Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
The frontiers of Mantua. A forest.
First Outlaw : Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.
Second Outlaw : If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.
Third Outlaw : Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye:
[p]If not: we'll make
you sit and rifle you.
Speed : Sir, we are undone; these are the villains
[p]That all the travellers
do fear so much.
Valentine : My friends,--
First Outlaw : That's not so, sir: we are your enemies.
Second Outlaw : Peace! we'll hear him.
Third Outlaw : Ay, by my beard, will we, for he's a proper man.
Valentine : Then know that I have little wealth to lose:
[p]A man I am cross'd
with adversity;
[p]My riches are these poor habiliments,
[p]Of which
if you should here disfurnish me,
[p]You take the sum and substance
that I have.
Second Outlaw : Whither travel you?
Valentine : To Verona.
First Outlaw : Whence came you?
Valentine : From Milan.
Third Outlaw : Have you long sojourned there?
Valentine : Some sixteen months, and longer might have stay'd,
[p]If crooked
fortune had not thwarted me.
First Outlaw : What, were you banish'd thence?
Valentine : I was.
Second Outlaw : For what offence?
Valentine : For that which now torments me to rehearse:
[p]I kill'd a man, whose
death I much repent;
[p]But yet I slew him manfully in
fight,
[p]Without false vantage or base treachery.
First Outlaw : Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so.
[p]But were you banish'd for
so small a fault?
Valentine : I was, and held me glad of such a doom.
Second Outlaw : Have you the tongues?
Valentine : My youthful travel therein made me happy,
[p]Or else I often had been
miserable.
Third Outlaw : By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
[p]This fellow were a
king for our wild faction!
First Outlaw : We'll have him. Sirs, a word.
Speed : Master, be one of them; it's an honourable kind of thievery.
Valentine : Peace, villain!
Second Outlaw : Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
Valentine : Nothing but my fortune.
Third Outlaw : Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
[p]Such as the fury of
ungovern'd youth
[p]Thrust from the company of awful men:
[p]Myself
was from Verona banished
[p]For practising to steal away a lady,
[p]An
heir, and near allied unto the duke.
Second Outlaw : And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
[p]Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto
the heart.
First Outlaw : And I for such like petty crimes as these,
[p]But to the purpose--for
we cite our faults,
[p]That they may hold excus'd our lawless
lives;
[p]And partly, seeing you are beautified
[p]With goodly shape
and by your own report
[p]A linguist and a man of such
perfection
[p]As we do in our quality much want--
Second Outlaw : Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
[p]Therefore, above the rest,
we parley to you:
[p]Are you content to be our general?
[p]To make a
virtue of necessity
[p]And live, as we do, in this wilderness?
Third Outlaw : What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consort?
[p]Say ay, and be the
captain of us all:
[p]We'll do thee homage and be ruled by
thee,
[p]Love thee as our commander and our king.
First Outlaw : But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.
Second Outlaw : Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.
Valentine : I take your offer and will live with you,
[p]Provided that you do no
outrages
[p]On silly women or poor passengers.
Third Outlaw : No, we detest such vile base practises.
[p]Come, go with us, we'll
bring thee to our crews,
[p]And show thee all the treasure we have
got,
[p]Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
