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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,1
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?

I did so.

Hel.
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.

Dia.

Whatsoe'er he is,

He's bravely taken here. He stole from France,
As 'tis reported, for the king2 had married him
Against his liking: Think you it is so?

Hel. Ay, surely, mere the truth;3 I know his lady.

from a staff, or bough of palm they were wont to carry, especially such as had visited the holy places at Jerusalem. "A pilgrim and a palmer differed thus: a pilgrim had some dwellingplace, a palmer none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim must 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, voce Pilgrim. Reed.

1—

- holy pilgrim,] The interpolated epithet holy, which adds nothing to our author's sense, and is injurious to his metre, may be safely omitted. Steevens.

2

for the king &c.] For, in the present instance, signifies because. So, in Othello:

3

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and great business scant,

"For she is with me."

Steevens.

mere the truth;] The exact, the entire truth. Malone

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. A right good creature: wheresoe'er she is, Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd.

Hel.

May be, the amorous count solicits her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid.

How do you mean?

He does, indeed;

And brokes6 with all that can in such a suit

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

5 A right good creature:] There is great reason to believe, that when these plays were copied for the press, the transcriber trusted to the ear, and not to the eye; one person dictating, and ano. ther transcribing. Hence, probably, the error of the old copy, which reads-I write good creature. For the emendation now made I am answerable. The same expression is found in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634:

"A right good creature, more to me deserving," &c. Malone.

Perhaps, Shakspeare wrote

I weet, good creature, wheresoe'er she is,—

i. e. I know, I am well assured. He uses the word in Antony and Cleopatra. Thus also, Prior:

"But well I weet, thy cruel wrong

"Adorns a nobler poet's song." Steevens.

I should prefer the old reading to this amendment. I write good creature, may well mean, I set her down as a good creature. The widow could not well assert, that a woman was a right good creature, that she had never seen before. M. Mason.

In Bell's edition the passage is printed thus:

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Ay! right: good creature! wheresoe'er," &c.

VOL. V.

Y

Amer. Edit.

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.

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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 gentle-
man?

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 i' the battle.

Par. Lose our drum! well.

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

Wid. Marry, hang you!

6 brokes] Deals as a broker. Johnson..

To broke is to deal with panders. A broker, in our author's time, meant a bawd or pimp. See a note on Hamlet, Act I, sc. iii. Malone.

7- ·Yond's that same knave,

That leads him to these places;] What places? Have they been talking of brothels; or, indeed, of any particular locality? I make no question but our author wrote:

That leads him to these paces.

í. e. such irregular steps, to courses of debauchery, to not loving his wife. Theobald.

The places are, apparently, where he

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brokes with all, that can in such a suit
"Corrupt the tender honour of a maid." Steevens.

Mar. And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier!

[Exeunt BER. PAR. 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.

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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, 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 entertain

ment.

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.

8 on this] Old copy-of this. Corrected in the second folio. Malone.

9

a hilding,] A hilding is a paltry, cowardly fellow. So, in King Henry V: "To purge the field from such a hilding foe." Steevens. See note on The Second Part of K. Henry IV, Act I, sc. i.

Reed.

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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 surprize him; such I will have, whom, I am sure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink 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 ores what metal this counterfeit lump of "ore3"will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes.

1

4

he's carried into the leaguer of the adversaries,] i.e.camp. "They will not vouchsafe in their speeches or writings to use our ancient termes belonging to matters of warre, but doo 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 Smythe's Discourses, &c. 1590, fo. 2. Douce. - of his] Old copy of this. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

2

Malone.

Malone.

3 of ore-] Old copy-of ours. Lump of ours has been the reading of all the editions. Ore, according to my emendation, bears a consonancy with the other terms accompanying, (viz. metal, lump, and melted) and helps the propriety of the poet's thought: for so one metaphor is kept up, and all the words are proper and suitable to it. Theobald.

4 if you give him not John Drum's entertainment,] But, what is the meaning of John Drum's entertainment? Lafeu several times afterwards calls Parolles, Tom Drum. But the difference of the Christian name will make none in the explanation. There is an old motley interlude, (printed in 1601) called Jack Drum's Entertainment; or, The Comedy of Pasquil and Catharine. In this, Jack Drum is a servant of intrigue, who is ever aiming at projects, and always foiled, and given the drop. And there is another old piece, (published in 1627) called, Apollo shroving, in which I find these expressions:

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