archaic vocab
“throw ames-ace for my life”
Lafew says he would rather be in Helena's position of choosing among bachelors than play dice where the losing throw — 'ambes-ace,' double ones, the lowest possible roll — decides whether he lives or dies. 'Ambes-ace' (or ames-ace) is from French 'ambes as,' both aces, the worst possible dice-throw. Lafew is saying Helena's chance to choose an eligible nobleman is the best possible situation, the opposite of gambling his life on the unluckiest roll.
TLN 900historical topical
“send them to the Turk to make eunuchs of”
Lafew's threat that he would send the lords who reject Helena to the Ottoman sultan to be castrated draws on the widely-known fact that the Ottoman court employed eunuch servants. For Elizabethans 'the Turk' was a shorthand for the Ottoman Empire, and the harem and its eunuch-guardians were a stock topic of travellers' accounts. Lafew equates the lords' sexual timidity with already being castrated.
TLN 931rhetorical device
“Strange is it that our bloods, Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together, Would quite confound distinction”
The King argues that if the blood of nobles and commoners were mixed in a vessel, it would be indistinguishable — the same colour, weight, and temperature — and yet in life this identical substance is used to justify vast social difference. It is a sharp piece of reasoning by analogy, pressing that 'blood' as biology undercuts 'blood' as aristocratic lineage.
TLN 940archaic vocab
“Where great additions swell's, and virtue none, It is a dropsied honour”
A 'dropsied honour' is a title bloated without substance, like a body swollen by dropsy (oedema, an abnormal accumulation of fluid that distends the limbs and belly). 'Additions' means titles or ranks appended to a name. The King's point is that a great title ('great addition') with no virtue to fill it is a diseased, swollen thing — impressive in appearance but sickly at its core.
TLN 946syntax grammar
“that is honour's scorn Which challenges itself as honour's born”
The compressed syntax means: 'That which claims ('challenges itself') to be honour by birth alone is the very thing that dishonours the name.' 'Challenges' here is an archaic use meaning 'lays claim to.' The King argues that hereditary honour which asserts itself without virtue actually brings shame on the concept of honour.
TLN 958cultural context
“I cannot love her, nor will strive to do 't”
Bertram's blunt refusal — 'I cannot love her, nor will strive to do it' — is one of the most debated moments in the play. He rejects Helena before the assembled court and the King with no attempt at diplomacy. Critics have long divided on whether Bertram is simply a young aristocrat shocked by an unwelcome social demotion, or an irredeemably cold character whose eventual 'acceptance' of Helena remains unconvincing. The abruptness here sets up the play's central problem.
historical Giletta of Narbonne (the source story)historical A woman's honour: chastity and the double standard
TLN 965archaic vocab
“dost in vile misprision shackle up”
'Misprision' is a legal term meaning a mistake or misunderstanding, but also a contemptuous undervaluing. The King accuses Bertram of 'vile misprision' — a contemptible failure to appreciate Helena's true worth. He uses it as both a legal charge (misprision of a royal gift) and a moral one (a gross misreading of value).
TLN 967rhetorical device
“We, poising us in her defective scale, Shall weigh thee to the beam”
The King uses the image of a weighing scale: Helena's side of the scale is 'defective' only in birth-rank, but when the King himself adds his weight to her pan, Bertram will be outweighed and tipped all the way down ('to the beam' means tilting the balance-arm to its extreme). It is a direct threat that royal displeasure makes Helena heavier than any title Bertram possesses.
TLN 976archaic vocab
“the staggers and the careless lapse Of youth and ignorance”
'Staggers' is a disease of horses characterised by stumbling and reeling — used figuratively here for the dizzy, erratic lurching of ungoverned youth. The King threatens that if Bertram refuses, he will be abandoned to the unsteadiness that comes without royal guidance, exposed to every stumble that youth and ignorance bring.
TLN 1010archaic vocab
“I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee”
Lafew tells Parolles that he is entitled to call himself a man in the fullest sense — a man of courage and honour — and that the title of 'man' (which implies genuine bravery) is one that age alone cannot confer on Parolles, since he has shown himself a coward. 'Write' in this sense means to describe or style oneself.
classical The miles gloriosus (the braggart soldier)
TLN 1013archaic vocab
“I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow”
Lafew says that over the course of two 'ordinaries' — shared public meals at a tavern or inn where strangers dined together at a fixed price — he had initially thought Parolles was tolerably intelligent. An 'ordinary' was a regular, fixed-price meal served to whoever turned up; it was a common meeting-place for travellers and a site for social encounter and conversation. Lafew's point is that two meals was long enough to be deceived, and short enough to be forgiven.
TLN 1015historical topical
“the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me”
Parolles was immediately recognizable by his military finery: long scarfs (worn as sashes by soldiers and travellers) and small military banners or pennants ('bannerets') hung about his person. These were the visual marks of the braggart soldier type — too much finery, no actual service. Lafew says the costume itself warned him not to trust the man's stories of travel and battle.
classical The miles gloriosus (the braggart soldier)
TLN 1054historical topical
“dost make hose of thy sleeves? do other servants so?”
Lafew mocks Parolles for wearing his sleeves hitched up or rolled and tied with garters in an affected military fashion, as if his arms were encased in leg-hose (stockings). The gibe attacks Parolles's absurd dress, part of the braggart-soldier costume. Tying up sleeves to show the arms was a martial affectation, and to Lafew's eye it looks as ridiculous as putting a stocking on one's arm.
classical The miles gloriosus (the braggart soldier)
TLN 1074historical topical
“I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her”
Bertram resolves to flee to the war in Tuscany (central Italy). The play's Florence/Siena wars are vaguely contemporary: Italian city-states of the period employed mercenary companies that drew foreign volunteers, making it plausible that a young French nobleman would seek military service there. More importantly for Bertram, the war gives him a legitimate-sounding reason to leave France immediately after his forced marriage.
TLN 1083classical allusion
“Which should sustain the bound and high curvet Of Mars's fiery steed”
Parolles invokes Mars, the Roman god of war, and his legendary war-horse. A 'curvet' was a precise equestrian leap — a trained horse's bound — and 'bound' here pairs it for sound. The argument is that Bertram's energy ('manly marrow') belongs in military horsemanship serving Mars, not in the domestic embrace of a wife.
TLN 1092archaic vocab
“war is no strife To the dark house and the detested wife”
A 'dark house' was an Elizabethan term for a place of confinement or madness — literally a house with the windows shuttered, as was done when treating the supposedly insane. Bertram is saying that the war, violent as it is, is no conflict ('strife') compared to being locked in a dark house with a wife he despises. The image makes his marriage into a kind of madhouse imprisonment.
TLN 1094archaic vocab
“Will this caprichio hold in thee”
'Caprichio' (from Italian capriccio) means a sudden whim or caper — literally a 'caper' or 'goat-leap,' from capro (goat). Parolles is asking whether Bertram's impulsive plan to flee to the war is a firm resolve or just a passing fancy. The word, borrowed from Italian, marks the play's fashionable Continental atmosphere and Parolles's affected vocabulary.
TLN 1099rhetorical device
“A young man married is a man that's marr'd”
Parolles closes with an epigram built on a pun: 'married' rhymes with and sounds close to 'marred' (damaged, ruined). The proverb-like couplet is designed to clinch Bertram's resolve. The wordplay turns the sacrament of marriage into an act of destruction — a measure of how completely Parolles subverts any conventional comic resolution to the forced-marriage plot.