It doth forget to do the thing it should:

And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost.

King. We must, of force, dispense with this decree; She must lie here on mere necessity.

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn

Three thousand times within this three years' space.

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might master'd, but by special grace':

If I break faith, this word shall speak for me,
I am forsworn on mere necessity.-

So to the laws at large I write my name:

[Subscribes.

And he, that breaks them in the least degree,

Stands in attainder of eternal shame:

1

Suggestions are to others, as to me;

But, I believe, although I seem so loth,

I am the last that will last keep his oath.

But is there no quick recreation2 granted?

King. Ay, that there is: our court, you know, is

haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,

That hath a mint of phrases in his brain:
One, whom the musick of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:

8 lie here] Means reside here, in the same sense as an ambassador is said to lie leiger.

9 Not by might master'd, but by special grace :] Biron, amidst his extravagancies, speaks with great justness against the folly of vows. They are made without sufficient regard to the variations of life, and are therefore broken by some unforeseen necessity. They proceed commonly from a presumptuous confidence, and a false estimate of human power. JOHNSON.

1 Suggestions -] Temptations.

2

quick recreation -] Lively sport, spritely diversion.

3 A man of complements,] Compliment, in Shakspeare's time, did not signify, at least did not only signify verbal civility, or phrases of

This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our studies, shall relate,
In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,

And I will use him for my minstrelsy".

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,

A man of fire new words', fashion's own knight.
Long. Costard the swain, and he, shall be our sport;
And, so to study, three years is but short.

Enter DULL, with a letter, and COSTARD.

Dull. Which is the duke's own person?

Biron. This, fellow; What would'st?

Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough': but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

Dull. Signior Arme-Arme-commends you. There's villainy abroad; this letter will tell you more.

Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado.

Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

courtesy, but, according to its original meaning, the trappings, or ornamental appendages of a character, in the same manner, and on the same principles of speech with accomplishment.

4 This child of fancy,] This fantastick.

5

that Armado hight,] Who is called Armado.

6 And I will use him for my minstrelsy.] i. e. I will make a minstrel of him, whose occupation was to relate fabulous stories.

7—

fire new words,] i. e. words newly coined, new from the forge. Fire-new, new off the irons, and the Scottish expression brennew, have all the same origin.

8 tharborough:] i. e. thirdborough, a peace officer, alike in authority with a headborough or a constable.

Long. A high hope for a low having': God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing?

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner'.

Biron. In what manner?

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is in manner and form following. Now, sir, for, the manner,-it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form,—in some form.

Biron. For the following, sir?

Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; And God defend the right!

King. Will you hear this letter with attention?
Biron. As we would hear an oracle.

Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.

King. [reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's God, and body's fostering patron,—

Cost. Not a word of Costard yet.

King. So it is,

Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, in telling true, but so, so.

King. Peace.

Cost.-be to me and every man that dares not fight!

A high hope for a low having:] Though you hope for high words, and should have them, it will be but a low acquisition at best.

1

taken with the manner.] i. e. in the fact.

King. No words.

Cost. of other men's secrets, I beseech you.

King. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when: Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: But to the place, where,-It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden'. There did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth3,

Cost. Me.

King. that unletter'd small-knowing soul,
Cost. Me.

King. that shallow vassal,

Cost. Still me.

King.which, as I remember, hight Costard,
Cost. O me!

King.sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed edict and continent canon, with-with,—O with-but with this I passion to say wherewith, Cost. With a wench.

King. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have sent

2 curious-knotted garden.] Ancient gardens abounded with figures of which the lines intersected each other in many directions.

3 base minnow of thy mirth,] The base minnow of thy mirth, is the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainment.

to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.

Dull. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta, (so is the weaker vessel called, which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain,) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

Biron. This is not so well as I look'd for, but the best that ever I heard.

King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this?

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench.

King. Did you hear the proclamation?

Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

Cost. I was taken with none, sir, I was taken with a damosel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel.

Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was a virgin.

King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed virgin. Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir.
Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir.

King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence; You shall fast a week with bran and water.

Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.My lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'er