I LORD. On my life, my lord, a bubble. BER. Do you think, I am so far deceived in him?

I LORD. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinfman, he's a moft notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promisebreaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment.

2 LORD. It were fit you knew him; left, repofing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might, at fome great and trusty business, in a main danger, fail you.

BER. I would, I knew in what particular action to try him.

2 LORD. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him fo confidently undertake to do.

I' LORD. I, with a troop of Florentines, will fuddenly furprize him; fuch I will have, whom, I am fure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink him fo, that he fhall fuppofe no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adverfaries, when we bring him to our tents: Be but your lordship prefent at his examination; if he do not, for the promise of his life, and in the highest compulfion 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

7-he's carried into the leaguer of the adverfaries,] i, e. camp. "They will not vouchfafe in their fpeaches or writings to ufe our ancient termes belonging to matters of warre, but doo call a campe by the Dutch name of Legar; nor will not affoord to fay, that fuch a towne or fuch a fort is befieged, but that it is belegard." Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, &c, 1599. fo. 2, DOUCE.

foul upon oath, never truft my judgement in any thing.

2 LORD. O for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he fays, he has a ftratagem for't: when your lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs 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.

of his-] Old copy-of this.

Corrected by Mr. Rowe.
MALONE.

MALONE.

9 of ore-] Old copy-of ours. Lump of ours has been the reading of all the editions. Ore, according to my emendation, bears a confonancy with the other terms accompanying, (viz. metal, lump, and melted,) and helps the propriety of the poet's thought: for fo one metaphor is kept up, and all the words are proper and fuitable to it.

2

THEOBALD.

if you give him not John Drum's entertainment,] But, what is the meaning of John Drum's entertainment? Lafeu feveral times afterwards calls Parolles, Tom Drum. But the difference of the Chriftian name will make none in the explanation. There is an old motley interlude, (printed in 1601,) called Jack Drum's Entertainment: Or, The Comedy of Pafquil and Catharine. In this, Jack Drum is a fervant of intrigue, who is ever aiming at projects, and always foiled, and given the drop. And there is another old piece (published in 1627) called, Apollo fbroving, in which I find thefe expreffions:

Thuriger. Thou lozel, hath Slug infected you?

Why do you give fuch kind entertainment to that cobweb? Scopas. It fhall have Tom Drum's entertainment: a flap with a fox-tail."

But both these pieces are, perhaps too late in time, to come to the affiftance of our author: fo we must look a little higher. What is faid here to Bertram is to this effect: " My lord, as you have taken this fellow [Parolles] into fo near a confidence, if, upon his being found a counterfeit, you don't cafhier him from your favour, then your attachment is not to be removed." I will now fubjoin a quotation from Holinfhed, (of whofe books Shakspeare was a moft diligent reader) which will pretty well afcertain Drum's

Enter PAROLLES.

I LORD. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his defign; let him fetch off his drum in any hand.'

BER. How now, monfieur? this drum fticks forely in your difpofition.

2 LORD. A pox on't let it go; 'tis but a drum. PAR. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum fo

hiftory. This chronologer, in his description of Ireland, speaking of Patrick Sarfefield, (mayor of Dublin in the year 1551,) and of his extravagant hofpitality, fubjoins, that no gueft had ever a cold or forbidding look from any part of his family: fo that his porter or any other officer, durft not, for both his eares, give the fimpleft man that reforted to his koufe, Tom Drum his entertaynement, which is, to hale a man in by the heade, and thruft him out by both the fhoulders. THEOBALD.

A contemporary writer has ufed this expreffion in the fame manner that our author has done; fo that there is no reason to fufpect the word John in the text to be a mifprint: "In faith good gentlemen, I think we fhall be forced to give you right John Drum's entertainment, [i. e. to treat you very ill,] for he that. compofed the book we should prefent, hath-fnatched it from us at the very inftant of entrance. Introduction to Jack Drum's Entertainment, a comedy, 1601. MALONE.

Again, in Taylor's Laugh and be fat, 78:

"And whither now is Mons Odcome come

"Who on his owne backe-fide receiv'd his pay? "Not like the Entertainm' of Jacke Drum,

"Who was beft welcome when he went away."

Again, in Manners and Customs of all Nations, by Ed. Afton, 1611, 4to. p. 280: " fome others on the contrarie part, give them John Drum's intertainm2 reviling and beating them away from their houfes," &c. REED.

3 in any hand.] The ufual phrafe is at any hand, but in any band will do. It is ufed in Holland's Pliny, p. 456.—“ he must be a free citizen of Rome in any hand." Again, p. 508, 553, 546. STEEVENS.

loft!

There was an excellent command! to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own foldiers.

2 LORD. That was not to be blamed in the command of the fervice; it was a difafter of war that Cæfar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command.

BER. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our fuccefs: fome difhonour we had in the lofs of that drum; but it is not to be recover'd.

PAR. It might have been recover'd.

BER. It might; but it is not now.

PAR. It is to be recover'd: but that the merit of fervice is feldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or bic jacet.+

BER. Why, if you have a ftomach to't, monfieur, if you think your mystery in ftratagem can bring this inftrument of honour again into his native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprize, and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you fpeed well in it, the duke fhall both speak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost fyllable of your worthiness.

PAR. By the hand of a foldier, I will undertake it.

BER. But you must not now flumber in it.

PAR. I'll about it this evening: and I will pre

-I would have that drum or another, or hic jacet.] i. e. Here lies; the ufual beginning of epitaphs. I would (fays Parolles) recover either the drum I have loft, or another belonging to the enemy; or die in the attempt, MALONE.

fently 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 fuccefs will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow.

BER. I know, thou art valiant; and, to the poffibility of thy foldierfhip," will fubfcribe for thee. Farewell.

PAR. I love not many words.

[Exit.

I LORD. No more than a fifh loves water."-Is not this a ftrange fellow, my lord? that fo confidently feems to undertake this business, which he

5-I will prefently pen down my dilemmas,] By this word, Parolles is made to infinuate that he had feveral ways, all equally certain of recovering his drum. For a dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare might have found the word thus ufed in Holinfhed. STEEVENS.

I think, that by penning down his dilemmas, Parolles means, that he will pen down his plans on the one fide, and the probable obftructions he was to meet with, on the other. M. MASON.

6 poffibility of thy foldiership,] I will fubfcribe (fays Bertram) to the poffibility of your foldiership. His doubts being now raised, he fuppreffes that he fhould not be fo willing to vouch for its probability. STEEVENS.

I believe, Bertram means no more than that he is confident Parolles will do all that foldiership can effect. He was not yet certain that he was "a hilding." MALONE.

7 Par. I love not many words.

1 Lord. No more than a fifh loves water.] Here we have the origin of this boafter's name; which, without doubt, (as Mr. Steevens has obferved) ought in ftrict propriety to be writtenParoles. But our author certainly intended it otherwise, having made it a trifyllable:

"Ruft fword, cool blushes, and Parolles live.” He probably did not know the true pronunciation. MALONE.