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' th' world In me to lofe.

Dia, Mine Honour's fuch a ring;

My chastity's the jewel of our Houfe;
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,
Againft your vain affault.

Ber. Here, take my ring.

My Houfe, my 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 fhall 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 fpeak to me:

My reafons are most strong, and you fhall know them,.
When back again this ring fhall 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 paft deeds.
Adieu, 'till then, fail not: you have won
A Wife of me, tho' there my hope be done.
Ber. A heav'n on earth I've won by wooing thee.

[Exit. Dia. For which live long to thank both heaven and

You

m

me.

may fo in the end.

My Mother told me juft how he would woo,

As if the fate in's heart; fhe fays, all men
Have the like oaths: he had fworn to marry me
When his Wife's dead: therefore, I'll lie with him
When I am buried (2). Since Frenchmen are fo braid,

(2) -Se Frenchmen are fo braid,

Marry

Marry that will, I'll live and die a Maid;] What! because Frenchmen were falfe, fhe, that was an Italian, would marry nobody. The text is corrupted; and we should read,

Since

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

SCENE III

Changes to the French Camp in Florence.

[Exit.

Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers.

1 Lord. You have not given him his mother's letter? 2 Lord. I have deliver'd it an hour fince; there is fomething in't that ftings his nature; for, on the reading it, he chang'd almost into another man.

Lord. (3) He has much worthy blame laid upon him, for fhaking off fo good a wife, and fo fweet a lady. 2 Lord. Efpecially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the King, who had even tuin'd his bounty to fing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.

I Lord. When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I grave of it.

am the

2 Lord. He hath perverted a young Gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chafte renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the fpoil of her honour; he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchafte compofition.

Since Frenchmen are fo braid,

Marry 'em that will, I'll live and die a maid;

i. e. fince Frenchmen prove fo crooked and perverse in their manners, let who will marry them, I had rather live and die a maid, than venture upon them. This the fays with a view to Helen, who appeared fo fond of her husband, and went thro' fo many difficulties to obtain him. WARBURTON.

The paffage is very unimportant, and the old reading reafonable enough. Nothing is more common than for girls, on fuch occafions, to fay in a pett what they do not think, or to think for a time what they do not finally refolve.

(3) Lord.] The later Editors have with great liberality be ftowed lordship upon thefe interlocutors, who, in the original edition, are called, with more propriety, capt. E. and capt. G. It is true that captain E. is in a former fcene called Lard E. but the fubordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converfe, determines them to be only captains. Yet as the later readers of Shakespeare have been used to. find them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in the margin.

VOL. IV.

L

I Lord.

1 Lord. Now God delay our rebellion as we are ourselves, what things are we!

2 Lord. Meerly our own traitors; and, as in the common course of all of all treafons, we still see them reveal themselves, 'till they attain to their abhorr'd ends; fo he, that in this action contrives against his own Nobility, (4) in his proper ftream o'erflows himself.

I Lord. Is it not meant damnable in us to be the trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We fhall not then have his company to night?

2 Lord. Not 'till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour.

Lord. That approaches apace: I would gladly have him fee his company anatomiz'd, that he might take a measure of his own judgment (5), wherein fo curiously he hath fet this counterfeit.

12 Lord. We will not meddle with him 'till he come; for his prefence muft be the whip of the other.

Lord. In the mean time, what hear you of these wars?

2 Lord. I hear there is an overture of Peace.

1 Lord. Nay, I affure you, a Peace concluded. 12 Lord. What will Count Roufillan do then? Will he travel higher, or return again into France?

1 Lord. I perceive by this demand, you are not altogether of his Council.

2 Lord. Let it be forbid, Sir! fo. fhould I be a great deal of his act.

1 Lord. Sir, his Wife fome two months fince fled from his Houfe; her pretence is a Pilgrimage to St. Jaques le Grand; which holy Undertaking, with most auftere fanctimony, the accomplished; and there refiding, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief; in fine, made a groan of her laft breath, and now The fings in heaven.

2 Lord. How is this juftified?

(4) In bis proper ftream o'erflows bimfelf.] That is, betrays bis own fecrets in his own talk. The reply thews that this is the meaning.

(5) He might take a measure of bis own judgment,] This is a very juft and moral reafon. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be lefs confident, and more eafily moved by admonition.

Lord.

1 Lord. The stronger part of it by her own letters, which makes her ftory true, even to the point of her death; her. Death itself (which could, not be her office to fay, is come) was faithfully confirm'd by the Rector of the place.

2. Lord. Hath the Count all this intelligence?

1 Lord. Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from point, to the full arming of the verity.

2 Lord. I am heartily forry that he'll be glad of this. 1 Lord. How mightily fometimes we make us comforts of our loffes!

2 Lord. And how mightily fome other times we drown our gain in tears! The great dignity that his valour hath here acquired for him, fhall at home be encounter'd with a fhame as ample.

1 Lord. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipt them not; and our crimes would defpair, if they were not cherish'd by our virtues.

Enter a Servant.

How now? Where's your mafter?

Serv. He met the Duke in the street, Sir, of whom he hath taken a folemn leave: his Lordship will next morning for France. The Duke hath offered him let ters of commendations to the King.

2 Lord. They fhall be no more than needful there, if they were more than they can commend. pard

1 Lord. They cannot be too fweet for the King's tartnefs; here's his Lordship now. How now, my Lord, is't not after midnight?

Ber. I have to-night difpatch'd fixteen bufineffes; a month's length a-piece, by an abftract of fuccefs; I have congied with the Duke, done my adieu with his. nearest; buried a wife, mourn'de for her; writ. to my lady-mother, I am returning; entertain'd my convoy and, between thefe main parcels of difpatch, effected.

many nicer needs: the laft was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet.

2 Lord. If the bufinefs be of any difficulty, and this morning your departure hence, it requires hafte of your Lordship.

Ber. I mean, the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it hereafter. But fhall we have this dialogue between the fool and the foldier? Come (6), bring forth this counterfeit module; h'as deceiv'd me, Tike a doublemeaning prophefier.

2 Lord. Bring him forth, has fate in the Stocks all night, poor gallant knave.

Ber. No matter; his heels have deferved it, in ufurping his fpurs fo long. How does he carry himself?

1 Lord. I have told your Lordship already: the Stocks carry him. But to answer you as you would be underftood, he weeps. like a wench that had fhed her milk; he hath confefs'd himself to Morgan, whom he fuppofes to be a Friar, from the time of his remembrance to this very inftant disaster of his fetting i'th' Stocks; and what think you, he hath confest?

Ber. Nothing of me, has he?

2 Lord. His confeffion is taken, and it fhall be read to his face; if your Lordship be in't, as, I believe, you are, you must have the patience to hear it.

SCENE V.

Enter Parolles, with bis Interpreter.

Ber. A plague upon him, muffled! he can fay nothing of me; huh! hush!

I Lord. Hoodman comes: Portotaroffa.

Inter. He calls for the tortures; what, will you fay without 'em?

Par. I will confess what I know without constraint, if you pinch me like a pafty, I can fay no more. Interp. Bofko Chimurcho.

2 Lord. Biblibindo chicurmurco.

(6) bring forth this counterfeit MODULE] This epithet is improper to a module, which profeffes to be the counterfeit of another thing. We should read MEDA .And this the Oxford Editor folWARBURTON. lows.

Module being the pattern of any thing, may be here used in that fenfe. Bring forth this fellow, who by counterfeit virtue pretended to make himself a pattern.

Inter,