before the report come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you. Your unfortunate son, BERTRAM. This is not well, rash and unbridled boy, Re-enter Clown. 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 killed so soon as I thought he would. Count. Why should he be kill'd? Clo. So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does the danger is in standing to't; that's the loss of men, though it be the getting of children. 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. Hel. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone. 2 Gent. Do not say so. Count. Think upon patience.-'Pray you, gentlemen,I have felt so many quirks of joy, and grief, That the first face of neither, on the start, Can woman me unto't :-Where is my son, I pray you? Hel. Look on his letter, madam; here's my 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? 1 Gent. Ay, madam ; And, for the contents' sake, are sorry for our pains. Count. I pr'ythee, lady, have a better cheer; thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety: He was my son ; And thou art all my child.-Towards Florence is he? 2 Gent. Ay, madam. Count. And to be a soldier? 2 Gent. Such is his noble purpose; and, believe't, The duke will lay upon him all the honour That good convenience claims. Count. Return you thither? 1 Gent. Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed. Hel. Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France. 'Tis bitter. [Reading. Count. Find you that there? Hel. Ay, madam. 1 Gent. 'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which His heart was not consenting to. Count. Nothing in France, until he have no wife! There's nothing here, that is too good for him, But only she; and she deserves a lord, That twenty such rude boys might tend upon, And call her hourly, mistress. Who was with him? 1 Gent. A servant only, and a gentleman Which I have some time known. Count. Parolles, was't not? 1 Gent. Ay, my good lady, he. Count. A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness. My son corrupts a well-derived nature With his inducement. 1 Gent. Indeed, good lady, The fellow has a deal of that, too much, Count. You are welcome, gentlemen. I will entreat you, when you see my son, The honour that he loses : more I'll entreat you, 2 Gent. We serve you, madam, In that and all your worthiest affairs. Count. Not so, but as we change our courtesies. Will you draw near? [Exe. Countess and Gentlemen. [7] That is, his vices stand him in stead. thought in all the beauty of expression: Helen had before delivered this "I know him a notorious liar ; Think him a great way fool. solely a coward; That they take place when virtue's steely bones WARB. Hel. Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France. Nothing in France, until he has no wife! Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France, That chase thee from thy country, and expose Of the none-sparing war? and is it I That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing air, With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere Were mine at once: No, come thou home, Rousillon, As oft it loses all; I will be gone : My being here it is, that holds thee hence : To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day! SCENE III. [Exit. Florence. Before the Duke's Palace. Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, BERTRAM, Lords, Officers, Soldiers, and others. Duke. The general of our horse thou art; and we, Great in our hope, lay our best love and credence, Upon thy promising fortune. Ber. Sir, it is A charge too heavy for my strength; but yet [8] i. e. the ravenous or ravening lion. Toravin is to swallow voraciously MALONE. To the extreme edge of hazard. Duke. Then go thou forth ; And fortune play upon thy prosperous helm, Ber. This very day, Great Mars, I put myself into thy file: Make me but like my thoughts; and I shall prove A lover of thy drum, hater of love. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess and Steward. Count. Alas! and would you take the letter of her? Stew. I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone; That bare-foot plod I the cold ground upon, 9 I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth From courtly friends, with camping foes to live, Where death and danger dog the heels of worth: He is too good and fair for death and me ; Whom I myself embrace, to set him free. Count. Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words! -Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much,' As letting her pass so; had I spoke with her, Which thus she hath prevented. Stew. Pardon me, madam : If I had given you this at over-night, She might have been o'erta'en ; and yet she writes, Count. What angel shall Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive, Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear, [9] Alluding to the story of Hercules. [1] Advice, is discretion or thought. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath To make distinction :-Provide this messenger :- Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.[Exe. SCENE V. Without the walls of Florence. A tucket afar off. Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and other Citizens. Wid. Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we shall lose all the sight. 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 for the young earl. -Beware of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go under: 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 |