William Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well

ACT II. SCENE 4. The same. Another room in the same.

[Enter HELENA and CLOWN.]

HELENA.
My mother greets me kindly: is she well?

CLOWN.
She is not well, but yet she has her health: she's very
merry, but yet she is not well: but thanks be given, she's very
well, and wants nothing i' the world; but yet she is not well.

HELENA.
If she be very well, what does she ail that she's not very well?

CLOWN.
Truly, she's very well indeed, but for two things.

HELENA.
What two things?

CLOWN.
One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her quickly!
The other, that she's in earth, from whence God send her quickly!

[Enter PAROLLES.]

PAROLLES.
Bless you, my fortunate lady!

HELENA.
I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own good
fortunes.

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

CLOWN.
So that you had her wrinkles and I her money, I would she did as
you say.

PAROLLES.
Why, I say nothing.

CLOWN.
Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out
his master's undoing: to say nothing, to do nothing, to know
nothing, and to have nothing, is to be a great part of your
title; which is within a very little of nothing.

PAROLLES.
Away! thou art a knave.

CLOWN.
You should have said, sir, before a knave thou art a knave;
that is before me thou art a knave: this had been truth, sir.