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That with the plume: 'tis a most 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 honest. Yond's that same knave,

That leads him to these places: were I his lady, I would 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'the battle.

Par. Lose our drum! well.

Mar. He's shrewdly vex'd at something: Look,

he has spied us.

Wid. Marry, hang you!

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

[Exeunt BER., PAR., 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 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
Shall be for me; and, to requite you further,
I will bestow some precepts of this virgin,'
Worthy the note.
Both.

We'll take your offer kindly. [Exeunt

7 Of was often used in the sense of on

B

SCENE VI. Camp before Florence.

Enter BERTRAM, French Envoy, and French Gentle

man.

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

Gent. If your lordship find him not a hilding,' hold me no more in your respect.

Env. On my life, my lord, a bubble.

Ber. Do you think I am so far deceived in him? Env. 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 of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment.

Gent. 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.

Ber. I would I knew in what particular action to try him.

Gent. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him so confidently undertake to do.

Env. 1, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly surprise him such I will have, whom, I am sure, he 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

2

A hilding is a paltry fellow, a coward. Horne Tooke derives it from the Anglo-Saxon hyldan, to crouch.

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H.

The camp. An apt illustration of this term has been given by Mr. Douce from Sir John Smythe's Discourses, 1590; They will not vouchsafe in their speaches or writings to use our ancient termes belonging to matters of warre, but doo call a campe by

adversaries, when we bring him to our own tents. Be but your lordship present at his examination ; if he do not, for the 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.

Gent. 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 enter tainment, your inclining cannot be removed. he comes.

3

Enter PAROLLES.

Here

Env. O for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his design: let him fetch off his drum in any hand.

the Dutch name of Legar; nor will not affoord to say, that such a towne or such a fort is besieged, but that it is belegard." H.

3 This was an old proverbial phrase for some such practical joking as is now called drumming out. Master Drum had different names, Tom, Jack, and John. Holinshed thus praises the hospitality of the Mayor of Dublin in 1551: « His jester or any other officer durst not, for both his ears, give the simplest man that resorted to his house Tom Drum his entertainment, which is. to hale a man in by the head, and thrust him out by both the shoulders." In an old play called The Three Ladies of London, 1584, Dissimulation says to Simplicity, -« Pack hence, away, -- Jack Drum's entertainment." It was also made the subject of a play entitled Jack Drum's Entertainment, and first printed in 1601; in which Jack Drum the hero passes through a series of inverted exploits not unlike this of Parolles.

H.

A phrase for at any rate. "The honour of his design" is the honour he thinks to gain by it. Honour has been usually printed humour; a change, says Collier, "without either warranty of fitness."

H.

Ber. How now, monsieur? this drum sticks sorely in your disposition.

Gent. A pox on't! let it go; 'tis but a drum.

Par. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum so lost! There was an excellent command, to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers!

Gent. That was not to be blam'd in the command of the service: it was a disaster of war that Cæsar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command.

Ber. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success some dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is not to be recovered.

Par. It might have been recovered.
Ber. It might, but it is not now.

Par. 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.

Ber. Why, if you have a stomach to't, monsieur, if you 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, and extend to you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost syllable of your worthiness.

Par. By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.

Ber. But you must not now slumber in it.

Par. I'll about it this evening: and I will pres

I would recover the lost drum or another, or die in the at empt. An epitaph then usually began hic jacet.

ently pen down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation, and, by midnight, look to hear further from me.

Ber. May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it?

Par. I know not what the success will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow.

Ber. I know thou art valiant; and, to the possi bility of thy soldiership, will subscribe for thee." Farewell.

Par. I love not many words.

[Exit.

Env. 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 damn'd than to do't?

Gent. 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.

Ber. Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of this, that so seriously he does address himself unto?

Env. None in the world; but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies: But we have almost emboss'd him; you shall see his fall to-night; for, indeed, he is not for your lordship's respect.

Gent. We will make you some sport with the

The difficulties of the enterprise, and his plans for overcoming them.

H.

7 Bertram's meaning is, that he will vouch for his doing all that it is possible for soldiership to effect.

8 That is, almost run him down. An emboss'd stag is one so hard chased as to foam at the mouth.

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