Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,
Led hither by pure love: which of them both
Is dearest to me, I have no skill in sense
To make distinction:-Provide this messenger:-
My heart is heavy, and mine age is weak;
Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.
[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Without the Walls of Florence.

A tucket afar off. Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and other Citizens.

Wid. Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we shall lose all the sight.

Dia. They say, the French count has done most honourable service.

Wid. It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander; and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother. We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may

by their trumpets.

know

Mar. Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.

Wid. I have told my neighbour, how you have been solicited by a gentleman his companion.

Mar. I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is in those suggestions for

3

those suggestions] Suggestions are temptations.

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 port.
Hel. Is this the way?

Wid.

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.

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.

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

I did so.

yours,

His name, I pray you.

Hel.
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.

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

May be, the amorous count solicits her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid.

He does, indeed;

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!

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.

SCENE VI.

Camp before Florence.

[Exeunt.

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 most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's

entertainment.

2 Lord. It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing -a bilding,] A hilding is a paltry, cowardly fellow.