Enter HELENA and Widow.

HEL. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how I shall assure you further, But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.

WID. Though my estate be fallen, I was well born,

Nothing acquainted with these businesses;
And would not put my reputation now

In any staining act.
HEL.
Nor would I wish you.
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 over-pay, and pay again, When I have found it. The count he woos your

daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty, Resolves to carry her; let her, in fine, consent,

a Your sworn counsel-1 Your pledged secrecy.

To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is pass'd 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 musics 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.

[Exeunt,

b His idle fire,-] Mad-brained fire. See note (b), p. 27.

c And lawful meaning in a lawful act;] We should perhaps read: "And lawful meaning in a wicked act."

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."

a Let me be the interpreter.] In conformity with this proposal, the first soldier is so styled in the old text, throughout the subsequent scenes with Parolles.

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. E'en 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 know, is to know straight our purpose: chough's language, gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must seem very politic. 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 't will 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. [Aside.] This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.

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 butter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils.

:

1 LORD. [Aside.] Is it possible, he should know what he is, and be that he is?

PAR. I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn; or the breaking of my Spanish sword.

1 LORD. [Aside.] We cannot afford you so. PAR. Or the baring of my beard; and to say, it was in stratagem.

1 LORD. [Aside.] 'Twould not do.

PAR. Or to drown my clothes, and say, I was stripped.

1 LORD. [Aside.] Hardly serve.

PAR. Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel

1 LORD. [Aside.] How deep? PAR. Thirty fathom.

1 LORD. [Aside.] Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.

PAR. I would I had any drum of the enemy's; I would swear, I recovered it.

1 LORD. [Aside.] You shall hear one anon. [Alarum within. PAR. A drum now of the enemy's!

1 LORD. Throca movousus, cargo! cargo !

cargo!

ALL. Cargo cargo! villianda par corbo, cargo!

a Wherefore? what's the instance?] Wherefore did I volunteer this exploit? For what object?

1 SOLD. O, pray, pray, pray. Manka revania dulche.

1 LORD. Oscorbidulchos volivorco.

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. 1 SOLD.

But wilt thon faithfully?

PAR. If I do not, dama me.
1 SOLD.

Acordo linta.-
Come on, thou art granted space.

│[A short alarum without. 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 on that.

-

1 LORD. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely lock'd. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-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,

My mother did but duty; such, my lord,

As you owe to your wife.

BER.

No more of that!
I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:
I was compell'd to her, but I love thee

By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.
DIA.
Ay, so you serve us,
Till we serve you: but when you have our roses,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,
And mock us with our bareness.
BER.
How have I sworn !
DIA. 'Tis not the many oaths, that makes the
truth,

But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,

But take the Highest to witness: then, pray you, tell me,

If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,
I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? this has no holding,
To swear by him whom I protest to love, [oaths
That I will work against him. Therefore, your
Are words, and poor conditions, but unseal'd;
At least, in my opinion.

BER.

Change it, change it; Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy, And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts,

That do charge men with: stand no more off, you But give thyself unto my sick desires,

& Cold and stern;] Stern is rigid, unyielding.

"Can generous hearts in nature be so stern?"
GREENE'S James the Fourth.

"In former times, some countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that if a child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away."-BURTON's Anatomy of Melancholy.

b 'Tis not the many oaths, &c. &c.] All the best modern editors have laboured earnestly to render this passage intelligible. That they have failed is, we believe, owing to their not perceiving that the accomplished compositors or transcribers of the folio, 1623, have contrived, with their customary dexterity, to graft a speech of Bertram on to that of Diana. If we read the dialogue as follows, much in it that was nebulous becomes clear, and a way is seen to the comprehension of the rest :

To give it from me.

DIA.

Will you not, my lord? BER. It is an honour 'longing to our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors;

Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world, In me to lose.

DIA. Mine honour's such a ring: My chastity's the jewel of our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy & the world, In me to lose. Thus your own proper wisdom Brings in the champion honour on my part, Against your vain assault.

BER.

Here, take my ring: My house, mine honour, yea, my life be thine, And I'll be bid by thee.

DIA. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber window;

I'll order take, my mother shall not hear.
Now will I charge you in the band of truth,
When you have conquer'd my yet maiden bed,
Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:
My reasons are most strong, and you shall know
them,

When back again this ring shall be deliver❜d :
And on your finger, in the night, I'll put
Another ring; that, what in time proceeds,
May token to the future our past deeds.
Adieu, till then: then, fail not: you have won
A wife of me, though there my hope be done.
BER. A heaven on earth I have won, by wooing
[Exit.

thee.

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,
As if she sat in his heart; she says, all men
Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me,
When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him,
When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so

braid,
Marry that will, I live and die a maid:
Only, in this disguise, I think 't no sin
To cozen him, that would unjustly win.

[Exit.

e Love is holy,-] We should, perhaps, read, "My love is holy."

d I see, that men make hopes, in such a snare,-] The old copy has,"I see that men make rope's in such a scarre;" which, though some critics have attempted to explain, none has yet succeeded in making intelligible. The alteration of hopes for rope's was proposed by Rowe, who reads,

"I see that men make hopes in such affairs."

e Since Frenchmen are so braid,-] Braid, in this place means false, tricking, deceitful.