the young earl.-Beware of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go under:* many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten them. I hope, I need not to advise you further; but, I hope, your own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no further danger known, but the modesty which is so lost. Dia. You shall not need to fear me.

Enter HELENA, in the dress of a Pilgrim.

Wid. I hope so. Look, here comes a pilgrim: I know she will lie at my house: thither they send one another; I'll question her.

God save you, pilgrim! Whither are you bound?
Hel. To Saint Jaques le grand.

Where do the palmers' lodge, I do beseech you?
Wid. At the Saint Francis here, beside the
Hel. Is this the way?

Wid.

port.

Ay, marry, is it.-Hark you! [A march afar off. They come this way:-If you will tarry, holy pil

grim,

But till the troops come by,

I will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd;
The rather, for, I think, I know your hostess
As ample as myself.

4

Hel.

Is it yourself?

Wid. If you shall please so, pilgrim.

are not the things they go under :] They are not the things for which their names would make them pass.

5 palmers-] Pilgrims that visited holy places; so called from a staff, or bough of palm they were wont to carry, especially such as had visited the holy places at Jerusalem.

Hel. I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.
Wid. You came, I think, from France?
Hel.

I did so.

Wid. Here you shall see a countryman of yours, That has done worthy service.

Hel.
His name, I pray you.
Dia. The count Rousillon; Know you such a one?
Hel. But by the ear, that hears most nobly of
him:

His face I know not.

Dia.

Whatsoe'er he is,

He's bravely taken here. He stole from France,
As 'tis reported, for the king had married him
Against his liking: Think you it is so?

Hel. Ay, surely, mere the truth; I know his lady.

Dia. There is a gentleman, that serves the count, Reports but coarsely of her.

Hel.

Dia. Monsieur Parolles.
Hel.

What's his name?

O, I believe with him,

In argument of praise, or to the worth

Of the great count himself, she is too mean
To have her name repeated; all her deserving
Is a reserved honesty, and that

I have not heard examin'd.8

Dia.

Alas, poor lady!

'Tis a hard bondage, to become the wife

Of a detesting lord.

Wid. A right good creature: wheresoe'er she is, Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her

A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd.

6 for the king, &c.] For, in the present instance, signifies because.

7

mere the truth;] The exact, the entire truth.
examin'd.] That is, questioned, doubted.

Hel.

How do you mean?

He does, indeed;

May be, the amorous count solicits her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid.

And brokes with all that can in such a suit

Corrupt the tender honour of a maid:

But she is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard
In honestest defence.

Enter with drum and colours, a party of the Florentine army, BERTRAM, and PAROLLES.

Mar. The gods forbid else!

Wid.

So, now they come:

That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow;
I would, he lov'd his wife: if he were honester,
He were much goodlier:-Is't not a handsome
gentleman?

Hel. I like him well.

Dia. 'Tis pity, he is not honest: Yond's that same knave,

That leads him to these places; were I his lady,
I'd poison that vile rascal.

Hel.

Which is he?

Dia. That jack-an-apes with scarfs: Why is he melancholy?

Hel. Perchance he's hurt i'the battle.

Par. Lose our drum! well.

Mar. He's shrewdly vexed at something: Look, he has spied us.

9

brokes] To broke is to deal with panders. A broker,

in our author's time, meant a bawd or pimp.

Wid. Marry, hang you!

Mar. And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier! [Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, Officers,

and Soldiers.

Wid. The troop is past: Come, pilgrim, I will bring you

Where you shall host: of enjoin'd penitents There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound, Already at my house.

Hel.

I humbly thank you:
Please it this matron, and this gentle maid,

To eat with us to-night, the charge, and thanking,
Shall be for me; and, to requite you further,
I will bestow some precepts on this virgin,
Worthy the note.

Both.

We'll take

your offer kindly.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Camp before Florence.

Enter BERTRAM, and the two French Lords.

1 Lord. Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his way.

2 Lord. If your lordship find him not a hilding,' hold me no more in your respect.

1 Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble.

Ber. Do you think, I am so far deceived in him? 1 Lord. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinsman, he's a inost notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's

entertainment.

1

2 Lord. It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing

I-a bilding,] A hilding is a paltry, cowardly fellow.

too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might, at some 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 so confidently undertake to do.

2 Lord. I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly surprize him; such I will have, whom, I am sure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer' of the adversaries, when we bring him to our 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 intelligence in his power against you, and that with the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my judgment in any thing.

2 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 bottom of his success in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment,3 your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes.

Enter PAROLles.

1 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his design; let him fetch off his drum in any hand.

9

3

he is carried into the leaguer-] i. e. camp.

if you give him not John Drum's entertainment,] i. e. treat him very ill; a proverbial expression of doubtful origiņ.