fox, ere we case him." He was first smok'd 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.

Env. I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.10

Ber. Your brother, he shall go along with me. Env. As't please your lordship: I'll leave you.

[Exit. Ber. Now will I lead you to the house, and show

you

The lass I spoke of.

Gent.

But, you say, she's honest.

Ber. 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;

And this is all I have done.

Will you go see her?

Gent.

She's a fair creature:

With all my heart, my lord. [Exeunt.

Before we strip him naked, or unmask him.

10 So in the third scene of this act: "They are limed with the twigs that threaten them." To lime is to catch or entangle; and twigs was a common term for the trap or snare, whether it were made of twigs or of thoughts; of material or mental wickerwork.

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"This proverbial phrase is thus explained by Cotgrave: "Estre sur vent, To be in the wind, or to have the wind of. To get the wint, advantage, upper hand of; to have a man under his lee."

SCENE VII. Florence.

A Room in the Widow's House.

Enter HELENA and Widow.

Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she,
I know not how I shall assure you further,
But I shall lose the grounds I work upon.'

Wid. Though my estate be fall'n, I was well born,

Nothing acquainted with these businesses,

And would not put my reputation now

In any staining act.

Nor would I wish you.

Hel. First, give me trust, the count he is my husband, And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken, Is so, from word to word; and then you cannot, By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, Err in bestowing it.

Wid.

you

I should believe you;

For have show'd me that which well approves You're great in fortune.

Hel.

Take this purse of gold,

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will overpay, and pay again,

When I have found it. The count he woos your

daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
Resolv'd to carry her: let her, in fine, consent,

As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it.
Now, his important blood will nought deny

That is, by discovering herself to the count.

Important, here and in other places, is used for importunate. See Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. sc. 1. note 1.

That she'll demand: a ring the county wears,
That downward hath succeeded in his house
From son to son, some four or five descents
Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds
In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire
To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,
Howe'er repented after.

Wid.

Now I see The bottom of your purpose.

Hel. You see it lawful then: It is no more, But that your daughter, 'ere she seems as won, Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter; In fine, delivers me to fill the time,

Herself most chastely absent: After this,

To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns
To what is past already.

Wid.
I have yielded :
Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,
That time and place, with this deceit so lawful.
May prove coherent. Every night he comes
With musics of all sorts, and songs compos'd
To her unworthiness: It nothing steads us,
To chide him from our eaves, for he persists,
As if his life lay on't.

Hel.

Let us assay our plot;

Why, then, to-night which, if it speed,

Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act;
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:
But let's about it.

[Exeuni

3 The explanation of this riddle is, that Bertram was to do a lawful deed with a wicked intent; Helena, the same deed with a good intent; and that what was really to be on both sides a law ful embrace, was to seem in them both an act of adultery.

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SCENE I.

ACT IV.

Without the Florentine Camp.

Enter French Envoy, with five or six Soldiers in ambush.

Env. 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 must produce for an interpreter.

1 Sold. Good captain, let me be the interpreter. Env. Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?

1 Sold. No, sir, I warrant you.

Env. But what linsy-woolsy hast thou to speak to us again?

1 Sold. Even such as you speak to me.

Env. 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 faucy, not to know what we speak one to another; so we seem to know is to know straight our purpose: chough's 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, and then to return and swear the lies he forges.

That is, foreign troops in the enemy's pay.

The sense of this passage appears to be: "We must each fancy a jargon for himself, without aiming to be understood by each other; for, provided we appear to understand, that will be sufficient." The chough is a bird of the jack-daw kind.

Enter PAROLles.

Par. 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 have of late knock'd too often at my door. I find my tongue is too fool-hardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and of his creatures, uot daring the reports of my tongue.

Env. [Aside.] This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.

Par. What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this drum, being not iguorant of the impossibility, and knowing I had no such purpose? I must give myself some hurts, and say I got them in 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 butterwoman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mute, if you prattle me into these perils.

4

Env. [Aside.] Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is?

That is, what evidence shall I produce? in what shall I instance, to bear out my pretence? This passage has been greatly obscured in all modern editions, by printing wherefore thus, "wherefore?" as if it were an interrogative adverb; whereas it is plainly a relative adverb, as it is printed in the original, and refers to the preceding sentence. Parolles is in a quandary slight wounds will not serve his turu; great ones he dare not give Limself; and so he is casting about what scheme he shall light upon next. He then goes on to lecture his tongue for getting him

H.

into such a scrape. The original has mule. This was changed by Warburton to mute, which falls in so well with the context, that it has been generally received. The allusion was probably understood at the time, but nothing has been found in modern times to render i intelligible

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