Nothing acquainted with these businesses,
And would not put my reputation now
In any staining act.

Nor would I wish you.

Hel. First, give me trust, the count he is my husband; And, what to your sworn counsel I have spoken, Is so, from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, Err in bestowing it.

Wid.

I should believe you;

For you have show'd me that, which well approves You are great in fortune.

Hel.

Take this purse of gold,

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will overpay, and pay again,

When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolves to carry her; let her, in fine, consent,
As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it,
Now his important* blood will nought deny
That she'll demand: a ring the county wears,
That downward hath succeeded in his house,
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first fathers wore it: this ring he holds
In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire,
To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.

Wid.

Now I see The bottom of your purpose.

Hel. You see it lawful then: It is no more,
But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,
Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter ;
In fine, delivers me to fill the time,

Herself most chastely absent: after this,
To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is past already.

Wid.

I have yielded :

Instruct my daughter how she shall perséver,

That time and place, with this deceit so lawful,
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musicks of all sorts, and songs compos'd
To her unworthiness: It nothing steads us,
To chide him from our eaves*: for he persists,
As if his life lay on't.

Hel.
Why then, to-night
Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act;
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
But let's about it.

ACT IV.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I. Without the Florentine camp.

Enter first Lord, with five or six Soldiers in ambush.

1 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.

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

1 Sold. No, sir, I warrant you.

1 Lord. But what linsy-woolsy hast thou to speak to us again?

1 Sold. Even such as you speak to me.

1 Lord. He must think us some band of strangers i'the adversary's entertainment †. Now he hath a smack of all neighbouring 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 * From under our windows. † i. e. Foreign troops in the enemy's pay.

know, is to know straight our purpose: chough's* language, gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very politick. 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 '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 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.

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

[Aside. 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 butterwoman's mouth, and buy another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils.

1 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 sword.

2 Lord. We cannot afford you so.

[Aside. Par. Or the baring of my beard; and to say, it was in stratagem.

1 Lord. "Twould not do.

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

* A bird like a jack-daw.

+ The proof.

1 Lord. Hardly serve.

[Aside.

Par. Though I swore I leaped from the window

of the citadel

1 Lord. How deep?

Par. Thirty fathom.

[Aside.

1 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.

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

[Aside.

[Alarum within.

I Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.
All. Cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo.
Par. O ransome, ransome :-Do not hide mine
[They seize and blindfold him.

eyes.

1 Sold. Boskos thromuldo boskos.

Par. I know you are the Muskos' regiment, And I shall lose my life for want of language: If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch, Italian, or French, let him speak to me,

I will discover that which shall undo

The Florentine.

1 Sold.

Boskos vauvado :

I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue :-Kerelybonto:--Sir,

Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards

Are at thy bosom.

1 Sold. The general is content to spare thee yet; And, hood-wink'd as thou art, will lead thee on To gather from thee: haply, thou may'st inform Something to save thy life.

Par.

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. X

VOL. III.

1 Sold.

But wilt thou faithfully?

Par. If I do not, damn me.

Acordo linta.

1 Sold. Come on, thou art granted space.

[Exit, with Parolles guarded.

1 Lord. Go, tell the count Rousillon, and my

brother,

We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled,

Till we do hear from them.

2 Sold.

Captain, I will.

1 Lord. He will betray us all unto ourselves ;Inform 'em that.

2 Sold.

So I will, sir.

1 Lord. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely

lock'd.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Florence. A room in the Widow's house.

Enter Bertram and Diana.

Ber. They told me, that your name was Fontibell. Dia. No, my good lord, Diana.

Ber.
Titled goddess;
And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul,
In your fine frame hath love no quality?
If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
You are no maiden, but a monument:

When you are dead, you should be such a one
As you are now, for you are cold and stern;
And now you should be as your mother was,
When your sweet self was got.

Dia. She then was honest.
Ber.

Dia.

So should you be.

My mother did but duty; such, my lord,
As you owe to your wife.

1

No.

Ber.

No more of that!