| ACT III SCENE VI | Camp before Florence. | |
| [Enter BERTRAM and the two French Lords] |
| Second Lord | Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his |
| way. |
| First Lord | If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no |
| more in your respect. |
| Second Lord | On my life, my lord, a bubble. | 5 |
| BERTRAM | Do you think I am so far deceived in him? |
| Second 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 | 10 |
| of no one good quality worthy your lordship's |
| entertainment. |
| First 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. | 15 |
| BERTRAM | I would I knew in what particular action to try him. |
| First Lord | None better than to let him fetch off his drum, |
| which you hear him so confidently undertake to do. |
| Second Lord | I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly |
| surprise him; such I will have, whom I am sure he | 20 |
| 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 own tents. Be but your lordship |
| present at his examination: if he do not, for the | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
| First 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 | 35 |
| entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. |
| Here he comes. |
| [Enter PAROLLES] |
| Second Lord | [Aside to BERTRAM] O, for the love of laughter,
|
| hinder not the honour of his design: let him fetch |
| off his drum in any hand. | 40 |
| BERTRAM | How now, monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your |
| disposition. |
| First Lord | A pox on't, let it go; 'tis but a drum. |
| PAROLLES | 'But a drum'! is't 'but a drum'? A drum so lost! |
| There was excellent command,--to charge in with our | 45 |
| horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers! |
| First Lord | That was not to be blamed in the command of the |
| service: it was a disaster of war that Caesar |
| himself could not have prevented, if he had been |
| there to command. | 50 |
| BERTRAM | Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some |
| dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is |
| not to be recovered. |
| PAROLLES | It might have been recovered. |
| BERTRAM | It might; but it is not now. | 55 |
| PAROLLES | 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.' |
| BERTRAM | Why, if you have a stomach, to't, monsieur: if you | 60 |
| 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. | 65 |
| and extend to you what further becomes his |
| greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your |
| worthiness. |
| PAROLLES | By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it. |
| BERTRAM | But you must not now slumber in it. | 70 |
| PAROLLES | I'll about it this evening: and I will presently |
| pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my |
| certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation; |
| and by midnight look to hear further from me. |
| BERTRAM | May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it? | 75 |
| PAROLLES | I know not what the success will be, my lord; but |
| the attempt I vow. |
| BERTRAM | I know thou'rt valiant; and, to the possibility of |
| thy soldiership, will subscribe for thee. Farewell. |
| PAROLLES | I love not many words. | 80 |
| [Exit] |
| Second Lord | No more than a fish loves water. Is not this a |
| strange fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems |
| to undertake this business, which he knows is not to |
| be done; damns himself to do and dares better be |
| damned than to do't? | 85 |
| First Lord | You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it |
| is that he will steal himself into a man's favour and |
| for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but |
| when you find him out, you have him ever after. |
| BERTRAM | Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of | 90 |
| this that so seriously he does address himself unto? |
| Second Lord | None in the world; but return with an invention and |
| clap upon you two or three probable lies: but we |
| have almost embossed him; you shall see his fall |
| to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship's respect. | 95 |
| First Lord | We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case |
| him. He was first smoked by the old lord Lafeu: |
| when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a |
| sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this |
| very night. | 100 |
| Second Lord | I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught. |
| BERTRAM | Your brother he shall go along with me. |
| Second Lord | As't please your lordship: I'll leave you. |
| [Exit] |
| BERTRAM | Now will I lead you to the house, and show you |
| The lass I spoke of. | 105 |
| First Lord | But you say she's honest. |
| BERTRAM | That's all the fault: I spoke with her but once |
| And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her, |
| By this same coxcomb that we have i' the wind, |
| Tokens and letters which she did re-send; | 110 |
| And this is all I have done. She's a fair creature: |
| Will you go see her? |
| First Lord | With all my heart, my lord. |
| [Exeunt] |