What I can do can do no hurt to try 152 Since you set up your rest ’gainst remedy. 153 He that of greatest works is finisher 154 Oft does them by the weakest minister. 155 So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown 156 When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown 157 From simple sources, and great seas have dried 158 When miracles have by the great’st been denied. 159 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 160 Where most it promises, and oft it hits 161 Where hope is coldest and despair most shifts.
HELEN
What I can do can do no hurt to try 152
Since you set up your rest ’gainst remedy. 153
He that of greatest works is finisher 154
Oft does them by the weakest minister. 155
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown 156
When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown 157
From simple sources, and great seas have dried 158
When miracles have by the great’st been denied . 159
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 160
Where most it promises, and oft it hits 161
Where hope is coldest and despair most shifts . 162
Footnotes
153. set up your rest: i.e., bet everything ( a term from the game of primero )
154 –59. He . . . denied: These lines seem to allude to biblical passages in which the young or the weak proved wise or powerful. ( See longer note . ) minister: agent
162. shifts: succeeds ( Many editors since the early 18th century have changed this word to “sits” or “fits,” words that more easily fit the context and that maintain the rhymed couplets that dominate from line 150 until the end of the scene. )
