SCENE I.
A forest, leading towards Mantua.
Enter certain Out-laws.
1 Out.
Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.
2 Out.
If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.
Enter Valentine and Speed.
3 Out.
Stand, sir, and throw us what you have about you;
9 noteIf not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you.
Speed.
Sir, we are undone! these are the villains
That all the travellers do fear so much.
Val.
My friends,—
1 Out.
That's not so, sir; we are your enemies.
2 Out.
Peace; we'll hear him.
3 Out.
Ay, by my beard, will we;
For he's a proper man.
Val.
Then know, that I have little wealth to lose;
A man I am, cross'd with adversity:
My riches are these poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I have.
2 Out.
Whither travel you?
Val.
To Verona.
1 Out.
Whence came you?
Val.
From Milan.
3 Out.
Have you long sojourn'd there?
-- 187 --
Val.
Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid,
If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
1 Out.
What, were you banish'd thence?
Val.
I was.
2 Out.
For what offence?
Val.
For that which now torments me to rehearse:
I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage, or base treachery.
1 Out.
Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so:
But were you banish'd for so small a fault?
Val.
I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
1 Out.
Have you the tongues?
Val.
My youthful travel therein made me happy;
Or else I often had been miserable.
3 Out.
By the bare scalp of 1 note
Robin Hood's fat friar,
This fellow were a king for our wild faction.
1 Out.
We'll have him: sirs, a word.
Speed.
Master, be one of them;
It is a kind of honourable thievery.
Val.
Peace, villain!
2 Out.
Tell us this; Have you any thing to take to?
Val.
Nothing, but my fortune.
3 Out.
Know then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
-- 188 --
Thrust from the company of 2 note
awful men:9Q0101
Myself was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,
3 note
An heir, and niece ally'd unto the duke.9Q0102
2 Out.
And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.
1 Out.
And I, for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose,—(for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives)
And, partly, seeing you are beautify'd
With goodly shape; and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection,
As we do in our quality4 note much want,—
2 Out.
Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
-- 189 --
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity,
And live, as we do, in the wilderness?
3 Out.
What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consort?
Say, ay, and be the captain of us all:
We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee,
Love thee as our commander, and our king.
1 Out.
But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou dy'st.
2 Out.
Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.
Val.
I take your offer, and will live with you;
Provided, that you do no outrages5 note
On silly women, or poor passengers.
3 Out.
No, we detest such vile base practices.
Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews,
And shew thee all the treasure we have got;
Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.
[Exeunt.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
