Wid. The troop is paft: Come, pilgrim, I will Where you shall hoft: of enjoin'd penitents Hel. I humbly thank you: Please it this matron, and this gentle maid, To eat with us to-night, the charge, and thanking, Shall be for me; and, to requite you further, I will beftow some precepts on this virgin, Worthy the note. Both. We'll take your offer kindly. [Exeunt Enter Bertram, and the two 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 refpect. 1 Lord. On my life, my lord, a bubble. Ber. Do you think, I am fo 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 kinfman, he's a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment. 2 Lord. It were fit you knew him; left, repofing too far in his virtue, which he hath not, he might, at fome great and trufty bufinefs, 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 fo confidently undertake to do. I Lord. 1 Lord. I, with a troop of Florentines, will fuddenly furprize him; fuch I will have, whom, I am fure, he knows not from the enemy: we will bind and hood-wink him fo, that he fhall fuppofe no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adverfaries, when we bring him to our own tents: Be but your lordship prefent at his examination; if he do not, for the promife of his life, and in the highest compulfion 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 foul upon oath, never truft my judgment in any thing. 8 2 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he fays, he has a ftratagem for't: when your lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and 8 to when your lordship fees the bottom of his fuccefs in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ours will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be remov'd.] Lump of ours has been the reading of all the editions. Ore, according to my emendation, bears a confonancy with the other terms accompanying, (viz. metal, lump and melted) and helps the propriety of the poet's thought: for fo one metaphor is kept up, and all the words are proper and fuitable to it. But, what is the meaning of John Drum's entertainment? Lafeu feveral times afterwards calls Parolles, Tom Drum. But the difference of the Christian name will make none in the explanation. There is an old motly interlude, (printed in 1601) call'd fack Drum's Entertainment: Or, The Comedy of Pafquil and Katharine. In this, Jack Drum is a fervant of intrigue, who is ever aiming at projects, and always foil'd, and given the drop. And there is another old piece (publifh'd in 1627) call'd, Apollo fbroving, in which I find thefe expreffions: Thuriger. Thou lozel, hath Slug infected you? fox-tail," to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes. Enter Parolles. 1 Lord. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the humour of his defign; let him fetch off his drum in any hand'. Ber. How now, monfieur? this drum fticks forely in your difpofition. 2 Lord. A pox on't, let it go; 'tis but a drum. Par. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum fo loft! There was an excellent command! to charge in with our horfe upon our own wings, and to rend our own foldiers. 2 Lord. That was not to be blamed in the command of the fervice; it was a difafter of war that Cæfar himself could not have prevented, if he had been there to command. Ber. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our fuccefs; fome dishonour we had, in the lofs of that drum; but it is not to be recover'd. fubjoin a quotation from Holingfhed, (of whose books Shakespeare was a moft diligent reader) which will pretty well afcertain Drum's hiftory. This chronologer, in his defcription of Ireland, speaking of Patrick Scarfefield, (mayor of Dublin in the year 1551) and of his extravagant hofpitality, fubjoins, that no gueft had ever a cold or forbidding look from any part of his family: fo that his porter or any other officer, durft not, for both his ears, give the fimpleft man, that reforted to his houfe, Tom Drum's entertainment, which is, to hale a man in by the head, and thruft him out by both the fhoulders. THEOBALD. I "he -in any hand.] The ufual phrafe is at any hand, but in any hand will do. It is ufed in Holland's Pliny, p. 456.must be a free citizen of Rome in any hand." Again, p. 508, 553, and 546. STEEVENS. Par Par. It might have been recover'd. Par. It is to be recover'd: but that the merit of fervice is feldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have that drum or another, or hic jacet. Ber. Why, if you have a ftomach to't, monfieur, if you think your mystery in ftratagem can bring this inftrument of honour again into its native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprize, and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit: if you speed well in it, the duke fhall both speak of it, and extend to you what further becomes his greatnefs, even to the utmost fyllable of your worthiness. Par. By the hand of a foldier, I will undertake it. Ber. But you must not now flumber in it. Par. I'll about it this evening: and I will prefently pen down my dilemma's, encourage myself in my certainty, put myself into my mortal preparation, and, by midnight, look to hear further from me. Ber. May I be bold to acquaint his grace, you are gone about it? Par. I know not what the fuccefs will be, my lord; but the attempt I vow. Ber. I know, thou art valiant; and, to the 3 poffibility of thy foldierfhip, will fubfcribe for thee. Farewel, 2 I will prefently pen down my dilemma's] By this word, Parolles is made to infinuate that he had feveral ways, all equally certain of recovering his drum. For a dilemma is an argument that concludes both ways. WARBURTON. Shakespeare might have found the word thus ufed in Holinfhed. STEEVENS. 3-poffibility of thy foldiership,--] Dele thy: the fenfe requires it. WARBURTON. There is no occafion to omit this word. I will fubfcribe (fays Bertram) to the poffibility of your foldiership. He fuppreffes that he fhould not be fo willing to vouch for its probability. STEEVENS. Par. Par. I love not many words. [Exit. I Lord. No more than a fifh loves water.-Is not this a strange fellow, my lord? that fo confidently feems to undertake this bufinefs, which he knows is not to be done; damns himself to do, and dares better be damn'd than do't? 2 Lord. You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it is, that he will steal himself into a man's favour, and, for a week, escape a great deal of difcoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after. Ber. Why, do you think, he will make no deed at all of this, that fo feriously he does addrefs himfelf unto? 2 Lord. None in the world; but return with an invention, and clap upon you two or three probable lies: but we have almost 4 imbofs'd him, you shall fee we have almost imboss'd him, to inclofe him in a wood. -] To imbofs a deer is Milton ufes the fame word: "Like that self-begotten bird "In th' Arabian woods emboft, "Which no fecond knows or third." JOHNSON. It is probable that Shakespeare was unacquainted with this word in the fenfe which Milton affixes to it, viz. from embofcare, Ital, to enclose in a thicket. When a deer is run hard and foams at the mouth, in the language of the field, he is faid to be emboss'd. So, in the induction to the Taming of the Shrew: the poor cur is imboft." Again, in Albumazar: 66 "With trotting all the streets." Again, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: "A boar emboss'd takes fanctuary in his shop, Again, in Swetnam Arraign'd, 1620: "Haft thou been running for a wager, Swash? Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. vii. c. 36: STEEVENS. |