The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. 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 crossed 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 stayed If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. FIRST OUTLAW. What, were you banished thence? VALENTINE. I was. SECOND OUTLAW. For what offence? VALENTINE. For that which now torments me to rehearse; I killed a man, whose death I much repent, But yet I slew him manfully in fight, Without false vantage or base treachery.
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