All’s Well That Ends Well
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] |
Next: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 3, Scene 7