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As you fhall deem yourfelf lodg'd in my heart,
Tho' fo deny'd fair harbour in my house :
Your own good thoughts excufe me, and farewel;
To-morrow we shall vifit you again.

Prin. Sweet health and fair defires confort your Grace!
King. Thy own with wish I thee, in every place. [Exit.
Biron. Lady, I will commend you to my own heart. (10)
Rofa. I pray you, do my commendations
s;

I would be glad to fee it.

Biron. I would, you heard it groan.
Rofa. Is the fool fick ?

Biron. Sick at the heart?

Rofa. Alack, let it blood.

Biron. Would that do it good?

Rofa. My phyfick fays, ay.

Biron. Will you prick't with your eye?

Rofa. No, poynt, with my knife.

Biron. Now God fave thy life!

Refa. And yours from long living!
Biron. I cannot ftay thanksgiving.

[Exit. Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word: what Lady is that fame? Boyet. The heir of Alanfon, Rofaline her name. Dum. A gallant Lady; Monfieur, fare you well. [Exit. Long. I befeech you, a word: what is fhe in white? Boyet. A woman fometimes, if you faw her in the light. Long. Perchance, light in the light; I defire her name. Boyet. She hath but one for herself; to defire That were a fhame.'

Long. Pray you, Sir, whofe daughter ?

(10) I have made it a rule throughout this edition, to replace all thofe paffages, which Mr. Pope in his impreffions thought fit to degrade. As we have no authority to call them in queftion for not being genuine; I confefs, as an editor, I thought I had no authority to difplace them. Tho', I muft own freely at the fame time, there are fome scenes (particularly in this play;) fo very mean and contemptible, that one would heartily wish for the liberty of expunging them. Whether they were really written by our author, whether he penn'd them in his boyith age, or whether he purpofely comply'd with the prevailing vice of the times, when Puns, Conundrum, and quibbling conceits were as much in vogue, as Grimace and Arlequinades are at this wife period, I dare not take upon me to determine. VOL. II. Boyet.

I

Boyet. Her mother's, I have heard. Long. God's bleffing on your beard! Boyet. Good Sir, be not offended. She is an heir of Faulconbridge.

Long. Nay, my choler is ended:
She is a moft fweet Lady.

Boyet. Not unlike, Sir; that may be. [Exit Long.
Biron. What's her name in the cap?

Boyet. Catharine, by good hap.

Biron. Is the wedded or no?

Boyet. To her will, Sir, or fo.

Biron. You are welcome, Sir: adieu.

Boyet. Farewel to me, Sir, and welcome to you.

[Exit Biron. Mar. That laft is Biron, the merry mad-cap Lord; Not a word with him but a jeft.

Boyet. And every jeft but a word.

Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his word. Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to board. Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry.

Boyet. And wherefore not fhips?

No heep, (fweet lamb) unless we feed on your lips. Mar. You fheep, and I pafture; shall that finish the jeft? Boyet. So you grant pafture for me.

Mar. Not fo, gentle beast;

My lips are no common, though feveral they be.
Boyet. Belonging to whom?

Mar. To my fortunes and me.

Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree. This civil war of wits were much better us'd On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abus'd. Boyet. If my obfervation, (which very feldom lies) By the heart's ftill rhetorick, difclos'd with eyes, Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

Prin. With what?

Boyet. With that which we lovers intitle affected.
Prin. Your reafon ?

Boyet. Why, all his behaviour did make her retire To the court of his eye, peeping thorough defire: His heart, like an agat with your print impreffe,

Proud

Proud with his form, in his eye pride expreffed :
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not fee,
Did ftumble with hafte in his eye-fight to be;
All fenfes to that fenfe did made their repair,
To feel only looking on faireft of fair;
Methought, all his fenfes were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in cryftal for fome Prince to buy;

Who tendring their own worth, from whence they were glaft,

Did point out to buy them, along as you past.
His face's own margent did quote fuch amazes,
That all eyes faw his eyes inchanted with gazes:
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,
An you give him for my fake but one loving kiss.
Prin. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is difpos'd.
Boyet. But to fpeak that in words, which his eye
hath difclos'd:

I only have had a mouth of his eye,

By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.

Rofa. Thou art an old love-monger, and speakest fkilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him. Rofa. Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is but grim.

Boyet. Do you hear, my mad wenches?

Mar. No.

Boyet. What then, do you fee?

Rofa. Ay, our way to be gone.

Boyet. You are too hard for me. (11)

[Exeunt. SCENE

(11) Boyet. You are too hard for me.] Here, in all the books, the 2d Act is made to end: but in my opinion very mistakenly. I have ventur'd to vary the regulation of the four laft Acts from the printed copies, for thefe reafons. Hitherto, the 2d Act has been of the extent of 7 pages; the 3d but of 5; and the 5th of no less that 29. And this difproportion of length has crouded too many incidents into fome Acts, and left the others quite barren. I have now reduced them into a much better equality; and diftributed the business likewife (fuch as it is,) into a more uniform caft. The plot now lies thus. In the firft A&t, Navarre and his companions fequefter themfelves, by oath, for three years from converfation, women, feafting, &c.

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SCENE, the Park; near the Palace.

Enter Armado and Moth.

Arm. W Arble, child; make paffionate my sense of

hearing.

Moth. Concolinel

[Singing. Arm.

refolving a life of contemplation, and to relieve their study, at intervals, with Armado and Coflard. The Princefs of France's arrival is prepared. Armado's ridiculous paffion for a country wench, and his, and Coftard's characters, are open'd.In the 2d Act, The

In the

Princess with her Ladies arrives, and explains the reafon of her coming. Navarre behaves fo courteously to her, that Boyet, one of her Lords, fufpects him to be in love. Armado's amour is continued; who fends a letter by Coftard to his Miftrefs Jaquenetta. Biron likewise fends a billet-doux by Coftard to Rofaline, one of the French Ladies; and in a foliloquy confefies his being in love, tho' against his oath. third Act, the Princefs and her Ladies, preparing to kill a Deer in the park, Coftard comes to deliver Biron's letter to Rofaline; but by miftake gives that, which Armado had directed to Jaquenetta. The two pedants, Sir Nathaniel, and Holofernes are introduc'd. Jaquenetta produces Biron's letter, deliver'd by Coftard's mistake to her, requesting them to read it: who, obferving the contents, fend it by Coftard and Jaquenetta to the King. Biron, ftanding perdue in the park, overhears the King, Longaville, and Dumain confeffing their paffions for their respective mistreffes; and coming forward, reproaches them with their perjury. Jaquenetta and Coftard bring the letter (as they were order'd by the Pedants) to the King, who bids Biron read it. He, finding it to be his own letter, tears it in a paffion for Coflard's mistake. The Lords, picking it up, find it to be of Biron's handwriting, and an addrefs to Rofaline. Biron pleads guilty and all the votarifts at laft consent to continue their perjury, and addrefs their feveral miftreffes with fome mafque or device.- -In the fourth Act, the Pedants (returning from their dinner) enter into a difcourfe fuitable to their characters. Armado comes to them, tells them, he is enjoin'd by the King to frame fome mafque for the entertainment of the Princefs, and craves their learned affiftance. They propofe to reprefent the nine worthies, and go out to prepare themfelves. The Princess and her Ladies talk of their feveral lovers, and the prefents made to them. Boyet brings notice, that the King and his Lords are coming to address them, difguis'd like Muscovites. The Ladies propofe to be mafk'd, and exchange the Favours with one another, which were given them by their lovers: that fo they, being deceiv'd, may every one address the wrong perfon. This accordingly hits, and they

are

Arm. Sweet Air! go, tenderness of years; take this key, give inlargement to the fwain; bring him feítinately hither: I must employ him in a letter to my love. Moth. Mafter, will you win your love with a French brawl?

Arm. How mean'ft thou, brawling in French?

Moth. No, my compleat mafter (12); but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet (13), humour it with turning up your eyelids; figh a note and fing a note; fometimes through the throat, as if you swallow'd love with finging love; fometimes through the nofe, as if you fnuft up love by fmelling love; with your hat penthoufe-like o'er the fhop of your eyes; with your arms croft on your thin-belly doublet, like a rabbet on a spit ; or your hands in your

are rallied from off the spot by the Ladies: who triumph in this exploit, and rofolve to banter them again, when they return in their own perfons.. -In the last Act, the King and his Lords come to the Princess's tent, and all confefs their loves. Coftard enters to tell the approach of the worthies mafque; which finish'd, news is brought of the death of the Princess's father. The King and the Lords renewing their love-fuits, the Ladies agree to marry them at a twelve-month's end, under certain injunctions; and fo the play ends. Thus the story (tho' clogg'd with fome abfurdities,) has its proper refts: the action rifes by gradations, according to rules : and the plot is embroil'd and difengaged, as it ought; as far as the nature of the fable will admit.

(12) Moth. No, my compleat mafter, &c.] This whole fpeech has been fo terribly confused in the pointing, through all the editions hitherto, that not the leaft glimmering of fenfe was to be pick'd out of it. As I have regulated the paffage, I think, Moth delivers both good fenfe and good humour.

(13) Canary to it with your feet,] So All's Well that, &c. A&t. 2. Sc. 2.

-I have feen a Medecin,

That's able to breathe life into a ftone,

Quicken a rock, and make you dance Canary
With sprightly fire and motion; &c.

From both these paffages the Canary feems to have been a dance of much fpirit and agility. Some dictionaries tell us, that this dance derived its name, as it is probable it might, from the lands fo call'd. But Richlet gives us a description of it the most conformable to our author; dance, ou l'on remue fort vite les piez, A dance, in which the feet are shifted with great fwiftness.

13

pocket,

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