Par. A drum now of the enemy's!

[Alurum within

1 Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo. All. Cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo. Par. O ransom, ransom.-Do not hide mine eyes [They seize him and blindfold hım

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

I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue.-
Kerelybonto:-Sir,

Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards
Are at thy bosom.

Par.

1 Sold.

Oh!

O pray, pray, pray.—

Oscorbi dulchos volivorca.

Manka revania dulche.

1 Lord.

1 Sold. The general is content to spare thee yet;
And, hoodwinked as thou art, will lead thee on
To gather from thee; haply, thou mayst inform
Something to save thy life.

Par.
O, let me live,
And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,
Their force, their purposes.
Which you will wonder at.

1 Sold.

Par. If I do not, damn me. 1 Sold.

Ñay, I'll speak that

But wilt thou faithfully?

Come on, thou art granted space.

Acordo linta.

[Exit, with PAROLLES guarded.

I Lord. Go, tell the count Rousillon, and my

brother,

We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him

muffled,

Till we do hear from them.

2 Sold.

Captain, I will.

1 Lord. He will betray us all unto ourselves;Inform 'em that.

1 Lord. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely

locked.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Florence. A Room in the Widow's

House.

Enter BERTRAM and DIANA.

Ber. They told me that your name was Fontibell. Dia. No, my good lord, Diana.

Ber.
Titled goddess;
And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul,
In your fine frame hath love no quality?
If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
You are no maiden, but a monument.
When you are dead, you should be such a one
As you are now, for you are cold and stern ;
And now you should be as your mother was,
When your sweet self was got.

Dia. She then was honest.
Ber.

Dia.

So should you be.

No.

My mother did but duty; such, my lord,

As you owe to your wife.

Ber.

No more of that!

I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:1

I was compelled to her; but I love thee

By love's own sweet constraint, and will forever
Do thee all rights of service.

Ay, so you serve us,

Dia.
Till we serve you: but when you have our roses,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
And mock us with our bareness.

1 i. e. against his determined resolution never to cohabit with Helena.

Ber.

How have I sworn?

Dia. 'Tis not the many oaths, that make the

truth;

But the plain, single vow, that is vowed true.

What is not holy, that we swear not by,

1

But take the Highest to witness. Then pray you, tell

me,

If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,

I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? This has no holding,
To swear by Him whom I protest to love,

That I will work against him.2 Therefore, your

oaths

Are words, and poor conditions, but unsealed;

At least, in my opinion.

Ber.

Change it, change it;

Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy;

And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts

That you do charge men with. Stand no more off, But give thyself unto my sick desires,

Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever

My love, as it begins, shall so persever.

Dia. I see that men make hopes, in such a war,3 That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring. Ber. I'll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power

To give it from me.

Dia.

Will you not, my lord?

Ber. It is an honor 'longing to our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world In me to lose.

1 The sense is, we never swear by what is not holy, but take to witness the Highest, the Divinity.

2 This passage is considered obscure by some commentators; but the meaning appears to be very obvious: an oath has no binding force, when we swear by the Deity, whom we profess to love, that we will commit a deed that is displeasing to him.

3 The old copy reads, "make ropes in such a scarre." Rowe changed it to, "make hopes in such affairs;" and Malone to, "make hopes in such a scene." But affairs and scene have no literal resemblance to the old word scarre: warre is always so written in the old copy; the change is therefore less violent, and more probable.

Dia.

Mine honor's such a ring.

My chastity's the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors;
Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world
In me to lose. Thus, your own proper wisdom
Brings in the champion honor on my part,
Against your vain assault.

Ber.

Here, take my ring:

My house, mine honor, yea, my life be thine,
And I'll be bid by thee.

Dia. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber window;

I'll order take, my mother shall not hear.

Now will I charge you in the band of truth,

When you have conquered my yet maiden bed,
Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:

My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them,
When back again this ring shall be delivered:
And on your finger, in the night, I'll put
Another ring; that what in time proceeds,
May token to the future our past deeds.

Adieu till then; then, fail not. You have won
A wife of me, though there my hope be done.

Ber. A heaven on earth I have won, by wooing

thee.

[Exit.

Dia. For which live long to thank both Heaven and me!

You may so in the end.

My mother told me just how he would woo,

As if she sat in his heart; she says, all men

Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me

When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him
When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,'
Marry that will, I'll live and die a maid:
Only in this disguise I think't no sin

To cozen him that would unjustly win.

[Exit.

1 i. e. false, deceitful, tricking, beguiling.

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 honor; 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!

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

1 Lord. Is it not meant damnable 2 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

3

1 i. e. betrays his own secrets in his own talk.

2- Damnable for damnably; the adjective used adverbially.

3 Company for companion.