Dia.

Mine honor'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
Brings in the champion honor on my part,
Against your vain assault.

Ber.

Here, take my ring:

My house, mine honor, yea, my life be thine,
And I'll be bid by thee.

Dia. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber window;

I'll order take, my mother shall not hear.

Now will I charge you in the band of truth,
When you have conquered my yet maiden bed,
Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me:

My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them,
When back again this ring shall be delivered:
And on your finger, in the night, I'll put
Another ring; that what in time proceeds,
May token to the future our past deeds.
Adieu till then; then, fail not. You have won
A wife of me, though there my hope be done.
Ber. A heaven on earth I have won, by wooing

thee.

[Exit. Dia. For which live long to thank both Heaven and me!

You may so in the end.

My mother told me just how he would woo,

As if she sat in his heart; she says, all men
Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me
When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him

When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,'
Marry that will, I'll live and die a maid:

Only in this disguise I think't no sin

To cozen him that would unjustly win.

[Exit.

1 i. e. false, deceitful, tricking, beguiling.

SCENE III. The Florentine Camp.

Enter the two French Lords, and two or three Soldiers.

1 Lord. You have not given him his mother's letter? 2 Lord. I have delivered it an hour since. There is something in't that stings his nature; for, on the reading it, he changed almost into another man.

1 Lord. He has much worthy blame laid upon him, for shaking off so good a wife, and so sweet a lady.

2 Lord. Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the king, who had even tuned his bounty to sing happiness to him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly with you.

1 Lord. When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the grave of it.

2 Lord. He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honor; he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition.

1 Lord. Now, God delay our rebellion; as we are ourselves, what things are we!

2 Lord. Merely our own traitors; and as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends, so he that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself.'

1 Lord. Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents? We shall not. then have his company to-night.

2 Lord. Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour.

1 Lord. That approaches apace; I would gladly have him see his company3 anatomized; that he might

1 i. e. betrays his own secrets in his own talk.

2 Damnable for damnably; the adjective used adverbially.
3 Company for companion.

take a measure of his own judgment,' wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit.2

2 Lord. We will not meddle with him till he come; for his presence must be the whip of the other.

1 Lord. In the mean time, what hear you of these wars?

2 Lord. I hear there is an overture of peace.

1 Lord. Nay, I assure you, a peace concluded. 2 Lord. What will count Rousillon do then? Will he travel higher, or return again into France?

1 Lord. I perceive by this demand, you are not altogether of his council.

2 Lord. Let it be forbid, sir! So should I be a great deal of his act.

1 Lord. Sir, his wife, some two months since, fled from his house. Her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques le Grand; which holy undertaking, with most austere sanctimony, she accomplished; and, there residing, the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief; in fine, made a groan of her last breath, and now she sings in heaven.

2 Lord. How is this justified?

1 Lord. The stronger part of it by her own letters; which makes her story true, even to the point of her death. Her death itself, which could not be her office to say, is come, was faithfully confirmed by the rector of the place.

2 Lord. Hath the count all this intelligence?

1 Lord. Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from point, to the full arming of the verity.

2 Lord. I am heartily sorry, that he'll be glad of

this.

1 Lord. How mightily, sometimes, we make us comforts of our losses!

2 Lord. And how mightily, some other times, we

1 This is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by admonition.

2 Counterfeit, besides its ordinary signification of a person pretending to be what he is not, also meant a picture; the word set shows that the word is used in both senses here.

drown our gain in tears! The great dignity that his valor hath here acquired for him, shall at home be encountered with a shame as ample.

1 Lord. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. Our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.Enter a Servant.

How now? where's your master?

Serv. He met the duke in the street, sir, of whom he hath taken a solemn leave; his lordship will next morning for France. The duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the king.

2 Lord. They shall be no more than needful there, if they were more than they can commend.

1 Lord. They cannot be too sweet for the king's tartness. Here's his lordship now. How now, my lord, is't not after midnight?

I

Ber. I have to-night despatched sixteen businesses, a month's length apiece, by an abstract of success. have congeed with the duke, done my adieu with his nearest; buried a wife, mourned for her; writ to my lady mother I am returning; entertained my convoy; and, between these main parcels of despatch, effected many nicer needs; the last was the greatest, but that I have not ended yet.

2 Lord. If the business be of any difficulty, and this morning your departure hence, it requires haste of your lordship.

Ber. I mean the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the fool and the soldier?-Come, bring forth this counterfeit module; he has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier.

1 Module and model were synonymous. The meaning is, bring forth this counterfeit representation of a soldier.

2 Lord. Bring him forth. [Exeunt Soldiers.] has sat in the stocks all night, poor gallant knave.

He

Ber. No matter; his heels have deserved it, in usurping his spurs so long. How does he carry himself?

1 Lord. I have told your lordship already; the stocks carry him. But to answer you as you would be understood; he weeps like a wench that had shed her milk he hath confessed himself to Morgan, whom he supposes to be a friar, from the time of his remembrance, to this very instant disaster of his setting i'the stocks. And what think you he hath confessed?

Ber. Nothing of me, has he?

2 Lord. His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his face: if your lordship be in't, as I believe you are, you must have the patience to hear it.

Re-enter Soldiers with PAROLLES.

Ber. A plague upon him! Muffled! he can say nothing of me; hush! hush!

1 Lord. Hoodman 2 comes!-Porto tartarossa. 1 Sold. He calls for the tortures. say without 'em?

What will you

Par. I will confess what I know without constraint; if ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. 1 Sold. Bosko chimurcho.

2 Lord. Boblibindo chicurmurco.

1 Sold. You are a merciful general.-Our general bids you to answer to what I shall ask you out of a note. Par. And truly, as I hope to live.

1 Sold. First demand of him how many horse the duke is strong? What say you to that?

Par. Five or six thousand; but very weak and unserviceable. The troops are all scattered, and the commanders very poor rogues, upon my reputation and credit, as I hope to live.

1 Sold. Shall I set down your answer so?

1 An allusion to the degradation of a knight by hacking off his spurs. 2 The game at blind-man's-buff was formerly called Hoodman blind.