Act 3, Scene 5

Without the walls of Florence.

[Enter an old Widow of Florence, DIANA, VIOLENTA, MARIANA, and other Citizens.]
The Widow
1457 Nay, come; for if they do approach the city we shall lose
1458 all the sight.
Diana
1459 They say the French count has done most honourable service.
The Widow
1460 It is reported that he has taken their greatest commander;
1461 and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother.
[A tucket afar off.]
The Widow
1462 We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way: hark! you
1463 may know by their trumpets.
Mariana
1464 Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the report
1465 of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl: the honour of
1466 a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.
The Widow
1467 I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a
1468 gentleman his companion.
Mariana
1469 I know that knave; hang him! one Parolles: a filthy officer he is
1470 in those suggestions for the young earl.—Beware of them, Diana;
1471 their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines
1472 of lust, are not the things they go under; many a maid hath been
1473 seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible
1474 shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade
1475 succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten
1476 them. I hope I need not to advise you further; but I hope your
1477 own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no
1478 further danger known but the modesty which is so lost.
Diana
1479 You shall not need to fear me.
The Widow
1480 I hope so.—Look, here comes a pilgrim. I know she will lie
1481 at my house: thither they send one another; I'll question her.—
[Enter HELENA in the dress of a pilgrim.]
The Widow
1482 God save you, pilgrim! Whither are bound?
Helena
1483 To Saint Jaques-le-Grand.
1484 Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?
The Widow
1485 At the Saint Francis here, beside the port.
Helena
1486 Is this the way?
The Widow
1487 Ay, marry, is't. Hark you! They come this way.
[A march afar off.]
The Widow
1488 If you will tarry, holy pilgrim,
1489 But till the troops come by,
1490 I will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd;
1491 The rather for I think I know your hostess
1492 As ample as myself.
Helena
1493 Is it yourself?
The Widow
1494 If you shall please so, pilgrim.
Helena
1495 I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure.
The Widow
1496 You came, I think, from France?
Helena
1497 I did so.
The Widow
1498 Here you shall see a countryman of yours
1499 That has done worthy service.
Helena
1500 His name, I pray you.
Diana
1501 The Count Rousillon: know you such a one?
Helena
1502 But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him:
1503 His face I know not.
Diana
1504 Whatsoe'er he is,
1505 He's bravely taken here. He stole from France,
1506 As 'tis reported, for the king had married him
1507 Against his liking: think you it is so?
Helena
1508 Ay, surely, mere the truth; I know his lady.
Diana
1509 There is a gentleman that serves the count
1510 Reports but coarsely of her.
Helena
1511 What's his name?
Diana
1512 Monsieur Parolles.
Helena
1513 O, I believe with him,
1514 In argument of praise, or to the worth
1515 Of the great count himself, she is too mean
1516 To have her name repeated; all her deserving
1517 Is a reserved honesty, and that
1518 I have not heard examin'd.
Diana
1519 Alas, poor lady!
1520 'Tis a hard bondage to become the wife
1521 Of a detesting lord.
The Widow
1522 Ay, right; good creature, wheresoe'er she is
1523 Her heart weighs sadly: this young maid might do her
1524 A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd.
Helena
1525 How do you mean?
1526 May be, the amorous count solicits her
1527 In the unlawful purpose.
The Widow
1528 He does, indeed;
1529 And brokes with all that can in such a suit
1530 Corrupt the tender honour of a maid;
1531 But she is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard
1532 In honestest defence.
Mariana
1533 The gods forbid else!
Mariana
1534 WIDOW. So, now they come:—
[Enter, with a drum and colours, a party of the Florentine army, BERTRAM, and PAROLLES.]
Mariana
1535 That is Antonio, the Duke's eldest son;
1536 That, Escalus.
Helena
1537 Which is the Frenchman?
Diana
1538 He;
1539 That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow.
1540 I would he lov'd his wife: if he were honester
1541 He were much goodlier: is't not a handsome gentleman?
Helena
1542 I like him well.
Diana
1543 'Tis pity he is not honest? yond's that same knave
1544 That leads him to these places; were I his lady
1545 I would poison that vile rascal.
Helena
1546 Which is he?
Diana
1547 That jack-an-apes with scarfs. Why is he melancholy?
Helena
1548 Perchance he's hurt i' the battle.
Parolles
1549 Lose our drum! well.
Mariana
1550 He's shrewdly vex'd at something.
1551 Look, he has spied us.
The Widow
1552 Marry, hang you!
Mariana
1553 And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier!
[Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, Officers, and Soldiers.]
The Widow
1554 The troop is past. Come, pilgrim, I will bring you
1555 Where you shall host: of enjoin'd penitents
1556 There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound,
1557 Already at my house.
Helena
1558 I humbly thank you:
1559 Please it this matron and this gentle maid
1560 To eat with us to-night; the charge and thanking
1561 Shall be for me: and, to requite you further,
1562 I will bestow some precepts of this virgin,
1563 Worthy the note.
Both
1564 We'll take your offer kindly.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1466cultural context
“no legacy is so rich as honesty”
Mariana warns Diana that a maid's only reliable inheritance is her sexual reputation: 'honesty' here means chastity, and 'her name' means her good name — the same thing. In Shakespeare's world a woman's honour rested almost entirely on her chastity before and within marriage; to lose it was to lose everything, including marriageability and social standing.
historical A woman's honour: chastity and the double standard
TLN 1471archaic vocab
“their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust”
'Engines' means devices or instruments — the same root as 'engineering.' Mariana is cataloguing the tools men use to wear down a woman's resistance: promises, flattery, sworn oaths, and small gifts ('tokens'). The word carries a sense of mechanical scheming and deliberate craft, treating seduction as a constructed operation rather than spontaneous passion.
TLN 1483historical topical
“To Saint Jaques-le-Grand. Where do the palmers lodge”
Helena is disguised as a pilgrim travelling to the shrine of Saint James the Great ('Saint Jaques-le-Grand' is French for 'Saint James the Great'). The major pilgrimage to his shrine at Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain was among the most important in Christendom. A 'palmer' was a pilgrim who had visited the Holy Land and carried a palm frond as proof; the word was used loosely for any long-distance pilgrim. The Widow directs Helena to lodge 'at the Saint Francis' — a Franciscan hospice, which routinely sheltered pilgrims.
historical Pilgrims, palmers, and holy shrines
TLN 1505cultural context
“He stole from France, As 'tis reported, for the king had married him Against his liking”
Diana reports the common knowledge that Bertram fled France because the King forced him into a marriage he did not want. In this period a king acting as a royal ward's guardian had the legal right to arrange that ward's marriage; Bertram was made a royal ward when his father died and was compelled by royal command to wed Helena. His flight to the Florentine wars is his refusal to honor the match.
TLN 1513syntax grammar
“O, I believe with him, In argument of praise, or to the worth Of the great count himself, she is too mean”
Helena speaks about herself in the third person, feigning agreement with Parolles's slander: she is 'too mean' — too humble in rank and worth — to be spoken of alongside the Count. 'Mean' here means low-born or of inferior station, not unkind. The speech is deeply ironic: Helena is simultaneously the person being discussed and the one delivering the verdict, endorsing the very dismissal that Parolles has made of her.
TLN 1529archaic vocab
“brokes with all that can in such a suit Corrupt the tender honour of a maid”
'Brokes' is a verb: to 'broke' was to act as a go-between or broker, specifically in a disreputable negotiation. The Widow says Bertram uses as intermediaries anyone who can be got to help corrupt a young woman's honour — Parolles is the named example. The word implies a commercial transaction, framing the seduction attempt as trafficking.
classical The miles gloriosus (the braggart soldier)
TLN 1547archaic vocab
“That jack-an-apes with scarfs”
Diana picks Parolles out of the passing troops by his flashy scarves and calls him a 'jack-an-apes' — a tame monkey, the stock figure of a vain, chattering imitator. The scarfs are part of his braggart-soldier costume, a soldier's badge worn for show rather than function. The insult captures his character exactly: all performance, no substance.
TLN 1553archaic vocab
“And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier”
Mariana hurls 'ring-carrier' at Parolles as he glances at the women and moves on. A 'ring-carrier' was a contemptuous term for a go-between in an illicit love-affair — someone who ferried rings (love-tokens and pledges) between a man and the woman he was trying to seduce. It is both an insult about his errand-running and a prophetic irony, since the exchange of Bertram's ancestral ring will be the hinge of the bed-trick plot.
TLN 1555historical topical
“of enjoin'd penitents There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound”
'Enjoin'd penitents' are people under a formal religious obligation — enjoined (commanded) by a priest or confessor — to make a pilgrimage as penance for their sins. The Widow already has four or five such pilgrims staying at her house, all bound for the same shrine of Saint James that Helena claims as her destination. The detail confirms that Helena's pilgrim disguise is entirely convincing: she blends into an established stream of real pilgrims.
historical Pilgrims, palmers, and holy shrines