All's Well That Ends Well: Act 3, Scene 2 Translation

Enter Countess, with a paper, and Fool.

COUNTESS It hath happened all as I would have had it,
save that he comes not along with her.

FOOL By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very
melancholy man.

COUNTESS By what observance, I pray you? 5

FOOL 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 Let me see what he writes and when he 10
means to come. She opens the letter.

FOOL 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 15
love as an old man loves money, with no stomach.

COUNTESS What have we here?

FOOL E’en that you have there.

He exits.

COUNTESS reads. "I have sent you a daughter-in-law.
She hath recovered the King and undone me. I have 20
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. 25
Your unfortunate son,
Bertram."
This is not well, rash and unbridled boy:
To fly the favors of so good a king,
To pluck his indignation on thy head 30
By the misprizing of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

Enter Fool.

FOOL O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between
two soldiers and my young lady.

COUNTESS What is the matter? 35

FOOL 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?

FOOL So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he 40
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.

He exits.

Enter Helen, with a paper, and two Gentlemen.

FIRST GENTLEMAN, to Countess Save you, good 45
madam.

HELEN
Madam, my lord is gone, forever gone.

SECOND GENTLEMAN Do not say so.

COUNTESS
Think upon patience, pray you.—Gentlemen,
I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief 50
That the first face of neither on the start
Can woman me unto ’t. Where is my son, I pray you?

SECOND GENTLEMAN
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, 55
Thither we bend again.

HELEN
Look on his letter, madam; here’s my passport.
She 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 60
call me husband. But in such a 'then' I write a
'never.'"
This is a dreadful sentence.

COUNTESS
Brought you this letter, gentlemen?

SECOND GENTLEMAN Ay, madam, 65
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, 70
And thou art all my child.—Towards Florence is he?

SECOND GENTLEMAN Ay, madam.

COUNTESS And to be a soldier?

SECOND GENTLEMAN
Such is his noble purpose, and, believe ’t,
The Duke will lay upon him all the honor 75
That good convenience claims.

COUNTESS Return you thither?

FIRST GENTLEMAN
Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.

HELEN reads
"Till I have no wife I have nothing in France."
’Tis bitter. 80

COUNTESS Find you that there?

HELEN Ay, madam.

FIRST GENTLEMAN
’Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply,
Which his heart was not consenting to.

COUNTESS
Nothing in France until he have no wife! 85
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?

FIRST GENTLEMAN
A servant only, and a gentleman 90
Which I have sometime known.

COUNTESS Parolles was it not?

FIRST GENTLEMAN Ay, my good lady, he.

COUNTESS
A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.
My son corrupts a well-derivèd nature 95
With his inducement.

FIRST GENTLEMAN Indeed, good lady,
The fellow has a deal of that too much
Which holds him much to have.

COUNTESS You’re welcome, 100
gentlemen.
I will entreat you when you see my son
To tell him that his sword can never win
The honor that he loses. More I’ll entreat you
Written to bear along. 105

SECOND GENTLEMAN We serve you, madam,
In that and all your worthiest affairs.

COUNTESS
Not so, but as we change our courtesies.
Will you draw near?

She exits with the Gentlemen.

HELEN“Till I have no wife I have nothing in France.” 110
Nothing in France until he has no wife.
Thou shalt have none, Rossillion, 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 115
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, 120
Fly with false aim; move the still-’pearing 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; 125
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 130
Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rossillion,
Whence honor 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 135
The air of paradise did fan the house
And angels officed all. I will be gone,
That pitiful rumor may report my flight
To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day;
For with the dark, poor thief, I’ll steal away. 140

She exits.