Publisher's Synopsis
Helen heals the King of France, and the King grants her permission to marry Bertram, the man she loves. Bertram rejects her and leaves a list of tasks that she must do to have him acknowledge their marriage. She follows him to Italy, completes all the tasks, and Bertram accepts her as his wife. Helena, a ward of the Countess of Rousillion, falls in love with the Countess's son, Bertram. Daughter of a famous doctor, and a skilled physician in her own right, Helena cures the King of France-who feared he was dying-and he grants her Bertram's hand as a reward. Bertram, however, offended by the inequality of the marriage, sets off for war, swearing he will not live with his wife until she can present him with a son, and with his own ring-two tasks which he believes impossible. However with the aid of a bed trick, Helena fulfils his tasks, Bertram realises the error of his ways, and they are reconciled.SCENE IRousillon. The COUNT's palace.[Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of Rousillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black]COUNTESSIn delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.BERTRAMAnd I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.LAFEUYou shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather than lack it where there is such abundance.COUNTESSWhat hope is there of his majesty's amendment?LAFEUHe hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practises he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time.COUNTESSThis young gentlewoman had a father, -O, that 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis!-whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease.LAFEUHow called you the man you speak of, madam?COUNTESSHe was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.LAFEUHe was excellent indeed, madam: the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.BERTRAMWhat is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?LAFEUA fistula, my lord.BERTRAMI heard not of it before.LAFEUI would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?COUNTESSHis sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her education promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness
