My mother told me juft how he would woo, As if the fat in his heart; she says, all men To cozen him, that would unjustly win. SCENE III. The Florentine camp. [Exit. Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers. 1 Lord. You have not given him his mother's letter? 4 2 Lord. I have deliver'd is an hour fince: there is fomething in't that ftings his nature; for, on the reading it, he chang'd almost into another man. I Lord.' He has much worthy blame laid upon him, for thaking off fo good a wife, and fo fweet a lady. 2 Lord. -Since Frenchmen are fi braid, Marry that will, Pll live and die a maid ;] What! becaufe Frenchmen were falfe, fhe, that was an Italian, would marry nobody. The text is corrupted; and we should read, 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 through fo many difficulties to obtain him. WARBURTON. The paffage is very unimportant, and the old reading reasor.able enough. Nothing is more common than for girls, on fuch occafions, to fay in a pet what they do not think, or to think for a time what they do not finally refolve. JOHNSON. Braid does not fignify crooked or perverfe, but crafty or deceitful. STEEVENS. I 1 Lerd.] The later editors have with great liberality beftow 2 Lord. Efpecially he hath incurred the everlasting difpleasure of the King, who had even tun'd his bounto fing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you fhall let it dwell darkly with you. 1 Lord. When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the grave of it. 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. 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 courfe of all treafons, we ftill fee them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorr'd ends; fo he, that in this action contrives against his own nobility, 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. 1 Lord. That approaches apace: I would gladly have him fee his company anatomiz'd; that he might ed 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 lord E. but the fubordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converse, 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. JOHNSON. 2 in his proper ftream o'erflows himself.] That is, betrays his own fecrets in his own talk. The reply fhews that this is the meaning. take a measure of his own judgment, wherein fo curiously he hath fet this counterfeit. 2 Lord. We will not meddle with him, till he come; for his prefence must be the whip of the other. 1 Lord. In the mean time, what hear you of thefe wars? 2 Lord. I hear, there is an overture of peace. 1 Lord. Nay, I affure you, a peace concluded. 2 Lord. What will count Roufillon 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, fir! fo fhould I be a a great deal of his act. 2 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 accomplish'd: and there refiding, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief; in fine, made a groan of her last breath, and now the fings in heaven. 2 Lord. How is this juftified? 1 Lord. The ftronger 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 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. 3 he might take a measure of his own judgment.] This is a very juft and moral reafon. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be lefs confident, and more cafily moved by admonition. JOHNSON. I Lord. 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 whip'd them not; and our crimes would defpair, if they were not cherish'd by our virtues. Enter a Servant. How now? where's your master? Serv. He met the Duke in the street, fir, of whom he hath taken a folemn leave; his lordship will next morning for France. The Duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the King. 2 Lord. They shall be no more than needful there, if they were more than they can commend, Enter Bertram. How now, my I Lord. They cannot be too fweet for the King's tartnefs. Here's his lordship now. lord, is't not after midnight? Ber. I have to-night dispatch'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'd for her; writ to my lady mother, I am returning; entertain'd my convoy; and, between these main parcels of difpatch, effected many nicer needs: the laft was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet. 2 Lord. If the business 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, 4 bring forth this counterfeit module; he has deceiv'd me, like a double-meaning prophefier. 2 Lord. Bring him forth: He has fat in the stocks all night, poor gallant knave. Ber. No matter; his heels have deferv'd it, in ufurping his fpurs fo long. How does he carry himfelf? 1 Lord. I have told your lordship already: the ftocks carry him. But to answer you as you would be understood: he weeps like a wench that had shed her milk he hath confefs'd himself to Morgan, whom he supposes to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance to this very inftant difafter of his fitting i'the 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. Re-enter Soldiers with Parolles. Ber. A plague upon him! muffled! he can fay nothing of me; huh! huh! Lord. Hoodman comes: Portotartaroffa. Inter. He calls for the tortures; What, will you fay without 'em? Par. I will confefs what I know without constraint; if ye pinch me like a pafty, I can fay no more, Inter. Bofko Chimurcho. 2 Lord. Beblibindo chicurmurco. ↑ bring forth this counterfeit MODULE ;] This epithet is improper to a module, which profefies to be the counterfeit of another thing. We fhould read MEDAL. And this the Oxford editor fllows. WARBURTON. 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. JOHNSON. |
