Mar. Come, let's return again, and fuffice ourfelves 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 fo rich as honesty.

Wid. I have told my neighbour, how you have been follicited by a gentleman his companion

Mar. I know that knave, (hang him!) one Parolles; a filthy officer he is in thofe fuggeftions for the young Earl; beware of them, Diana; their promifes, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of luft, are not the things they go under; many a maid hath been feduced by them; and the mifery is, example, that fo terrible fhews in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that diffuade fucceffion, 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, tho' there were no further danger known, but the modesty which is so lost.

Dia. You fhall not need to fear me.

Enter Helena, difguis'd like a Pilgrim.

Wid. I hope fo..

Look, here comes a pilgrim; I know, the will lye at my houfe; thither they fend one another; I'll queftion her: God fave you, pilgrim! whither are you bound?

Hel. To St. Jaques le Grand. Where do the palmers lodge, I do befeech you?

Wid. At the St. Francis, befide the port.

Hel. Is this the way?

[A march afar off.

Wid. Ay, marry, is't. Hark you, they come this way. If you will tarry, holy pilgrim, but 'till the troops.

come by,

I will conduct you where you fhall be lodg'd;

The rather, for, I think, I know your hostess

As ample as myself.

Hel. Is it yourself?

Wid. If you fhall please fo, pilgrim.

Hel. I thank you, and will ftay upon your leisure.
Wid. You came, I think, from France.

Hel. I did fo.

Wid. Here you fhall fee a countryman of yours, That has done worthy fervice.

Hel. His name, I pray you?

Dia. The Count Roufillon: know you fuch a one? Hel. But by the ear, that hears moft nobly of him; His face I know not.

Dia. Whatfo'er he is,

He's bravely taken here.

He ftole from France,

As 'tis reported; for the King had married him
Against his liking. Think you, it is fo?

Hel. Ay, furely, meer the truth; I know his lady. Dia. There is a gentleman, that ferves the Count Reports but courfely of her.

Hel. What's his name?

Dia. Monfieur Parolles.

Hel. Oh, I believe with him,
In argument of praife, or to the worth

Of the great Count himself, fhe 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 detefting lord.

Wid. Ah! right; good creature! wherefoe'er fhe is, Her heart weighs fadly; this young maid might do her A fhrewd turn, if the pleas'd.

Hel. How do you mean?

May be, the am'rous Count follicits her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid. He does, indeed;

Ánd brokes with all, that can in fuch a fuit

Corrupt the tender honour of a maid:

But fhe is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard

In honestest defence.

Drum and Colours. Enter Bertram, Parolles, Officers and Soldiers attending.

Mar. The Gods forbid elfe!
Wid. So, now they come:

C 4

That

That is Antonio, the Duke's eldest fon;

That, Escalus.

Hel. Which is the Frenchman?

Dia. He;

That with the plume; 'tis a moft 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 honeft; yond's that fame knave, (19)

That leads him to thefe paces; 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' th' battel.

Par. Lofe our drum! well.

Mar. He's fhrewdly vext at fomething. Look, he has fpied us.

Wid. Marry, hang you!

[Exeunt Bertram, Parolles, &c.

Mar. And your courtefie, for a ring carrier!

Wid. The troop is paft: come, pilgrim, I will bring

you,

Where you fhall hoft: Of injoyn'd penitents

There's four or five, to great St. 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

(19)

Yond's That fame Fellow,

That leads him to thefe Places.] What Places? He did not lead him to be General of Horfe under the Duke of Florence, fure. Nor have they been talking of Brothels; or, indeed, any particular Locality. I make no Question, but our Author wrote;

That leads him to thefe Paces.

i. e. to fuch irregular Steps, to Courfes of Debauchery, to not loving his Wife.

Shall

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.

Enter Bertram, and the two French Lords.

[Exeunt.

1 Lord. Nay, good my lord, put him to't let him have his way.

2 Lord. If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your refpect.

1 Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble.

Ber. Do you think, I am so far deceiv'd in him?

1 Lord Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to fpeak 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, left, repofing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might at fome great and trufty business in a main danger fail

you.

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 fuddenly furprize him; fuch I will have, whom, I am fure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink him fo, that he fhall fuppofe no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adverfaries, when we bring him to our own tents; be but your lordship prefent at his examination, if he do not for the promise of his life, and in the higheft compulfion of bafe fear, offer to betray you, and deliver all the intelligence in his power against you, and that with the divine forfeit of his foul upon oath, never truft my judgment in any thing.

2 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he fays, he has a ftratagem for't (20) when your lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and

(20) When your lordship fees the bottom of bis Succefs in't, and to what Metal this Counterfeit Lump of Ours will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's Entertainment, your Inclining cannot be remov'd.] Lump of Ours has been the Reading of all the Editions. Oare, according to my Emendation, bears a Confonancy with the other Terms accompanying, (viz. Metal, Lump, and melted) and helps the Propriety of the Poet's Thought: For fo one Metaphor is kept up, and all the Words are proper and suitable to it. But, what is the Meaning of John Drum's Entertainment? Lafeu several times afterwards calls Parolles, Tom Drum. But the Difference of the Chriftian Name will make None in the Explanation. There is an old Motley Interlude, (printed in 1601) call'd, Jack Drum's Entertainment: Or, the Comedy of Pafquil and Katharine. In this, Jack Drum is a Servant of Intrigue, who is ever aiming at Projects, and always foil'd, and given the Drop. And there is another old piece (publish'd in 1627) call'd, Apollo fproving, in which I find thefe Expreffions.

Thuriger. Thou Lozel, bath Slug infected you?

Why do you give fuch kind Entertainment to that Cobweb? Scopas. It fhall have Tom Drum's Entertainment; a Flap with a Fox-tail.

But Both thefe Pieces, are, perhaps, too late in Time, to come to the Affiftance of our Author: so we must look a little higher. What is faid here to Bertram is to this Effect. "My Lord, as 66 you have taken this Fellow [Parolles] into so near a Confi"dence, if, upon his being found a Counterfeit, you don't "cafheer him from your Favour, then your Attachment is not "to be remov'd." I'll now fubjoin a Quotation from Holing fbed, (of whofe Books Shakespeare was a moft diligent Reader) which will pretty well afcertain Drum's Hiftory. This Chronologer, in his Description of Ireland, speaking of Patrick Scarfefield, (Mayor of Dublin in the Year 1551,) and of his extravagant Hofpitality, fubjoins, that no Guest had ever a cold or forbidding Look from any Part of his Family fo that bis Porter, or any other Officer, durft not, for both bis Ears, give the fimpleft Man, that reforted to bis Houfe, Tom Drum's Entertainment, which is, to hale a Man in by the Head, and thrust him But by both the Shoulders.

to