CLO. O madam, yonder is heavy news within, between two soldiers and my young lady. COUNT. What is the matter? CLO. Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not be killed so soon as I thought he would. COUNT. Why should he be killed? CLO. So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does the danger is in standing to 't; that's the loss of men, though it be the getting of children. Here they come, will tell you more : for my part, I only hear your son was run away. [Exit Clown. That the first face of neither, on the start, Can woman me unto 't.-Where is my son, I pray you? 2 GEN. Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of Florence: We met him thitherward: for thence we came, [passport. HEL. Look on his letter, madam; here's my [Reads.] When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body, that I am father to, then call me husband: but in such a then I write a never. This is a dreadful sentence. COUNT. Brought you this letter, gentlemen? 1 GEN. Ay, madam; And, for the contents' sake, are sorry for our pains. COUNT. I pr'ythee, lady, have a better cheer; If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety: he was my son; But I do wash his name out of my blood, [he? And thou art all my child.-Towards Florence is 2 GEN. Ay, madam. COUNT. And to be a soldier? There's nothing here, that is too good for him, 1 GEN. A servant only, and a gentleman Which I have sometime known. COUNT. Parolles, was it not? 1 GEN. Ay, my good lady, he. [wickedness. COUNT. A very tainted fellow, and full of My son corrupts a well-derived nature With his inducement. 1 GEN. Indeed, good lady, The fellow has a deal of that, too much, a The ruff,-] The top of the boot which turned over, and was sometimes ornamented with lace, was called the ruff. [thou Nothing in France, until he has no wife! SCENE III.-Florence. Before the Duke's Palace. Flourish. Enter the DUKE of FLORENCE, BERTRAM, Lords, Officers, Soldiers, and others. DUKE. The general of our horse thou art; and we, The fellow has a deal of that, too much, Which holds him much to have.] Of this passage no one has yet succeeded in making sense. It is, we fear, irremediably corrupt. b-More the still-piecing air,—] The old text has "still peering." Still-piecing, that is, ever closing, was proposed by Malone. Tyr COUNT. Alas! and would you take the letter of her? Might you not know, she would do as she has done, By sending me a letter? Read it again. STEW. [Reads.] I am St. Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone : With sainted vow my faults to have amended. 1, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth From courtly friends, with camping foes to live, Where death and danger dog the heels of worth: He is too good and fair for death and me; Whom I myself embrace, to set him free. COUNT. Ah, what sharp stings are in her Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much, STEW. Pardon me, madam : If I had given you this at over-night, She might have been o'er-ta'en; and yet she writes, Pursuit would be but vain. COUNT. What angel shall whitt thought a farther alteration necessary, and would have substituted rove for move: -"rove the still-piecing air;" but there is authority for more, in the sense of penetrate, or wound. High preasse thy flames, the chrystall aire to move." A Sonnet by WILLIAM LITHGOW, 1615. Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive, SCENE V. Without the Walls of Florence. A tucket afar off. Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and other Citizens. WID. Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we shall lose all the sight. DIA. They say, the French count has done most honourable service. WID. It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander; and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother. We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may know by their trumpets. MAR. Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty. WID. I have told my neighbour, how you have been solicited by a gentleman his companion. MAR. I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles a filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl.-Beware of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go under: many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for 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 a Are not the things they go under:] "They are not the things for which their names would make them pass."-JoHNSON. a Mere the truth;] Quite the truth. b Honesty,-] That is, chastity. e I write good creature:] So the first folio, but which the editor of the second, not perhaps understanding, altered to,-"I right, good creature." The phrase to write, in the sense of to proclaim, &c. was not at all uncommon formerly. It occurs, indeed, three or four times in Shakespeare: thus, in the present play, Act II. Sc. 3, Lafeu says, "Sirrah, I write man," &c. |