Act 3, Scene 4

Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS'S palace.

[Enter COUNTESS and Steward.]
Countess of Rousillon
1413 Alas! and would you take the letter of her?
1414 Might you not know she would do as she has done,
1415 By sending me a letter? Read it again.
[Reads.]
Rinaldo the Steward
1416 'I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone:
1417 Ambitious love hath so in me offended
1418 That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon,
1419 With sainted vow my faults to have amended.
1420 Write, write, that from the bloody course of war
1421 My dearest master, your dear son, may hie:
1422 Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far
1423 His name with zealous fervour sanctify:
1424 His taken labours bid him me forgive;
1425 I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth
1426 From courtly friends, with camping foes to live,
1427 Where death and danger dog the heels of worth:
1428 He is too good and fair for death and me;
1429 Whom I myself embrace to set him free.'
Countess of Rousillon
1430 Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words!—
1431 Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much
1432 As letting her pass so; had I spoke with her,
1433 I could have well diverted her intents,
1434 Which thus she hath prevented.
Rinaldo the Steward
1435 Pardon me, madam:
1436 If I had given you this at over-night,
1437 She might have been o'er ta'en; and yet she writes,
1438 Pursuit would be but vain.
Countess of Rousillon
1439 What angel shall
1440 Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive,
1441 Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear
1442 And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath
1443 Of greatest justice.—Write, write, Rinaldo,
1444 To this unworthy husband of his wife:
1445 Let every word weigh heavy of her worth,
1446 That he does weigh too light: my greatest grief,
1447 Though little he do feel it, set down sharply.
1448 Dispatch the most convenient messenger:—
1449 When, haply, he shall hear that she is gone
1450 He will return; and hope I may that she,
1451 Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,
1452 Led hither by pure love: which of them both
1453 Is dearest to me I have no skill in sense
1454 To make distinction:—provide this messenger:—
1455 My heart is heavy, and mine age is weak;
1456 Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.
[Exeunt.]

Notes

TLN 1416historical topical

“I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone”

Saint Jaques (James) is the apostle James the Greater, whose shrine at Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain was one of the three great pilgrimage destinations of medieval Christendom, alongside Rome and Jerusalem. Helena frames her flight from Rousillon as a penitential pilgrimage, giving her departure a religious cover and moral weight that her society would recognise and respect.

historical Pilgrims, palmers, and holy shrines

TLN 1418historical topical

“barefoot plod I the cold ground upon, With sainted vow my faults to have amended”

Walking barefoot on a pilgrimage was a recognized form of bodily penance in Catholic practice, meant to mortify the flesh and demonstrate sincere contrition. Helena presents her journey to Saint Jaques not merely as travel but as a penitential act, with a formal religious vow ('sainted vow') sworn to amend her faults. The fault she names is having loved too ambitiously above her station.

historical Pilgrims, palmers, and holy shrines

TLN 1425classical allusion

“I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth From courtly friends, with camping foes to live”

Juno, queen of the gods in Roman myth, was the relentless divine enemy of the hero Hercules, hounding him from his home and driving him into his famous labours. Helena applies the comparison to herself: just as Juno's malice sent Hercules into exile and danger, she blames her forced marriage to Bertram for driving him from the court into the wars. The allusion is a striking piece of self-condemnation — she casts herself as the villain of her own love story.

classical Juno, queen of the gods

TLN 1445wordplay

“Let every word weigh heavy of her worth, That he does weigh too light”

The Countess plays on the verb 'weigh' in both its senses: to weigh in the physical sense (to feel the weight of something on a scale) and to weigh in the moral sense (to esteem, to value). Her instructions to Rinaldo are that his letter to Bertram should make the boy feel the full moral weight of Helena's worth — a worth that Bertram has treated as trivial ('weigh too light'). The pun drives home the Countess's bitter assessment of her son.