Clo. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two soldiers and my young lady. Count. What is the matter? Clo. Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not be kill'd, so soon as I thought he would. Count. Why should he be killed? Clo. So say I madam, if he run away, as I hear he does. Here they come, will tell you more: for my part, I only hear, your son was run away. [Exit Clown. Enter HELENA and two Gentlemen. 1 Gent. Save you, good madam. Count. Think upon patience. 'Pray you, gen- I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief, Can woman me unto't: - Where is my son. I pray you? 2 Gent. Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of We met him thitherward; from thence we came, 2 Gent. : We serve you, madam, [Exeunt COUNTESS and Gentlemen. That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou Hel. Look on this letter, madam; here's my Fly with false aim; move the still-piercing air, passport. [Reads.] When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body, that I am father to, then call me husband: but in such a then I write a never. This is a dreadful sentence, Count. Brought you this letter, gentlemen? 2 Gent. Ay, madani. Count. Towards Florence And to be a soldier? 2 Gent. Such is his noble purpose: and, believ't, The duke will lay upon him all the honour, That good convenience claims, That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord! I am the caitiff, that do hold him to it; I met the ravin 3 lion when he roar'd 2 Exchange. [Exit. 3 Ravenous. Enter COUNTESS and Steward. Count. Alas! and would you take the letter of her? Might you not know, she would do as she has done, By sending me a letter? Read it again. Stew. I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone : With sainted vow my faults to have amended. I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth Count. Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words! Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much, What angel shall Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive, Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear, And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath Of greatest justice. Write, write, Rinaldo, To this unworthy husband of his wife; Alluding to the story of Hercules. Discretion or thought. To make distinction: - Provide this messenger:- SCENE V. - Without the Walls of Florence. Dia. They say, the French count has done most honourable service. Wid. It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander; and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother. We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may know by their trumpets. Mar. Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty. Wid. I have told my neighbour, how you have been solicited by a gentleman his companion. Mar. I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is in those suggestions 6 for the young earl. Beware of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines, are not the things they go under 7: many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten them. I hope, I need not to advise you further; but, I hope, your own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no further danger known, but the modesty which is so lost. Dia. You shall not need to fear me. Enter HELENA, in the dress of a Pilgrim. Wid. I hope so. Look, here comes a pilgrim. I know she will lie at my house: thither they send one another: I'll question her. — God save you, pilgrim! Whither are you bound? Hel. To Saint Jaques le grand. Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you? Ay, marry, is it. - Hark you! [A march afar off They come this way: - If you will taṛry, holy pil grim, But till the troops come by, I will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd; The rather, for, I think, I know your hostess As ample as myself. Hel. Is it yourself? Wid. If you shall please so, pilgrim. Hel. I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure. Wid. You came, I think, from France? Hel. I did so. Wid. Here you shall see a countryman of yours, That has done worthy service. Hel. His name, I pray you. Dia. The count Rousillon: Know you such a one? Hel. But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him: His face I know not. Dia. Whatsoe'er he is, SCENE VI. Camp before Florence. Enter BERTRAM, and the two French Lords. 1 Lord. Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his way. 2 Lord. If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect. 1 Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble. Ber. Do you think, I am so far deceived in him? 1 Lord. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice but to speak of him as my kinsman, he's a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment. 2 Lord. It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might at some great and trusty business, in a main danger, fail you. Ber I would, I knew in what particular action How do you mean? to try him. Wid. He does, indeed; And brokes' with all that can in such a suit Enter, with Drum and Colours, a Party of the Flo- Hel. Dia. Which is the Frenchman? He; That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow; 2 Lord. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him so confidently undertake to do. 1 Lord. I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly surprise him; such I will have, whom, I am sure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer 3 of the adversaries, when we bring him to our tents: Be but your lordship present at his examination; if he do not, for the promise of his life, and in the highest compulsion of base fear, offer to betray you, and deliver all the intelligence in his power against you, and that with the forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my judgment in any thing. 2 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he says he has a stratagem for't: when your lordship sees the bottom of his success in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's enterDia. 'Tis pity, he is not honest: Yond's that taiment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here Hel. I like him well. Hel. Which is he? he comes. Enter PAROlles. 1 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not Dia. That jack-an-apes with scarfs: Why is he the humour of his design; let him fetch off his melancholy? Hel. Perchance he's hurt i'the battle. Par. Lose our drum! well. Mar. He's shrewdly vexed at something: Look, he has spied us. Wid. Marry, hang yon! Mar. And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier ! Wid. The troop is past: Come, pilgrim, I will Hel. I humbly thank you: To eat with us to-night, the charge, and thanking, Both. 9 Because. We'll take your offer kindly. Ber. Why, if you have a stomach to't, monsieur, if you think your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honour again into its native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprize, and go on ; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit ; if you speed well in it, the duke shall both speak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness. Par. By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it. Ber. But you must not now slumber in it. Par. 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. Ber. May I be bold to acquaint his grace, you are gone about it? Par. I know not what the success will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow. Ber. I know thou art valiant; and, to the possibility of thy soldiership, will subscribe for thee. Farewell. Par. I love not many words. [Exit. — 1 Lord. No more than a fish loves water. not this a strange fellow, my lord? that so confdently seems to undertake this business, which he knows is not to be done. 2 Lord. You do not know him, my lord, as we do certain it is, that he will steal himself into a man's favour, and, for a week, escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after. Ber. Why, do you think, he will make no deed at all of this, that so seriously he does address himself unto? 1 Lord. None in the world; but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies but we have almost embossed him 5; you shall see his fall to-night; for, indeed, he is not for your lordship's respect. 2 Lord. We'll make you some sport with the fox, ere we case him. He was first smoked by the old lord Lafeu : when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this very night. 1 Lord. I must go look my twigs; he shall be caught. Ber. Your brother, he shall go along with me. 1 Lord. As't please your lordship: I'll leave you. [Exit. Ber. Now will I lead you to the house, and show Nor would I wish you. First give me trust, the count he is my husband; And, what to your sworn counsel I have spoken, So, from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, Err in bestowing it. Wid. I should believe you; For you have show'd me that, which well ap You are great in fortune. Hel. proves Take this purse of gold, Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty, Wid. Hel. You see it lawful then: It is no more, In fine, delivers me to fill the time, Wid. But that your daughter, ere she seems as won, Hel. Let us assay our plot; Why then to-night which, if it speed, Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed, 7 Importunate. [Exeunt 8 Count ACT IV. SCENE I. Without the Florentine Camp. Enter first Lord, with five or six Soldiers in ambush. 1 Lord. He can come no other way but by this hedge' corner: When you sally upon him, speak what terrible language you will; though you understand it not yourselves, no matter: for we must not seem to understand him; unless some one among us, whom we must produce for an interpreter. 1 Sold. Good captain, let me be the interpreter. 1 Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice? 1 Sold. No sir, I warrant you. 1 Lord. But what linsy-woolsy hast thou to speak to us again? 1 Sold. Even such as you speak to me. 1 Lord. He must think us some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment. 9 Now he hath a smack of all neighbouring languages; therefore we must every one be a man of his own fancy, not to know what we speak one to another; so we seem to know, is to know straight our purpose: chough's language, gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very politick. But couch, ho! here he comes; to beguile two hours in a sleep, and then to return and swear the lies he forges. Enter PAROLLES. Par. 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 fool-hardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue. 1 Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo. All. Cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo. Par. O! ransome, ransome: — - Do not hide mine eyes. [They seize him, and blindfold him. 1 Sold. Boskos thromuldo boskos. Par. 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 will discover that which shall undo The Florentine. And all the secrets of our camp I'll show, Par. If I do not, kill me. Come on, thou art Acordo linta. granted space. [Exit, with PAROLLES guarded. 1 Lord. Go, tell the count Rousillon, and my brother, 1 Lord. This is the first truth that e'er thine own [Aside. tongue was guilty of. Par. 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? We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him 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 another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils. 1 Lord. Is it possible, he should know what he is, and be that he is? [Aside. Par. I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn; or the breaking of my Spanish sword. 1 Lord. We cannot afford you so. muffled, Till we do hear from them. 2 Sold. Captain, I will. 1 Lord. He will betray us all unto ourselves; Inform 'em that. 2 Sold. So I will, sir. 1 Lord. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely [Aside. SCENE II. Florence. A Room in the Widow's House. Enter BERTRAM and DIANA. Ber. They told me, that your name was Fontibell. |