Ber. Your brother he shall go along with me.
Sec. Lord. As 't please your lordship: I'll leave

you.

[Exit.

Ber. Now will I lead you to the house, and show

you

The lass I spoke of.

First Lord.

But you say she's honest.

Ber. That's all the fault: I spoke with her but

once

And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her,

130

By this same coxcomb that we have i' the wind,
Tokens and letters which she did re-send;
And this is all I have done. She's a fair
creature:

Florence. The Widow's house.

Enter Helena and Widow.

Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she,
I know not how I shall assure you further,

twigs that threaten them." To lime is to catch or entangle; and twigs was a common term for the trap or snare, whether it were made of twigs or of thoughts; of material or mental wickerwork.— H. N. H.

129. “¿ the wind"; this proverbial phrase is thus explained by Cotgrave: "Estre sur vent, To be in the wind, or to have the wind of. To get the wind, advantage, upper hand of; to have a man under his lee."-H. N. H.

But I shall lose the grounds I work upon. Wid. Though my estate be fallen, I was well born, Nothing acquainted with these businesses;

Hel.

And would not put my reputation now
In any staining act.

Nor would I wish you.

First, give me trust, the count he is my hus-
band,

And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken
Is so from word to word; and then you cannot,
By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, 11
Err in bestowing it.

Wid.

I should believe you; For you have show'd me that which well ap

Hel.

proves

You 're great in fortune.

Take this purse of gold, And let me buy your friendly help thus far, Which I will over-pay and pay again

When I have found it. The count he wooes
your daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolved to carry her: let her in fine consent,
As we 'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it. 20
Now his important blood will nought deny
That she 'll demand: a ring the county wears,
That downward hath succeeded in his house
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds
In most rich choice; yet in his idle fire,
To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,

3. That is, by discovering herself to the count.—H. N. H.

Howe'er repented after.

Wid.

Now I see

The bottom of your purpose. Hel. You see it lawful, then: it is no more, But that your daughter, ere she seems as won, Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter; In fine, delivers me to fill the time, Herself most chastely absent: after this, To marry her, I 'll add three thousand crowns To what is past already.

Wid.

30

I have yielded:
Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,
That time and place with this deceit so lawful
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musics of all sorts and songs composed 40
To her unworthiness: it nothing steads us
To chide him from our eaves; for he persists
As if his life lay on 't.

Hel.

Why then to-night
Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act,
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
But let's about it.

[Exeunt.

45-47. The explanation of this riddle is, that Bertram was to do a lawful deed with a wicked intent; Helena, the same deed with a good intent; and that what was really to be on both sides a lawful embrace, was to seem in them both an act of adultery.-H. N. H.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

Without the Florentine camp.

Enter Second French Lord, with five or six
other Soldiers in ambush.

Sec. 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.

First Sold. Good captain, let me be the interpreter.

Sec. Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows 10 he not thy voice?

First Sold. No, sir, I warrant you.

Sec. Lord. But what linsey-woolsey hast thou
to speak to us again?

First Sold. E'en such as you speak to me.
Sec. Lord. He must think us some band of
strangers i' the adversary's entertainment.
Now he hath a smack of all neighboring lan-
guages; therefore we must every one be a

man of his own fancy, not to know what we 20
speak one to another; so we seem to know, is
to know straight our purpose: choughs' lan-
guage, gabble enough, and good enough.
As for you, interpreter, you must seem very
politic. But couch, ho! here he comes, to
beguile two hours in a sleep, and then to re-
turn 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 30 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. Sec. Lord. This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of. Par. What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this drum, being not 40 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

appears to be: “We must each fancy a jargon for himself, without aiming to be understood by each other; for, provided we appear to understand, that will be sufficient." The "chough" is a bird of the jack-daw kind.—H. N. H.