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 plausible 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 it: They will say, Came you off with so little? and great ones I dare not give. Wherefore? what's the instance1? Tongue, I must put you into a butterwoman's mouth, and buy another of Bajazet's mute 5, 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 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.

4 The proof.

5 The old copy reads mule. The emendation was made by Warburton.

6 i. e. the shaving of my beard. To bare anciently signified to shave. So in Measure for Measure, Act iv. S. 2. It was the desire of the penitent to be so bared.'

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 Lord. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo. All. Cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo. Par. O! ransom, ransom :-Do not hide mine eyes. [They seize him and blindfold him.

1 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, Italian, or French, let him speak to me,

I will discover that which shall undo

The Florentine.

1 Sold.

Boskos vauvado:

I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue:
Kerelybonto:Sir,

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

1 Sold. The general is content to spare thee yet; And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on To gather from thee: haply, thou may'st inform Something to save thy life.

Par.

O, let me live,

And all the secrets of our camp I'll show,
Their force, their purposes: nay, I'll speak that
will wonder at.

Which you 1 Sold.

But wilt thou faithfully?

Acordo linta.

Par. If I do not, damn me.

1 Sold.

Come on, thou art granted space.

[Exit, with PAROLLES guarded. 1 Lord. Go, tell the count Rousillon, and my

brother,

We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him

muffled,

Till we do hear from them.

2 Sold.

Captain, I will.

1 Lord. He will betray us all unto ourselves;— Inform 'em that.

1 Lord. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely lock'd.

SCENE II. Florence.

A Room in the Widow's House.

Enter BERTRAM and DIANA.

[Exeunt.

Ber. They told me, that your name was Fontibell. Dia. No, my good lord, Diana.

Ber.
Titled goddess;
And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul,
In your fine frame hath love no quality?
If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
You are no maiden, but a monument:

When you are dead, you should be such a one
As

you are now, for you are cold and stern; And now you should be as your mother was,

When your sweet self was got.

Dia. She then was honest.

Ber.
Dia.

My mother did but duty; such, my lord,

As

you owe to your wife.

No more of that!

Ber.

I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows1:

I was compell'd to her; but I love thee

By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever Do thee all rights of service.

Dia.

Ay, so you serve us, Till we serve you: but when you have our roses, You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves, And mock us with our bareness.

Ber.

How have I sworn?

Dia. 'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth; But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true. What is not holy, that we swear not by,

But take the highest to witness 2: Then, pray you, tell me,

If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,
I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? this has no holding,
To swear by him whom I protest to love,
That I will work against him 3: Therefore, your oaths

1i. e. against his determined resolution never to cohabit with Helena.

2 The sense is—we never swear by what is not holy, but take to witness the Highest, the Divinity.

3 Heath's attempt at explanation of this very obscure passage does not satisfy me. It appears to be corrupt; and, after much attention to its probable meaning, and taken with the preceding and succeeding speeches, I feel persuaded that it should stand thus:

'If I should swear by Love's great attributes,

I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? this has no holding,
To swear by him, when I protest to love
That I will work against him.'

The first alteration has Johnson's sanction, in the print of the

Are words, and poor conditions; but unseal'd;
At least, in my opinion.

Ber.

Change it, change it;

Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy;
And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts
That you

do charge men with: Stand no more off,

But give thyself unto my sick desires,

Who then recover: say, thou art mine, and ever My love, as it begins, shall so perséver.

Dia. I see, that men make hopes, in such a war1, That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring. Ber. I'll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power To give it from me.

Dia.

Will you not, my lord? Ber. It is an honour 'longing to our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world In me to lose.

Dia.

Mine honour's such a ring: My chastity's the jewel of our house, Bequeathed down from many ancestors; Which were the greatest obloquy i'the world In me to lose: Thus your own proper wisdom

old folio it is doubtful whether it be Iove's or loves;' and who ever reads Bertram's preceding and succeeding speeches will be convinced that love's was meant. The slight change in punctuation and the substitution of when for whom would not be an unwarrantable innovation, they are probably errors of the press. The sense of the last three lines will then be: this has no consistency to swear by love, when, at the same time, I protest in secret to love that I will work against him, i. e. against my lover's peace, by leaving him for another, as Bertram had left his wife for Diana.

4 The old copy reads, make ropes in such a scarre.' Rowe changed it to, make hopes in such affairs;' and Malone to, make hopes in such a scene. But affairs and scene have no literal resemblance to the old word scarre: warre is always so written in the old copy; the change is therefore less violent, more probable, and, I think, makes better sense.