ber window; I'll order take my mother shall not hear. When back again this ring shall be delivered: 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, 1st Lord. When you have spoken it 't is dead, and I am the grave of it. 2nd 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. 1st Lord. Now God delay our rebellion; as we are ourselves, what things are we! And as, 2nd Lord. Merely our own traitors. in the common course of all treasons, we still sce 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. 1st Lord. Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We shall not then have his company to-night? 2nd Lord. Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour. 1st Lord. That approaches apace. I would gladly have him see his company anatomized; that When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so he might take a measure of his own judgments, braid, Marry that will, I'll live and die a maid: wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit. 2nd Lord. We will not meddle with him till he come; for his presence must be the whip of the will next morning for France. The Duke hath other. offered him letters of commendations to the King. 2nd Lord. They shall be no more than needful there, if they were more than they can commend. 1st Lord. In the mean time, what hear you of these wars? 2nd Lord. I hear there is an overture of peace. 1st Lord. Nay, I assure you a peace concluded. 2nd Lord. What will Count Rousillon do then? will he travel higher, or return again into France? 1st Lord. I perceive, by this demand, you are not altogether of his council. Enter BERTRAM. 1st Lord. They cannot be too sweet for the King's tartness. Here's his lordship now.-How now, my lord, it's not after midnight? Ber. I have to-night dispatched sixteen busi 2nd Lord. Let it be forbid, sir! so should I be nesses, a month's length a-piece, by an abstract of a great deal of his act. 1st 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. 2nd Lord. How is this justified? 1st 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. 2nd Lord. Hath the count all this intelligence? 1st Lord. Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from point, to the full arming of the verity. 2nd Lord. I am heartily sorry that he'll be glad of this. success. I have congé'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 dispatch, effected many nicer needs; the last was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet. 2nd 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.. 2nd Lord. Bring him forth: [Exeunt Soldiers.] he has sat in 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 1st Lord. How mightily, sometimes, we make himself? us comforts of our losses! 2nd Lord. And how mightily, some other times, we drown our gain in tears! The great dignity that his valor hath here acquired for him, shall at home be encountered with a shame as ample. 1st 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. 1st. 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? 2nd 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! 2nd Lord. Hoodman comes! Porto tartarossa. 1st Sol. 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 pastry, I can say no more. 1st Sol. Bosko chimurcho. 2nd Lord. Boblibindo chicurmurco. 1st Sol. 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. 1st Sol. "First demand of him how many horse the Duke is strong." What say you to that? 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. 1st Sol. 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! 1st Lord. You are deceived, my lord: this is Monsieur Parolles, the gallant militarist (that was his own phrase), that had the whole theoric of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practice in the chape of his dagger. 2nd Lord. I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword clean; nor believe he can have everything in him by wearing his apparel neatly. 1st Sol. 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. 1st 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. 1st Sol. Well, that's set down. Par. I humbly thank you, sir: a truth's a truth the rogues are marvellous poor. Ludowic, and Gratii, two hundred and fifty each : mine own company, Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred and fifty each: so that the musterfile, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll: half of which dare not shake the snow from off their cossacks, lest they shake themselves to pieces. Ber. What shall be done to him? 1st Lord. Nothing, but let him have thanks.Demand of him my conditions, and what credit I have with the Duke. 1st Sol. Well, that's set down.—“You shall demand of him whether one Captain Dumain be i' the camp, a Frenchman: what his reputation is with the Duke, what his valor, 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? Par. I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of the interrogatories: demand them singly. 1st Sol. 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 sherif'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. 1st Sol. Well, is this captain in the Duke of Florence's camp? Par. Upon my knowledge he is, and lousy. 1st Lord. Nay, look not so upon me: we shall hear of your lordship anon. 1st Sol. 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 o' the band: I think I have his letter in my pocket. 1st Sol. Marry, we'll search. Par. In good sadness I do not know: either it 1st Sol. "Demand of him what strength they is there, or it is upon a file, with the Duke's other are a-foot." What say you to that? 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, letters, in my tent. 1st Sol. Here't is; here's a paper: shall I read it to you? Par. I do not know if it be it or no. 1st Lord. Excellently. sir, with such volubility, that you would think 1st Sol. "Dian: The count's a fool, and full truth were a fool. Drunkenness is his best virtue; 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. 1st Sol. Nay, I'll read it first, by your favor. Par. My meaning in 't, I protest, was very honest in the behalf of a 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 ! 1st Soldier reads. for he will be swine-drunk, and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes 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. 1st 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. 1st Sol. What say you to his expertness in war? Par. Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English tragedians (to belie him I will not), and more of his soldiership I know not; except, in that country, he had the honor to be the officer at a "When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it; place called Mile-end, to instruct for the doubling 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: For count of this, the count 's a fool, I know it, PAROLLES." Ber. He shall be whipped through the army, with this rhyme in his forehead. of files. I would do the man what honor I can, but of this I am not certain. 1st Lord. He hath out-villained villainy so far, that the rarity redeems him. Ber. A pox on him! he's a cat still. 1st Sol. His qualities being at this poor price, I need not ask you if gold will corrupt him to revolt. Par. Sir, for a quart d'écu he will sell the feesimple of his salvation, the inheritance of it; and 2nd Lord. This is your devoted friend, sir, the cut the entail from all remainders, and a perpetual manifold linguist and the armipotent soldier. succession for it perpetually. Ber. I could endure anything before but a cat, and now he's a cat to me. 1st Sol. I perceive, sir, by the 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 offenses 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. 1st Sol. 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 valor: 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, 1st Sol. What's his brother, the other Captain Dumain? 2nd Lord. Why does he ask him of me? 1st Sol. What's he? Par. E'en a crow of the same nest: not altogether so great as the first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. He excels his brother for a coward, yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is. In a retreat, he outruns any lackey; marry, in coming on he has the cramp. 1st Sol. If your life be saved, will you undertake to betray the Florentine? Par. Ay, and the captain of his horse, Count Rousillon. 1st Sol. I'll whisper with the general, and know his pleasure. Par. I'll no more drumming; a plague of all drums! Only to seem to deserve well, and to be House. guile the supposition of that lascivious young boy SCENE IV.- Florence. A Room in the Widow's the Count, have I run into this danger. Yet who would have suspected an ambush where I was taken? [Aside. must 1st Sol. There is no remedy, sir, but you 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. Enter HELENA, Widow, and DIANA. Hel. That you may well perceive I have not wronged you, One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my surety: 'fore whose throne 't is needful, Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel. Par. O Lord, sir! let me live, or let me see my Time was I did him a desiréd office, death. all 1st Sol. That you shall, and take your leave of your friends. [Unmuffling him. So, look about you: know you any here? Ber. Good-morrow, noble captain. 2nd Lord. God bless you, Captain Parolles. 1st Lord. God save you, noble captain. 2nd Lord. Captain, what greeting will you to my Lord Lafeu? I am for France. 1st 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. [Eccunt BERTRAM, Lords, &c. 1st Sol. You are undone, captain: all but your scarf; that has a knot on't yet. Par. Who cannot be crushed with a plot? 1st Sol. If you could find out a country where but women where 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 there. [Exit. Par. Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great you 'T would burst at this. Captain I'll be no more; gart, Let him fear this; for it will come to pass Dear almost as his life; which gratitude And by the leave of my good lord the King, Wid. Gentle madam, You never had a servant to whose trust Hel. Nor you, mistress, As it hath fated her to be my motive When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp. We must away; [Exit. Our waggon is prepared, and time revives us. |