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 so far deceiv'd in him?
1 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
-- 349 --
owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's
entertainment.
2 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.
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 so confidently undertake
to do.
1 Lord.
I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly
surprize 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.
2 Lord.
O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch
his drum; he says, he has a stratagem for't; 8 note
when
-- 350 --
Lordship sees the bottom of his success in't, and to
what metal his counterfeit lump of Ore will be melted,
if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your
inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes.
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].