Rousillon. A Room in the Countess'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	[Opening a letter.] Let me see what he writes, and when he 
	means to come.

Clown	I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court. Our old lings 
	and our Isbels o'th' country are nothing like your old ling 
	and your Isbels o'th' 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.
						Your unfortunate son,
										BERTRAM.

	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 misprizing of a maid too virtuous
	For the contempt of empire.

                             Re-enter 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 the TWO LORDS DUMAINE.

1st Dumaine	Save you, good madam.

Helena	Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.

2nd Dumaine	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?

2nd Dumaine	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?

1st Dumaine										Ay, madam;
	And for the contents' sake are sorry for our pains.

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?

2nd Dumaine	Ay, madam.

Countess				And to be a soldier?

2nd Dumaine	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?

1st Dumaine	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.

1st Dumaine	'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?

1st Dumaine	A servant only, and a gentleman which I have sometime 
	known.

Countess	Parolles, was it not?

1st Dumaine	Ay, my good lady, he.

Countess	A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.
	My son corrupts a well-derivd nature
	With his inducement.

1st Dumaine							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.

2nd Dumaine							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 the LORDS.

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-piecing 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 roared
	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.
