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O, who can give an oath! where is a book?
That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack,
If that she learn not of her eye to look:

No face is fair, that is not full so black.
King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell.
The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night;
And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.
Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits
of light.

O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt,

it mourns, that painting, and usurping hair,
Should ravish doters with a false aspect;
And therefore is she born to make black fair.
Her favor turns the fashion of the days;

For native blood is counted painting now;
And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise,
Paints itself black, to imitate her brow.
Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers
black.

Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted
bright.

King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.

Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is
light.

Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain.
For fear their colors should be washed away.
King. "Twere good, yours did: for, sir, to tell
you plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.
Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day
here.

King. No devil will fright thee then so much as
she.

Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her
face see.
[Showing his shoe.
Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine
eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! Dum. O vile! then as she goes, what upward lies

The street should see as she walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing so sure; and thereby all torsworn. King. Then leave this chat: and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to yourself,
And where we are, our learning likewise is.
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies eyes,
Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forsworn our books;
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil:
But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain;
But, with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their officers.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind,
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd;
Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste:
For valor, is not love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet, and musical,
As bright Apollo 's lute, strung with his hair;
And, when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durst poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sigh;
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine 1 derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Else none at all in aught proves excellent:
Then fools you were these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men;
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men:

Dum. Ay, marry, there, some flattery for this Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves,

evil.

Long. O, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.
Dum. Some salve for perjury.

Biron.
O, 'tis more than need!-
Have at you then, affection's men at arms:
Consider, what you first did swear unto;—
To fast, to study, and to see no woman;~-
Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? your stoinachs are too young
And abstinence engenders maladies.

And where that you have vow d to study, lords,
In that each of you nath forsworn his book:
Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face!
From women's eyes this doctrine 1 derive:
They are the ground, the books, the academes,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
Why, universal plodding prisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries;
As motion, and long-during action, tires
The sinewy vigor of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the causer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,

10

Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion to be thus forsworn:
For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can sever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!

Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them,
lords;

Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd,
In conflict that you get the sun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by:
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?
King. And win them too: therefore let us devise
Some entertainment for them in their tents.
Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them
thither;

Then, homeward, every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon
We will with some strange pastime solace them.
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Fore-run fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! Allons!-Sow'd cockle reap'd

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SCENE I-A Street.

ACT V.

Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL.
Hol. Satis quod sufficit.

Nuth. I praise God for you, sir, your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say.

Hot. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem.

Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled
from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at
the charge-house on the top of the mountain?
Hol. Or, mons, the hill.

Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, sans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and aflection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the

rude multitude call the afternoon.

Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.

Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate niajestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasins, such insociable and point-de-familiar, I do assure you, very good friend:-For vise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, fine, when he should say, doubt: det, when he should pronounce, debt; d, e, b, t; not, d, e, t: he clepetti a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbor, vocatur, nebour, neigh abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable, (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insaine; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

Arin. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my what is inward between us, let it pass:-1 do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy;-1 beseech thee, apparel thy head;-and among other importunate and most serious designs,- and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass:-for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio; but sweet heart, let that pass.

Hol. Bone?-bone, for bene: Priscian a little By the world, I recount no fable; some certain

scratch'd; 'twill serve.

Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD.

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Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd.
Hol. Most military sir, salutation.

special honors it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is, but sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,― that the king would have me present the princess, [To MOTH. Sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic, or fire- work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self, are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you Withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. [TO COSTARD aside. Cost. O, they have lived long in the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as -honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.3

Moth. Peace; the peal begins.

Arm. Monsieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book: -What is a, b, spelt backward with a horn on his head?

Hol. Ba pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn:-You hear his learning.

Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant?

Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies.-Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,-the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

Hol. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the

Hurcules.

page, Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the them; or the fifth, if I.

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i.—

Moth. The sheep; the other two concludes it;

o, u.

Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit: snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect:

true wit.

Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old.

Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure?
Moth. Horns.

Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig.

Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum circa; A gig of a cuckold's horn!

Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou half

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end of his club.

Hot. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hurcules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, Well done, Hurcules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

Arm. For the rest of the worthies?
Hol. I will play three myself.
Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?
Hot. We attend.

Arm. We will have, if this fadges not, an antic.
I beseech you, follow.

Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir.
Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will

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play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.

Hol. Most dull, honest Dull to our sport, away. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Before the Princess's Pavilion. Enter the PRINCESS, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and

MARIA.

Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are
catch'd,

As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd,
Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school;
And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such

excess.

As gravity's revolt to wantonness.

Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote;
If fairings come thus plentifully in:

Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,

A lady wall'd about with dimonds!-
Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, come nothing else along with that?
Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in
rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ on both sides the leaf, margent and all;
That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head

wax :

For he hath been five thousand years a boy.
Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.
Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd
your sister.

Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and, heavy;
And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
She might have been a grandam ere she died:
And so may you: for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse," of this
light word?

Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark.

Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out. Kath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff'; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look what you do, you do it still i' the
dark.

Kath. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
Kath. You weigh me not-0, that's you care

not for me.

Ros. Great reason; for, past cure is still past care.
Prin. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd.
But, Rosaline, you have a favor too;
Who sent it? and what is it?
Ros.
I would, you knew:
An if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favor were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron:
The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compared to twenty thousand fairs.
O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!
Prin. Any thing like?

Ros. Much, in the letters: nothing, in the praise.
Prin. Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion.
Kath. Fair as a text B in a copy book.

Ros. 'Ware pencils! How! let me not die your
debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter:
O,that your face were not so full of O's!

Kath. A pox of that jest! and beshrew all shrews!
Frin. But what was sent to you from fair Dumain!
Keth. Madam, this glove.
Frin.
Did he not send you twain?
Kath. Yes, madam; and moreover,
Some thousand verses of a faithful lover:

A huge translation of hypocrisy,

Vilely compil'd' profound simplicity.

Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity.

Enter BOYET.

Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face.
Boyet. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's
her grace!

Prin. Thy news, Boyet?
Boyet.
Prepare, madam, prepare!—
Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are
Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd,
Armed in arguments: you'll be surpris'd:
Muster your wits; stand in your own defence;
or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

Prin. Samt Denis to saint Cupid! What are they,
That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say.
Boyet. Under the cool shade of a sycamore,

I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour:
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos d rest,
Toward that shade I might behold addrest
The king and his companions: warily
I stole into a neighbor thicket by,
And overheard what you shall overhear;
That, by and by, disguis'd they will be here.
Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
That well by heart hath conn'd ins embassage:
Action, and accent, did they teach him there;
Thus must thou speak, and thus thy body beur:
And ever and anon they made a doubt,
Presence majestical would put him out;
For, quoth the king, an angel shalt thou see ;
Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously.
The boy reply'd, An angel is not evil;

I should have fear'd her, had she been a devil.
With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the
shoulder;

Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.
One rubb'd his elbow, thus; and leer'd, and swore,
A better speech was never spoke before:
Another with his finger and his thumb,
Cry'd, Via! we will do't, come what will come :
The third he caper d, and cried, All goes well:
The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he tell
With that they all did tumble on the ground,
With sucha zealous laughter, so profound,
That in the spleen ridiculous appears,
To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.

Prin. But what, but what, come they to visit us?
Boyet. They do, they do, and are apparel'd
thus,-

Like Muscovites, or Russians: as I guess,
Their purpose is, to parle, to court, and dance:
And every one his love-feat will advance
Unto his several mistress; which they'll know
By favors several, which they did bestow.

Prin. And will they so! the gallants shall be
task'd:-

For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd;
And not a man of them shall have the grace,

Mar. This, and these pearls, to me sent Lon- Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.—

gaville;

The letter is too long by half a mile.

Prin. I think no less: Dost thou not wish in heart,
The chain were longer, and the letter short?
Mar. Ay, or I would these hands might never
part.

Prin. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.
Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.
That same Birón I'll torture ere I go.
O, that I knew he were but in by the week!
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek;
And wait the season, and observe the times;
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes;
And shape his service wholly to my behests;
And make him proud to make me proud that jests!
So portent-like would I o'ersway his state,
That he should be my fool, and I his fate.
Formerly a term of endearment.

• Grow.

In anger.

Hold, Rosaline, this favor thou shalt wear!
And then the king will court thee for his dear;
Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine;
So shall Birón take me for Rosaline.--
And change your favors too; so shall your loves
Woo contrary, deceiv'd, by these removes.

Ros. Come on then; wear the favors most in sight.
Kath. But, in this changing, what is your intent!
Prin. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs:
They do it but in mocking merriment:
And mock for mock is only my intent.
Their several counsels they unbosom shall
To loves mistook; and so be mock'd withal,
Upon the next occasion that we meet,
With visages display 'd, to talk, and greet.

Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't?
Prin. No: to the death, we will not move a foot,
Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace;
But, while tis spoke, each turn away her face.

Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart,

And quite divorce his memory from his part.

Prin. Therefore I do it; and I make no doubt
The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out.
There's no such sport, as sport by sport o'erthrown;
To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own:
So shall we stay, mocking intended game;
And they, well mock'd depart away with shame.
Trumpels sound within.
Boyet. The trumpet sounds; be mask'd, the
maskers come.
[The Ladies mask.

Ros. Since you are strangers and come here by
chance,

We'll not be nice: take hands:-we will not dance.
King. Why take we hands then?
Ros.
Only to part friends:-
Court'sy, sweet hearts; and so the measure ends.
King. More measure of this measure, be not nice.
Ros. We can afford no more at such a price.
King. Prize you yourselves; What buys your
company?
Ros. Your absence only.
King.
That can never be.
Ros. Then cannot we be bought and so adieu;
to your visor, and half once to you!
King. If you deny to dance, let's hold more chat.
Ros. In private then.
King.

Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DU-Twic
MAIN, in Russian habits, and masked; Moти,
Musicians, and Attendants.

Moth. All hail, the richest beauties on the earth!
Boyet. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta.
Moth. A holy parcel of the farist dames,

[The Ladies turn their backs to him. That ever turn'd their-backs -to mortal views! Biron. Their eyes, villain, their eyes.

Moth. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! Out

Boyet. True; out, indeed.

Moth. Out of your favors, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe,

Not to behold

Biron. Once to behold, rogue.

Moth. Once to behold with your sun-beamed eyes,
-with your sun-beamed eyes-

Boyet. They will not answer to that epithet;
You were best call it, daughter-beamed eyes.
Moth. They do not mark me, and that brings me

out.

Biron. Is this your perfectness? begone, you rogue.
Ros. What would these strangers? know their

minds, Boyet:

If they do speak our language, 'tis our will
That some plain man recount their purposes:
Know what they would.

Boyet. What would you with the princess?
Biron. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.
Ros. What would they, say they?

Boyet. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation.
Ros. Why, that they have; and bid them so begone.
Boyet. She says, you have it, and you may begone.
King. Say to her, we have measur'd many miles
To tread a measure with her on this grass.

Boyet. They say that they have measur'd many a mile,

To tread a measure with you on this grass.

Ros. It is not so: ask them how many inches
Is in one mile: if they have measur'd many,
The measure then of one is easily told.

Boyet. If to come hither you have measur'd miles,
And many miles; the princess bids you tell,
How many inches do fill up one mile.
Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps.
Boyet. She hears herself.
Ros.

How many weary steps,
Of many weary miles you have o'ergone,
Are number'd in the travel of one mile?!
Biron. We number nothing that we spend for
you;

Our duty is so rich, so infinite,

That we may do it still without accompt.
Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,
That we, like savages, may worship it.

Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too.
King. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do!
Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine
(Those clouds remov'd) upon our watry eyne,

Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter;
Thou now request st but moonshine in the water.
King. Then, in our measure do but vochsafe
one change;
Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange.
Ros. Play, music, then: nay, you must do it
Music plays.
Not yet;-no dance :-thus change I like the moon.
King. Will you not dance? How come you thus
estrang'd!

soon.

Ros. You took the moon at full; but now she's

chang d.

King. Yet still she is the moon, and I the man.
The music plays; vouchsate some motion to it.
Ros. Our ears vouchsafe it.
King.

But your legs should do it.

I am best pleas'd with that. They converse apart. .Biron. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee.

Prin. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three.
Biron. Nay then, two treys, (an if you grow so
nice,)

Metheglin, wort, and malmsey ;-Well run, dice.
There's half a dozen sweets.
Frin.

Seventh sweet, adicu!
Since you can cog,2 I'll play no more with you.
Biron. One word in secret.
Prin.

Biron. Thou griev`st my gall.
Prin.

Biron.

Let it not be sweet.

Gall? bitter.

Therefore meet. [They converse apart.

Dum. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a
word?
Mar. Name it.
Dum.

Mar.

Fair lady,-
Take that for your fair lady.
Dum.

Say you so? Fair lord,-
Please it you,

As much in private, and I'll bid adieu.

They converse apart. Kath. What, was your visor inade without a tongue!

Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask.
Kath. O, for your reason! quickly, sir; I long.
Long. You have a double tongue within your

mask,

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sharp mocks!

Will you give horns, chaste lady do not so.
Kath. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow.
Long. One word in private with you, ere I die.
Kath. Bleat softly then, the butcher hears you
cry.
They converse apart.
Boyet. I he tongues of mocking wenches are as
keen

As is the razor's edge invisible,
Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen;

Above the sense of sense: so sensible
Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings,
Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter
things.

Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off.

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The king was weeping-ripe for a good word.
Prin. Birón did swear himself out of all suit.
Mur. Dumain was at my service, and his sword:
No point, quoth I; my servant straight was mute.
Kuth. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er his heart;
And trow you, what he call'd me?
Prin.

Kath. Yes, in good faith. Prin.

Qualm, perhaps.

Go, sickness as thou art! Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps.

Bit will you hear the king is my love sworn.
Prin. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me.
Kath. And Longaville was for my service born.
Mur. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree.
Boyet. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear:
Immediately they will again be here

In their own shapes; for it can never be,
They will digest this harsh indignity.
Prin. Will they return?

Boyet. They will, they will, God knows; And leap for joy, though they are laine with blows: Therefore, change favors; and when they repair, Blow like sweet roses in this summer air.

Prin. How blow how blow? speak to be understood.

Boyet. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud: Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.

Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, If they return in their own shapes to woo?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Let's mock them stili, as well known, as disguis'd; Let us complain to them what fools were here, Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear; And wonder what they were; and to what end Their shallow shows, and prologue vilely penn'd, And their rough carriage so ridiculous, Should be presented at our tent to us.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand. Prin. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land. [Exeunt PRINCESS, Ros., KATH., and MARIA. Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DuMAIN, in their proper habits.

King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess?

Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither!

King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one

word.

Boyet. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord.
[Exit.
Biron. This fellow picks up wit, as pigons peas;
And utters it again when God doth please:
He is wit's pedlar; and retails his wares

At wakes and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve too, and lisp: Why, this is he,
That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy ;
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honorable terms; nay, he can sing
A mean most meanly; and, in ushering,
Mend him who can the ladies call him, sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales bone:
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.
King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my
heart,

That put Armado's page out of his part!
Enter the PRINCESS, ushered by BOYET ROSA-
LINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and, Attendants.
Biron. See where it comes !-Behavior, what
wert thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?
King. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!
Prin. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive.
King. Construe my speeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then wish me better, I will give you leave.
A quibble on the French adverb of negation.
Better wits may be found among citizens.
Features, countenances. Rustic merry meetings.
The tenor in music. The tooth of the horse-whale.

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Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur`d men.
King Rebuke me not for that which you provoke;
The virtue of your eye must break my oath.
Prin. You nick-naine vntue: vice you should
have spoke;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now by my maiden honor, yet as pure
As the unsullied ly, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest:
So much I hate a breaking-cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
King. O, you have liv'd in desolation here,

Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.
Prin. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear;
We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game;
A mess of Russians left us but of late.
King. How, madam! Russians?

Prin.

Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state. Ros. Madain, speak true:-it is not so, my lord; My lady, (to the manner of the days,") In courtesy, gives undeserving praise. We four, indeed, confronted here with four In Russian habit: here they stay'd an hour. And talk d apace; and in that hour, my lord, They did not bless us with one happy word." I dare not call them fools; but this I think, When they are thirsty, fools would fam have drink. Biron. This jest is dry to me-Fair, gentle, sweet, Your wit makes wise things toolish; when we greet With eyes best seeing heaven's fiery eye, By light we lose light: Your capacity Is of that nature, that to your huge store Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor Ros. This proves you wise and rich: for in my

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perjury,

Can any face of brass hold longer out ?Here stand 1, lady; dart thy skill at me;

Bruise me with scorni, confound me with a
flout;

Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance;
Cut me to peices with thy keen conceit;
And I will wish thee never inore to dance,

Nor never more in Russian habit wait.
O! never will I trust to speeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue; Nor never come in visor to my friend;

Nor woo in rhyme, like a bid harper's song; Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce alfectation, Figures pedantical; these summer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation : I do forswear them: and I here protest, By this white glove, (how white the hand, God knows!) Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd

In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes: And, to begin, wench,-so God help me, la !— My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you. Biron. Yet I have a trick Of the old rage :-bear with me, I am sick;

• After the fashion of the times.

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