Chapter 11

“As much,” replied Parolles, “as I could possibly say if you pinched me like a pasty.” He was as good as his word. He told them how many there were in each regiment of the Florentine army, and he refreshed them with spicy anecdotes of the officers commanding it.

Bertram was present, and heard a letter read, in which Parolles told Diana that he was a fool.

“This is your devoted friend,” said a French lord.

“He is a cat to me now,” said Bertram, who detested our hearthrug pets.

Parolles was finally let go, but henceforth he felt like a sneak, and was not addicted to boasting.

We now return to France with Helena, who had spread a report of her death, which was conveyed to the Dowager Countess at Rousillon by Lafeu, a lord who wished to marry his daughter Magdalen to Bertram.

The King mourned for Helena, but he approved of the marriage proposed for Bertram, and paid a visit to Rousillon in order to see it accomplished.

“His great offense is dead,” he said. “Let Bertram approach me.”

Then Bertram, scarred in the cheek, knelt before his Sovereign, and said that if he had not loved Lafeu's daughter before he married Helena, he would have prized his wife, whom he now loved when it was too late.

“Love that is late offends the Great Sender,” said the King. “Forget sweet Helena, and give a ring to Magdalen.”

Bertram immediately gave a ring to Lafeu, who said indignantly, “It's Helena's!”

“It's not!” said Bertram.

Hereupon the King asked to look at the ring, and said, “This is the ring I gave to Helena, and bade her send to me if ever she needed help. So you had the cunning to get from her what could help her most.”

Bertram denied again that the ring was Helena's, but even his mother said it was.

“You lie!” exclaimed the King. “Seize him, guards!” but even while they were seizing him, Bertram wondered how the ring, which he thought Diana had given him, came to be so like Helena's. A gentleman now entered, craving permission to deliver a petition to the King. It was a petition signed Diana Capilet, and it begged that the King would order Bertram to marry her whom he had deserted after winning her love.

“I'd sooner buy a son-in-law at a fair than take Bertram now,” said Lafeu.

“Admit the petitioner,” said the King.

Bertram found himself confronted by Diana and her mother. He denied that Diana had any claim on him, and spoke of her as though her life was spent in the gutter. But she asked him what sort of gentlewoman it was to whom he gave, as to her he gave, the ring of his ancestors now missing from his finger?

Bertram was ready to sink into the earth, but fate had one crowning generosity reserved for him. Helena entered.

“Do I see reality?” asked the King.

“O pardon! pardon!” cried Bertram.

She held up his ancestral ring. “Now that I have this,” said she, “will you love me, Bertram?”

“To the end of my life,” cried he.

“My eyes smell onions,” said Lafeu. Tears for Helena were twinkling in them.

The King praised Diana when he was fully informed by that not very shy young lady of the meaning of her conduct. For Helena's sake she had wished to expose Bertram's meanness, not only to the King, but to himself. His pride was now in shreds, and it is believed that he made a husband of some sort after all.

PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF NAMES.

[Key.--

a,e,i,o,u -- as in hat, bet, it, hot, hut; â,ê,î,ô,û -- as in ate, mote, mite, mote, mute; å -- as in America, freeman, coward; ë -- as in her, fern; ü -- as in burn, furl. ]

Adriana (ad-ri-â'-nå) AEgeon (ê'-ge-on) AEmilia (ê-mil'-i-å) Alcibiades (al-si-bî'-å-dêz) Aliena (â-li-ê'-nå) Angelo (an'-je-lô) Antioch (an'-ti-ok) Antiochus (an-tî'-o-kus) Antipholus (an-tif'-o-lus) Antonio (an-tô'-ni-ô) Apemantus (ap-e-man'-tus) Apollo (å-pol'-ô) Ariel (â'ri-el) Arragon (ar'-å-gon)

Banquo (ban'-kwô) Baptista (bap-tis'-tå) Bassanio (bas-sa'-ni-ô) Beatrice (bê'å-tris) Bellario (bel-lâ'-ri-ô) Bellarius (bel-lâ'-ri-us) Benedick (ben'-e-dik) Benvolio (ben-vô'-li-ô) Bertram (bër'-tram) Bianca (bê-an'-kå) Borachio (bô-rach'-i-ô) Brabantio (brå-ban'chô) Burgundy (bür'-gun-di)

Caliban (kal'-i-ban) Camillo (kå-mil'-ô) Capulet (kap'-û-let) Cassio (kas'-i-ô) Celia (sê'-li-å) Centaur (sen'-tawr) Cerimon (sê'-ri-mon) Cesario (se-sâ'-ri-ô) Claudio (klaw'-di-ô) Claudius (klaw'-di-us) Cordelia (kawr-dê'-li-å) Cornwall (kawrn'-wawl) Cymbeline (sim'-be-lên)

Demetrius (de-mê'-tri-us) Desdemona (des-de-mô-nå) Diana (dî-an'-å) Dionyza (dî-ô-nî'-zå) Donalbain (don'-al-ban) Doricles (dor'-i-klêz) Dromio (drô'-mi-ô) Duncan (dung'-kån)

Emilia (ê-mil'-i-å) Ephesus (ef'e-sus) Escalus (es'-kå-lus)

Ferdinand (fër'-di-nand) Flaminius (flå-min'-i-us) Flavius (flâ'-vi-us) Fleance (flê'-ans) Florizel (flor'-i-zel)

Ganymede (gan'-i-mêd) Giulio (jû'-li-ô) Goneril (gon'-e-ril) Gonzalo (gon-zah'-lô)

Helena (hel'-e-nå) Helicanus (hel-i-kâ'nus) Hercules (hër'kû-lêz) Hermia (hër'mi-å) Hermione (hër-mî'-o-nê) Horatio (hô-râ'-shi-ô) Hortensio (hor-ten'-si-ô)

Iachimo (yak'-i-mô) Iago (ê-ah-gô) Illyria ((il-lir'-i-å) Imogen (im'-o-jen)

Jessica (jes'-i-kå) Juliet (ju'li-et)

Laertes (lâ-ër'-têz) Lafeu (lah-fu') Lear (lêr) Leodovico (lê-ô-dô'-vi-kô) Leonato (lê-ô-nâ'-tô) Leontes (lê-on-têz) Luciana (lû-shi-â'nå) Lucio (lû'-shi-ô) Lucius (lû'-shi-us) Lucullus (lû-kul'-us) Lysander (lî-san'-dër) Lysimachus (lî-sim'-å-kus)

Macbeth (mak-beth') Magdalen (mag'-då-len) Malcolm (mal'-kum) Malvolio (mal-vô'li-ô) Mantua (man-'tû-å) Mariana (mah-ri-â'-na) Menaphon (men'-å-fon) Mercutio (mer-kû'-shi-ô) Messina (mes-sê'-nah) Milan (mil'-ån) Miranda (mî-ran'-då) Mitylene (mit-ê-lê'-nê) Montagu (mon'-tå-gû) Montano (mon-tah'-nô)

Oberon (ob'-ër-on) Olivia (ô-liv'-i-å) Ophelia (ô-fêl'-i-å or o-fêl'-yå) Orlando (awr-lan'-dô) Orsino (awr-sê'-nô) Othello (ô-thel'-ô)

Parolles (pa-rol'-êz) Paulina (paw-lî'-nå) Pentapolis (pen-tap'-o-lis) Perdita (për'-di-tå) Pericles (per'-i-klêz) Petruchio (pe-trû'-chi-ô) Phoenix (fê'-niks) Pisanio (pê-sah'-ni-ô) Polixines (pô-liks'-e-nêz) Polonius (pô-lô'-ni-us) Portia (pôr'-shi-å) Proteus (prô'-te-us or prô'-tûs)

Regan (rê'-gån) Roderigo (rô-der'-i-gô) Romano (rô-mah'-nô) Romeo (rô'-me-ô) Rosalind (roz'-å-lind) Rosaline (roz'-å-lin) Rousillon (ru-sê-lyawng')

Sebastian (se-bas'-ti-ån) Sempronius (sem-prô'-ni-us) Simonides (si-mon'-i-dêz) Solinus (sô-lî'-nus) Sycorax (sî'-ko-raks) Syracuse (sir-å-kus)

Thaisa (tha-is'-å) Thaliard (thâ'-li-ård) Thurio (thû'-ri-ô) Timon (tî'-mon) Titania (tî-tan'-i-å) Tybalt (tib'-ålt)

Ursula (ur'-sû-lå)

Venetian (ve-nê'-shån) Venice (ven'-is) Ventidius (ven-tid'-i-us) Verona (vâ-rô'-nå) Vicentio (vê-sen'-shi-ô)

QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE

ACTION.

Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than their ears.

Coriolanus -- III. 2.

ADVERSITY.

Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

As You Like It -- II. 1.

That, Sir, which serves and seeks for gain, And follows but for form, Will pack, when it begins to rain, And leave thee in the storm.

King Lear -- II. 4.

Ah! when the means are gone, that buy this praise, The breath is gone whereof this praise is made: Feast won--fast lost; one cloud of winter showers, These flies are couched.

Timon of Athens -- II. 2.

ADVICE TO A SON LEAVING HOME.

Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in, Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment, Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy: rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France, of the best rank and station, Are most select and generous, chief in that. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all.--To thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet -- I. 3.

AGE.

My May of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf: And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath, Which the poor heart would feign deny, but dare not.

Macbeth -- V. 3.

AMBITION.

Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. And I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

Hamlet -- II 2.

I charge thee fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels, how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't? Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not! Let all the ends, thou aim'st at, be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's.

King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.

ANGER.

Anger is like A full-hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self-mettle tires him.

King Henry VIII. -- I. 1.

ARROGANCE.

There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond, And do a willful stillness entertain, With purpose to be dressed in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit, As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!” O! my Antonio, I do know of these That therefore are reputed wise For saying nothing, when, I am sure, If they should speak, would almost dam those ears, Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.

The Merchant of Venice -- I. 1.

AUTHORITY.

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority a dog's obeyed in office.

King Lear -- IV. 6.

Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but thunder-- Merciful heaven! Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, Than the soft myrtle!--O, but man, proud man! Drest in a little brief authority -- Most ignorant of what he's most assured, His glassy essence,--like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep.

Measure for Measure -- II. 2.

BEAUTY.

The hand, that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair.

Measure for Measure -- III. 1.

BLESSINGS UNDERVALUED.

It so falls out That what we have we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, Why, then we rack the value; then we find The virtue, that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours.

Much Ado About Nothing -- IV. 1.

BRAGGARTS.

It will come to pass, That every braggart shall be found an ass.

All's Well that Ends Well -- IV. 3.

They that have the voice of lions, and the act of bares, are they not monsters?

Troilus and Cressida -- III. 2.

CALUMNY.

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

Measure for Measure -- III. 2.

CEREMONY.

Ceremony Was but devised at first, to set a gloss On faint deeds, hollow welcomes. Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none.

Timon of Athens -- I. 2.

COMFORT.

Men Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air, and agony with words: No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow; But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency, To be so moral, when he shall endure The like himself.

Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.

Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it.

Idem -- II.

COMPARISON.

When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. So doth the greater glory dim the less; A substitute shines brightly as a king, Until a king be by; and then his state Empties itself, as does an inland brook Into the main of waters.

Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.

CONSCIENCE.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

CONTENT.

My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called “content;” A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.

King Henry VI., Part 3d - III. 1.

CONTENTION.

How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands, Hold amity?

King Lear -- II. 4.

When two authorities are set up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter twixt the gap of both, and take The one by the other.

Coriolanus -- III. 1.

CONTENTMENT.

'Tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.

King Henry VIII. -- II. 3.

COWARDS.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

CUSTOM.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this: That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock, or livery, That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night: And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy: For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either curb the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency.

Hamlet -- III. 4.

A custom More honored in the breach, then the observance.

Idem -- I. 4.

DEATH.

Kings, and mightiest potentates, must die; For that's the end of human misery.

King Henry VI., Part 1st -- III. 2.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come, when it will come.

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

The dread of something after death, Makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others we know not of.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

The sense of death is most in apprehension.

Measure for Measure -- III. 1.

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too.

Cymbeline -- V. 5.

DECEPTION.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart; O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

Merchant of Venice -- I. 3.

DEEDS.

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.

Hamlet -- I. 2.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, Makes deeds ill done!

King John -- IV. 2.

DELAY.

That we would do, We should do when we would; for this would changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.

Hamlet -- IV. 7.

DELUSION.

For love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction to your soul; It will but skin and film the ulcerous place; Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen.

Hamlet -- III. 4.

DISCRETION.

Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop, Not to outsport discretion.

Othello -- II. 3.

DOUBTS AND FEARS.

I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.

Macbeth -- III. 4.

DRUNKENNESS.

Boundless intemperance. In nature is a tyranny; it hath been Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings.

Measure for Measure -- I. 3.

DUTY OWING TO OURSELVES AND OTHERS.

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key; be checked for silence, But never taxed for speech.

All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.

EQUIVOCATION.

But yet I do not like but yet, it does allay The good precedence; fye upon but yet: But yet is as a gailer to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor.

Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.

EXCESS.

A surfeit of the sweetest things The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.

Midsummer Night's Dream -- II. 3.

Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

Othello -- II. 3.

FALSEHOOD.

Falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent, Three things that women hold in hate.

Two Gentlemen of Verona -- III. 2.

FEAR.

Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds Where it should guard.

King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 2.

Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight: And fight and die, is death destroying death; Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

King Richard II. -- III. 2.

FEASTS.

Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

Comedy of Errors -- III. 1.

FILIAL INGRATITUDE.

Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou showest thee in a child, Than the sea-monster.

King Lear -- I. 4.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child

Idem -- I. 4.

FORETHOUGHT.

Determine on some course, More than a wild exposure to each cause That starts i' the way before thee.

Coriolanus -- IV. 1.

FORTITUDE.

Yield not thy neck To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

King Henry VI., Part 3d -- III. 3.

FORTUNE.

When fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye.

King John -- III. 4.

GREATNESS.

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; And,--when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is ripening,--nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.

King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Twelfth Night -- II. 5.

HAPPINESS.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.

As You Like It -- V. 2.

HONESTY.

An honest man is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.

King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 1.

To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Hamlet -- II. 2.

HYPOCRISY.

Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.

Love's Labor Lost -- IV. 3.

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

Hamlet -- I. 5.

INNOCENCE.

The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute.

Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 4.

INSINUATIONS.

The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, That calumny doth use;-- For calumny will sear Virtue itself:--these shrugs, these bums, and ha's, When you have said, she's goodly, come between, Ere you can say she's honest.

Winter's Tale -- II. 1.

JEALOUSY.

Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ.

Othello -- III. 3.

O beware of jealousy: It is the green-eyed monster, which does mock The meat it feeds on.

Idem.

JESTS.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it.

Love's Labor Lost -- V. 2.

He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.

Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.

JUDGMENT.

Heaven is above all; there sits a Judge, That no king can corrupt.

King Henry VIII, -- III. 1.

LIFE.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Macbeth -- V. 5.

We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest -- IV. 1.

LOVE.

A murd'rous, guilt shows not itself more soon, Than love that would seem bid: love's night is noon.

Twelfth Night -- III. 2.

Sweet love, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.

King Richard II. -- III. 2.

When love begins to sicken and decay, It useth an enforced ceremony.

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

The course of true-love never did run smooth.

Midsummer Night's Dream -- I. 1.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

Idem.

She never told her love,-- But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, Feed on her damask check: she pined in thought And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

Twelfth Night -- II. 4.

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit.

The Merchant of Venice -- II. 6.

MAN.

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

Hamlet -- II. 2.

MERCY.