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 pilgrim,

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.

Hel. I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.
Wid. You came, I think, from France?

Hel.

I did so.

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

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.

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. A palmer differed from a pilgrim thus: a pilgrim had some dwelling-place, a palmer none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, a palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim might go at his own charge, the palmer must profess wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profession, the palmer must be constant till he had the palm: that is, victory over his ghostly enemies and life by death.-BLOUNT'S Glossography.

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. I write good creature wheresoe'er she is,

Her heart weighs sadly this young maid might do her

A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd.

Hel.

How do you mean?

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!

Wid.

So, now they com e:

That is Antonio, the duke's eldest son;

That, Escalus.

u

Hel.

Which is the Frenchman?

examin'd,] That is, questioned, doubted.

x I write good creature-] I warrant her a good creature.

brokes-] To broke is to deal with panders. A broker, in our author's

time, meant a bawd or pimp.-MALONE.

Dia.

He;

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 in the battle.

Par. Lose our drum! well.

Mar. He's shrewdly vexed at something: Look, he has spied us.

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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Camp before Florence.

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 too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might, at some great and trusty business, in a main danger fail you.

Ber. I would, I knew in what particular action to try him.

2 Lord. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him so confidently undertake to do.

1 Lord. I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly surprise him; such I will have, whom I am sure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hoodwink him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries, when we bring him to our tents: Be but your lordship present at his examination if he do not, for the promise of his life, and in the highest compulsion of base fear, offer to betray you, and deliver all the intelligence in his power against you, and that with the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my judgment in any thing.

;

2 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he says, he has a stratagem for't: when your lordship sees the bottom of his success in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment," your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes.

a

a hilding,] A hilding is a paltry, cowardly fellow.
leaguer-] i. e. Camp.

They will not vouchsafe in their speeches or writings, to use our ancient termes belonging to matters of warre, but to call a campe by the Dutch name of Legar; nor will not affoord to say, that such a towne or such a fort is besieged, but that it is belegard."—Sir John Smyth's Discourses, &c. 1590.-Douce.

b if you give him not John Drum's entertainment,] i. e. Treat him very ill; a proverbial expression of doubtful origin.-Holenshed thus defines it; speaking of the hospitality of a mayor of Dublin, he says, that "his porter or

Enter PAROLLES.

1 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his design: let him fetch off his drum in any hand.c

Ber. How now, monsieur? this drum sticks sorely in your disposition.

2 Lord. A pox on't, let it go; 'tis but a drum.

Par. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum so lost! -There was an excellent command! to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers.

2 Lord. That was not to be blamed in the command of the service; it was a disaster of war that Cæsar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command.

Ber. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success; some dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is not to be recovered.

Par. It might have been recovered.

Ber. It might, but it is not now.

Par. It is to be recovered: but that the merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or hic jacet,d

Ber. Why, if you have a stomach to't, monsieur, if you think your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honour again into his native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprise, and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you speed well in it, the duke shall both speak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness.

Par. By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.
Ber. But you must not now slumber in it.

other officer durst not for both his ears give the simplest man that resorted to his house, John Drum's entertainment, which is, to hale a man in by the head, and thrust him out by both the shoulders,"-Hist. of Ireland, b. 2. col.i. cit. cap. in any hand.] i. e. At any rate.

C

d

or hic jucet.] i. e. Or here lies ;-the usual beginning of epitaphs. I would (says Parolles) recover either the drum I have lost, or another belonging to the enemy; or die in the attempt.-MALONE.