All's Well that Ends Well

All's Well that Ends Well

ACT III SCENE VII	Florence. The Widow's house.
	Enter HELENA and Widow
HELENA	If you misdoubt me that I am not she,
	I know not how I shall assure you further,
	But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.
Widow	Though my estate be fallen, I was well born,	5
	Nothing acquainted with these businesses;
	And would not put my reputation now
	In any staining act.
HELENA	Nor would I wish you.
	First, give me trust, the count he is my husband,	10
	And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken
	Is so from word to word; and then you cannot,
	By the good aid that I of you shall borrow,
	Err in bestowing it.
Widow	I should believe you:	15
	For you have show'd me that which well approves
	You're great in fortune.
HELENA	Take this purse of gold,
	And let me buy your friendly help thus far,
	Which I will over-pay and pay again	20
	When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,
	Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
	Resolved to carry her: let her in fine consent,
	As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it.
	Now his important blood will nought deny	25
	That she'll demand: a ring the county wears,
	That downward hath succeeded in his house
	From son to son, some four or five descents
	Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds
	In most rich choice; yet in his idle fire,	30
	To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
	Howe'er repented after.
Widow	Now I see
	The bottom of your purpose.
HELENA	You see it lawful, then: it is no more,	35
	But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,
	Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter;
	In fine, delivers me to fill the time,
	Herself most chastely absent: after this,
	To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns	40
	To what is passed already.
Widow	I have yielded:
	Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,
	That time and place with this deceit so lawful
	May prove coherent. Every night he comes	45
	With musics of all sorts and songs composed
	To her unworthiness: it nothing steads us
	To chide him from our eaves; for he persists
	As if his life lay on't.
HELENA	Why then to-night	50
	Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,
	Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed
	And lawful meaning in a lawful act,
	Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
	But let's about it.	55
	Exeunt