|
| All's Well That Ends Well |
|
Shakespeare homepage
| All's Well That Ends Well
| Act 2, Scene 2
Previous scene | Next scene |
|
Enter COUNTESS and ClownCOUNTESS
Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height ofClown
your breeding.
I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught: ICOUNTESS
know my business is but to the court.
To the court! why, what place make you special,Clown
when you put off that with such contempt? But to the court!
Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, heCOUNTESS
may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make
a leg, put off's cap, kiss his hand and say nothing,
has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and indeed
such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the
court; but for me, I have an answer will serve all
men.
Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits allClown
questions.
It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks,COUNTESS
the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn
buttock, or any buttock.
Will your answer serve fit to all questions?Clown
As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney,COUNTESS
as your French crown for your taffeta punk, as Tib's
rush for Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove
Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his
hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding queen
to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the
friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin.
Have you, I say, an answer of such fitness for allClown
questions?
From below your duke to beneath your constable, itCOUNTESS
will fit any question.
It must be an answer of most monstrous size thatClown
must fit all demands.
But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learnedCOUNTESS
should speak truth of it: here it is, and all that
belongs to't. Ask me if I am a courtier: it shall
do you no harm to learn.
To be young again, if we could: I will be a fool inClown
question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I
pray you, sir, are you a courtier?
O Lord, sir! There's a simple putting off. More,COUNTESS
more, a hundred of them.
Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you.Clown
O Lord, sir! Thick, thick, spare not me.COUNTESS
I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat.Clown
O Lord, sir! Nay, put me to't, I warrant you.COUNTESS
You were lately whipped, sir, as I think.Clown
O Lord, sir! spare not me.COUNTESS
Do you cry, 'O Lord, sir!' at your whipping, andClown
'spare not me?' Indeed your 'O Lord, sir!' is very
sequent to your whipping: you would answer very well
to a whipping, if you were but bound to't.
I ne'er had worse luck in my life in my 'O Lord,COUNTESS
sir!' I see things may serve long, but not serve ever.
I play the noble housewife with the timeClown
To entertain't so merrily with a fool.
O Lord, sir! why, there't serves well again.COUNTESS
An end, sir; to your business. Give Helen this,Clown
And urge her to a present answer back:
Commend me to my kinsmen and my son:
This is not much.
Not much commendation to them.COUNTESS
Not much employment for you: you understand me?Clown
Most fruitfully: I am there before my legs.COUNTESS
Haste you again.
Exeunt severally
|
Shakespeare homepage
| All's Well That Ends Well
| Act 2, Scene 2
Previous scene | Next scene |
 | Ahoy Mates! We're happy to announce that 2006 is the year of Moby Dick. Join us before the mast! For more information, please check out Moby Dick or email Drake. Free downloadable copies are available at Moby Dick, and we hope that ye join us in discussing the novel at the Moby Dick Campfire. Invite yer friends! We would like to unite the world in reading what is perhaps the greatest work of fiction ever penned on the American shores. Written in the rich context of Shakespeare and the Bible, Moby Dick was Herman Melville's definitive masterpiece. If you've already read the epic, we invite you to read it again. And be sure to pick up Hamlet and the Bible throughout November, as the novel shall only be enhanced by the deeper context. The White Whale, symbolic of the truth and freedom which the greatest spirits in Western Civilization have ever pursued, yet swims free. Concerning Moby Dick, Melville wrote, "It ... is of the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hausers. A Polar wind blows through it, & birds of prey hover over it. Warn all gentle fastidious people from so much as peeping into the book..." Moby Dick was the first "Great Book" posted at jollyroger.com, over six years ago, and Melville's masterpiece has inspired a lot of our poetry and prose. Check out Drake's new film at Moby Dick Film and Moby Dick.  Amazon Computers | |