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 reserved 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
[Act 3 Scene 6]
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 int
o his56 native quarter, be magnanimous in
the enterprise and go on. I will grace57 the attempt for a
worthy exploit. If you speed58 well in it, the duke shall both
speak of it and extend to you what further becomes59 his
greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness.
PAROLLES By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.
BERTRAM But you must not now slumber in it.62
PAROLLES I'll about it this evening, and I will presently pen63
down my dilemmas64, encourage myself in my certainty, put
myself into my mortal preparation65, and by midnight look to
hear further from me.
BERTRAM May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone
about it?
PAROLLES I know not what the success will be, my lord, but the
attempt I vow.
BERTRAM I know thou'rt valiant, and to the possibility71 of thy
soldiership will subscribe72 for thee. Farewell.
PAROLLES I love not many words.
Exit
SECOND LORD No more than a fish loves water. Is not this a
strange fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems to undertake
this business, which he knows is not to be done, damns76
himself to do and dares better be damned than to do't?
FIRST LORD You do not know him, my lord, as we do. Certain it
is that he will steal himself into a man's favour and for a
week escape a great deal of discoveries, but when you find
him out, you have81 him ever after.
BERTRAM Why, do you think he will make no deed82 at all of this
that so seriously he does address himself unto?
SECOND LORD None in the world. But return with an invention
and clap upon you two or three probable85 lies. But we have
almost embossed86 him. You shall see his fall tonight; for
indeed he is not for87 your lordship's respect.
FIRST LORD We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case88
him. He was first smoked89 by the old lord Lafew. When his
disguise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat90 you shall find
him, which you shall see this very night.
SECOND LORD I must go look my twigs.92 He shall be caught.
To First Lord
BERTRAM Your brother he shall go along with me.93
FIRST LORD As't please your lordship. I'll leave you.
[Exit]
BERTRAM Now will I lead you to the house, and show you
The lass I spoke of.
SECOND LORD But you say she's honest.
BERTRAM That's all the fault. I spoke with her but once
And found her wondrous cold, but I sent to her
By this same coxcomb that we have i'th'wind100
Tokens and letters which she did re-send.
And this is all I have done. She's a fair creature.
Will you go see her?
SECOND LORD With all my heart, my lord.
Exeunt
[Act 3 Scene 7]
running scene 13
Enter Helen and Widow
HELEN If you misdoubt1 me that I am not she,
I know not how I shall assure you further,
But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.3
WIDOW Though my estate4 be fall'n, I was well born,
Nothing acquainted with these businesses,
And would not put my reputation now
In any staining act.
HELEN Nor would I wish you.
First, give me trust, the count he is my husband,
And what to your sworn counsel10 I have spoken
Is so from word to word.11 And then you cannot,
By12 the good aid that I of you shall borrow,
Err in bestowing it.
WIDOW I should believe you,
For you have showed me that which well approves15
You're great in fortune.
Gives a purse
HELEN Take this purse of gold,
And let me buy your friendly help thus far,
Which I will over-pay and pay again
When I have found it.20 The count he woos your daughter,
Lays down his wanton21 siege before her beauty,
Resolves to carry her: let her in fine22 consent,
As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear23 it.
Now his important blood24 will naught deny
That she'll demand: a ring the county25 wears,
That downward hath succeeded in his house
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first father wore it. This ring he holds
In most rich choice, yet in his idle fire29,
To buy his will30, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.
WIDOW Now I see
The bottom33 of your purpose.
HELEN You see it lawful34, then: it is no more,
But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,
Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter36;
In fine, delivers me to fill the time,
Herself most chastely absent. After,
To marry her39, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is passed40 already.
WIDOW I have yielded:
Instruct my daughter how she shall persever42,
That time and place with this deceit so lawful
May prove coherent.44 Every night he comes
With musics45 of all sorts and songs composed
To her unworthiness. It nothing steads46 us
To chide47 him from our eaves, for he persists
As if his life lay48 on't.
HELEN Why then tonight
Let us assay our plot, which, if it speed50,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed51,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act,
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact.53
But let's about it.
[Exeunt]
Act 4 [Scene 1]
running scene 14
Enter one of the Frenchmen [the First Lord Dumaine], with five or six other Soldiers in ambush
FIRST LORD He can come no other way but by this hedge-corner.
When you sally upon him, speak what terrible2 language you
will: though you understand it not yourselves, no matter, for
we must not seem to understand him, unless4 some one
FIRST SOLDIER Good captain, let me be th'interpreter.
FIRST LORD Art not acquainted with him? Knows he not thy
voice?
FIRST SOLDIER No, sir, I warrant you.
FIRST LORD But what linsey-woolsey10 hast thou to speak to us
again?11
FIRST SOLDIER E'en such as you speak to me.
FIRST LORD He must think us some band of strangers13
i'th'adversary's entertainment. Now he hath a smack14 of all
neighbouring languages: therefore we must every one be a
man of his own fancy, not to know16 what we speak one to
another, so we seem to know, is to know straight17 our purpose:
choughs18' language, gabble enough and good enough. As for
you, interpreter, you must seem very politic. But couch19, ho!
Here he comes, to beguile20 two hours in a sleep, and then to
return and swear the lies he forges.
They hide
Enter Parolles
PAROLLES Ten o'clock. Within these three hours 'twill 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 smoke24
me, and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door.
I find my tongue is too foolhardy, but my heart hath the fear
of Mar
s before it and of his creatures, not daring the reports27
of my tongue.
Speaks aside to the others throughout
FIRST LORD This is the first truth that e'er
thine own tongue was guilty of.
PAROLLES 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 hurts34, 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's37
mouth and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule38, if you
prattle me into these perils.
FIRST LORD Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that
he is?
PAROLLES I would the cutting of my garments would serve the42
turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword.
FIRST LORD We cannot afford44 you so.
PAROLLES Or the baring of my beard, and to say it was in45
stratagem.
FIRST LORD 'Twould not do.
PAROLLES Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.
FIRST LORD Hardly serve.
PAROLLES Though I swore I leaped from the window of the
citadel.51
FIRST LORD How deep?
PAROLLES Thirty fathom.53
FIRST LORD Three great oaths would scarce make that be
believed.
PAROLLES I would I had any drum of the enemy's. I would
swear I recovered it.
FIRST LORD You shall hear one anon.
PAROLLES A drum now of the enemy's--
Alarum within
The Lord and Soldiers come out of hiding
First Soldier will act as Interpreter
FIRST LORD Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.
ALL Cargo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo.
They seize and blindfold Parolles
PAROLLES O, ransom, ransom! Do not hide mine eyes.
INTERPRETER Boskos thromuldo boskos.
PAROLLES I know you are the Muskos64' regiment,
And I shall lose my life for want of language.
If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch66,
Italian, or French, let him speak to me,
I'll discover68 that which shall undo the Florentine.
INTERPRETER Boskos vauvado. I understand thee, and can speak
thy tongue. Kerelybonto. Sir, betake thee70 to thy faith, for
seventeen poniards71 are at thy bosom.
PAROLLES O!
INTERPRETER O, pray, pray, pray! Manka revania dulche.
FIRST LORD Oscorbidulchos volivorco.
INTERPRETER The general is content to spare thee yet,
And, hoodwinked as thou art, will lead thee on76
To gather77 from thee. Haply thou mayst inform
Something to save thy life.
PAROLLES O, let me live,
And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,
Their force, their purposes. Nay, I'll speak that
Which you will wonder at.
INTERPRETER But wilt thou faithfully?
PAROLLES If I do not, damn me.