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Florence. A Room in the Widow’s House. | |
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Enter HELENA and Widow. | |
| Hel. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, | |
| I know not how I shall assure you further, | |
| But I shall lose the grounds I work upon. | 5 |
| Wid. Though my estate be fall’n, I was well born, | |
| Nothing acquainted with these businesses; | |
| And would not put my reputation now | |
| In any staining act. | |
| Hel. Nor would I wish you. | 10 |
| First, give me trust, the county is my husband, | |
| And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken | |
| Is so from word to word; and then you cannot, | |
| By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, | |
| Err in bestowing it. | 15 |
| Wid. I should believe you: | |
| For you have show’d me that which well approves | |
| You’re great in fortune. | |
| Hel. Take this purse of gold, | |
| And let me buy your friendly help thus far, | 20 |
| Which I will over-pay and pay again | |
| When I have found it. The county woos your daughter, | |
| Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty, | |
| Resolv’d to carry her: let her in fine consent, | |
| As we’ll direct her how ’tis best to bear it. | 25 |
| Now, his important blood will nought deny | |
| That she’ll demand: a ring the county wears, | |
| That downward hath succeeded in his house | |
| From son to son, some four or five descents | |
| Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds | 30 |
| In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire, | |
| To buy his will, it would not seem too dear, | |
| Howe’er repented after. | |
| Wid. Now I see | |
| The bottom of your purpose. | 35 |
| Hel. You see it lawful then. It is no more, | |
| But that your daughter, ere she seems as won, | |
| Desires this ring, appoints him an encounter, | |
| In fine, delivers me to fill the time, | |
| Herself most chastely absent. After this, | 40 |
| To marry her, I’ll add three thousand crowns | |
| To what is past already. | |
| Wid. I have yielded. | |
| Instruct my daughter how she shall persever, | |
| That time and place with this deceit so lawful | 45 |
| May prove coherent. Every night he comes | |
| With musics of all sorts and songs compos’d | |
| To her unworthiness: it nothing steads us | |
| To chide him from our eaves, for he persists | |
| As if his life lay on ’t. | 50 |
| Hel. Why then to-night | |
| Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed, | |
| Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed, | |
| And lawful meaning in a lawful act, | |
| Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact. | 55 |
| But let’s about it. [Exeunt. | |
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