Wid A right good creature; wheresoe'er she Please it this matron and this gentle maid
To eat with us to-night, the charge and thanking

is,

do her

Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might Shall be for me; and, to requite you further, I will bestow some precepts on this virgin Worthy the note.

A shrewd turn, if she pleased.

And brokes with all that can in such a suit

Corrupt the tender honor of a maid:

But she is armed for him, and keeps her guard
In honestest defense.

Mar. The gods forbid else!

Enter, with drum and colors, a party of the Florentine Army, BERTRAM, and PAROLLES.

Wid.

So, now they come.

That is Antonio, the Duke's eldest son;
That, Escalus.

Hel.

Dia.

Which is the Frenchman?
He;

That with the plume; 't is a most a gallant fellow!
I would he loved his wife: if he were honester,
He were much goodlier. Is 't not a handsome
gentleman?

Hel.

I like him well.

Enter BERTRAM, and the two French Lords.

1st Lord. Nay, good my lord, put him to 't; let him have his way.

2nd Lord. If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect.

1st Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble. Ber. Do you think I am so far deceived in him?

1st 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 wor thy your lordship's entertainment.

2nd Lord. It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he

Dia. 'Tis pity he is not honest.-Yond's that might, at some great and trusty business, in a main

Dia. That jack-an-apes with scarfs: why is he his drum, which you hear him so confidently unmelancholy?

dertake to do.

1st 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 hoodwink him, so that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer 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 divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my judgment in anything. 2nd 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 entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. | Here he comes.

1st Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humor of his design : let him fetch off his drum, in any hand.

Enter PAROLLES.

tive 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.

1st Lord. No more than a fish loves water.- Is not this a strange fellow, my lord, that so confi

Ber. How now, monsieur? this drum sticks dently seems to undertake this business, which he sorely in your disposition.

knows is not to be done; damns himself to do, and

2nd Lord. A pox on 't, let it go; 't is but a dares better to be damned than to do 't? drum.

Par. But a drum! Is 't but a drum? A drum so lost! There was an excellent command! to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers.

2nd Lord. That was not to be blamed in the command of the service: it was a disaster of war that Cæsar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command.

Ber. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some dishonor we had in the loss of that drum; but it is not to be recovered.

Par. It might have been recovered.
Ber. It might, but it is not now.

Par. It is to be recovered: but that the merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or hic jacet.

Ber. Why, if you have a stomach to 't, monsieur, if you think your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honor again into his na

2nd Lord. You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it is that he will steal himself into a man's favor, 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?

1st 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; you shall see his fall to-night; for, indeed, he is not for your lordship's respect.

2nd 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.

1st Lord. I must go look my twigs; he shall be caught.

Ber. Your brother he shall go along with me.

Ber. That's all the fault. I spoke with her but As we 'll direct her how 't is best to bear it,

For you have shewed me that which well approves Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact. You are great in fortune.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.- Without the Florentine Camp. Enter First Lord, with five or six Soldiers in ambush.

1st 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.

1st Sol. Good captain, let me be the interpreter. 1st Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?

1st Sol. No, sir, I warrant you.

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?" 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.

1st 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

1st Lord. But what linsy-woolsy hasty thou to sword. speak to us again?

1st Sol. Even such as you speak to me.

1st Lord. He must think us some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment. Now he hath a smack of all neighboring 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 politic. 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 't will 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.

[Aside.

1st Lord. We cannot afford you so. Par. Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in startagem.

1st Lord. 'T would not do.

[Aside.

Par. Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.

1st Lord. Hardly serve.

[Aside

Par. Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel

1st Lord. How deep?
Par. Thirty fathom.

[Aside.

1st Lord. Three great oaths would scarce make
that be believed.
[Aside.
Par. I would I had any drum of the enemy's;
I would swear I recovered it.

1st Lord. You shall hear one anon.
Par. A drum now of the enemy's!

[Aside.

[Alarum within.

1st Lord. This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.

[Aside.

Par. I know you are the Muskos' regiment.

577

We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him But take the highest to witness. Then, pray you,

1st Lord. He will betray us all unto our- When I did love you ill? This has no holding,

SCENE II. — Florence. A Room in the Widow's And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts

Ber. They told me that your name was Fonti- Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever