FCL/sf/mw/searchsrv: comparison searcher/tsrc/cpixsearchertest/conf/act3.txt

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--1:000000000000
+:671dee74050a
+William Shakespeare
+All's Well That Ends Well
+__________________________________________________________________
+ACT III
+SCENE I. Florence. The Duke's palace.
+Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence attended; the two Frenchmen, with
+a troop of soldiers.
+Duke
+So that from point to point now have you heard
+The fundamental reasons of this war,
+Whose great decision hath much blood let forth
+And more thirsts after.
+First Lord
+Holy seems the quarrel
+Upon your grace's part; black and fearful
+On the opposer.
+Duke
+Therefore we marvel much our cousin France
+Would in so just a business shut his bosom
+Against our borrowing prayers.
+Second Lord
+Good my lord,
+The reasons of our state I cannot yield,
+But like a common and an outward man,
+That the great figure of a council frames
+By self-unable motion: therefore dare not
+Say what I think of it, since I have found
+Myself in my incertain grounds to fail
+As often as I guess'd.
+Duke
+Be it his pleasure.
+First Lord
+But I am sure the younger of our nature,
+That surfeit on their ease, will day by day
+Come here for physic.
+Duke
+Welcome shall they be;
+And all the honours that can fly from us
+Shall on them settle. You know your places well;
+When better fall, for your avails they fell:
+To-morrow to the field.
+Flourish. Exeunt
+SCENE II. Rousillon. The Count's palace.
+Enter Countess and Clown
+Countess
+It hath happened all as I would have had it, save that he comes not
+along with her.
+Clown
+By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy man.
+Countess
+By what observance, I pray you?
+Clown
+Why, he will look upon his boot and sing; mend the ruff and sing; ask
+questions and sing; pick his teeth and sing. I know a man that had this
+trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.
+Countess
+Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come.
+Opening a letter
+Clown
+I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court: our old ling and our
+Isbels o' the country are nothing like your old ling and your Isbels o'
+the court: the brains of my Cupid's knocked out, and I begin to love,
+as an old man loves money, with no stomach.
+Countess
+What have we here?
+Clown
+E'en that you have there.
+Exit
+Countess
+[Reads] I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she hath recovered the king,
+and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the
+`not' eternal. You shall hear I am run away: know it before the report
+come. If there be breadth enough in the world, I will hold a long
+distance. My duty to you. Your unfortunate son, Bertram.
+This is not well, rash and unbridled boy.
+To fly the favours of so good a king;
+To pluck his indignation on thy head
+By the misprising of a maid too virtuous
+For the contempt of empire.
+Re-enter Clown
+Clown
+O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two soldiers and my young
+lady!
+Countess
+What is the matter?
+Clown
+Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your son will not
+be killed so soon as I thought he would.
+Countess
+Why should he be killed?
+Clown
+So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does: the danger is in
+standing to't; that's the loss of men, though it be the getting of
+children. Here they come will tell you more: for my part, I only hear
+your son was run away.
+Exit
+Enter Helena, and two Gentlemen
+First Gentleman
+Save you, good madam.
+Helena
+Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone.
+Second Gentleman
+Do not say so.
+Countess
+Think upon patience. Pray you, gentlemen,
+I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief,
+That the first face of neither, on the start,
+Can woman me unto't: where is my son, I pray you?
+Second Gentleman
+Madam, he's gone to serve the duke of Florence:
+We met him thitherward; for thence we came,
+And, after some dispatch in hand at court,
+Thither we bend again.
+Helena
+Look on his letter, madam; here's my passport.
+[Reads] When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall
+come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to,
+then call me husband: but in such a `then' I write a `never.'
+This is a dreadful sentence.
+Countess
+Brought you this letter, gentlemen?
+First Gentleman
+Ay, madam;
+And for the contents' sake are sorry for our pain.
+Countess
+I prithee, lady, have a better cheer;
+If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine,
+Thou robb'st me of a moiety: he was my son;
+But I do wash his name out of my blood,
+And thou art all my child. Towards Florence is he?
+Second Gentleman
+Ay, madam.
+Countess
+And to be a soldier?
+Second Gentleman
+Such is his noble purpose; and believe 't,
+The duke will lay upon him all the honour
+That good convenience claims.
+Countess
+Return you thither?
+First Gentleman
+Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed.
+Helena
+[Reads] Till I have no wife I have nothing in France.
+'Tis bitter.
+Countess
+Find you that there?
+Helena
+Ay, madam.
+First Gentleman
+'Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which his heart was not
+consenting to.
+Countess
+Nothing in France, until he have no wife!
+There's nothing here that is too good for him
+But only she; and she deserves a lord
+That twenty such rude boys might tend upon
+And call her hourly mistress. Who was with him?
+First Gentleman
+A servant only, and a gentleman
+Which I have sometime known.
+Countess
+Parolles, was it not?
+First Gentleman
+Ay, my good lady, he.
+Countess
+A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.
+My son corrupts a well-derived nature
+With his inducement.
+First Gentleman
+Indeed, good lady,
+The fellow has a deal of that too much,
+Which holds him much to have.
+Countess
+You're welcome, gentlemen.
+I will entreat you, when you see my son,
+To tell him that his sword can never win
+The honour that he loses: more I'll entreat you
+Written to bear along.
+Second Gentleman
+We serve you, madam,
+In that and all your worthiest affairs.
+Countess
+Not so, but as we change our courtesies.
+Will you draw near!
+Exeunt Countess and Gentlemen
+Helena
+`Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.'
+Nothing in France, until he has no wife!
+Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France;
+Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is't I
+That chase thee from thy country and expose
+Those tender limbs of thine to the event
+Of the none-sparing war? and is it I
+That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou
+Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark
+Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers,
+That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
+Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,
+That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord.
+Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;
+Whoever charges on his forward breast,
+I am the caitiff that do hold him to't;
+And, though I kill him not, I am the cause
+His death was so effected: better 'twere
+I met the ravin lion when he roar'd
+With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere
+That all the miseries which nature owes
+Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rousillon,
+Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,
+As oft it loses all: I will be gone;
+My being here it is that holds thee hence:
+Shall I stay here to do't? no, no, although
+The air of paradise did fan the house
+And angels officed all: I will be gone,
+That pitiful rumour may report my flight,
+To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day!
+For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away.
+Exit
+SCENE III. Florence. Before the Duke's palace.
+Flourish. Enter the Duke of Florence, Bertram, Parolles, Soldiers,
+Drum, and Trumpets
+Duke
+The general of our horse thou art; and we,
+Great in our hope, lay our best love and credence
+Upon thy promising fortune.
+Bertram
+Sir, it is
+A charge too heavy for my strength, but yet
+We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake
+To the extreme edge of hazard.
+Duke
+Then go thou forth;
+And fortune play upon thy prosperous helm,
+As thy auspicious mistress!
+Bertram
+This very day,
+Great Mars, I put myself into thy file:
+Make me but like my thoughts, and I shall prove
+A lover of thy drum, hater of love.
+Exeunt
+SCENE IV. Rousillon. The Count's palace.
+Enter Countess and Steward
+Countess
+Alas! and would you take the letter of her?
+Might you not know she would do as she has done,
+By sending me a letter? Read it again.
+Steward
+[Reads] I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone:
+Ambitious love hath so in me offended,
+That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon,
+With sainted vow my faults to have amended.
+Write, write, that from the bloody course of war
+My dearest master, your dear son, may hie:
+Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far
+His name with zealous fervor sanctify:
+His taken labours bid him me forgive;
+I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth
+From courtly friends, with camping foes to live,
+Where death and danger dogs the heels of worth:
+He is too good and fair for death and me:
+Whom I myself embrace, to set him free.
+Countess
+Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words!
+Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much,
+As letting her pass so: had I spoke with her,
+I could have well diverted her intents,
+Which thus she hath prevented.
+Steward
+Pardon me, madam:
+If I had given you this at over-night,
+She might have been o'erta'en; and yet she writes,
+Pursuit would be but vain.
+Countess
+What angel shall
+Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive,
+Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear
+And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath
+Of greatest justice. Write, write, Rinaldo,
+To this unworthy husband of his wife;
+Let every word weigh heavy of her worth
+That he does weigh too light: my greatest grief.
+Though little he do feel it, set down sharply.
+Dispatch the most convenient messenger:
+When haply he shall hear that she is gone,
+He will return; and hope I may that she,
+Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,
+Led hither by pure love: which of them both
+Is dearest to me. I have no skill in sense
+To make distinction: provide this messenger:
+My heart is heavy and mine age is weak;
+Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.
+Exeunt
+SCENE V. Florence. Without the walls. A tucket afar off.
+Enter an old Widow of Florence, Diana, Violenta, and Mariana, with
+other Citizens
+Widow
+Nay, come; for if they do approach the city, we shall lose all the
+sight.
+Diana
+They say the French count has done most honourable service.
+Widow
+It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander; and that
+with his own hand he slew the duke's brother.
+Tucket
+We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you may
+know by their trumpets.
+Mariana
+Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report of it.
+Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of a maid is her
+name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.
+Widow
+I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a gentleman his
+companion.
+Mariana
+I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is in
+those suggestions for the young earl. Beware of them, Diana; their
+promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust,
+are not the things they go under: many a maid hath been seduced by
+them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wreck
+of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession, 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, though there were no further danger known but the modesty which is
+so lost.
+Diana
+You shall not need to fear me.
+Widow
+I hope so.
+Enter Helena, disguised like a Pilgrim
+Look, here comes a pilgrim: I know she will lie at my house; thither
+they send one another: I'll question her. God save you, pilgrim!
+whither are you bound?
+Helena
+To Saint Jaques le Grand.
+Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?
+Widow
+At the Saint Francis here beside the port.
+Helena
+Is this the way?
+Widow
+Ay, marry, is't.
+A march afar
+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 lodged;
+The rather, for I think I know your hostess
+As ample as myself.
+Helena
+Is it yourself?
+Widow
+If you shall please so, pilgrim.
+Helena
+I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.
+Widow
+You came, I think, from France?
+Helena
+I did so.
+Widow
+Here you shall see a countryman of yours
+That has done worthy service.
+Helena
+His name, I pray you.
+Diana
+The Count Rousillon: know you such a one?
+Helena
+But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him:
+His face I know not.
+Diana
+Whatsome'er he is,
+He's bravely taken here. He stole from France,
+As 'tis reported, for the king had married him
+Against his liking: think you it is so?
+Helena
+Ay, surely, mere the truth: I know his lady.
+Diana
+There is a gentleman that serves the count
+Reports but coarsely of her.
+Helena
+What's his name?
+Diana
+Monsieur Parolles.
+Helena
+O, I believe with him,
+In argument of praise, or to the worth
+Of the great count himself, she is too mean
+To have her name repeated: all her deserving
+Is a reserved honesty, and that
+I have not heard examined.
+Diana
+Alas, poor lady!
+'Tis a hard bondage to become the wife
+Of a detesting lord.
+Widow
+I warrant, good creature, wheresoe'er she is,
+Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her
+A shrewd turn, if she pleased.
+Helena
+How do you mean?
+May be the amorous count solicits her
+In the unlawful purpose.
+Widow
+He does indeed;
+And brokes with all that can in such a suit
+Corrupt the tender honour of a maid:
+But she is arm'd for him and keeps her guard
+In honestest defence.
+Mariana
+The gods forbid else!
+Widow
+So, now they come:
+Drum and Colours
+Enter Bertram, Parolles, and the whole army
+That is Antonio, the duke's eldest son;
+That, Escalus.
+Helena
+Which is the Frenchman?
+Diana
+He;
+That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow.
+I would he loved his wife: if he were honester
+He were much goodlier: is't not a handsome gentleman?
+Helena
+I like him well.
+Diana
+'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.
+Helena
+Which is he?
+Diana
+That jack-an-apes with scarfs: why is he melancholy?
+Helena
+Perchance he's hurt i' the battle.
+Parolles
+Lose our drum! well.
+Mariana
+He's shrewdly vexed at something: look, he has spied us.
+Widow
+Marry, hang you!
+Mariana
+And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier!
+Exeunt Bertram, Parolles, and army
+Widow
+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 Saint Jaques bound,
+Already at my house.
+Helena
+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
+SCENE VI. Camp before Florence.
+Enter Bertram and the two French Lords
+Second Lord
+Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his way.
+First Lord
+If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your
+respect.
+Second Lord
+On my life, my lord, a bubble.
+Bertram
+Do you think I am so far deceived in him?
+Second Lord
+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.
+First Lord
+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.
+Bertram
+I would I knew in what particular action to try him.
+First Lord
+None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which you hear him so
+confidently undertake to do.
+Second Lord
+I, 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 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.
+First Lord
+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 entertainment, your inclining cannot be
+removed. Here he comes.
+Enter Parolles
+Second Lord
+[Aside to Bertram] O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the honour
+of his design: let him fetch off his drum in any hand.
+Bertram
+How now, monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your disposition.
+First Lord
+A pox on't, let it go; 'tis but a drum.
+Parolles
+`But a drum'! is't `but a drum'? A drum so lost! There was excellent
+command,--to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend
+our own soldiers!
+First Lord
+That was not to be blamed in the command of the service: it was a
+disaster of war that Caesar himself could not have prevented, if he had
+been there to command.
+Bertram
+Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some dishonour we had in
+the loss of that drum; but it is not to be recovered.
+Parolles
+It might have been recovered.
+Bertram
+It might; but it is not now.
+Parolles
+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.'
+Bertram
+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.
+Parolles
+By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it.
+Bertram
+But you must not now slumber in it.
+Parolles
+I'll about it this evening: and I will presently pen down my dilemmas,
+encourage myself in my certainty, put myself into my mortal
+preparation; and by midnight look to hear further from me.
+Bertram
+May I be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it?
+Parolles
+I know not what the success will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow.
+Bertram
+I know thou'rt valiant; and, to the possibility of thy soldiership,
+will subscribe for thee. Farewell.
+Parolles
+I love not many words.
+Exit
+Second Lord
+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 damned than to
+do't?
+First Lord
+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.
+Bertram
+Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of this that so seriously
+he does address himself unto?
+Second Lord
+None in the world; but return with an invention and clap upon you two
+or three probable lies: but we have almost embossed him; you shall see
+his fall to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship's respect.
+First Lord
+We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him. He was first
+smoked 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.
+Second Lord
+I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.
+Bertram
+Your brother he shall go along with me.
+Second Lord
+As't please your lordship: I'll leave you.
+Exit
+Bertram
+Now will I lead you to the house, and show you
+The lass I spoke of.
+First Lord
+But you say she's honest.
+Bertram
+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. She's a fair creature:
+Will you go see her?
+First Lord
+With all my heart, my lord.
+Exeunt
+SCENE VII. Florence. The Widow's house.
+Enter Helena and Widow
+Helena
+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.
+Widow
+Though my estate be fallen, I was well born,
+Nothing acquainted with these businesses;
+And would not put my reputation now
+In any staining act.
+Helena
+Nor would I wish you.
+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.
+Widow
+I should believe you:
+For you have show'd me that which well approves
+You're great in fortune.
+Helena
+Take this purse of gold,
+And let me buy your friendly help thus far,
+Which I will over-pay and pay again
+When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,
+Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,
+Resolved 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 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.
+Widow
+Now I see
+The bottom of your purpose.
+Helena
+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 passed already.
+Widow
+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 composed
+To her unworthiness: it nothing steads us
+To chide him from our eaves; for he persists
+As if his life lay on't.
+Helena
+Why then to-night
+Let us assay our plot; 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.
+Exeunt
+| [1]Table of Contents | [2]Next |
+Last updated on Wed Sep 29 20:06:20 2004 for [3]eBooks@Adelaide.
+References
+1. file://localhost/home/arau/shakespeare/allswell/index.html
+2. file://localhost/home/arau/shakespeare/allswell/act4.html
+3. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/