Enter old Widow of Florence, her daughter [Diana], and Mariana with other Citizens
WIDOW Nay, come, for if they do approach the city, we shall
lose all2 the sight.
DIANA They say the French count has done most
honourable service.
WIDOW It is reported that he has taken their5 greatest
commander, and that with his own hand he slew the duke’s
brother.
Tucket
We have lost our labour. They are gone a contrary way.
Hark! You may know by their trumpets.
MARIANA Come, let’s return again, and suffice10 ourselves with
the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl.11
The honour of a maid is her name12, and no legacy is so rich as
honesty.13
WIDOW I have told my neighbour how you have been
solicited15 by a gentleman his companion.
MARIANA I know that knave, hang him! One Parolles: a filthy
officer he is in those suggestions for17 the young earl. Beware
of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens
and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go19
under. Many a maid hath been seduced by them, and the
misery is example that so terrible shows in the wreck of21
maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession22, but
that they are limed23 with the twigs that threatens them. I
hope I need not to advise you further, but I hope your own
grace will keep you where you are, though25 there were no
further danger known but the modesty which is so lost.26
DIANA You shall not need to fear27 me.
Enter Helen [disguised as a pilgrim]
WIDOW I hope so. Look, here comes a pilgrim. I know she will
lie29 at my house: thither they send one another. I’ll question
her.— God save you, pilgrim! Whither are you bound?
HELEN To Saint Jaques le Grand.
Where do the palmers32 lodge, I do beseech you?
WIDOW At the Saint Francis here beside the port.33
A march afar
HELEN Is this the way?
WIDOW Ay, marry, is’t. Hark you!
They come this way. If you will tarry36,
Holy pilgrim, but till the troops come by,
I will conduct you where you shall be lodged,
The rather for39 I think I know your hostess
As ample40 as myself.
HELEN Is it yourself?
WIDOW If you shall please so, pilgrim.
HELEN I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.43
WIDOW You came, I think, from France?
HELEN I did so.
WIDOW Here you shall see a countryman of yours
That has done worthy service.
HELEN His name, I pray you.
DIANA The Count Rossillion. Know you such a one?
HELEN But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him:
His face I know not.
DIANA Whatsome’er52 he is,
He’s bravely taken53 here. He stole from France,
As ’tis reported, for54 the king had married him
Against his liking. Think you it is so?
HELEN Ay, surely, mere56 the truth. I know his lady.
DIANA There is a gentleman that serves the count
Reports but coarsely of her.
HELEN What’s his name?
DIANA Monsieur Parolles.
HELEN O, I believe61 with him,
In argument of praise, or to62 the worth
Of the great count himself, she is too mean63
To have her name repeated. All her deserving64
Is a reservèd honesty65, and that
I have not heard examined.66
DIANA Alas, poor lady!
’Tis a hard bondage to become the wife
Of a detesting lord.
WIDOW I write70 good creature: wheresoe’er she is,
Her heart weighs sadly. This young maid might do her
A shrewd72 turn if she pleased.
HELEN How do you mean?
Maybe the amorous count solicits her
In the unlawful purpose?
WIDOW He does indeed,
And brokes with all that can in such a suit77
Corrupt the tender honour of a maid.
But she is armed for him and keeps her guard
In honestest80 defence.
Drum and colours. Enter Count Rossillion [Bertram], Parolles and the whole army
MARIANA The gods forbid else!81
WIDOW So, now they come:
That is Antonio, the duke’s eldest son.
That, Escalus.
HELEN Which is the Frenchman?
DIANA He,
That with the plume. ’Tis a most gallant fellow.
I would he loved his wife: if he were honester88
He were much goodlier. Is’t not a handsome gentleman?
HELEN I like him well.
DIANA ’Tis pity he is not honest. Yond’s that same knave
That leads him to these places. Were I his lady,
I would poison that vile rascal.
HELEN Which is he?
DIANA That jackanapes95 with scarves. Why is he melancholy?
HELEN Perchance he’s hurt i’th’battle.
PAROLLES Lose our drum! Well.
MARIANA He’s shrewdly98 vexed at something. Look, he has
spied us.
WIDOW Marry, hang you!
MARIANA And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier!101
Exeunt [Bertram, Parolles and army]
WIDOW The troop is past. Come, pilgrim, I will bring you
Where you shall host. Of enjoined penitents103
There’s four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound,
Already at my house.
HELEN I humbly thank you:
Please it107 this matron and this gentle maid
To eat with us tonight, the charge108 and thanking
Shall be for me.109 And, to requite you further,
I will bestow some precepts of110 this virgin
Worthy the note.
BOTH We’ll take your offer kindly.112
Exeunt
running scene 12
Enter Count Rossillion [Bertram] and the [two] Frenchmen, as at first
SECOND LORD Nay, good my lord, put him to’t1, let him have his
way.
FIRST LORD If your lordship find him not a hilding3, hold me no
more in your respect.
SECOND LORD On my life, my lord, a bubble.5
BERTRAM Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
SECOND LORD Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge,
without any malice, but to speak of him as8 my kinsman, he’s
a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly
promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy
your lordship’s entertainment.11
FIRST LORD It were fit you knew him, lest reposing12 too far in his
virtue, which he hath not, he might at some great and trusty13
business in a main danger fail you.
BERTRAM I would I knew in what particular action to try15 him.
FIRST LORD None better than to let him fetch off16 his drum,
which you hear him so confidently undertake to do.
SECOND LORD I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly
surprise him; such I will have whom I am sure he knows not19
from the enemy: we will bind and hoodwink20 him so, that he
shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer21
of the adversaries, when we bring him to our own 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 intelligence25 in
his power against you, and that with the divine forfeit of his
soul upon oath27, never trust my judgement in anything.
FIRST 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 bottom30 of his success in’t, and to what metal this
counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not31
John Drum’s entertainment, your inclining32 cannot be
removed. Here he comes.
Enter Parolles
Aside to Bertram
SECOND LORD O, for the love of laughter, hinder not
the honour of his design. Let him fetch off his drum
in any hand.36
BERTRAM How now, monsieur? This drum sticks sorely in37
your disposition.
FIRST LORD A pox39 on’t! Let it go, ’tis but a drum.
PAROLLES ‘But a drum’? Is’t ‘but a drum’? A drum so lost?
There was excellent command: to charge in with our horse
upon our own wings, and to rend42 our own soldiers!
FIRST LORD That was not to be blamed in the command of the43
service: it was a disaster of war that Caesar himself could
not have prevented if he had been there to command.
BERTRAM Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success.
Some dishonour we had in the loss of that drum, but it is not
to be recovered.
PAROLLES It might have been recovered.
BERTRAM It might, but it is not now.
PAROLLES It is to be recovered. But51 that the merit of service is
seldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would
have that drum or another, or hic jacet53.
BERTRAM Why, if you have a stomach54, to’t, monsieur: if you
think your mystery55 in stratagem can bring this instrument
of honour again into his56 native quarter, be magnanimous in
the enterprise and go on.
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