All’s Well That Ends Well
ACT IV SCENE I | Without the Florentine camp. | |
[ Enter Second French Lord, with five or six other Soldiers in ambush ] | ||
Second Lord | He can come no other way but by this hedge-corner. | |
When you sally upon him, speak what terrible | ||
language you will: though you understand it not | ||
yourselves, no matter; for we must not seem to | ||
understand him, unless some one among us whom we | 5 | |
must produce for an interpreter. | ||
First Soldier | Good captain, let me be the interpreter. | |
Second Lord | Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice? | |
First Soldier | No, sir, I warrant you. | |
Second Lord | But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again? | 10 |
First Soldier | E’en such as you speak to me. | |
Second Lord | He must think us some band of strangers i’ the | |
adversary’s entertainment. Now he hath a smack of | ||
all neighbouring languages; therefore we must every | ||
one be a man of his own fancy, not to know what we | 15 | |
speak one to another; so we seem to know, is to | ||
know straight our purpose: choughs’ language, | ||
gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, | ||
interpreter, you must seem very politic. But couch, | ||
ho! here he comes, to beguile two hours in a sleep, | 20 | |
and then to return and swear the lies he forges. | ||
[Enter PAROLLES] | ||
PAROLLES | Ten o’clock: within these three hours ’twill be | |
time enough to go home. What shall I say I have | ||
done? It must be a very plausive invention that | ||
carries it: they begin to smoke me; and disgraces | 25 | |
have of late knocked too often at my door. I find | ||
my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the | ||
fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not | ||
daring the reports of my tongue. | ||
Second Lord | This is the first truth that e’er thine own tongue | 30 |
was guilty of. | ||
PAROLLES | What the devil should move me to undertake the | |
recovery of this drum, being not ignorant of the | ||
impossibility, and knowing I had no such purpose? I | ||
must give myself some hurts, and say I got them in | 35 | |
exploit: yet slight ones will not carry it; they | ||
will say, ‘Came you off with so little?’ and great | ||
ones I dare not give. Wherefore, what’s the | ||
instance? Tongue, I must put you into a | ||
butter-woman’s mouth and buy myself another of | 40 | |
Bajazet’s mule, if you prattle me into these perils. | ||
Second Lord | Is it possible he should know what he is, and be | |
that he is? | ||
PAROLLES | I would the cutting of my garments would serve the | |
turn, or the breaking of my Spanish sword. | 45 | |
Second Lord | We cannot afford you so. | |
PAROLLES | Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in | |
stratagem. | ||
Second Lord | ‘Twould not do. | |
PAROLLES | Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripped. | 50 |
Second Lord | Hardly serve. | |
PAROLLES | Though I swore I leaped from the window of the citadel. | |
Second Lord | How deep? | |
PAROLLES | Thirty fathom. | |
Second Lord | Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed. | 55 |
PAROLLES | I would I had any drum of the enemy’s: I would swear | |
I recovered it. | ||
Second Lord | You shall hear one anon. | |
PAROLLES | A drum now of the enemy’s,– | |
[Alarum within] | ||
Second Lord | Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo. | 60 |
All | Cargo, cargo, cargo, villiando par corbo, cargo. | |
PAROLLES | O, ransom, ransom! do not hide mine eyes. | |
[They seize and blindfold him] | ||
First Soldier | Boskos thromuldo boskos. | |
PAROLLES | I know you are the Muskos’ regiment: | |
And I shall lose my life for want of language; | 65 | |
If there be here German, or Dane, low Dutch, | ||
Italian, or French, let him speak to me; I’ll | ||
Discover that which shall undo the Florentine. | ||
First Soldier | Boskos vauvado: I understand thee, and can speak | |
thy tongue. Kerely bonto, sir, betake thee to thy | 70 | |
faith, for seventeen poniards are at thy bosom. | ||
PAROLLES | O! | |
First Soldier | O, pray, pray, pray! Manka revania dulche. | |
Second Lord | Oscorbidulchos volivorco. | |
First Soldier | The general is content to spare thee yet; | 75 |
And, hoodwink’d as thou art, will lead thee on | ||
To gather from thee: haply thou mayst inform | ||
Something to save thy life. | ||
PAROLLES | O, let me live! | |
And all the secrets of our camp I’ll show, | 80 | |
Their force, their purposes; nay, I’ll speak that | ||
Which you will wonder at. | ||
First Soldier | But wilt thou faithfully? | |
PAROLLES | If I do not, damn me. | |
First Soldier | Acordo linta. | 85 |
Come on; thou art granted space. | ||
[Exit, with PAROLLES guarded. A short alarum within] | ||
Second Lord | Go, tell the Count Rousillon, and my brother, | |
We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled | ||
Till we do hear from them. | ||
Second Soldier | Captain, I will. | 90 |
Second Lord | A’ will betray us all unto ourselves: | |
Inform on that. | ||
Second Soldier | So I will, sir. | |
Second Lord | Till then I’ll keep him dark and safely lock’d. | |
[Exeunt] |
Next: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 2