The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (328 page)

LAFEU

Nay, I'll fit you,

And not be all day neither.

You watch, I'll show you,

and I won't be all day about it either.

Exit

KING

Thus he his special nothing ever prologues.

He always says this about his nonsenses.

Re-enter LAFEU, with HELENA

LAFEU

Nay, come your ways.

Now come along.

KING

This haste hath wings indeed.

Well, that was pretty quick.

LAFEU

Nay, come your ways:

This is his majesty; say your mind to him:

A traitor you do look like; but such traitors

His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,

That dare leave two together; fare you well.

Now, come along:

this is his Majesty; tell him what's on your mind:

you look like a traitor; but his Majesty

doesn't fear traitors like you: I am like Cressida's uncle,

I don't worry about leaving you two together; good luck.

Exit

KING

Now, fair one, does your business follow us?

Now, beautiful lady, has your business got anything to do with us?

HELENA

Ay, my good lord.

Gerard de Narbon was my father;

In what he did profess, well found.

It has my good lord.

Gerard de Narbon was my father;

a well respected man in his profession.

KING

I knew him.

I knew him.

HELENA

The rather will I spare my praises towards him:

Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death

Many receipts he gave me: chiefly one.

Which, as the dearest issue of his practise,

And of his old experience the oily darling,

He bade me store up, as a triple eye,

Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so;

And hearing your high majesty is touch'd

With that malignant cause wherein the honour

Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,

I come to tender it and my appliance

With all bound humbleness.

Then I will not waste your time praising him:

if you knew him you know how good he was. On his deathbed

he gave me many recipes: especially one,

which was the greatest thing he ever made,

the triumph of his whole career,

and he told me to value it like a third eye,

to keep it safer than my own two, more valued; I have done so,

and hearing your Majesty is suffering

from that terrible illness which is the one

my dear father's gift is most effective against

I have come to offer it and my nursing

with all due respect.

KING

We thank you, maiden;

But may not be so credulous of cure,

When our most learned doctors leave us and

The congregated college have concluded

That labouring art can never ransom nature

From her inaidible estate; I say we must not

So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,

To prostitute our past-cure malady

To empirics, or to dissever so

Our great self and our credit, to esteem

A senseless help when help past sense we deem.

We thank you, girl;

but I don't have your faith in this cure,

when our most educated doctors have given up

and the whole University has decided

that their work cannot divert nature

from taking her course; I do not want

to be so foolish, or hold out false hopes,

by renting out this fatal illness

for quacks to experiment with,

or to give up my reputation and self-esteem

by clutching at straws when I know all hope is lost.

HELENA

My duty then shall pay me for my pains:

I will no more enforce mine office on you.

Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts

A modest one, to bear me back again.

Well at least I can say that I have tried:

I won't force myself on you any more.

All I ask from your Highness is a small

Acknowledgement that I’m trying my best.

KING

I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful:

Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give

As one near death to those that wish him live:

But what at full I know, thou know'st no part,

I knowing all my peril, thou no art.

It would be ungrateful to give you any less:

you meant well; and I give you the thanks

of a dying man to those who want him to live:

but you know nothing and I know everything,

I know the danger I'm in, and you don't know medicine.

HELENA

What I can do can do no hurt to try,

Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.

He that of greatest works is finisher

Oft does them by the weakest minister:

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,

When judges have been babes; great floods have flown

From simple sources, and great seas have dried

When miracles have by the greatest been denied.

Oft expectation fails and most oft there

Where most it promises, and oft it hits

Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

It can't do you any harm to try,

since you think nothing will do any good.

The one who has made the greatest works,

often performs them through the weakest servant:

so in the Bible babies have shown wisdom

when wise men have been like babies; great floods have come

from little streams, and great seas have dried up

when the greatest have said that miracles can't happen.

Hope often fails when you think it must come, and it often

comes when you least expect it.

KING

I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;

Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:

Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.

I mustn't listen to you; farewell, kind maid;

you must reward yourself for your unwanted efforts;

unwanted offers still get thanks as their reward.

HELENA

Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:

It is not so with Him that all things knows

As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;

But most it is presumption in us when

The help of heaven we count the act of men.

Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;

Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.

I am not an impostor that proclaim

Myself against the level of mine aim;

But know I think and think I know most sure

My art is not past power nor you past cure.

 And so a man rejects inspired goodness:

it is not so with Him who knows all things

as it is with us, who demand to see evidence;

but it is arrogant of us

to see divine help as being the acts of men.

Dear sir, give your permission for me to try;

you will be testing heaven, not me.

I am not a fraud who is claiming

that I am as great as my target;

but I know that I think and I think I definitely know

that my efforts can win and that you can be cured.

KING

Are thou so confident? within what space

Hopest thou my cure?

You are that confident? How long

do you think it would take you to cure me?

HELENA

The great'st grace lending grace

Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring

Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring,

Ere twice in murk and occidental damp

Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp,

Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass

Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass,

What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,

Health shall live free and sickness freely die.

With the help of God

before the horses of the sun have pulled

their fiery burden twice round his circuit,

before the evening Star has twice

extinguished his nightlight in the murk and Eastern damp,

or twenty-four times the sailor's timer

has counted off the passing minutes,

all weakness shall leave your healthy body;

health will flourish and sickness will die.

KING

Upon thy certainty and confidence

What darest thou venture?

What would you bet

on your certainty?

HELENA

Tax of impudence,

A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame

Traduced by odious ballads: my maiden's name

Sear'd otherwise; nay, worse--if worse--extended

With vilest torture let my life be ended.

A horrible penalty,

the brazenness of a whore, a revealed shame

Sung about in bawdy songs: my honour

as a virgin smeared; no and worse-if it is worse-I will offer;

let my life be ended by the most horrible torture.

KING

Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak

His powerful sound within an organ weak:

And what impossibility would slay

In common sense, sense saves another way.

Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate

Worth name of life in thee hath estimate,

Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all

That happiness and prime can happy call:

Thou this to hazard needs must intimate

Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.

Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try,

That ministers thine own death if I die.

I think perhaps some blessed spirit is speaking through you,

a powerful sound from a small instrument:

and what common sense would say is impossible

another sort of sense says is possible.

Your life is valuable; for everything that represents

life is present in you,

youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all

the things that bring us happiness:

that you are prepared to risk this shows

either that you have wonderful skill or are desperate.

Sweet practitioner, I will try your medicine,

and if I die it will bring death to you.

HELENA

If I break time, or flinch in property

Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,

And well deserved: not helping, death's my fee;

But, if I help, what do you promise me?

If I break my word, or cannot prove

what I promised, let me die an unpitied

and well-deserved death: if I don't help, pay me with death;

but, if it works, what will you give me?

KING

Make thy demand.