SCENE III.-The Florentine Camp. Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers. 1 LORD. You have not given him his mother's letter? 2 LORD. I have delivered it an hour since: there is something in't that stings his nature, for, on the reading it, he changed almost into another man. 1 LORD. He has much worthy blame laid upon him, for shaking off so good a wife, and so sweet a lady. 2 LORD. Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the king, who had even tuned his bounty to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you. 1 LORD. When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the grave of it. 2 LORD. He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chaste renown, and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition. 1 LORD. Now, God delay our rebellion; as we are ourselves, what things are we! b 2 LORD. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends; so he, that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself. 1 LORD. Is it not meanta damnable in us, to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We shall not then have his company to-night? 2 LORD. Not till after midnight, for he is dieted to his hour. 1 LORD. That approaches apace: I would gladly have him see his company® anatomized; that he might take a measure of his own judgments, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit. 2 LORD. We will not meddle with him till he come; for his presence must be the whip of the other. 1 LORD. In the mean time, what hear you of these wars? 2 LORD. I hear, there is an overture of peace. 1 LORD. Nay, I assure you, & peace concluded. And thinks himself made-] Made seems strangely inapplicable. We should, perhaps, read, "paid." b Merely-] That is, absolutely. To their abhorred ends;] Their disgraceful punishments; and not, as the words are usually explained, the opportunity of effecting their treachery;-an opportunity not very likely to occur, if they were always revealing the object they had in hand. 2 LORD. What will count Rousillon do then? will he travel higher, or return again into France? 1 LORD. I perceive, by this demand, you are not altogether of his council. 2 LORD. Let it be forbid, sir! so should I be a great deal of his act. 1 LORD. Sir, his wife, some two months since, fled from his house: her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques le grand; which holy undertaking, with most austere sanctimony, she accomplished: and, there residing, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief; in fine, made a groan of her last breath, and now she sings in heaven. 2 LORD. How is this justified? 1 LORD. The stronger part of it by her own letters; which makes her story true, even to the point of her death: her death itself, which could not be her office to say, is come, was faithfully confirmed by the rector of the place. 2 LORD. Hath the count all this intelligence? 1 LORD. Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from point, to the full arming of the verity. 2 LORD. I am heartily sorry, that he'll be glad of this. 1 LORD. How mightily, sometimes, we make us comforts of our losses! 2 LORD. And how mightily, some other times, we drown our gain in tears! The great dignity, that his valour hath here acquired for him, shall at home be encountered with a shame as ample. 1 LORD. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not, and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues. nesses, a month's length a-piece, by an abstract of success; I have conge'd with the duke, done my adieu with his nearest, buried a wife, mourned for her, writ to my lady mother, I am returning; entertained my convoy; and, between these main parcels of despatch, effected many nicer needs; the last was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet. 2 LORD. If the business be of any difficulty, and this morning your departure hence, it requires haste of your lordship. BER. I mean, the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the fool and the soldier? Come, bring forth this counterfeit module; he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier. 2 LORD. Bring him forth: [Exeunt Soldiers.] he has sat i' the stocks all night, poor gallant knave. BER. No matter; his heels have deserved it, in usurping his spurs so long. How does he carry himself? 1 LORD. I have told your lordship already, the stocks carry him. But to answer you as you would be understood, he weeps like a wench that had shed her milk: he hath confessed himself to Morgan, whom he supposes to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance, to this very instant disaster of his setting i' the stocks: and what think you he hath confessed? BER. Nothing of me, has he? 2 LORD. His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his face: if your lordship be in't, as I believe you are, you must have the patience to hear it. Re-enter Soldiers, with PAROLLES. BER. A plague upon him! muffled! he can say nothing of me; hush! hush! 1 LORD. Hoodman (1) comes!-Portotartarossa. 1 SOLD. He calls for the tortures; what will you say without 'em? PAR. I will confess what I know without constraint; if ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. 1 SOLD. Bosko chimurcho. 2 LORD. Boblibindo chicurmurco. 1 SOLD. You are a merciful general.—Our general bids you answer to what I shall ask you out of a note. PAR. And truly, as I hope to live. 1 SOLD. First demand of him how many horse the duke is strong. What say you to that? All's one to him.] In the old text these words are given to Parolles. But I con him no thanks for't, in the nature he delivers it.] No thanks to him for truth, however, considering the purpose for which he tells it. If I were to live this present hour,-] "If I were to die this PAR. 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. 1 SOLD. Shall I set down your answer so? PAR. Do; I'll take the sacrament on't, how and which way you will. BER. All's one to him." What a past-saving slave is this! 1 LORD. You are deceived, my lord; this is monsieur Parolles, the gallant militarist, (that was his own phrase,) that had the whole theorick of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practice in the chape of his dagger. 2 LORD. I will never trust a man again, for keeping his sword clean; nor believe he can have every thing in him, by wearing his apparel neatly. 1 SOLD. Well, that's set down. PAR. Five or six thousand horse, I said,-I will say true,- -or thereabouts, set down,-for I'll speak truth. 1 LORD. He's very near the truth in this. BER. But I con him no thanks for't, in the nature he delivers it." PAR. Poor rogues, I pray you, say. 1 SOLD. Well, that's set down. PAR. I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth, the rogues are marvellous poor. 1 SOLD. Demand of him of what strength they are afoot. What say you to that? d PAR. 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 fifty each mine own company, Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred fifty each: so that the musterfile, rotten and sound, upon my life amounts not to fifteen thousand poll; half of the which dare not shake the snow from off their cassocks, lest they shake themselves to pieces. BER. What shall be done to him? е 1 LORD. Nothing, but let him have thanks. Demand of him my condition, and what credit I have with the duke? 1 SOLD. Well, that's set down. You shall demand of him, whether one captain Dumain be the camp, a Frenchman; what his reputation is with the duke, what his valour, honesty, and expertness in wars; or whether he thinks, it were not possible, with well-weighing sums of gold, to corrupt him to a revolt. What say you to this? what do you know of it? present hour" seems more germane to his position. Live, possibly, is a misprint of leave. He may have meant, "If I were free to depart this very hour." d Sebastian so many, Corambus so many, Jacques so many,-} So many means, as many. My condition,-] That is, disposition and character. PAR. I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of the intergatories. Demand them singly. 1 SOLD. Do you know this captain Dumain? PAR. I know him: he 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. [DUMAIN lifts up his hand in anger. BER. Nay, by your leave, hold your hands; though I know, his brains are forfeit to the next tile that falls. 1 SOLD. Well, is this captain in the duke of Florence's camp' PAR. Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy. 1 LORD. Nay, look not so upon me; we shall hear of your lordship* anon. 1 SOLD. What is his reputation with the duke? PAR. The duke knows him for no other but a poor officer of mine; and writ to me this other day, to turn him out of the band: I think, I have his letter in my pocket. 1 SOLD. Marry, we'll search. PAR. 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. 1 SOLD. Here 'tis; here's a paper. read it to you? PAR. I do not know, if it be it, or no. BER. Our interpreter does it well. 1 LORD. Excellently. Shall I 1 SOLD. Dian, The count's a fool, and full of gold, PAR. 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. 1 SOLD. Nay, I'll read it first, by your favour. PAR. 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. BER. Damnable both-sides rogue! 1 SOLD. When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it; After he scores, he never pays the score: Half won, is match well made; match, and well make it ; He ne'er pays after debts, take it before; And say, a soldier, Dian, told thee this, (*) Old copy, Lord. a I perceive, sir, by our general's looks,-] The old text has your general's looks;" altered by Capell. He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister ;] If an egg is not a misprint, it may have been used metaphorically for a young girl; one of the murderers of Macduff's family ("Macbeth,' Act IV. Sc. 2) calls the boy "egg," and "young fry." So also Costard, in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act V. Sc. 1, terms Moth Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss: 2 LORD. This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist, and the armipotent soldier. BER. I could endure anything before but a cat, and now he's a cat to me. 1 SOLD. I perceive, sir, by our general's looks, we shall be fain to hang you. PAR. 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 anywhere, SO I may live. 1 SOLD. We'll see what may be done, so you confess freely; therefore, once more to this captain Dumain. You have answered to his reputation with the duke, and to his valour. What is his honesty? PAR. 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 them 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 everything that an honest man should not have; what an honest man should have, he has nothing. 1 LORD. I begin to love him for this. BER. For this description of thine honesty? A pox upon him! for me, he is more and more a cat. 1 SOLD. What say you to his expertness in war? PAR. 'Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English tragedians,(2)-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. 1 LORD. He hath out-villained villainy so far, that the rarity redeems him. BER. A pox on him! he's a cat still!" 1 SOLD. His qualities being at this poor price, I "pigeon-egg of discretion." e Mile-end,-] See note (4), p. 628, Vol. I. d He's a cat still!] Bertram had before told us that a cat was his particular aversion, and that Parolles was now a cat to him. When the rogue becomes more scurrilous in his revelations, Bertram says, "He is more and more a cat;" and, finally, when he had "out-villained villany," the count impetuously exclaims, he's a cat still!" that is, a cat always, a cat evermore PAR. Ay, and the captain of his horse, count Rousillon. 1 SOLD. I'll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure. PAR. [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? 1 SOLD. There is no remedy, sir, but you must die: the general says, you, that have so traitorously discovered the secrets of your army, and made such pestiferous reports of men very nobly held, can serve the world for no honest use; therefore you must die. Come, headsman, off with his head. PAR. O Lord, sir; let me live, or let me see my death! 1 SOLD. That shall you, and take your leave of all your friends. [Unmuffling him. So, look about you; know you any here? BER. Good morrow, noble captain. 2 LORD. God bless you, captain Parolles. 2 LORD. Captain, what greeting will you to my lord Lafeu? I am for France. 1 LORD. Good captain, will you give me a copy of the sonnet you writ to Diana in behalf of the count Rousillon? an I were not a very coward, I'd compel it of you; but fare you well. [Exeunt BERTRAM, Lords, &c. 1 SOLD. You are undone, captain: all but your scarf, that has a knot on't yet. PAR. Who cannot be crushed with a plot? 1 SOLD. If you could find out a country where but women were that had received so much shame, you might begin an impudent nation. Fare you well, sir; I am for France too; we shall speak of you there. [Exit. PAR. 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, HEL. That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you, One of the greatest in the Christian world Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel. WID. HEL. DIA. Go with your impositions, I am yours Yet, I pray you But with the word." |