Speeches (Lines) for Parolles
in "All's Well That Ends Well"
Total: 141

1

I,1,109

Save you, fair queen!

2

I,1,111

No.

3

I,1,113

Are you meditating on virginity?

4

I,1,117

Keep him out.

5

I,1,121

There is none: man, sitting down before you, will
undermine you and blow you up.

6

I,1,126

Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be
blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with
the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It
is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to
preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational
increase and there was never virgin got till
virginity was first lost. That you were made of is
metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost
may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is
ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't!

7

I,1,137

There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the
rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity,
is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible
disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin:
virginity murders itself and should be buried in
highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate
offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites,
much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very
paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach.
Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of
self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the
canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose
by't: out with 't! within ten year it will make
itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the
principal itself not much the worse: away with 't!

8

I,1,153

Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it
likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with
lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't
while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request.
Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out
of fashion: richly suited, but unsuitable: just
like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not
now. Your date is better in your pie and your
porridge than in your cheek; and your virginity,
your old virginity, is like one of our French
withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry,
'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better;
marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will you anything with it?

9

I,1,179

What one, i' faith?

10

I,1,181

What's pity?

11

I,1,191

Little Helen, farewell; if I can remember thee, I
will think of thee at court.

12

I,1,194

Under Mars, I.

13

I,1,196

Why under Mars?

14

I,1,199

When he was predominant.

15

I,1,201

Why think you so?

16

I,1,203

That's for advantage.

17

I,1,207

I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee
acutely. I will return perfect courtier; in the
which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize
thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's
counsel and understand what advice shall thrust upon
thee; else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and
thine ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When
thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast
none, remember thy friends; get thee a good husband,
and use him as he uses thee; so, farewell.

18

II,1,620

'Tis not his fault, the spark.

19

II,1,622

Most admirable: I have seen those wars.

20

II,1,625

An thy mind stand to't, boy, steal away bravely.

21

II,1,631

Commit it, count.

22

II,1,636

Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good
sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall
find in the regiment of the Spinii one Captain
Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here
on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword
entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his
reports for me.

23

II,1,645

Mars dote on you for his novices! what will ye do?

24

II,1,648

[To BERTRAM] Use a more spacious ceremony to the
noble lords; you have restrained yourself within the
list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to
them: for they wear themselves in the cap of the
time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and
move under the influence of the most received star;
and though the devil lead the measure, such are to
be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.

25

II,1,657

Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.

26

II,3,897

Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath
shot out in our latter times.

27

II,3,901

So I say.

28

II,3,903

So I say.

29

II,3,905

Right; so I say.

30

II,3,907

Why, there 'tis; so say I too.

31

II,3,909

Right; as 'twere, a man assured of a—

32

II,3,911

Just, you say well; so would I have said.

33

II,3,913

It is, indeed: if you will have it in showing, you
shall read it in—what do you call there?

34

II,3,916

That's it; I would have said the very same.

35

II,3,919

Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the
brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a most
facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the—

36

II,3,923

Ay, so I say.

37

II,3,932

I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the king.
[Enter KING, HELENA, and Attendants. LAFEU and]
PAROLLES retire]

38

II,3,938

Mort du vinaigre! is not this Helen?

39

II,3,1089

Your pleasure, sir?

40

II,3,1092

Recantation! My lord! my master!

41

II,3,1094

A most harsh one, and not to be understood without
bloody succeeding. My master!

42

II,3,1097

To any count, to all counts, to what is man.

43

II,3,1100

You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too old.

44

II,3,1103

What I dare too well do, I dare not do.

45

II,3,1112

Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee,—

46

II,3,1118

My lord, you give me most egregious indignity.

47

II,3,1120

I have not, my lord, deserved it.

48

II,3,1123

Well, I shall be wiser.

49

II,3,1130

My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation.

50

II,3,1135

Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off
me; scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, I must
be patient; there is no fettering of authority.
I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with
any convenience, an he were double and double a
lord. I'll have no more pity of his age than I
would of—I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again.

51

II,3,1145

I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make
some reservation of your wrongs: he is my good
lord: whom I serve above is my master.

52

II,3,1149

Ay, sir.

53

II,3,1158

This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.

54

II,3,1166

Good, very good; it is so then: good, very good;
let it be concealed awhile.

55

II,3,1170

What's the matter, sweet-heart?

56

II,3,1173

What, what, sweet-heart?

57

II,3,1176

France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits
The tread of a man's foot: to the wars!

58

II,3,1180

Ay, that would be known. To the wars, my boy, to the wars!
He wears his honour in a box unseen,
That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home,
Spending his manly marrow in her arms,
Which should sustain the bound and high curvet
Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions
France is a stable; we that dwell in't jades;
Therefore, to the war!

59

II,3,1195

Will this capriccio hold in thee? art sure?

60

II,3,1199

Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard:
A young man married is a man that's marr'd:
Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:
The king has done you wrong: but, hush, 'tis so.

61

II,4,1218

Bless you, my fortunate lady!

62

II,4,1221

You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them
on, have them still. O, my knave, how does my old lady?

63

II,4,1225

Why, I say nothing.

64

II,4,1231

Away! thou'rt a knave.

65

II,4,1235

Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee.

66

II,4,1240

A good knave, i' faith, and well fed.
Madam, my lord will go away to-night;
A very serious business calls on him.
The great prerogative and rite of love,
Which, as your due, time claims, he does acknowledge;
But puts it off to a compell'd restraint;
Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets,
Which they distil now in the curbed time,
To make the coming hour o'erflow with joy
And pleasure drown the brim.

67

II,4,1251

That you will take your instant leave o' the king
And make this haste as your own good proceeding,
Strengthen'd with what apology you think
May make it probable need.

68

II,4,1256

That, having this obtain'd, you presently
Attend his further pleasure.

69

II,4,1259

I shall report it so.

70

II,5,1278

[To BERTRAM] These things shall be done, sir.

71

II,5,1280

Sir?

72

II,5,1284

She is.

73

II,5,1286

As you'll have her.

74

II,5,1296

I know not how I have deserved to run into my lord's
displeasure.

75

II,5,1312

An idle lord. I swear.

76

II,5,1314

Why, do you not know him?

77

II,5,1365

Bravely, coragio!

78

III,5,1711

Lose our drum! well.

79

III,6,1773

'But a drum'! is't 'but a drum'? A drum so lost!
There was excellent command,—to charge in with our
horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers!

80

III,6,1783

It might have been recovered.

81

III,6,1785

It is to be recovered: but that the merit of
service is seldom attributed to the true and exact
performer, I would have that drum or another, or
'hic jacet.'

82

III,6,1798

By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.

83

III,6,1800

I'll about it this evening: and I will presently
pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my
certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation;
and by midnight look to hear further from me.

84

III,6,1805

I know not what the success will be, my lord; but
the attempt I vow.

85

III,6,1809

I love not many words.

86

IV,1,1926

Ten o'clock: within these three hours 'twill be
time enough to go home. What shall I say I have
done? It must be a very plausive invention that
carries it: they begin to smoke me; and disgraces
have of late knocked too often at my door. I find
my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the
fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not
daring the reports of my tongue.

87

IV,1,1936

What the devil should move me to undertake the
recovery of this drum, being not ignorant of the
impossibility, and knowing I had no such purpose? I
must give myself some hurts, and say I got them in
exploit: yet slight ones will not carry it; they
will say, 'Came you off with so little?' and great
ones I dare not give. Wherefore, what's the
instance? Tongue, I must put you into a
butter-woman's mouth and buy myself another of
Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils.

88

IV,1,1948

I would the cutting of my garments would serve the
turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword.

89

IV,1,1951

Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in
stratagem.

90

IV,1,1954

Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.

91

IV,1,1956

Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel.

92

IV,1,1958

Thirty fathom.

93

IV,1,1960

I would I had any drum of the enemy's: I would swear
I recovered it.

94

IV,1,1963

A drum now of the enemy's,—

95

IV,1,1967

O, ransom, ransom! do not hide mine eyes.

96

IV,1,1970

I know you are the Muskos' regiment:
And I shall lose my life for want of language;
If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch,
Italian, or French, let him speak to me; I'll
Discover that which shall undo the Florentine.

97

IV,1,1978

O!

98

IV,1,1985

O, let me live!
And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,
Their force, their purposes; nay, I'll speak that
Which you will wonder at.

99

IV,1,1990

If I do not, damn me.

100

IV,3,2211

I will confess what I know without constraint: if
ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more.

101

IV,3,2217

And truly, as I hope to live.

102

IV,3,2220

Five or six thousand; but very weak and
unserviceable: the troops are all scattered, and
the commanders very poor rogues, upon my reputation
and credit and as I hope to live.

103

IV,3,2225

Do: I'll take the sacrament on't, how and which way you will.

104

IV,3,2236

Five or six thousand horse, I said,— I will say
true,—or thereabouts, set down, for I'll speak truth.

105

IV,3,2241

Poor rogues, I pray you, say.

106

IV,3,2243

I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth, the
rogues are marvellous poor.

107

IV,3,2247

By my troth, sir, if I were to live this present
hour, I will tell true. Let me see: Spurio, a
hundred and fifty; Sebastian, so many; Corambus, so
many; Jaques, so many; Guiltian, Cosmo, Lodowick,
and Gratii, two hundred and fifty each; mine own
company, Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred and
fifty each: so that the muster-file, rotten and
sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand
poll; half of the which dare not shake snow from off
their cassocks, lest they shake themselves to pieces.

108

IV,3,2269

I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of
the inter'gatories: demand them singly.

109

IV,3,2272

I know him: a' was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris,
from whence he was whipped for getting the shrieve's
fool with child,—a dumb innocent, that could not
say him nay.

110

IV,3,2279

Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy.

111

IV,3,2283

The duke knows him for no other but a poor officer
of mine; and writ to me this other day to turn him
out o' the band: I think I have his letter in my pocket.

112

IV,3,2287

In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there,
or it is upon a file with the duke's other letters
in my tent.

113

IV,3,2291

I do not know if it be it or no.

114

IV,3,2295

That is not the duke's letter, sir; that is an
advertisement to a proper maid in Florence, one
Diana, to take heed of the allurement of one Count
Rousillon, a foolish idle boy, but for all that very
ruttish: I pray you, sir, put it up again.

115

IV,3,2301

My meaning in't, I protest, was very honest in the
behalf of the maid; for I knew the young count to be
a dangerous and lascivious boy, who is a whale to
virginity and devours up all the fry it finds.

116

IV,3,2324

My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid to
die; but that, my offences being many, I would
repent out the remainder of nature: let me live,
sir, in a dungeon, i' the stocks, or any where, so I may live.

117

IV,3,2332

He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister: for
rapes and ravishments he parallels Nessus: he
professes not keeping of oaths; in breaking 'em he
is stronger than Hercules: he will lie, sir, with
such volubility, that you would think truth were a
fool: drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will
be swine-drunk; and in his sleep he does little
harm, save to his bed-clothes about him; but they
know his conditions and lay him in straw. I have but
little more to say, sir, of his honesty: he has
every thing that an honest man should not have; what
an honest man should have, he has nothing.

118

IV,3,2348

Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English
tragedians; to belie him, I will not, and more of
his soldiership I know not; except, in that country
he had the honour to be the officer at a place there
called Mile-end, to instruct for the doubling of
files: I would do the man what honour I can, but of
this I am not certain.

119

IV,3,2360

Sir, for a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple
of his salvation, the inheritance of it; and cut the
entail from all remainders, and a perpetual
succession for it perpetually.

120

IV,3,2367

E'en a crow o' the same nest; not altogether so
great as the first in goodness, but greater a great
deal in evil: he excels his brother for a coward,
yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is:
in a retreat he outruns any lackey; marry, in coming
on he has the cramp.

121

IV,3,2375

Ay, and the captain of his horse, Count Rousillon.

122

IV,3,2377

[Aside] I'll no more drumming; a plague of all
drums! Only to seem to deserve well, and to
beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy
the count, have I run into this danger. Yet who
would have suspected an ambush where I was taken?

123

IV,3,2388

O Lord, sir, let me live, or let me see my death!

124

IV,3,2404

Who cannot be crushed with a plot?

125

IV,3,2410

Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,
'Twould burst at this. Captain I'll be no more;
But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft
As captain shall: simply the thing I am
Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this, for it will come to pass
that every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust, sword? cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live
Safest in shame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive!
There's place and means for every man alive.
I'll after them.

126

V,2,2613

Good Monsieur Lavache, give my Lord Lafeu this
letter: I have ere now, sir, been better known to
you, when I have held familiarity with fresher
clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's
mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong
displeasure.

127

V,2,2623

Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I spake
but by a metaphor.

128

V,2,2628

Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper.

129

V,2,2642

My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly
scratched.

130

V,2,2651

I beseech your honour to hear me one single word.

131

V,2,2654

My name, my good lord, is Parolles.

132

V,2,2657

O my good lord, you were the first that found me!

133

V,2,2659

It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace,
for you did bring me out.

134

V,2,2669

I praise God for you.

135

V,3,2952

So please your majesty, my master hath been an
honourable gentleman: tricks he hath had in him,
which gentlemen have.

136

V,3,2956

Faith, sir, he did love her; but how?

137

V,3,2958

He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman.

138

V,3,2960

He loved her, sir, and loved her not.

139

V,3,2963

I am a poor man, and at your majesty's command.

140

V,3,2966

Faith, I know more than I'll speak.

141

V,3,2968

Yes, so please your majesty. I did go between them,
as I said; but more than that, he loved her: for
indeed he was mad for her, and talked of Satan and
of Limbo and of Furies and I know not what: yet I
was in that credit with them at that time that I
knew of their going to bed, and of other motions,
as promising her marriage, and things which would
derive me ill will to speak of; therefore I will not
speak what I know.