Page 786 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

One that goes with him. I love him for his sake,
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward,
Yet these fixed evils sit so fit in him [100]

That they take place when virtue’s steely bones
Looks bleak i’th’cold wind. Withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

PAROLLES
Save you, fair queen!

HELENA
And you, monarch! [105]

PAROLLES

No.

HELENA

And no.

PAROLLES
Are you meditating on virginity?

HELENA
Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you: let me ask you a question. Man is
enemy to virginity; how may [110] we barricado it against him?

PAROLLES
Keep him out.

HELENA
But he assails, and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak.

Unfold to us some warlike resistance. [115]

PAROLLES
There is none. Man setting down before you will undermine you and blow you
up.