ACT IV SCENE I The frontiers of Mantua. A forest.

[Enter certain Outlaws]

First OutlawFellows, stand fast; I see a passenger.

Second OutlawIf there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em.

[Enter VALENTINE and SPEED]

Third OutlawStand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye:

If not: we'll make you sit and rifle you.

SPEEDSir, we are undone; these are the villains5

That all the travellers do fear so much.

VALENTINEMy friends,--

First OutlawThat's not so, sir: we are your enemies.

Second OutlawPeace! we'll hear him.

Third OutlawAy, by my beard, will we, for he's a proper man.10

VALENTINEThen 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 OutlawWhither travel you?

VALENTINETo Verona.

First OutlawWhence came you?

VALENTINEFrom Milan.

Third OutlawHave you long sojourned there?20

VALENTINESome sixteen months, and longer might have stay'd,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

First OutlawWhat, were you banish'd thence?

VALENTINEI was.

Second OutlawFor what offence?25

VALENTINEFor 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 OutlawWhy, ne'er repent it, if it were done so.30

But were you banish'd for so small a fault?

VALENTINEI was, and held me glad of such a doom.

Second OutlawHave you the tongues?

VALENTINEMy youthful travel therein made me happy,

Or else I often had been miserable.35

Third OutlawBy the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,

This fellow were a king for our wild faction!

First OutlawWe'll have him. Sirs, a word.

SPEEDMaster, be one of them; it's an honourable kind of thievery.

VALENTINEPeace, villain!40

Second OutlawTell us this: have you any thing to take to?

VALENTINENothing but my fortune.

Third OutlawKnow, 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 OutlawAnd I from Mantua, for a gentleman,

Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.50

First OutlawAnd 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 report55

A linguist and a man of such perfection

As we do in our quality much want--

Second OutlawIndeed, 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 OutlawWhat 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 OutlawBut if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.

Second OutlawThou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

VALENTINEI take your offer and will live with you,

Provided that you do no outrages70

On silly women or poor passengers.

Third OutlawNo, 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]

Act4 Scene1 Two Gentlemen of Verona维洛那二绅士