Sped.

Dear sir, proceed no farther in this dangerous forest, what will become of us if we fall into the hands of the outlaws?

Val.
Can there be addition to my misery?
If there can, I'll counterfeit some story. Enter several Outlaws.

1 Out.
Fellows stand fast, here are passengers.
Stand, sir, or we'll make you.

Speed.

Sir, we are undone; these are the villians that all the travellers 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 is a proper man.

Val.
A man I am, cross'd with adversity;
My riches are those poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I have.

1 Out.
Whither travel you?

Val.
To Verona.

1 Out.
Whence came you?

Val.
From Milan.

1 Out.
Have you long sojourn'd there?

Val.
Not very long, but 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.

2 Out.
By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
This fellow were a king for our wild faction.

1 Out.
We'll have him. Sirs a word, [They whisper.

Speed.

Master, be one of them: it's an honourable kind of thievery.

Val.
Peace, Villian.

1 Out.
Tell us this; have you any thing to take to?

Val.
Nothing but my fotune.

1 Out.
Know then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth

Thrust from the company of awful men:
My self was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heiress, and near ally'd unto the duke.
But to the purpose; for we'll cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives;
You seem a gentleman, and beautified
With goodly shape, and by your own report
A linguist, and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want.
Therefore above the rest we parley to you;
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity,
And live as we do in the wilderness?

2 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 outrages
On silly women, or poor passengers.

1 Out.
No, we detest such vile practices.
Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews,
And shew thee all the treasure we have got;
Which, with ourselves, shall rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

Next section