PAROLES I love not many words. Exit
SECOND LORD DUMAINE No more than a fish loves water. (To Bertram) Is not this a strange fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems to undertake this business, which he knows is not to be done? Damns himself to do, and dares better be damned than to do’t.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE (to Bertram) 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 have him ever after.
BERTRAM) Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of this that so seriously he does address himself unto?
SECOND LORD DUMAINE None in the world, but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies. But we have almost embosked him. You shall see his fall tonight; for indeed he is not for your lordship’s respect.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE (to Bertram) We’ll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him. He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu. When his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him, which you shall see this very night. 106
SECOND LORD DUMAINE
I must go look my twigs. He shall be caught.
BERTRAM
Your brother, he shall go along with me.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE As’t please your lordship. I’ll leave you. Exit
BERTRAM
Now will I lead you to the house, and show you 111
The lass I spoke of.
⌈FIRST⌉ LORD DUMAINE 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’ wind 115
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?
⌈FIRST⌉ LORD DUMAINE With all my heart, my lord.
Exeunt
3.7 Enter Helen and the Widow
HELEN
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.
WIDOW
Though my estate 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 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.
WIDOW
I should believe you,
For you have showed me that which well approves
You’re great in fortune.
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. The Count he woos your
daughter,
Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolved to carry her. Let her in fine consent,
As we’ll direct her how ‘tis best to bear it.
Now his important blood will naught 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 father 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.
WIDOW
Now I see the bottom of your purpose.
HELEN
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,
To marry her I’ll add three thousand crowns
To what is passed already.
WIDOW
I have yielded.
Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,
That time and place with this deceit so lawful
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musics of all sorts, and songs composed
To her unworthiness. It nothing steads us
To chide him from our eaves, for he persists
As if his life lay on’t.
HELEN
Why then tonight
Let us essay our plot, which if it speed
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed
And lawful meaning in a wicked act,
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact.
But let’s about it. Exeunt
4.1 Enter ⌈Second Lord Dumaine⌉, with five or six other soldiers, in ambush
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE 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. 6
INTERPRETER Good captain, let me be th’interpreter.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE Art not acquainted with him? Knows he not thy voice?
INTERPRETER No, sir, I warrant you.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again?
INTERPRETER E’en such as you speak to me.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE He must think us some band of strangers i’th’ 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: choughs’ 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.
They hide. Enter Paroles. ⌈Clock strikes⌉
PAROLES 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 foolhardy, but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue. 31
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) This is the first truth that e’er thine own tongue was guilty of.
PAROLES 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 mute, if you prattle me into these perils.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is?
PAROLES I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) We cannot afford you so.
PAROLES Or the baring of my beard, and to say it was in stratagem.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) ’Twould not do.
PAROLES Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) Hardly serve.
PAROLES Though I swore I leapt from the window of the citadel? 55 ⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) How deep?
PAROLES Thirty fathom.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.
PAROLES I would I had
any drum of the enemy’s. I would swear I recovered it.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE (aside) You shall hear one anon.
PAROLES A drum now of the enemy’s—Alarum within. ⌈The ambush rushes forth⌉
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.
⌈SOLDIERS⌉ (severally) Cargo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo.
⌈They seize and blindfold him⌉
PAROLES
O ransom, ransom, do not hide mine eyes.
INTERPRETER Boskos thromuldo boskos.
PAROLES
I know you are the Moscows 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’ll discover that which shall undo the Florentine.
INTERPRETER Boskos vauvado.—
I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue.—
Kerelybonto.—Sir,
Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards
Are at thy bosom.
PAROLES
O!
INTERPRETER
O pray, pray, pray!—
Manka revania dulche? 80
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE
Oscorbidulchos volivorco.
INTERPRETER
The general is content to spare thee yet,
And, hoodwinked as thou art, will lead thee on
To gather from thee. Haply thou mayst inform
Something to save thy life.
PAROLES
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?
PAROLES
If I do not, damn me.
INTERPRETER
Acordo linta.—
Come on, thou art granted space. 90
Exeunt all but ⌈Second⌉ Lord Dumaine and a Soldier
A short alarum within
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE
Go tell the Count Roussillon and my brother
We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him
muffled
Till we do hear from them.
SOLDIER
Captain, I will.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE
A will betray us all unto ourselves.
Inform on that.
SOLDIER
So I will, sir.
⌈SECOND⌉ LORD DUMAINE
Till then I’ll keep him dark and safely locked.
Exeunt severally
4.2 Enter Bertram and the maid called Diana
BERTRAM
They told me that your name was Fontibel.
DIANA
No, my good lord, Diana.
BERTRAM
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.
DIANA She then was honest.
BERTRAM So should you be.
DIANA
No.
My mother did but duty; such, my lord,
As you owe to your wife.
BERTRAM)
No more o’ that.
I prithee do not strive against my vows.
I was compelled to her, but I love thee
By love’s own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.
DIANA
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.
BERTRAM)
How have I sworn!
DIANA
‘Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth,
But the plain single vow that is vowed true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the high’st to witness; then pray you, tell me,
If I should swear by Jove’s great attributes
I loved 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
That I will work against him. Therefore your oaths
Are words and poor conditions but unsealed,
At least in my opinion.
BERTRAM)
Change it, change it.
Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy,
And my integrity ne’er knew the crafts
That you do charge men with. Stand no more off,
But give thyself unto my sick desires,
Who then recovers. Say thou art mine, and ever
My love as it begins shall so persever.
DIANA
I see that men make toys e’en such a surance
That we’ll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring.
BERTRAM
I’ll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power
To give it from me.
DIANA
Will you not, my lord?
BERTRAM
It is an honour ‘longing to our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors,
Which were the greatest obloquy i’th’ world
In me to lose.
DIANA
Mine honour’s such a ring.
My chastity’s the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors,
Which were the greatest obloquy i’th’ world
In me to lose. Thus your own proper wisdom
Brings in the champion Honour on my part
Against your vain assault.
BERTRAM)
Here, take my ring.
My house, mine honour, yea my life be thine,
And I’ll be bid by thee.
DIANA
When midnight comes, knock at my chamber window.
I’ll order take my mother shall not hear.
Now will I charge you in the bond of truth,
When you have conquered 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 delivered—
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.
BERTRAM
A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee.
DIANA
For which live long to thank both heaven and me.
You may so in the end. ⌈Exit Bertram⌉
My mother told me just how he would woo,
As if she sat in’s 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
4.3 Enter the two Captains Dumaine and some two or three soldiers
FIRST LORD DUMAINE You have not given him his mother’s letter?
SECOND LORD DUMAINE I have delivered it an hour since. There is something in’t that stings his nature, for on the reading it he changed almost into another man.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off
so good a wife and so sweet a lady.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the King, who had even tuned his bounty to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE When you have spoken it ’tis dead, and I am the grave of it.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence of a most chaste renown, and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour. He hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE Now God delay our rebellion! As we are ourselves, what things are we.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons we still see them reveal themselves till they attain to their abhorred ends, so he that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o’erflows himself.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We shall not then have his company tonight?
SECOND LORD DUMAINE Not till after midnight, for he is dieted to his hour.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE That approaches apace. I would gladly have him see his company anatomized, that he might take a measure of his own judgements, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE We will not meddle with him till he come, for his presence must be the whip of the other.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE In the mean time, what hear you of these wars?
SECOND LORD DUMAINE I hear there is an overture of peace.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE Nay, I assure you, a peace concluded.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE What will Count Roussillon do then? Will he travel higher, or return again into France?
FIRST LORD DUMAINE I perceive by this demand you are not altogether of his council.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE Let it be forbid, sir; so should I be a great deal of his act.
FIRST LORD DUMAINE Sir, his wife some two months since fled from his house. Her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques le Grand, which holy undertaking with most austere sanctimony she accomplished, and there residing, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief: in fine, made a groan of her last breath, and now she sings in heaven.
SECOND LORD DUMAINE How is this justified?
FIRST LORD DUMAINE The stronger part of it by her own letters, which makes her story true even to the point of her death. Her death itself, which could not be her office to say is come, was faithfully confirmed by the rector of the place.
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 337
