Wid. 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.

Hel.

Nor would I wish you.

First, give me trust, the county is my husband,
And what to your sworn counsel2 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.

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will over-pay and pay again,

When I have found it. The county wooes 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 3 blood will nought 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.

lent to without losing. A frequent usage. So in Hamlet, i. 3: sleep but let me hear from you." That is, without letting.

2 Your sworn counsel is your plighted secresy, or pledge of concealment. The Poet has counsel repeatedly so.

3 Important for importunate. Repeatedly so. See vol. i., page 138, note 8.

The bottom of your purpose.

Hel. 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 this,

To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is past already.

Wid.
I have yielded :
Instruct my daughter how she shall perséver,
That time and place with this deceit so lawful
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With music 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.

Hel.

Why, then to-night
Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed,

Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a wicked act ;

4

Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
But let's about it.

[Exeunt.

4 Helen's intent was lawful, for it was to meet her husband; but her act is spoken of as wicked, inasmuch as she was to deceive her husband by pretending to act a crime.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Without the Florentine Camp.

Enter 1 French Lord, with five or six Soldiers in ambush.

I Lord. He can come no other way but by this hedgecorner. 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. I Sold. Good captain, let me be the interpreter.

I Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?

I Sold. No, sir, I warrant you.

I Lord. But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again?

1 Sold. E'en such as you speak to me.

1 Lord. He must think us some band of strangers i' the 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' 2 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.

Par. Ten o'clock: enough to go home.

Enter PAROLLES.

within these three hours 'twill be time What shall I say I have done? It must

1 Some band of foreign troops in the enemy's pay. 2 The chough is a bird of the jackdaw kind.

be a very plausive 3 invention that carries it: they begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knock'd 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.

1 Lord. [Aside.] This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.

Par. 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 ?4 Tongue, I must put you into a butter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mute,5 if you prattle me into these perils.

I Lord. [Aside.] Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is?

Par. I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword;

1 Lord. [Aside.] We cannot afford you so. Par.—or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in stratagem ;

I Lord. [Aside.] 'Twould not do.

Par.

or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripp'd ;

3 Plausive here must mean plausible or specious; the only instance, I think, of the word so used in Shakespeare. See page 24, note II.

4 That is, "what proof shall I produce?" or, "in what shall I instance, to bear out my pretence?" The Poet has instance repeatedly so. See vol. i., page 82, note 9.

5 The matter of this allusion, for such it seems to be, has not been traced. Eastern monarchs were well known to have attendants so called.

6 To bare the beard was to shave. So in Measure for Measure, iv. 2: "Shave the head, and trim the beard; and say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his death."

1 Lord. [Aside.] Hardly serve.

Par.

citadel,

though I swore I leap'd from the window of the

1 Lord. [Aside.] How deep?

Par.thirty fathom.

I Lord. [Aside.] Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.

Par. I would I had any drum of the enemy's: I would swear I recover'd it.

I Lord. [Aside.] You shall hear one anon.

Par. A drum now of the enemy's !

[Alarum within.

I Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo.
All. Cargo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo.
Par. O, ransom, ransom ! do not hide mine eyes.

[They seize and blindfold him.

I Sold. Boskos thromuldo boskos.

Par. I know you are the Muskos' regiment; And I shall lose my life for want of language : If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch, French, or Italian, let him speak to me;

I will discover that which shall undo

I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue : —
Kerelybonto:- sir,

Betake thee to thy faith, for seventeen poniards
Are at thy bosom.

I Sold. The general is content to spare thee yet; And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on