SCENE VII.

Florence. A room in the Widow's house.

Enter HELENA and WIDOW.

Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, I know not how I shall assure you farther,

But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.1

Wi. Though my estate be fallen, 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 count he is my husband; And, what to your sworn counsel 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.

Wi.

I should believe you;

For you have show'd me that, which well approves You are great in fortune.

Hel.

Take this purse of gold,

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will over-pay, and pay again,

When I have found it. The count he woos your

daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,

1 i. e. by discovering myself to the count.

2

Resolves to carry her: let her, in fine, consent,
As we 'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it,
Now his important1 blood will naught 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 holas
In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire,

To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.

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.

I have yielded :

Wi. Instruct my daughter how she shall persever, That time and place, with this deceit so lawful, May prove coherent. Every night he comes With musics 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 lawful act ;
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
But let's about it.

ACT IV.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

Without the Florentine camp.

Enter FIRST LORD, with FIVE or SIX SOLDIERS in ambush.

1 Lord. He can come no other way but by this hedge' corner. 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.

1 Sol. Good captain, let me be the interpreter. 1 Lord. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?

1 Sol. No, sir, I warrant you.

1 Lord. But what linsy-woolsy hast thou to speak to us again?

1 Sol. Even such as you speak to me.

1 Lord. He must think us some band of strangers

2

i' the adversary's entertainment. Now he hath a smack of all neighboring 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: chough 's2 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.

Enter PAROlles.

Par. Ten o'clock: within these three hours 'twill

be time enough to go home. What shall I say I have done? It must be a very plausive invention that carries it. They begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door. I find, my tongue is too fool-hardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.

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

[aside.

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

Foreign troops in the enemy's pay.

The chough is a bird resembling a jackdaw.

it: they will say, 'Came you off with so little?' and great ones I dare not give. Wherefore? what's the instance? 1 Tongue, I must put you into a butter-woman's mouth, and buy another of Bajazet's mute, if you prattle me into these perils.

1 Lord. Is it possible, he should know what he is, and be that he is?

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

1 Lord. We cannot afford you so.

[aside. Par. Or the baring 3 of my beard; and to say, it was in stratagem.

1 Lord. 'Twould not do.

[aside.

Par. Or to drown my clothes, and say, I was stripped.

1 Lord. Hardly serve.

[aside.

Par. Though I swore I leaped from the window

of the citadel

1 Lord. How deep?

Par. Thirty fathom.

[aside.

1 Lord. Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed.

[aside. Par. I would, I had any drum of the enemy's: I would swear, I recovered it.

1 Lord. You shall hear one anon. Par. A drum now of the enemy's!

[aside.

[alarum within.

1 'The proof. 2 i. e. a Turkish mute.

• Shaving.