The king has his reasons for being skeptical that any medicine will cure him, and the thought of a female doctor treating him was unheard of at the time. However, Helena manages to skillfully use rhetoric and language, such as in this passage, to finally convince the king to allow her to try and cure his illness.

While the King of France has mostly given up on medicine and doubts his recovers, Lafew insists that there is a doctor that can save the king, the hero of the play, Helena. Lafew uses poetic images such as "breathe life into a stone" to convince the king of Helena's healing powers.

Paraphrase: cannot give less than a thought that is a traveling blessing and be consider a grateful person

Paraphrase: I know the full fatal nature of my condition while you have no medical art to understand the true nature of my illness.

Paraphrase: that of which i have full knowledge, you know nothing of

The King is explaining his curt rejection of her help by saying that he knows all that has been tried and all that has failed and all of what his doctors say while she knows nothing of any of it.

Paraphrase: Humbly excusing myself from your presence and thoughts while requesting a small, kind thought to give me blessing on my return home.

noun: a position of duty or trust, like the position of physician

Paraphrase: having done my duty to my King will be my payment for my visit as a doctor

Of course, a doctor attending on the King would expect to be rewarded for their efforts, but since the King so resolutely rejected her offer (complete with insult, "empirics"), Helena is willing to take to gracefully take her leave having been rewarded by having followed her conscience and done her duty.

Paraphrase: to value a fraudulent potential of help from the medicine offered

empirics, noun (obsolete): a quack; a charlatan

Paraphrase: to subject my incurable condition to quacks, quackery and charlatans

This is an interesting remark because the King has just insulted Helena and her renowned and famed father.

Augustine's Sermon 55 on Luke 11:5; meaning do not dishonor your hope for final salvation in the "holy city" with its "foundation in heaven."

Paraphrase: tarnish my belief and hope in the supremacy of God who gives life and takes life away

Paraphrase: show bad judgement; leap at the promises of quackery (false medicine)

Paraphrase: to cause a separation between and contradiction of integrity between actions and reputation: one mustn't be a coward and grasp at straws of life when one is a King (or when one is of noble dignity).

This is interesting because, in today's humanistic society, millions of dollars are spent to hold onto and grasp at the last straws of life.

Paraphrase: it is senseless to expect help when all have forsaken the effort.

The mixture and practice of medicine: "labouring art," the art of medicine.

Paraphrase: I may not be so believing in cures as you are.

The recipe Helena has been charged with treasuring and storing up is reputed to be most wondrous when used to treat fistulas, such as the King suffers from.

"malignant cause" of death: the fistula, the joining together of organs or tissues as the result of injury

Paraphrase: he required that I treasure it as dearly as I would a (valuable and wanted, not freakish) third eye that was itself more valuable than my own two eyes and more dear to me than they two were

Helena is making the point here that the medicine she learned from her father was priceless and beyond value as a potent remedy.

Paraphrase: of his long years of medical practice, the only medicine that was always the most reliable and beneficial

Paraphrase: the most valuable medicine he developed in his medical practce

noun (archaic): recipes; instructions, formulations, prescriptions for preparing something like a medicine

Paraphrase: In his medical practice (i.e., what he professed to be a master of) he was well known, well reputed and of excellent skill.

As proof of her service to the King, Helena invokes the name and reputation of her physician father.

Helena answers with, yes, her business interest does serve the King and the King's interest.

follow, verb (obscure usage): to attend upon or to serve

Paraphrase: Does your business interest serve the King?

Cressida's Uncle Pandarus went against common sense and social custom and arranged a meeting between Troilus and Cressida during which they quite alone, unattended and unchaperoned.

Lafeu compares himself to Pandarus because he also "dares leave two together" when he withdraws to let Helena speak in private to the King. 

the uncle of Cressida in the story of Troilus and Cressida, penned as a play by Shakespeare and earlier as a poem by Chaucer, who drew the story from Il Filostrato by Boccaccio, which was derived from the earlier French Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure's.

In a story about the Trojan war, exile and love, Cressida's Uncle Pandarus is moved by Troilus's pleadings and protestations of love as he pines away for Cressida and aids Troilus in devising a meeting with her.

Lafeu is comparing himself to Pandarus in part because he is moved to action by the pleadings of Helena and by the waning health of the King.

Lafeu continues the jest in an effort to put Helena at her ease before the King by saying that timid hesitant "traitors" are not feared by the King, thus she may approach and say what she wants to say confidently.

Lafeu comments that Helena's hesitancy, metaphorically and jestingly, makes her look like someone who is a traitor to the King thus fearful of approaching. 

The King is remarking on the speedy return of Lafeu and inferring an eagerness of purpose from the haste.

Helena is hesitating to approach the King, and Lafeu is encouraging her to come forward to be presented.

Lafeu has a habit of giving a similar kind of introduction to the ideas he presents to the King, which are habitually accompanied by the same self-effacing humility and self-directed laughter (incidentally, a type of humor that Chaucer's poetry is noted for).

Lafeu retorts that rather than the King removing Lafeu's amazement, the King will take on the same amazement himself and will do so quickly. In other words, the unnamed "she" will quickly impress the King.

In these lines, "that we" to "took'st it," the King is jesting (mildly joking) with Lafeu and saying (paraphrase): When I meet this admirable person, I will wonder in amazement too, or I'll prove to you that your wonder and amazement were ill judged and show that this "admiration" is nothing special."

Though the King was resistant at first, he has been won over by Lafeu's rhetorical appeal and has invited the "admiration" (*metonymy *for the "she" doctor: a general description to represent a specific person) to enter and be seen by him.

This is an interesting self-effacing comment at the end of Lafeu's appeal that the King see yet one more doctor before giving up his life and hope. Lafeu is disarming any discordant remark the King might be ready to make by saying (paraphrase), "I know, I'm a silly old fella and worth a laugh, but I wanted to say it and had agreed to say it, so, there now, I've said it."

Lafeu is requesting that the King give audience to the still unnamed "she" doctor to learn what she wants to offer the King, stating also that she demands to see the King, which a subject of a certain station might then do as by right.

Paraphrase: she has amazed me more than I dare to say because I don't dare admit I didn't already know as much: it would humble me too much.

Paraphrase: I have spoken with one who ...

Lafeu refers to the "she" doctor and is about to praise her within the specifics of her station: her gender, her age, etc.

Lafeu is respectfully requesting of the King that he be allowed to speak his true thoughts about the still mysterious "she" doctor.

Lafeu explains the "her" he refers to is a "she' doctor, the one who has brought the miraculous medicine that can give life to stones and vigor to kings.

her: some as yet unnamed "her"

This is **not **a woman connected with Charlemain, also spelled Charlemagne, known as Charles I, so does not refer to either Himiltrude or Desiderata, his concubine and wife. Lafeu makes clear his meaning momentarily.

These lines, from "whose simple touch" to "a pen," mean that the medicine Lafeu is talking about is so strong and effective that even the touch of a single drop will bring the dead back to life and even instantly restore the dead to their former activities, i.e., Charlemain writing love letters.

canary, noun**: a quick and lively early dance

Meaning: to dance and feel energetic and vigorous in your motions

The point is that if the medicine can bring life to a stone or a rock, it can surely give life and health to the King.

"Fox" has an archaic meaning of "sword." Lafeu may be using a friendly sobriquet (a nickname) for the King, since they are on friendly, joking terms, by calling him a royal "sword," as in a synecdoche for a great warrior (which gives reason to think the King's fistula was the result of a battle wound).  

Lafeu is comparing grapes to the thing he knows that he is there to tell the King about

Paraphrase: You will want to eat my metaphorical grapes (the juicy tidbit of information I want to tell you), he says to the King.

His degenerative **fistula **(i.e., an unnatural joining between organs or tissues that is usually the result of injury).

Paraphrase: Now to get serious; this is what I want to say.

Paraphrase: We have both joked in good will with each other: good faith, across from each to the other.

The King continues the jest and says that if he had broken Lafeu's head for him, then he would have been on his knees asking his merciful pardon.

Still part jest, part seriousness, Lafeu say he wished it had been the other way with the King kneeling asking pardon and Lafeu granting it. This is Lafeu's lead-in to what he wants to say to the King.

Since there is such an elaborate lead-in, we must suspect something of unusual significance and significant importance is about to come.

What follows is part in jest (joking) and, for Lafeu, part in seriousness.

Lafeu asked "pardon" for himself and **for what he came to say. **

In this line, Lafeu reminds the King that, jesting or not, he has been granted pardon for what he wants say.

Understanding and continuing Lafeu's allusion to trying offenses, the King's response is that Lafeu's "fee," his fine, his punishment will be to stand up.

An allusion to the King's authority over trying offenses against the law. In an implied metaphor, Lafeu is asking a pardon from "offenses." This is a standard way of asking a noble's or king's indulgence for something someone wants to say that might be taken as stepping out of their rightful role if they were to speak without permission. It is also a way of asking permission that shows a great affection and friendship between the one petitioning for pardon and the grantor of pardon.

Parolles' allusions to Mars and dancing and his mixed metaphors all provide the reason for his wanting Bertram to do a better job of departing from the two Lords: as soldiers, they are under the obligatory influence of Mars, the god of war, and, as such, they might not return for a second chance at a greeting and parting.

measure, allusion to dancing a "measure" of music: in dancing, one partner leads the steps and the other follows

Paraphrase: even though it be the Devil himself that leads in the dance, those who lead must be followed

Parolles has said that the Lords are under the influence of Mars, the god and planet of war. In mixed metaphors, he is saying that, while Mars leads the soldiers "dance," even if it was the Devil who led the dance, the Lords would have to follow. We might conclude by adding "for such are the fortunes of war."

An allusion to the Early Renaissance fashion in men's headwear that emphasized banded berets, with bands decorated with gold and silver threads, that were feathered and jeweled.

This speech, from "be more" to "received star," is another controversial one. There are many critical speculations as to its meaning. Seeing it in situational context and in relation to earlier patterns leads to the most useful understanding.

Paraphrase: ... be more emotionally expressive in your farewell to the Lords as they depart for the wars because, in so going, they place themselves at Time's mercy; in Time's mercy they attain a true soldier's movements, they eat, speak, and move under the astrological influence of the most applicable "star," the star of war, Mars, the god of war.

In short, Parolles is saying that in going to war their days may be numbered so go be really gallant to them in the way you say good-bye.

"within the list" military allusion to "list" (also "lists"): an enclosed space for tilting competitions in which knights' lances are leveled at each while they charge, or rush at, each other while mounted on war horses.

Parolles is saying that Bertram's farewell to the two Lords was to cold, too unemotional and too unceremonious. He wants Bertram to give them a more knightly, gracious and ceremonious farewell.

verb (past tense form): confined; held back; withheld something

Paraphrase: a more generous, an enlarged ritual

Parolles is requesting that Bertram be more expressive in ritual, not so restrained and ungenerous in socially ritualistic sayings.

Bertram will obey and stay but his reason is cut off by the impatient Parolles who doesn't care much what the reason for spoiling his hope of war is.

Parolles asks Bertram is he will run away from the castle and go to war (so that Parolles can go to war too) or if he will obey the King's commands.

Returning to his Act I.i Mars theme and motif, Parolles gives them the blessing of the god of War by wishing that Mars might take them under his wing as novices, protect them and teach them all the arts of war.

The Lords are to say that Parolles lives, which will seemingly be an unpleasant shock to his old war nemesis, and watch Spurio's reaction. Supposedly, it will be a violent one of fury because it can be imagined that he had significantly wounded Parolles or at least thought he had.

Essentially, since Spurio is an enemy, there is little or no chance the two Lords will cross paths with him and, if they do, it will not be in casual conversation during which they can ask about his scar and send their regards from a fond old enemy, rather it will be in the heat of battle during which the odds of their recognizing Spurio's scar from among the multitude of others is highly unlikely. Again, Parolles is bragging about his past war conquests.

Paraphrase: It was my sword, the one here at my side that gave Spurio the scar he wears now on his cheek.

Parolles is bragging about his might in war by pointing out one enemy face upon which he has left the mark of his sword.

Parolles points to his own cheek to indicate the location of Captain Spurio's battle scar.

A sign or seal or having been in wars.

emblem, noun: a raised sign or insignia that is an official representation of a person, power or other authority

A regiment of soldiers associated with the Senois, whom the French Lords are going to engage in battle against. 

A French word appropriate to the French court that means "scar."

Paraphrase: Before you depart, I will say just one more thing.

A war blessing that their swords may shower out sparks that are both "good" and "lustrous" since the** clash of metal on metal** generates sparks: may theirs be mighty sparks that conquer, win victory and honor.

figure of speech, synecdoche (the specific part represents the general whole): carrying on the symbol of their swords symbolizing themselves, Parolles initiates a synecdohe whereby he calls the Lords "metal": metal represents their swords; their swords represent them; "metal" represents them.

Parolles accepts the second Lord's conciliatory parting, "no hard feelings," and adds his own conciliatory expression of unity and good will by saying that their swords, symbols of their valor, honor and loyalty (especially to the King), are one and the same, are equal in quality, thus they themselves are all equal in good and noble qualities.

A standard expression of parting among friends to indicate no enmity or ill-will between those parting.

This is significant because the second Lord had just implied that Parolles was* inciting Bertram to criminal action* since to go against the express orders of the King was to commit rebellion (perhaps even treason).

Thus the second Lord parts from Parolles with an expression that means a combination of our expressions "no offense intended" and "no hard feelings."

Paraphrase: Having you leave me behind makes me feel torn in two, as though in losing your friendship, I'm losing part of myself.

The second Lord does not go off in a hurried huff; there is time for Bertram to extend an affectionate farewell.

Paraphrase: I've grown very attached to you and have a deep friendship for you.

The second Lord shows the highest degree of honor among the four young men so far. He suggests that if he stays and listens to their rebellious talk and scheme, he will be an accessory to rebelling against the King's commands for Bertram. He consequently takes his leave so as not to be an accessory. In short, the second Lord completely disapproves of Parolles' bad urgings and rejects the company of the threesome.

Continuing the stealing metaphor further, Parolles urges Bertram to commit the "theft" of sneaking away and dishonoring the King's orders.

I think we are justified in disliking Parolles even more than we disliked him after his base display in conversation with Helena, since he is, after all, encouraging a young man who has not come of age yet to risk his life through inexperience and to disobey and dishonor his King and guardian.

Continuing the stealing metaphor begun by Bertram, the first Lord comments that to behave dishonorably toward the King will ironically lead to honor in war.

Here, Bertram seems to give in to Parolles' urging that disobey the King and sneak away from the castle. He introduces an implied stealing metaphor by making sneaking away equal to stealing away.

Continuing his complaint, he is complaining that the only time he'll wear his sword is at full-dress balls for which his sword is part of his official regalia; a decorative piece of ball accoutrement.

Bertram is complaining that he will stay stuck at home alone until the wars are won and all the honor gained by other soldiers.

He is young and inexperienced, so we might consider forgiving him for his whining.

To continue the image of wasting his life, he describes his sole occupation as walking up and down the halls and pathways doing nothing but creaking his leather shoes.

forehorse, noun: the horse that takes the lead in a team of work or carriage horses

smock, noun: a Medieval English garment of the simplest sort that pulled on over the head through a hole cut and trimmed in the fabric

Bertram is using hyperbole (exaggeration) and imagery to describe a perfectly impossible and ludicrous situation: a lead horse in a team of horses pulling nothing but a smock. He uses metaphor to compare himself to a forehorse and his life to a smock, suggesting he will be utterly wasting his life at the castle.

Parolles, a seasoned war veteran who is nonetheless pledged as the Count's courtier (Bertram's courtier) to stay with him and attend him, encourages Bertram to disobey the King and go with the two Lords.

It is obvious that Parolles is thinking more of his own interests and desires than of Bertram's.

Parolles, a seasoned warrior, challenges Bertram to have a mind of his own.

Paraphrase: Think for yourself.

The three reasons the King gives for forbidding Bertram from going to war are the reasonable and justifiable one of youth, and inexperience, though he has the promise of wars next year.

It is clear that Bertram is but an inexperienced youth, not a grown man, at the this point in the play.

Recall that for a lord, nobleman, and knight, going to war is their trade and calling and, for the lord and nobleman, has been the family trade and calling for generations past.

Bertram is complaining that the King has commanded him to stay at the castle and is not allowing him to enter the wars (reasons upcoming).

Bertram says he is ordered to stay and "kept a coil with," which refers to coils of a rope when wound up suggesting that Bertram is (metaphorically, not literally) tied at the ankle and kept on a tether or a leash as one might keep a dog on a rope tether [this does not imply that Bertram is ill thought of or ill treated but only that he is constrained from going where he wants to go, which is to war].

Parolles agrees that the Florentine wars are great wars for a soldier to fight in.

One reason wars might be considered "admirable" and "brave" is that then it was the expected practice for soldiers to take booty and bounties as the spoils of war, in fact, the expectation was that fortunes could be made at war. Think of the fortune Captain Wentworth made during his tours of war duty in Jane Austen's Persuasion.

The second Lord turns the conversation away from the topic of the King to the topic of the "wars" themselves. We must understand that the young men here are out of hearing of the King who has retired "to a couch."

Parolles speaks of the spark of life fading from the King's life. While the King is out of hearing range, Parolles speaks here not as a rebuke to the first Lord, but as a general expression of sympathy for the King. We know he is not rebuking the Lord because the Lord has shown he knows and understands the King's illness even though he also laments the need for the King to stay behind: "O my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us!"

The first Lord laments that the King will stay behind and not go with them to lead the battle as might have been expected. The Lord does not seem to be chastising the King for staying because earlier he has wished the King good health and the King has responded hopelessly.

lament, literary convention: an expression of regret, grief or sorrow

literary convention: a literary device or practice that is historically used and found to be useful as a feature of a genre, type or expression in literature

The first Lord, with an apostrophe "O," addresses the King with affection yet respectfully as the beginning of a lament: "my sweet lord." We must understand here that the reason the Lord takes an informal mode of addressing the King is because the young men are speaking alone amongst themselves out of the hearing of the King who is retired away from them and on "a couch."

apostrophe, figure of speech, poetic device: an exclamatory word that usually addresses something or someone not present in the scene but that is used here to address the King, who is present; laments generally begin with an apostrophe.

The King, being ill and fatigued, steps away from the Lords, Bertram and Parolles (who, we might recall, are standing onstage with the King and the Lords though they do not speak) and goes to a piece of furniture that is used as a place of rest, to lounge or lie down on.

couch, noun: any place used for repose; a bed or other piece of furniture to rest or lounge upon

adverb: to move or come to or toward a place

The King is, as a parting word, requiring that the Lords survive the war and return to him there at that place. In other words, come back to me here safe and sound.

The Lords are assenting to the King's warning about being on their guard against the wiles and allures of Italian women.

Interestingly and contrastingly, while Parolles spoke of male-female relations in a completely joking and sometimes lewd manner, the King and the Lords are speaking in a perfectly serious manner.

Paraphrase: before you have fulfilled your duty as lords and soldiers in the King's war.

This is also a play on words in that captives serve after they are captured but the King is suggesting that service comes as a choice of free will--without capture--when the service is given to those to whom duty is due and to whom service is given as an act of love.

The King is warning the two Lords not to let themselves be capture by the allures of love the Italian women may proffer.

The King is saying that, by reputation, French soldiers are unable to refuse the attentions of Italian women if the women desire the French man.

This is interesting because the King brings in some cultural gossip and describes a dynamic sexual prowess in Italian women and an equally dynamic weakness of will in French soldiers.

The King is adding a further piece of advice of a sexual nature: he is saying to watch out for the Italian women who have a reputation for capturing French soldiers in love affairs.

The second Lord is invoking a blessing that health (here personified) would be at the call of the King, thus that the King would be made well, since the King's wish, if he had any hope left, would be to be cured.

health*, personified (figure of speech, poetic device):* health is addressed as though it were a person with human, personal attributes and characteristics, namely, the ability to serve the King at the King's bidding and thus impart health at the King's request.

One might even say that "Health ...!" is the poetic device of an apostrophe in which the speaker addresses something nonhuman and/or absent as though human and/or present.

The King now prepares to make his departure after having given his counsel and his blessing and his admonitions to these two young Lords who are leaving for the first time for war: he is finished formally speaking with the young men.

Paraphrase: That your fame in victorious valiant battle may be spoken and written of through all time.

figurative speech, literary device, personification: fame is personified as a herald who proclaims news in public squares and meeting places or perhaps as a minstrel who sings the news of glorious feats of battle throughout the countryside and in the towns.

personification: giving human, personal attributes or characteristics to something that is not a person (i.e., fame)

questant,* noun (obsolete, Old French):* on who is on a **quest **to seek fortune, fame, victory and/or honor

shrinks, verb: to draw back; to retreat; to give up the quest; to let go of what is sought after

Paraphrase: When the bravest lords, knights, warriors retreat and run away in fear ...

Paraphrase: You continue and persevere until victory and honor are yours...

The King's Lords seek victory and honor on the field of battle.

Speaking to his departing Lords, the King says, see that the Italians in northeastern Italy, "higher" Italy, are well aware that you come in war not with the hope of winning victory and honor but with the intention and power of winning victory and honor.

This rests on an implied metaphor comparing the difference between winning and losing to the difference between trying but failing to win a woman's love and succeeding in winning her love then marrying her.

The fall of Rome is agreed upon by critics as the "fall / Of the last monarchy."

After the fall of Rome, those whom the Florentines fought had only the empty power void of a fallen empire as what they "inherited" from the once powerful Roman Empire. This implied metaphor likens Rome and its fall to a powerful monarch and his death; at death, wealthy, powerful monarchs leave an inheritance of wealth and power to their heirs. Those in the war the King of France is embarking upon had inherited nothing (which is good reason for violent anger or fear, i.e., being bated).

Referring to northeastern Italy versus southwestern or "lower" Italy.

The Apennine Mountains, running in a rounded, bowed-out path from the northeast corner to the southeast corner (with an arch toward the east in the center), were at that time the natural geographical dividing line between northeastern "higher" Italy and southwestern "lower" Italy. Both Florence (Florentine) and Rome are in "lower" Italy.

Critics agree that the Florentine war referred to in I.ii was between the Florentines and the Sennones (Senois) who were centered at Rimni (Arminium) on the northern "higher" Adriatic Sea.

noun (also a verb usage): an instance of the state of violent anger or fear

There is some disagreement on the word used here. Some critics read it as "abated," written as 'bated, while others read it as the different word bated.

Abated **('bated)--**a **verb **with a past participle form that may be used as an adjective as in abated breath--as suggested here carries the oldest meaning of to diminished, to depress, to subdue, to sink.

The noun usage of bated seems most logical since a foe who was already subdued and suppressed and sunkine would be less likely to need valiant forces of young warriors who are ready to lay down their lives to go in to war to win victory and honor.

Deport yourselves with honor and make your fathers and ancestors proud of your courage and valor.

The King is saying that he realizes he will die from the fistula but his "heart" rejects the idea that his life and death are in the power of the illness that threatens his life: he knows but cannot accept that his death is near.

Referring to discussion of the King's health from Act I.i, he disclaims any possibility of his recovery from the fistula that is irremediable: he protests that he cannot be in health, despite their hopes, when next they see him.

An honorific used to address a king or notable personage.

honorific*, noun:* a title or expression of address that indicates politeness and respect toward someone with high status and high position

This means that the young Lords are going into war for the first time and hope to return having proved themselves and become well-seasoned, experienced soldiers.

Paraphrase: Both share with each the counsel received in private from me, the wisdom will be enlarged if both hear it.

The King extends the admonition to share with the other what each heard in private conversation with the King. He says that if the wisdom is shared, then it will enlarge and serve both all the better for being shared.

Paraphrase: Tell your companion Lord what I have told you.

Apparently, the King has had private audience with each Lord and given him counsel according to the Lord's individual strengths and weaknesses. He now admonishes the second Lord to share with the first what the King has told him in private counsel.

Paraphrase: Remember the ideals and objectives of war as I have taught them to you.

Shakespeare often has important action occur off-stage without the audiences knowledge; the only way we know of certain things having occurred is through indirect mention of them, like the King's comment here of "principles" that have obviously been discussed and that the "Lords" must remember while they go to war in Florentine.

"Attendants" are pages and other serving people.

Pages are boys who are being trained in knighthood and in the meantime act as sub-valets who serve the knight or  noble directly.

They are saying farewell in a ceremonious way before departing the King's palace.

Musical stage direction in the script: trumpets play a fanfare preceding the entrance of the king.