All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 6
Camp before Florence.
Second Lord : Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his
[p]way.
First Lord : If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no
[p]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,
[p]without any
malice, but to speak of him as my
[p]kinsman, he's a most notable
coward, an infinite and
[p]endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker,
the owner
[p]of no one good quality worthy your
lordship's
[p]entertainment.
First Lord : It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in
[p]his virtue,
which he hath not, he might at some
[p]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,
[p]which you hear him
so confidently undertake to do.
Second Lord : I, with a troop of Florentines, will suddenly
[p]surprise him; such I
will have, whom I am sure he
[p]knows not from the enemy: we will bind
and hoodwink
[p]him so, that he shall suppose no other but that
he
[p]is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries, when
[p]we bring
him to our own tents. Be but your lordship
[p]present at his
examination: if he do not, for the
[p]promise of his life and in the
highest compulsion of
[p]base fear, offer to betray you and deliver
all the
[p]intelligence in his power against you, and that with
[p]the
divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never
[p]trust my judgment in
any thing.
First Lord : O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum;
[p]he says he has
a stratagem for't: when your
[p]lordship sees the bottom of his
success in't, and to
[p]what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will
be
[p]melted, if you give him not John Drum's
[p]entertainment, your
inclining cannot be removed.
[p]Here he comes.
Second Lord : [Aside to BERTRAM] O, for the love of laughter,
[p]hinder not the
honour of his design: let him fetch
[p]off his drum in any hand.
Bertram : How now, monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your
[p]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!
[p]There was
excellent command,--to charge in with our
[p]horse upon our own wings,
and to rend our own soldiers!
First Lord : That was not to be blamed in the command of the
[p]service: it was a
disaster of war that Caesar
[p]himself could not have prevented, if he
had been
[p]there to command.
Bertram : Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success: some
[p]dishonour we had
in the loss of that drum; but it is
[p]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
[p]service is seldom
attributed to the true and exact
[p]performer, I would have that drum
or another, or
[p]'hic jacet.'
Bertram : Why, if you have a stomach, to't, monsieur: if you
[p]think your
mystery in stratagem can bring this
[p]instrument of honour again into
his native quarter,
[p]be magnanimous in the enterprise and go on; I
will
[p]grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you
[p]speed well
in it, the duke shall both speak of it.
[p]and extend to you what
further becomes his
[p]greatness, even to the utmost syllable of
your
[p]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
[p]pen down my
dilemmas, encourage myself in my
[p]certainty, put myself into my
mortal preparation;
[p]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
[p]the attempt I
vow.
Bertram : I know thou'rt valiant; and, to the possibility of
[p]thy soldiership,
will subscribe for thee. Farewell.
Parolles : I love not many words.
Second Lord : No more than a fish loves water. Is not this a
[p]strange fellow, my
lord, that so confidently seems
[p]to undertake this business, which
he knows is not to
[p]be done; damns himself to do and dares better
be
[p]damned than to do't?
First Lord : You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it
[p]is that he will
steal himself into a man's favour and
[p]for a week escape a great
deal of discoveries; but
[p]when you find him out, you have him ever
after.
Bertram : Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of
[p]this that so
seriously he does address himself unto?
Second Lord : None in the world; but return with an invention and
[p]clap upon you
two or three probable lies: but we
[p]have almost embossed him; you
shall see his fall
[p]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
[p]him. He was
first smoked by the old lord Lafeu:
[p]when his disguise and he is
parted, tell me what a
[p]sprat you shall find him; which you shall
see this
[p]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.
Bertram : Now will I lead you to the house, and show you
[p]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
[p]And found her
wondrous cold; but I sent to her,
[p]By this same coxcomb that we have
i' the wind,
[p]Tokens and letters which she did re-send;
[p]And this
is all I have done. She's a fair creature:
[p]Will you go see her?
First Lord : With all my heart, my lord.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 5
Next: Act 3 - Scene 7
