Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Double Falsehood: Act V, Scene 2

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Double Falsehood
Act V, Scene 2

An apartment in the lodge.

  1. Enter Duke, Don Bernard, and Camillo.

Camillo

1 - 4
  1. Ay, then your grace had had a son more; he, a daughter; and
  2. I, an heir: but let it be as ’tis, I cannot mend it; one way
  3. or other, I shall rub it over, with rubbing to my grave, and
  4. there’s an end on’t.

Duke

5
  1. Our sorrows cannot help us, gentlemen.

Camillo

6 - 9
  1. Hang me, sir, if I shed one tear more. By Jove, I’ve wept so
  2. long, I’m as blind as justice. When I come to see my hawks
  3. (which I held a toy next to my son) if they be but
  4. house-high, I must stand aiming at them like a gunner.

Duke

10 - 14
  1. Why, he mourns like a man. Don Bernard, you
  2. Are still like April, full of show’rs and dews:
  3. And yet I blame you not: for I myself
  4. Feel the self-same affections.—Let them go;
  5. They’re disobedient children.

Don Bernard

15 - 16
  1.                               Ay, my lord;
  2. Yet they may turn again.

Camillo

17 - 19
  1. Let them e’en have their swing: they’re young and wanton;
  2. the next storm we shall have them gallop homeward, whining
  3. as pigs do in the wind.

Don Bernard

20
  1. Would I had my daughter any way.

Camillo

21
  1. Would’st thou have her with bairn, man, tell me that?

Don Bernard

22
  1. I care not, if an honest father got it.

Camillo

23 - 24
  1. You might have had her so in this good time, had my son had
  2. her: now you may go seek your fool to stop a gap with.

Duke

25 - 29
  1. You say, that Rod’rick charg’d you here should wait him:
  2. He has o’erslip’d the time, at which his letters
  3. Of speed request that I should also meet him.
  4. I fear, some bad event is usher’d in
  5. By this delay:—How now?
  1. Enter Attendant.

Attendant

30 - 31
  1.                         So please your grace,—
  2. Lord Roderick makes approach.

Duke

32 - 33
  1.                               I thank thee, fellow,
  2. For thy so timely news: comes he alone?

Attendant

34 - 35
  1. No, sir, attended well; and in his train
  2. Follows a herse with all due rites of mourning.
  1. Exit Gentleman.

Duke

36
  1. Heav’n send, Henriquez live!

Camillo

37
  1.                              ’Tis my poor Julio.—
  1. Enter Roderick, hastily.

Duke

38 - 39
  1. O welcome, welcome,
  2. Welcome, good Rod’rick! Say, what news?

Camillo

40 - 45
  1. Do you bring joy or grief, my lord? For me,
  2. Come what can come, I’ll live a month or two
  3. If the gout please; curse my physician once more,
  4. And then,—
  5.            Under this stone
  6.                  Lies sev’nty one.

Roderick

46 - 49
  1. Signior, you do express a manly patience.
  2. My noble father, something I have brought
  3. To ease your sorrows: my endeavors have not
  4. Been altogether barren in my journey.

Duke

50
  1. It comes at need, boy; but I hop’d it from thee.
  1. Enter Leonora veiled, Henriquez behind, and attendants.

Roderick

51 - 57
  1. The company I bring, will bear me witness
  2. The busiest of my time has been employ’d
  3. On this good task. Don Bernard finds beneath
  4. This veil his daughter: you, my royal father,
  5. Behind that lady find a wand’ring son.
  6. How I met with them, and how brought them hither,
  7. More leisure must unfold.

Henriquez

58 - 60
  1.                           My father here!
  2. And Julio’s! O confusion! Low as earth
  3. To the Duke.
  4. I bow me for your pardon.

Don Bernard

61 - 62
  1.                           O my girl!
  2. Thou bring’st new life.—
  1. Embraces Leonora.

Duke

63 - 65
  1. To Roderick.
  2.                          And you, my son, restore me
  3. One comfort here that has been missing long.
  4. To Henriquez.
  5. I hope, thy follies thou hast left abroad.

Camillo

66 - 68
  1. Ay, ay; you’ve all comforts but I; you have ruin’d me,
  2. kill’d my poor boy; cheated and ruin’d him; and I have no
  3. comfort.

Roderick

69 - 70
  1. Be patient, signior; time may guide my hand
  2. To work you comfort too.

Camillo

71 - 75
  1.                          I thank your lordship;
  2. Would grandsire time had been so kind to’ve done it;
  3. We might have joy’d together like good fellows.
  4. But he’s so full of business, good old man,
  5. ’Tis wonder, he could do the good he has done.

Don Bernard

76
  1. Nay, child, be comforted. These tears distract me.

Duke

77
  1. Hear your good father, lady.

Leonora

78
  1.                              Willingly.

Duke

79 - 90
  1. The voice of parents is the voice of gods:
  2. For to their children they are heav’n’s lieutenants:
  3. Made fathers, not for common uses merely
  4. Of procreation; (beasts and birds would be
  5. As noble then as we are) but to steer
  6. The wanton freight of youth through storms and dangers,
  7. Which with full sails they bear upon: and straighten
  8. The moral line of life, they bend so often.
  9. For these are we made fathers; and for these,
  10. May challenge duty on our children’s part.
  11. Obedience is the sacrifice of angels,
  12. Whose form you carry.

Don Bernard

91
  1.                       Hear the Duke, good wench.

Leonora

92 - 97
  1. To the Duke.
  2. I do most heedfully. My gracious lord,
  3. Let me be so unmanner’d to request,
  4. He would not farther press me with persuasions
  5. O’ th’ instant hour: but have the gentle patience
  6. To bury this keen suit, ’till I shake hands
  7. With my old sorrows,—

Camillo

98 - 99
  1.                       Why dost look at me?
  2. Alas! I cannot help thee.

Leonora

100 - 101
  1.                           And but weep
  2. A farewell to my murder’d Julio,—

Camillo

102
  1. Blessing be with thy soul, whene’er it leaves thee!

Leonora

103 - 110
  1. For such sad rites must be perform’d, my lord,
  2. E’er I can love again. Maids, that have lov’d,
  3. If they be worth that noble testimony,
  4. Wear their loves here, my lord; here, in their hearts;
  5. Deep, deep within; not in their eyes, or accents;
  6. Such may be slip’d away; or with two tears
  7. Wash’d out of all remembrance: mine, no physic,
  8. But time, or death, can cure.

Henriquez

111 - 112
  1. You make your own conditions, and I seal them
  2. Aside.
  3. Thus on your virtuous hand.

Camillo

113 - 121
  1.                             Well, wench, thy equal
  2. Shall not be found in haste; I give thee that:
  3. Thou art a right one, ev’ry inch. Thy father
  4. (For, without doubt, that snuff never begot thee,)
  5. Was some choice fellow, some true gentleman;
  6. I give thy mother thanks for’t—there’s no harm done.
  7. Would I were young again, and had but thee,
  8. A good horse under me, and a good sword,
  9. And thus much for inheritance.
  1. Violante offers, once or twice, to show herself, but goes
  2. back.

Duke

122 - 124
  1.                                What boy’s that,
  2. Has offer’d twice or thrice to break upon us?
  3. I’ve noted him, and still he falls back fearful.

Roderick

125
  1. A little boy, sir, like a shepherd?

Duke

126
  1.                                     Yes.

Roderick

127
  1. ’Tis your page, brother; one that was so, late.

Henriquez

128
  1. My page! What page?

Roderick

129 - 131
  1.                     Ev’n so he says, your page;
  2. And more, and worse, you stole him from his friends,
  3. And promis’d him preferment.

Henriquez

132
  1.                              I, preferment!

Roderick

133 - 136
  1. And on some slight occasion let him slip
  2. Here on these mountains, where he had been starv’d,
  3. Had not my people found him, as we travel’d.
  4. This was not handsome, brother.

Henriquez

137
  1.                                 You are merry.

Roderick

138
  1. You’ll find it sober truth.

Duke

139
  1.                             If so, ’tis ill.

Henriquez

140 - 145
  1. ’Tis fiction all, sir;—brother, you must please
  2. To look some other fool to put these tricks on;
  3. They are too obvious:—please your grace, give leave
  4. T’ admit the boy; if he know me, and say,
  5. I stole him from his friends, and cast him off,
  6. Know me no more. Brother, pray do not wrong me.
  1. Enter Violante.

Roderick

146 - 147
  1. Here is the boy. If he deny this to you,
  2. Then I have wrong’d you.

Duke

148
  1.                          Hear me; what’s thy name, boy?

Violante

149
  1. Florio, an’t like your grace.

Duke

150 - 151
  1.                               A pretty child.
  2. Where wast thou born?

Violante

152
  1.                       On t’other side the mountains.

Duke

153
  1. What are thy friends?

Violante

154
  1.                       A father, sir; but poor.

Duke

155
  1. How camest thou hither? How, to leave thy father?

Violante

156 - 159
  1. Pointing to Henriquez.
  2. That noble gentleman pleas’d once to like me,
  3. And, not to lie, so much to dote upon me,
  4. That with his promises he won my youth,
  5. And duty, from my father: him I follow’d.

Roderick

160
  1. How say you now, brother?

Camillo

161
  1.                           Ay, my lord, how say you?

Henriquez

162 - 163
  1. As I have life and soul, ’tis all a trick, sir.
  2. I never saw the boy before.

Violante

164 - 168
  1.                             O sir,
  2. Call not your soul to witness in a wrong:
  3. And ’tis not noble in you, to despise
  4. What you have made thus. If I lie, let justice
  5. Turn all her rods upon me.

Duke

169 - 170
  1.                            Fie, Henriquez;
  2. There is no trace of cunning in this boy.

Camillo

171 - 173
  1. A good boy!—Be not fearful: speak thy mind, child.
  2. Nature, sure, meant thou should’st have been a wench;
  3. And then’t had been no marvel he had bobb’d thee.

Duke

174
  1. Why did he put thee from him?

Violante

175 - 182
  1.                               That to me
  2. Is yet unknown, sir; for my faith, he could not;
  3. I never did deceive him: for my service,
  4. He had no just cause; what my youth was able,
  5. My will still put in act, to please my master:
  6. I cannot steal; therefore that can be nothing
  7. To my undoing: no, nor lie; my breeding,
  8. Though it be plain, is honest.

Duke

183
  1.                                Weep not, child.

Camillo

184 - 185
  1. This lord has abused men, women, and children already: what
  2. farther plot he has, the devil knows.

Duke

186 - 190
  1. If thou can’st bring a witness of thy wrong,
  2. (Else it would be injustice to believe thee,
  3. He having sworn against it) thou shalt have,
  4. I bind it with my honor, satisfaction
  5. To thine own wishes.

Violante

191 - 193
  1.                      I desire no more, sir.
  2. I have a witness, and a noble one,
  3. For truth and honesty.

Roderick

194
  1.                        Go, bring him hither.
  1. Exit Violante.

Henriquez

195 - 196
  1. This lying boy will take him to his heels,
  2. And leave me slander’d.

Roderick

197
  1.                         No; I’ll be his voucher.

Henriquez

198
  1. Nay then ’tis plain, this is confederacy.

Roderick

199 - 203
  1. That he has been an agent in your service,
  2. Appears from this. Here is a letter, brother,
  3. (Produc’d, perforce, to give him credit with me)
  4. The writing, yours; the matter, love; for so,
  5. He says, he can explain it.

Camillo

204 - 205
  1.                             Then, belike,
  2. A young he-bawd.

Henriquez

206
  1. This forgery confounds me!

Duke

207
  1. Read it, Roderick.

Roderick

208 - 211
  1. Reads.
  2. Our prudence should now teach us to
  3. forget, what our indiscretion has com-
  4. mitted. I have already made one step
  5. towards this wisdom—

Henriquez

212
  1. Aside.
  2. Hold, sir.—My very words to Violante!

Duke

213
  1. Go on.

Henriquez

214 - 220
  1.        My gracious father, give me pardon;
  2. I do confess, I some such letter wrote
  3. (The purport all too trivial for your ear,)
  4. But how it reach’d this young dissembler’s hands,
  5. Is what I cannot solve. For on my soul,
  6. And by the honors of my birth and house,
  7. The minion’s face ’till now I never saw.

Roderick

221 - 222
  1. Run not too far in debt on protestation.
  2. Why should you do a child this wrong?

Henriquez

223 - 227
  1.                                       Go to;
  2. Your friendships past warrant not this abuse:
  3. If you provoke me thus, I shall forget
  4. What you are to me. This is a mere practice,
  5. And villainy to draw me into scandal.

Roderick

228 - 229
  1. No more; you are a boy.—Here comes a witness,
  2. Shall prove you so: no more.
  1. Enter Julio, disguis’d; Violante, as a woman.

Henriquez

230
  1.                              Another rascal!

Duke

231
  1. Hold—

Henriquez

232
  1. Seeing Violante.
  2. Ha!

Duke

233
  1. What’s here?

Henriquez

234
  1. Aside.
  2. By all my sins, the injur’d Violante.

Roderick

235
  1. Now, sir, whose practice breaks?

Camillo

236
  1. To Henriquez.
  2.                                  Is this a page?

Roderick

237 - 238
  1. One that has done him service,
  2. And he has paid her for’t; but broke his covenant.

Violante

239 - 244
  1. My lord, I come not now to wound your spirit.
  2. Your pure affection dead, which first betray’d me,
  3. My claim die with it! Only let me not
  4. Shrink to the grave with infamy upon me:
  5. Protect my virtue, though it hurt your faith;
  6. And my last breath shall speak Henriquez noble.

Henriquez

245 - 255
  1. What a fierce conflict shame, and wounded honor,
  2. Raise in my breast!—But honor shall o’ercome.—
  3. She looks as beauteous, and as innocent,
  4. As when I wrong’d her.—Virtuous Violante!
  5. Too good for me! Dare you still love a man,
  6. So faithless as I am? I know you love me.
  7. Thus, thus, and thus, I print my vow’d repentance:
  8. Let all men read it here. My gracious father,
  9. Forgive, and make me rich with your consent,
  10. This is my wife; no other would I choose,
  11. Were she a queen.

Camillo

256
  1. Here’s a new change. Bernard looks dull upon’t.

Henriquez

257 - 265
  1. And fair Leonora, from whose virgin arms
  2. I forc’d my wrong’d friend Julio, O forgive me.
  3. Take home your holy vows, and let him have ’em
  4. That has deserv’d them. O that he were here!
  5. That I might own the baseness of my wrong,
  6. And purpos’d recompence. My Violante,
  7. You must again be widow’d: for I vow
  8. A ceaseless pilgrimage, ne’er to know joy,
  9. ’Till I can give it to the injur’d Julio.

Camillo

266
  1. This almost melts me:—but my poor lost boy—

Roderick

267 - 268
  1. I’ll stop that voyage, brother.—Gentle lady,
  2. What think you of this honest man?

Leonora

269 - 275
  1.                                    Alas!
  2. My thoughts, my lord, were all employ’d within!
  3. He has a face makes me remember something
  4. I have thought well of; how he looks upon me!
  5. Poor man, he weeps.—Ha! Stay; it cannot be—
  6. He has his eye, his features, shape, and gesture.—
  7. Would, he would speak.

Julio

276
  1. Throws off his disguise.
  2.                        Leonora,—

Leonora

277 - 278
  1.           Yes, ’tis he.
  2. They embrace.
  3. O ecstasy of joy!—

Camillo

279
  1.                    Now, what’s the matter?

Roderick

280
  1. Let ’em alone; they’re almost starv’d for kisses.

Camillo

281 - 283
  1. Stand forty foot off; no man trouble ’em.
  2. Much good may’t do your hearts!—What is he, lord,
  3. What is he?

Roderick

284
  1. A certain son of yours.

Camillo

285
  1.                         The devil he is.

Roderick

286
  1. If he be the devil, that devil must call you father.

Camillo

287
  1. By your leave a little, ho,—are you my Julio?

Julio

288 - 290
  1. My duty tells me so, sir,
  2. Still on my knees. But love engross’d me all;
  3. O Leonora, do I once more hold thee?

Camillo

291 - 292
  1. Nay, to’t again: I will not hinder a kiss,
  2. Leaps.
  3. ’Tis he—

Leonora

293 - 299
  1. The righteous pow’rs at length have crown’d our loves.
  2. Think, Julio, from the storm that’s now o’erblown,
  3. Though sour affliction combat hope awhile,
  4. When lovers swear true faith, the list’ning angels
  5. Stand on the golden battlements of heav’n,
  6. And waft their vows to the eternal throne.
  7. Such were our vows, and so are they repaid.

Duke

300 - 302
  1. E’en as you are, we’ll join your hands together.
  2. A providence above our pow’r rules all.
  3. To Henriquez.
  4. Ask him forgiveness, boy.

Julio

303 - 304
  1.                           He has it, sir:
  2. The fault was love’s, not his.

Henriquez

305 - 309
  1.                                Brave, gen’rous Julio!
  2. I knew thy nobleness of old, and priz’d it,
  3. ’Till passion made me blind—once more, my friend,
  4. Share in a heart, that ne’er shall wrong thee more.
  5. And, brother,—

Roderick

310
  1.                This embrace cuts off excuses.

Duke

311 - 319
  1. I must, in part, repair my son’s offense:
  2. At your best leisure, Julio, know our court.
  3. And, Violante, (for I know you now)
  4. I have a debt to pay: your good old father,
  5. Once, when I chas’d the boar, preserv’d my life:
  6. For that good deed, and for your virtue’s sake,
  7. Though your descent be low, call me your father.
  8. A match drawn out of honesty, and goodness,
  9. Is pedigree enough. Are you all pleas’d?
  1. Gives her to Henriquez.

Camillo

320
  1. All.

Henriquez

321
  1. All, sir,—

Don Bernard

322
  1. All, sir,—

Julio

323
  1. All.

Duke

324 - 330
  1. And I not least. We’ll now return to court:
  2. (And that short travel, and your loves completed,
  3. Shall, as I trust, for life restrain these wand’rings.)
  4. There, the solemnity, and grace, I’ll do
  5. Your sev’ral nuptials, shall approve my joy;
  6.                                              And make griev’d lovers, that your story read,
  7.                                                Wish, true love’s wand’rings may like yours succeed.
  1. Curtain falls.
© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons