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

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those SUGGESTIONS for the young earl.] Suggestions are temptations. So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

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Suggestions are to others as to me." STEEVENS. are not the things they go under :] They are not really so true and sincere, as in appearance they seem to be.

To

THEOBALD.

go under the name of any thing is a known expression. The meaning is, they are not the things for which their names would make them pass.

JOHNSON.

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 no further danger known, but the modesty which is so lost. DIA. You shall not need to fear me.

Enter HELENA, in the dress of a Pilgrim.

WID. I hope so.--Look, here comes a pilgrim: I know she will lie at my house: thither they send one another: I'll question her.

God save you, pilgrim! Whither are you bound? HEL. To Saint Jaques le grand.

Where do the palmers' lodge, I do beseech you? 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 pil

grim1,

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.

9-palmers] Pilgrims that visited holy places; so called 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, the palmer none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim might 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.

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.

HEL.

Is it yourself?

WID. If you shall please so, pilgrim.

HEL. I thank you, and will stay upon your lei

sure.

WID. You came, I think, from France ?

HEL.

I did so.

WID. Here you shall see a countryman of yours, That has done worthy service.

HEL.
His name, I pray you.
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 king 2 had married him Against his liking: Think you it is so?

HEL. Ay, surely, mere the truth; I know his

lady.

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'd1.

DIA.

Alas, poor lady!

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

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and great business scant,

"For she is with me." STEEVENS.

MERE the truth;] The exact, the entire truth. MALONE. examined.] That is, questioned, doubted. JOHNSON.

'Tis a hard bondage, to become the wife

Of a detesting lord.

WID. I write 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.

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How do you mean?

He does, indeed;

And brokes with all that can in such a suit
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.

MAR. The gods forbid else!

That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow; I would he lov'd his wife: if he were honester,

5 I WRITE good creature ;] I formerly imagined this to be an error, and proposed to read-a right good creature; but I am now convinced I was mistaken, and that the text is correct. So, in King Lear, vol. x. p. 261 :

"About it and write happy when thou hast done." So, in Ram Alley:

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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.

He were much goodlier: Is't not a handsome gen

tleman ?

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?

HER. 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!

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

[Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, 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 thank-

ing,

Shall be for me; and, to requite you further,

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."

i. 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.