King. If it mar nothing neither,
[To Long. The treason, and you, go in peace away together.
Jaq. I befeech your grace, let this letter be read;
Our parfon misdoubts it; it was treaton, he said.
King. Biron, read it over. [He reads the letter.
Where hadft thou it ?

To leap means in this place, to exult. 2 Some critics have conjectured, that Shakspeare here alludes to the Knott, a Lincolnshire bird of the fnipe kind, which, from the eafinefs with which it was enfrared, was deemed foolish even to a proverb. Mr. Steevens, however, thinks that our author alludes to a true lover's knot; meaning, that the king remained fo long in the lover's poiture, that he femed actually transformed into a knot. 3 Critic and critical are often ufed by Shakspeare in the fame fenfe as cynic and cynical. ✦ A bird is said to prune himself when he picks and fleeks his

Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues→→

Fye, painted rhetorick! O, the needs it not! To things of fale a feller's praife belongs;

[blot. She paffes praife; then praife too fhort doth A wither'd hermit, fivefcore winters worn,

Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye! Beauty doth varnifh age, as if new born,

And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy.
O, 'tis the fun, that maketh all things shine!
King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.
Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine!

A wife of fuch wood were felicity.
O, who can give an oath? where is a book?
That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack,
If that the learn not of her eye to look?

Dum. Ay, marry; there ;-fome flattery for this
Long. O, fome authority how to proceed; [evil.
Some tricks, fome quillets 2, how to cheat the devil.
Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron. O, 'tis more than need!—
Have at you then, affection's men at arms 3 :
Confider; what you first did fwear unto ;-
To faft,-to ftudy, and to fee no woman ;-
Flat treafon 'gainft the kingly ftate of youth.
Say, can you fait ? your ftomachs are too young s
And abftinence engenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, In that each of you hath forfworn 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 I derive : They are the ground, the book, the academes, Biran. Devils foonest tempt, resembling fpirits From whence doth fpring the true Promethean fire O, if in black my lady's brow be deckt, [of light. Why, univerfal plodding prifons up It mourns, that painting, and ufurping hair,The nimble fpirits in the arteries 4; Should ravifh doters with a falie afpect;

No face is fair, that is not full fo black.
King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons, and the fcowl of night;
And beauty's creft becomes the heavens well.

As motion, and long-during action, tires

And therefore is the born to make black fair. The finewy vigour of the traveller.

Her favour turns the fashion of the days;

For native blood is counted painting now: And therefore red, that would avoid difpraife, Paints itself black, to imitate her brow. Dam. To look like her, are chimney-fweepers black. [bright. Log. And, fince her time, are colliers counted King. And Ethiops of their fweet complexion crack. [light. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is Biran. Your miltrelles dare never come in rain, For fear their colours fhould be wath'd away. King. 'Twere good, yours did; for, fir, to tell you plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wafh'd to-day. Biren. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day here. [the. King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as Dam. I never knew man hold vile stuff fo dear. Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee. [Shewing his froe. Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were too much dainty for fuch tread! Dam. Ovile! then as the goes, what upward lies The street should fee as the walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing fo fure; and thereby all fortworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forfworn the ufe of eyes;
And study too, the caufer of your vow :
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our learning likewife is.
Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to ftudy, lords;
And in that yow we have forfworn our books;
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers 5, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain :
And therefore finding barren practifers,
Scarce fhew a harveft 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,
Courfes as fwift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious feeing to the eye,
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
A lover's ear will hear the lowest found,
When the fufpicious head of theft is stopp'd:
Love's feeling is more foft, and fenfible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled inails;

1 In heraldry, a creft is a device placed above a coat of arms. Shakspeare therefore ufes it here in a fenfe equivalent to top or utmost height. 2 Dr. Warburton fays, that quillet is the peculiar word applied to law-chicane, and imagines the original to be this: Is the French pleadings, every feveral allegation in the plaintiff's charge, and every diftinct plea in the defendant's anfwer, began with the words qu'il eft ;-from whence was formed the word quillet, to fignify a falfe charge or an evalive anfwer. 3 That is, ye foldiers of affection. 4 In the old fyltem of phylic they gave the fame office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves. 5 Alluding to the difcoveries in modern aftronomy, at that time greatly improving, in which the ladies' eyes are compared, as ufual, to flars. That is, a lover in purfuit of his miftrefs has his fenfe of hearing quicker than a thief (who fulpects every found he hears) in pursuit of his prey. M 2

Love's

Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in tafte; And who can fever love from charity?

For valour, is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides?
Subtle as fphinx as fweet and musical,

As Bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair ;
And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowfy with the harmony 2.
Never durft polet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravifh favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive :
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe, none at all in aught proves excellent :
Then fools you were, these women to forfwear;
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's fake, a word that loves all men ;
Or for men's fake, the authors of thefe women;
Or women's fake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lofe our oaths, to find ourselves,
Or elfe we lofe ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion, to be thus forfworn:
For charity itself fulfils the law;

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field! [lords; Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, Pell-mell, down with them! but be firit advis'd, In conflict that you get the fun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay thefe glozes by: Shall we refolve to woo thefe girls of France? King. And win them too: therefore let us devife 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 miftrefs: in the afternoon
We will with fome strange paftime folace them,
Such as the fhortness of the time can fhape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Fore-run fair love, ftrewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! allons!-Sow'd cockle reap'd
no corn 3;

And juftice always whirls in equal measure :
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Excunt.

AC TV.

SCENE

The Street.

1.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel, and Dull.

Hol. SATIS quod fufficit 4.

Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet.

[Draws out his table-book, Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the ftaple of his argument. 1 abhor fuch phanatical phantafms, fuch infociable and pointNath. I praise God for you, Sir: your rea-devife companions; fuch rackers of orthography, fons at dinner have been sharp and fententious; as to fpeak, dout, fine, when he should fay, doubt; pleasant without fcurrility, witty without affec-det, when he should pronounce, debt; d, e, b, t; tion, audacious7 without impudency, learned with-not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; out opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, converfe this quondam day with a companion of ne: This is abhominable, (which he would call the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, abominable) it infinuateth me of infanie: Ne insel Don Adriano de Armado. ligis, domine? to make frantick, lunatick? Nath. Laus deo, bane intelligo.

Hol. Novi bominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too picked, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Hol. Bone? -bone, tor bene: Prifcian a little feratch'd; 'twill ferve.

Enter Armado, Moth, and Coftard.
Nath. Videfne quis venit?
Hol. Video & gaudco.

Apollo, as the fun, is reprefented with golden hair; fo that a lute ftrung with his hair means no more than ftrung with gilded wire. 2 This paffage has been very fully canvaffed by all the various commentators upon our aut! or: the following explanation, however, ftrikes us as the most fimple and intelligible: "When love Speaks, (lays Biron) the affembled gods reduce the element of the sky to a calm, by their harmonious applaufes of this favoured orator." 3 This proverbial expreflion intimates that, beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falfhood. 4 That is, enough's as good as a feaft. 5 Reafon here, as in other paffages of our author's plays, fignifies discourse. That is, without affectation. 7 Audacious is ufed for fpirited, animated; and opinion imports the fame with obstinacy or opiniatreté. Meaning, too nicely dreffed; alluding probably to a bird picking out or pruning its feathers; a metaphor which our author has before uted in this play.

Arm.

Am. Chirra!

Hol. Quare Chirra, not firrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd.

Hal. Moft military fir, falutation.

noon: the word is well cull'd, chofe; fweet and apt, I do affure you, fir, I do affure.

Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do affure you, very good friend :

Moth. They have been at a great feaft of lan-For what is inward between us, let it pafs:-I do guages, and ftoln the fcraps.

[To Coftard afide. Caft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy matter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as bonorificabilitudinitatibus: tou art easier fwallowed than a flap-dragon 2.

Moth. Peace; the peal begins.

Arm. Monfieur, are you not letter'd?
Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book:
What is a, b, ípelt backward with a horn on his
head?

Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.
Moth. Ba, moft filly fheep, with a horn:-You
hear his learning.

Hol. Quis, quis, thou confonant?

beseech thee, remember thy courtesy;-I beseech thee, apparel thy head:-and among other importunate and most serious defigns,-and of great im port indeed, too;-but let that pafs: for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor fhoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my muftachio: but, fweet heart, let that pafs. By the world, I recount no fable; fome certain fpecial honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world: but let that pafs.The very all of all is,-but, fweet heart, I do implore fecrefy,-that the king would have me present the princefs, fweet chuck, with fome delightful

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat oftentation, or fhow, or pageant, or antick, or firethem; or the fifth, if I.

work. Now, understanding that the curate, and Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i.→ your fweet felf, are good at fuch eruptions, and Moth. The fheep: the other two concludes it; fudden breakings out of mirth, as it were, I have 0, u 3. acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterra-affiftance. neum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit: Hol. Sir, you fhall prefent before her the nine fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my in-worthies.-Sir Nathaniel, as concerning fome en tellect: true wit. tertainment of time, fome fhow in the pofterior of Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man ; which is this day, to be render'd by our afliftance, at the wit-old.

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

Hel. Thou difputeft like an infant: go, whip thy gigg.

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

Caft. An I had but one perny in the world, thou fhouldft have it to buy ginger-bread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy matter, thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of difcretion. O, an the heavens were fo pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldft thou make me? Go to; thou haft it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they fay.

Hol. Oh, I fmell falfe Latin; dunghill for wquem.

Arm. Arts-man, præeambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-houfe 5 on the top of the mountain? Hol. Or, mons the hill.

Arm. At your fweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, fans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the pofteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon..

king's command; and this moft gallant, illuftrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I fay, none fo fit as to prefent the nine worthies.

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

Hol. Jofhua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this fwain, because of his great limb or joint, thall país Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

Arm. Pardon, fir, error; he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb; he is not fo big as the end of his club.

Hol. Shall I have audience? he fhali prefent Hercules in minority; his enter and exit fhall be ftrangling a fake; and I will have an apology for that purpofe.

Moth. An excellent device! fo, if any of the au dience hifs, you may cry, Well done, Hercules! now thou crufteft the fnake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

I

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

Arm. We will have, if this fadge 7 not, an antick, beseech you, follow.

Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken na

Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous fir,| is liable, congruent, and measurable for the after-word all this while.

1 That is, the very offal, or refufe of words. 2 A flap-dragon is a fmall inflammable substance, which topeis fwallow in a glafs of wine. 3 By a, u, Moth would mean-Oh, you-i. e. You are the sheep fill, either way; no matter which of us repeats them. 4 A venew is the technical term a the fencing-school for a bout. 5 Mr. Steevens fuppofes the charge-house to mean the free-fchool, • Meaning, his beard. 7 That is, fuit not. 8 An Italian exclamation, fignifying, Courage! come on!

M 3

Dall

Before the Princess's Pavilion.

Enter Princefs and Ladies.

[Exeunt.

Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,
If fairings come thus plentifully in:
A lady wall'd about with diamonds!-
Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ref. Madam, came nothing else along with that?
Prin. Nothing but this? yea, as much love in
As would be cramm'd up in a fheet of paper, [rhime,
Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all;
That he was fain to feal on Cupid's name.

Rof. That was the way to make his god-head wax ';
For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

Kath. Ay, and a fhrewd unhappy gallows too.
Rof. You'll ne'er be friends, with him; he kill'd
your fifter.

Kath. He made her melancholy, fad, and heavy;
And fo the died: had the been light, like you,
Of fuch a merry, nimble, ftirring fpirit,
She might have been a grandam ere the dy'd:
And fo may you; for a light heart lives long.
Rof. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this
light word?

Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. [out.
Rof. We need more light to find your meaning
Kath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in fnuff 2;
Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ref. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the dark.
Kath. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
Roj. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
Kath. You weigh me not,-0, that's, you care
not for me.

Ref. Great reafon; for, Paft cure is ftill paft care.
Prin. Well bandied both; a fet of wit well play'd.
But, Rofaline, you have a favour too;
Who fent it? and what is it?

Rof. I would, you knew:

An if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nav, I have verfes too, I thank Biron:
The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs."
O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!
Prin. Any thing like?

Ref. Much, in the letters; nothing, in the praise.
Prin. Beauteous as ink; a good conclufion.
Kath. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Rof. 'Ware pencils 3! How? let me not die your
My red dominical, my golden letter: [debtor
O, that your face were not fo full of O's 4!

Kath. Pox of that jeft! and I befhrew all shrows.
Prin. But what was fent to you from fair Dumain?
Kath. Madam, this glove.

Prin. Did he not fend you twain?
Kath. Yes, madam; and moreover,

Some thoufand veries of a faithful lover:
A huge tranflation of 1 pocrify,
Vilely compil'd, profound fimplicity.

[ville;

Mar. This, and thefe pearls, to me fent Longa-
The letter is too long by half a mile.

Prin. I think no lefs; Doft thou not wish in heart,
The chain were longer, and the letter short?
Mar. Ay, or I would thefe hands might never part.
Prin. We are wife girls, to mock our lovers fo.
Rof. They are worse fools, to purchase mocking fo,
That fame Biron I'll torture ere I go.

O, that I knew he were but in by the week 5 !
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek;
And wait the feason, and obferve the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhimes;
And shape his fervice all to my behefts:
And make him proud to make me proud that jefts!
So portent-like would I o'erfway his state",
That he should be my fool, and I his fate. [catch'd,
Prin. None are fo furely caught, when they are
As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wifdom hatch'd,
Hath wifdom's warrant, and the help of fchool;
And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.
Raf. The blood of youth burns not with fuch
As gravity's revolt to wantonnefs. [excefs

Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,
As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote;
Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in fimplicity.
Enter Bovet.

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

Boyet. Prepare, madam, prepare!-
Arm, wenches, arm!-encounters mounted are
Against your peace: Love doth approach difguis'd,
Armed in arguments; you'll be furpris'd:
Mufter your wits; ftand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

Prin. St. Dennis to St. Cupid! What are they,
That charge their breath against us? fay, scout, fay,
Boyet. Under the cool fhade of a fycamore,

I thought to close my eyes fome half an hour;
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos'd reft,
Toward that fhade I might behold addrest
The king and his companions: warily
I ftole into a neighbour thicket by,
And overheard what you fhall overhear;
That, by and by, difguis'd they will be here.

1 To wax here fignifies to grow. Snuff is here ufed equivocally for anger, and the fruff of a candle. 3 Meaning, "Ware painting." Alluding, perhaps, to the pits in her face, occafioned by the fmalipox. 5 This expreflion probably alludes to the practice of hiring fervants or artificers by the week; and the meaning of the paffage may be, I wish I was as fure of his fervice for any time limited, as if I had hired him. See note 4, page 87, in Measure for Measure. The meaning is, I would be his fate or deftiny, and, like a portent, hang over and influence his fortunes. For portents were not only thought to forebode, but to influence.

P