All's Well That Ends Well
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SCENE I. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.<br> <i>Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of Rousillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black</i><br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death<br> anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to<br> whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you,<br> sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times<br> good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose<br> worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather<br> than lack it where there is such abundance.<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose<br> practises he hath persecuted time with hope, and<br> finds no other advantage in the process but only the<br> losing of hope by time.<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> This young gentlewoman had a father,--O, that<br> 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis!--whose skill was<br> almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so<br> far, would have made nature immortal, and death<br> should have play for lack of work. Would, for the<br> king's sake, he were living! I think it would be<br> the death of the king's disease.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> How called you the man you speak of, madam?<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was<br> his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very<br> lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he<br> was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge<br> could be set up against mortality.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> A fistula, my lord.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> I heard not of it before.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman<br> the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my<br> overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that<br> her education promises; her dispositions she<br> inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where<br> an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there<br> commendations go with pity; they are virtues and<br> traitors too; in her they are the better for their<br> simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.
All's Well That Ends Well William Shakespeare
Details
SCENE I. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.<br> <i>Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of Rousillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black</i><br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death<br> anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to<br> whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you,<br> sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times<br> good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose<br> worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather<br> than lack it where there is such abundance.<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose<br> practises he hath persecuted time with hope, and<br> finds no other advantage in the process but only the<br> losing of hope by time.<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> This young gentlewoman had a father,--O, that<br> 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis!--whose skill was<br> almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so<br> far, would have made nature immortal, and death<br> should have play for lack of work. Would, for the<br> king's sake, he were living! I think it would be<br> the death of the king's disease.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> How called you the man you speak of, madam?<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was<br> his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very<br> lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he<br> was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge<br> could be set up against mortality.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> A fistula, my lord.<br> <b>BERTRAM</b><br> I heard not of it before.<br> <b>LAFEU</b><br> I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman<br> the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?<br> <b>COUNTESS</b><br> His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my<br> overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that<br> her education promises; her dispositions she<br> inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where<br> an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there<br> commendations go with pity; they are virtues and<br> traitors too; in her they are the better for their<br> simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.