| ACT IV SCENE II | Florence. The Widow's house. | |
| [Enter BERTRAM and DIANA] |
| BERTRAM | They told me that your name was Fontibell. |
| DIANA | No, my good lord, Diana. |
| BERTRAM | Titled goddess; |
| And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul, |
| In your fine frame hath love no quality? | 5 |
| If 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 stem; |
| And now you should be as your mother was | 10 |
| When your sweet self was got. |
| DIANA | She then was honest. |
| BERTRAM | So should you be. |
| DIANA | No: |
| My mother did but duty; such, my lord, | 15 |
| As you owe to your wife. |
| BERTRAM | No more o' that; |
| I prithee, do not strive against my vows: |
| I was compell'd to her; but I love thee |
| By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever | 20 |
| Do thee all rights of service. |
| DIANA | 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. | 25 |
| BERTRAM | How have I sworn! |
| DIANA | 'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, |
| But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. |
| What is not holy, that we swear not by, |
| But take the High'st to witness: then, pray you, tell me, | 30 |
| If I should swear by God's great attributes, |
| I loved 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: therefore your oaths | 35 |
| Are words and poor conditions, but unseal'd, |
| At least in my opinion. |
| BERTRAM | Change it, change it; |
| Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy; |
| And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts | 40 |
| 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 persever. |
| DIANA | I see that men make ropes in such a scarre | 45 |
| That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring. |
| BERTRAM | I'll lend it thee, my dear; but have no power |
| To give it from me. |
| DIANA | Will you not, my lord? |
| BERTRAM | It is an honour 'longing to our house, | 50 |
| Bequeathed down from many ancestors; |
| Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world |
| In me to lose. |
| DIANA | Mine honour's such a ring: |
| My chastity's the jewel of our house, | 55 |
| 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 Honour on my part, |
| Against your vain assault. | 60 |
| BERTRAM | Here, take my ring: |
| My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine, |
| And I'll be bid by thee. |
| DIANA | When midnight comes, knock at my chamber-window: |
| I'll order take my mother shall not hear. | 65 |
| Now will I charge you in the band of truth, |
| When you have conquer'd 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 deliver'd: | 70 |
| 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. | 75 |
| BERTRAM | A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee. |
| [Exit] |
| DIANA | 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 's heart; she says all men | 80 |
| 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 live and die a maid: |
| Only in this disguise I think't no sin | 85 |
| To cozen him that would unjustly win. |
| [Exit] |