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enticements, oaths, tokens, and all thefe engines of laft, are not the things they go under; many a maid hath been feduced by them, and the mifery is, example, that fo terrible fhews in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that diffuade fucceffion, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten them. I hope, I need not to advise you further; but, I hope, your own grace will keep you where you are, tho' there were no further danger known, but the modesty which is fo loft.

Dia. You fhall not need to fear me.

Enter Helena, difguis'd like a Pilgrim;

Wid. I hope fo.

Look, here comes a Pilgrim; I know, fhe will lie at my house; thither they fend one another; I'll queftion her: God fave you, pilgrim! whither are you bound?

Hel. To S. Jacques le Grand. Where do the Palmers lodge, I do befeech you?

Wid. At the St. Francis, befide the port.

Hel. Is this the way

?

A march afar off. Wid. Ay, marry, is't. Hark you, they come this way. If you will tarry, holy Pilgrim, but 'till the troops come by,

I will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd;
The rather, for, I think, I know your hostess
As ample as my felf.

Hel. Is it yourself?

Wid. If you fhall please fo, Pilgrim.

Hel. I thank you, and will ftay upon your leisure.
Wid. You came, I think, from France ?

Hel. I did fo.

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

Hel. His name, I pray you?

Dia. The Count Roufillon: know you fuch a one? Hel. But by the ear, that hears moft nobly of him; His face I know not.

Dia. Whatfoe'er he is, He's bravely taken here.

He ftole from France,

As

C 5

As 'tis reported; for the King had married him
Againft 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. What's his name?

Dia. Monfieur Parolles.

Hel. Oh, I believe with him,
In argument of praife, or to the worth
Of the great Count himself, fhe is too means
To have her name repeated; all her deferving.
Is a referved honefty, and that

I have not heard examin'd.

Dia. Alas, poor Lady!

'Tis a hard bondage, to become the wife Of a detefting Lord.

Wid. Ah! right; good creature! wherefoe'er fhe is, Her heart weighs fadly; this young maid might do her A fhrewd turn, if she pleas'd.

Hel. How do you mean?

May be, the am'rous Count follicites her

In the unlawful purpose.

Wid. He does, indeed;

And brokes with all, that can in such a suit

Corrupt the tender honour of a maid;

But fhe is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard

In honefteft defence.

Drum and Colours. Enter Bertram, Parolles, Officers and Soldiers attending.

Mar. The gods forbid elfe!

Wid. So, now they come :

That is Antonio, the Duke's eldest fon ;

That, Efcalus.

Hel. Which is the Frenchman?

Dia. He;

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 hand fome gentleman? Hel. I like him well.

Dia. 'Tis pity, he is not honeft; yond's that fame knave, (29)

That leads him to thefe paces; were I his Lady,
I'd poison that vile rascal.

Hel. Which is he?

Dia. That jack-an-apes with scarfs. Why is he me-lancholy?

Hel. Perchance, he's hurt i' th' battle.

Par. Lose our drum! well.——

Mar. He's fhrewdly vex'd at something. Look, he

has fpied us.

Wid. Marry, hang you! ́

[Exeunt Ber. Par. &c.

Mar. And your curtefy, for a ring-carrier

Wid.The troop is paft: come, Pilgrim, I will bring you,

Where you shall hoft Of injoyn'd penitents

There's four or five, to great St. Jacques bound,
Already at my houfe.

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 fome precepts on this virgin

Worthy the note.

Both. We'll take your offer kindly. ·

[Exeunt.

Enter Bertram, and the two French Lords.

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 deceiv'd in him??

(29)

Yond's that fame fellow,

That leads him to thefe Places.] What places? He did not lead him to be general of horfe under the Duke of Florence, fare. Nor have they been talking of brothel's; or, indeed, any particular Locality. I make no question, but our author wrote;

That leads bim to these paces.

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ine, to fuch irregular steps, to courses of debauchery, to not loving his wife.

I Lord

Lord. Believe it, my Lord, in mine own direct knowledge, without any malice, but to fpeak of him as my kinfman; he's a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promife-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 bufinefs 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 knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hoodwink 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 own tents; be but your Lordship prefent at his examination, if he do not for the promise of his life, and in the highest compulfion 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 foul upon oath, never truft my judgment in any thing.

2 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he fays, he has a ftratagem for't; (30) when

your

(30) When your Lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ours will be melted, if you give him Hot John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be remov'd.] I conjectur'd, this counterfeit lump of oar, when I publish'd my SHAKESPEARE reflor'd: Thus it bears a confonancy with the other terms accompanying, (viz. metal, lump, and melted) and helps the propriety of the Poet s thought: For fo one metaphor is kept up, and all the words are proper and fuitable to it. But, what is the meaning of John Drum's entertainment Lafeu feveral times afterwards calls Parolles, Tem Drum. But the difference of the Chriftian name will make none in the explanation. There is an old motley interlede, (printed in 1601) call'd Jack Drum's Entertainment; or,

the

your Lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of oar will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here he

comes.

Enter Parolles.

I 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 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 difafter of war that Cæfar

the Comedy of Pafquail and Katharine. In this, Jack Drum is a fervant of intrigue, who is ever aiming at projects, and always foil'd, and given the drop. And there is another old piece (publifh'd in 1627) call'd APOLLO, fbroving, in which I find thefe expreffions. Thuriger. Thou Lozel, hath Slug infected you?

Why do you give fuch kind entertainment to that cobweb?

Scofas. It fhall have Tom Drum's entertainment; a flap with a

fox-tail.

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 faid 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 caheer him from your favour, then 66 attachment is not to be remov'd".-I'll now fubjoin a quoyour tation from Holing fhed, (of whofe books Shakespeare was a moft diligent reader) which will pretty well afcertain Drum's hiftory. This chronologer, in his defcription of Ireland, fpeaking of Patrick Scaifefield, (Mayor of Dublin in the year 1551) and of his extravagant hofpitality, fubjoins, that no gueft had ever a cold or forbidding look from any part of his family fo that his porter, or any other officer, durft not, for both his ears, give the fimpleft man, that reforted to his boufe, Tom Drum's entertainment, which is, to hale a man in by the head, and thruft him out by both the fhoulder's.

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himself

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