Wid. Here you shall fee a countryman of yours,
That has done worthy service.

Hel.
His name, I pray you.
Dia. The count Roufillon: Know you fuch a one?
Hel. But by the ear, that hears must nobly of him:
His face I know not.

Dia.

Whatfoe'er he is,

8

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, mere the truth; I know his lady.
Dia. There is a gentleman that ferves the count,
Reports but coarsely of her.

Hel.

Dia. Monfieur Parolles.
Hel.

What's his name?

O, 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 deferving
Is a referved honefty, and that

I have not heard examin'd.2

Dia.

Alas, poor lady!

'Tis a hard bondage, to become the wife

Of a detefting lord.

Wid. A right good creature :3 wherefoe'er fhe is, Her heart weighs fadly: this young maid might do her

A fhrewd turn if the pleas'd.

Hel.

May be, the amorous count folicits her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid.

How do

you mean?

He does, indeed;

And brokes 4 with all that can in fuch a fuit

8 For, in the prefent inftance, fignifies becaufe. 9 The exact, the entire truth.

MALONE.

2 That is, queftioned, doubted. JOHNSON.

STEBVENS.

Corrupt

3 There is great reafon to believe, that when these plays were copied for the prefs, the tranfcriber trufted to the ear, and not to the eye; one perfon dictating, and another tranfcribing. Hence probably the error of the old copy, which reads -I write good creature. For the emendation now made I am anfwerable. MALONE.

4 Deals as a broker. JOHNSON.

To

Corrupt the tender honour of a maid:

But the 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.

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 gentleman ? Hel. I like him well.

Dia. 'Tis pity, he is not honeft: Yond's that fame knave, That leads him to thefe places; were I his lady,

I'd poison that vile rascal.

Hel.

Which is he?

Dia. That jack-an-apes with fcarfs: Why is he melancholy?

Hel. Perchance he's hurt i'the battle.

Par. Lofe our drum! well.

Mar. He's fhrewdly vex'd at fomething: Look, he has fpied us.

Wid. Marry, hang you

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

[Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, Officers and Soldiers. Wid. The troop is paft: Come, pilgrim, I will bring you Where you fhall hoft of enjoin'd penitents

There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound,

Already at my house.

To broke is to deal with pan lers. A broker in our author's time meant a bawd or pimp. MALONE.

5 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. fuch irregular fteps, to courfes of debauchery, to not loving his wife.

VOL. III.

E

THEOBALD.

Hel.

Hel.

I humbly thank you :
Please it this matron, and this gentle maid,
To eat with us to-night, the charge, and thanking,
Shall be for me; and, to requite you further,
I will beftow fome precepts on this virgin,
Worthy the note.

Both.

We'll take your offer kindly. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Camp before Florence.

Enter BERTRAM, and the two French Lords.

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 respect.

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

Ber. Do you think, I am fo far deceived in him?

I Lord. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinfman, 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 entertainment.

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 fo 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 kn⚫ws 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 adversaries, when we bring him to our tents:

Be

A bilding is a paltry cowardly fellow. STEEVENS. 7 i. e. camp. "They will not vouchfafe in their speaches or writings to ufe our ancient terms belonging to matters of warre, but doo call a

campe

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 judgement in any thing.

2 Lord. O for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he fays, he has a ftratagem for't: when your lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes.

campe by the Dutch name of Legar; nor will not afford to fay, that fuch a towne or fuch a fort is befieged, but that it is belegard." Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, &c. 1590. fo. 2. DOUCE.

8 But, what is the meaning of John Drum's entertainment? Lafeu feveral 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,) called Jack Drum's Entertainment: Or, The Comedy of Pafquil and Catharine. In this, Jack Drum is a fervant of intrigue, who is ever aiming at projects, and always foiled, and given the drop. And there is another old piece (published in 1627) called, Apollo fproving, in which I find thefe expreffions:

"Thuriger. Thou lozel, hath 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 foxtail."

But both these pieces are, perhaps too late in time, to come to the affiftance of our author: fo we must look a little higher. What is said here to Bertram is to this effect: "My lord, as you have taken this fellow [Parolles] into fo near a confidence, if, upon his being found a counterfeit, you don't cathier him from your favour, then your attachment is not to be removed." I will now fubjoin a quotation from Holinfhed, (of whose books Shakspeare was a moft diligent reader) which will pretty well afcertain Drum's hiftory. This chronologer, in his defcription of Ireland, fpeaking of Patrick Sarfe field, (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 his eares, give the fimpleft man that reforted to bis boufe, Tom Drum bis entertainement, which is, to hale a man in by the beade, and thrust him out by both the fhoulders. THEOBALD.

Contemporary writers have used this expreffion in the fame manner that our author has done; fo that there is no reason to fufpect the word John in the text to be a mifprint. MALONE.

Enter PAROLLES.

1 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his defign; let him fetch off his drum in any hand." Ber. How now, monfieur? this drum fticks forely in your difpofition.

2 Lord. A pox on't let it go; 'tis but a drum.

Par. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum fo loft! — There was an excellent command! to charge in with our horfe upon our own wings, and to rend our own foldiers.

2 Lord. That was not to be blamed in the command of the fervice; it was a disaster of war that Cæfar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command.

Ber. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our fuccefs: fome dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is not to be recover'd.

Par. It might have been recover'd.

Ber. It might; but it is not now.

Par. It is to be recover'd: but that the merit of fervice is feldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or hic jacet.2

Ber. Why, if you have a stomach to't, monfieur, if you think your mystery in ftratagem can bring this inftrument of honour again into his native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprize, and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you fpeed well in it, the duke fhall both fpeak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatnefs, even to the utmoft fyllable of your worthiness.

Par. By the hand of a foldier, I will undertake it.
Ber. But you must not now flumber in it.

Par. I'll about it this evening and I will prefently pen down my dilemmas,3 encourage my felf in my certainty, put

The ufual phrase is,—at any band, but in any hand will do.

myfelf

STEEVENS.

2 i. e. Here lies; the ufual beginning of epitaphs. I would (fays Parolles) recover either the drum I have loft, or another belonging to the enemy; or die in the attempt. MALONE.

3 By this word, Parolles is made to infinuate that he had several ways, all equally certain of recovering his drum. For a dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways. WARBURTON.