William Shakespeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 4 Scene 1

                         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 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 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