Act IV, Scene i:
1. A forest between Milan and Verona.

[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 is 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 sojourn'd 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;

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.

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 anything 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 rul'd 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 practices.

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.]