Act 4, Scene 1: The frontiers of Mantua. A forest

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
    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.

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.

Second Outlaw

    Whither travel you?

VALENTINE

    To Verona.

First Outlaw

    Whence came you?

VALENTINE

    From Milan.

Third Outlaw

    Have you long sojourned there?

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?

VALENTINE

    For that which now torments me to rehearse:
    I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
    Bu t 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.
    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.

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!

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:
    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.

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
    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?
    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,
    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
    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.

    Exeunt