Scene + 

II + 

Rousillon. The Count’s palace. + 

Enter Countess and Clown. + 

Countess + 

It hath happened all as I would have had it, save that he comes not along with her. + 

Clown + 

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

Countess + 

By what observance, I pray you? + 

Clown + 

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

Countess + 

Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come. Opening a letter. + 

Clown + 

I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court: our old ling and our Isbels o’ the country are nothing like your old ling and your Isbels o’ the court: the brains of my Cupid’s knocked out, and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach. + 

Countess + 

What have we here? + 

Clown + 

E’en that you have there. Exit. + 

Countess + 

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 shall 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. + 

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. + 

Reenter Clown. + 

Clown + 

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

Countess + 

What is the matter? + 

Clown + 

Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not be killed so soon as I thought he would. + 

Countess + 

Why should he be killed? + 

Clown + 

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 hear your son was run away. Exit. + 

Enter Helena, and two Gentlemen. + 

First Gentleman + 

Save you, good madam. + 

Helena + 

Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone. + 

Second Gentleman + 

Do not say so. + 

Countess + 

Think upon patience. Pray you, gentlemen, + 

I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief, + 

That the first face of neither, on the start, + 

Can woman me unto’t: where is my son, I pray you? + 

Second Gentleman + 

Madam, he’s gone to serve the duke of Florence: + 

We met him thitherward; for thence we came, + 

And, after some dispatch in hand at court, + 

Thither we bend again. + 

Helena + 

Look on his letter, madam; here’s my passport. + 

Reads. When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to, then call me husband: but in such a “then” I write a “never.” + 

This is a dreadful sentence. + 

Countess + 

Brought you this letter, gentlemen? + 

First Gentleman + 

Ay, madam; + 

And for the contents’ sake are sorry for our pain. + 

Countess + 

I prithee, lady, have a better cheer; + 

If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, + 

Thou robb’st me of a moiety: he was my son; + 

But I do wash his name out of my blood, + 

And thou art all my child. Towards Florence is he? + 

Second Gentleman + 

Ay, madam. + 

Countess + 

And to be a soldier? + 

Second Gentleman + 

Such is his noble purpose; and believe’t, + 

The duke will lay upon him all the honour + 

That good convenience claims. + 

Countess + 

Return you thither? + 

First Gentleman + 

Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed. + 

Helena + 

Reads. Till I have no wife I have nothing in France. + 

’Tis bitter. + 

Countess + 

Find you that there? + 

Helena + 

Ay, madam. + 

First Gentleman + 

’Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which his heart was not consenting to. + 

Countess + 

Nothing in France, until he have no wife! + 

There’s nothing here that is too good for him + 

But only she; and she deserves a lord + 

That twenty such rude boys might tend upon + 

And call her hourly mistress. Who was with him? + 

First Gentleman + 

A servant only, and a gentleman + 

Which I have sometime known. + 

Countess + 

Parolles, was it not? + 

First Gentleman + 

Ay, my good lady, he. + 

Countess + 

A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness. + 

My son corrupts a well-derived nature + 

With his inducement. + 

First Gentleman + 

Indeed, good lady, + 

The fellow has a deal of that too much, + 

Which holds him much to have. + 

Countess + 

You’re welcome, gentlemen. + 

I will entreat you, when you see my son, + 

To tell him that his sword can never win + 

The honour that he loses: more I’ll entreat you + 

Written to bear along. + 

Second Gentleman + 

We serve you, madam, + 

In that and all your worthiest affairs. + 

Countess + 

Not so, but as we change our courtesies. + 

Will you draw near! Exeunt Countess and Gentlemen. + 

Helena + 

“Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.” + 

Nothing in France, until he has no wife! + 

Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France; + 

Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is’t I + 

That chase thee from thy country and expose + 

Those tender limbs of thine to the event + 

Of the none-sparing war? and is it I + 

That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou + 

Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark + 

Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers, + 

That ride upon the violent speed of fire, + 

Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air, + 

That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord. + 

Whoever shoots at him, I set him there; + 

Whoever charges on his forward breast, + 

I am the caitiff that do hold him to’t; + 

And, though I kill him not, I am the cause + 

His death was so effected: better ’twere + 

I met the ravin lion when he roar’d + 

With sharp constraint of hunger; better ’twere + 

That all the miseries which nature owes + 

Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rousillon, + 

Whence honour but of danger wins a scar, + 

As oft it loses all: I will be gone; + 

My being here it is that holds thee hence: + 

Shall I stay here to do’t? no, no, although + 

The air of paradise did fan the house + 

And angels officed all: I will be gone, + 

That pitiful rumour may report my flight, + 

To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day! + 

For with the dark, poor thief, I’ll steal away. Exit. + 