The Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.1

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The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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ACT IV SCENE I	The frontiers of Mantua. A forest.
[Enter certain Outlaws]
First Outlaw	Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.
Second Outlaw	If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.
[Enter VALENTINE and SPEED]
Third Outlaw	Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye:
	If not: we'll make you sit and rifle you.
SPEED	Sir, we are undone; these are the villains	5
	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.	10
VALENTINE	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.	15
Second Outlaw	Whither travel you?
VALENTINE	To Verona.
First Outlaw	Whence came you?
VALENTINE	From Milan.
Third Outlaw	Have you long sojourned there?	20
VALENTINE	Some sixteen months, and longer might have stay'd,
	If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.
First Outlaw	What, were you banish'd thence?
VALENTINE	I was.
Second Outlaw	For what offence?	25
VALENTINE	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.
First Outlaw	Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so.	30
	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,
	Or else I often had been miserable.	35
Third Outlaw	By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
	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!	40
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,
	Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
	Thrust from the company of awful men:	45
	Myself was from Verona banished
	For practising to steal away a lady,
	An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
Second Outlaw	And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
	Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.	50
First Outlaw	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 beautified
	With goodly shape and by your own report	55
	A linguist and a man of such perfection
	As we do in our quality much want--
Second Outlaw	Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
	Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
	Are you content to be our general?	60
	To make a virtue of necessity
	And live, as we do, in this wilderness?
Third Outlaw	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 ruled by thee,	65
	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,
	Provided that you do no outrages	70
	On silly women or poor passengers.
Third Outlaw	No, we detest such vile base practises.
	Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews,
	And show thee all the treasure we have got,
	Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose.	75
[Exeunt]

Next: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 4, Scene 2
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Explanatory notes for Act 4, Scene 1
From The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society.

33. Have you the tongues? - That is, do you speak foreign languages?

36. Robin Hood's fat friar: - Friar Tuck, the chaplain of Robin. Hood's merry crew; that ancient specimen of clerical baldness and plumpness and jollity, who figures so largely in old ballads and in Ivanhoe. Recall what Drayton says:-

"Of Tuck, the merry friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and his trade."

46. awful men:- Men full of awe, or reverence for just authority, the duties of life, and the laws of society. See Milton's Hymn of the Nativity:-

"And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by."

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society, 1901. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/two_4_1.html >.

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