2 Sold. Captain, I will. 1 Lord. He will betray us all unto ourselves;Inform 'em that. 1 Lord. Till then, I'll keep him dark, and safely locked. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Florence. A Room in the Widow's House. Enter BERTRAM and DIANA. Ber. They told me that your name was Fontibell. Dia. No, my good lord, Diana. Ber. Titled goddess; And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul, In your fine frame hath love no quality? If the 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 stern; And now you should be as your mother was, When your sweet self was got. Dia. She then was honest. Ber. Dia. So should you be. No. My mother did but duty; such, my lord, As you owe to your wife. Ber. No more of that! I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows:1 I was compelled to her; but I love thee By love's own sweet constraint, and will forever Ay, so you serve us, Dia. 1 i. e. against his determined resolution never to cohabit with Helena. Ber. How have I sworn? Dia. 'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth; But the plain, single vow, that is vowed true. me, Then pray you, tell If I should swear by Jove's great attributes, That I will work against him.2 Therefore, your oaths Are words, and poor conditions, but unsealed; At least, in my opinion. Ber. Change it, change it; Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy; Stand no more off, But give thyself unto my sick desires, Dia. I see that men make hopes, in such a war,3 Dia. Will you not, my lord? 1 The sense is, we never swear by what is not holy, but take to witness the Highest, the Divinity. 2 This passage is considered obscure by some commentators; but the meaning appears to be very obvious: an oath has no binding force, when we swear by the Deity, whom we profess to love, that we will commit a deed that is displeasing to him. 3 The old copy reads, "make ropes in such a scarre." Rowe changed it to, "make hopes in such affairs;" and Malone to, “make hopes in such a scene." But affairs and scene have no literal resemblance to the old word scarre: warre is always so written in the old copy; the change is therefore less violent, and more probable. Dia. Mine honor's such a ring. My chastity's the jewel of our house, Ber. Here, take my ring: My house, mine honor, yea, my life be thine, 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, My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them, 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 When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him 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 shall let it dwell darkly with you. 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 1 Lord. Is it not meant damnable 2 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 company anatomized; that he might 1 i. e. betrays his own secrets in his own talk. 2 Damnable for damnably; the adjective used adverbially. 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. |