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Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from other books.
Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed ftar,
Have no more profit of their fhining nights,
Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.
Too much to know, is to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he's read, to reafon against reading!
Dum. Proceeded well, to ftop all good proceeding.
Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding.
Bir. The fpring is near, when green geefe are abreeding.
Dun. How follows that?

Biron. Fit in his place and time.
Dum. In reafon nothing.

Biron. Something then in rhime.

Long. Biron is like an envious fneaping f.oft,

That bites the firft-born infants of the fpring. Biron. Well; fay, I am; why fhould proud fummer boaft, Before the birds have any caufe to fing?

Why fhould I joy in an abortive birth? (3)

At Christmas I no more defire a rofe,

Than with a fnow in May's new-fangled earth:

But like of each thing, that in season grows.

(3) Why fhould I joy in an abortive birth?

At Chriftmas I no more defire a rofe,

I ban wish a fnow in May's new-fangled fhows:

But like of each thing, that in feafon grows.] As the greateft part of this fcene (both what precedes, and follows;) is strictly in rnynes, either fucceffive, alternate, or triple; I am perfuaded, the copyifts have made a flip here. For by making a triplet of the three laft lines quoted, birth in the close of the firft line is quite deftitute of any rhyme to it. Befides, what a displeasing identity of found recurs in the middle and close of this verfe?

i ban wish a snow in May's new-fangled fhows.

Again; new-fangled fhorus feems to have very little propriety. The flowers are not new-fangled; but the earth is new-fangled by the profufion and variety of the flowers, that spring on its bofom in May. I have therefore ventur'd to fubftitute, (arth, in the clofe of the third line, which reftores the alternate meafure. It was very easy for a negligent tranfcriber to be deceiv'd by the rhyme immediately preceding; fo, mistake the concluding word in the fequent line, and corrupt it into one that would chime with the other.

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So you, to ftudy now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house t' unlock the little gate.

King. Well, fit you out.-Go home, Biron: adieu!
Biron. No, my good Lord, I've fworn to stay with you.
And though I have for barbarifm fpoke more,
Than for that angel knowledge you can fay;
Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore,

And bide the penance of each three years day.
Give me the paper, let me read the fame ;
And to the ftri&'t decrees I'll write my name.

King. How well this yielding refcues thee from fhame!

Biron. Item, That no woman fhall come within a mile

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Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. Biron. A dangerous law against gentility! (4)

Item, [reading] If any man be feen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he fhall endure fuch publick fhame as the reft of the court can poffibly devife.

This article, my liege, yourself must break ;
For, well you know, here comes in embassy

(4) Adangerous law against gentility.] I have ventur'd to prefix the name of Biron to this line, it being evident, for two reasons, that it, by fome accident or other, flipt out of the printed books. In the first place, Longaville confeffes, he had devis'd the penalty: and why he fhould immediately arraign it as a dangerous law, feems to be very inconfiftent. In the next place it is much more natural for Biron to make this reflexion, who is cavilling at every thing; and then for him to pursue his reading over the remaining articles. As to the word gentility, here, it does not fignify that rank of people call'd, gentry; but what the French exprefs by gentleffes, .i. e. elegantia, urbanitas. And then the meaning is this. Such a law, for banishing women from the court, is dangerous, or injurious, to politeness, urbanity, and the more refin'd pleafures of life. For men without women would turn brutal and favage, in their natures and behaviour.

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The French King's daughter with yourself to speak,
A maid of grace and compleat majesty,
About furrender up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, fick, and bed-rid father:
Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admired Princess hither. King What fay you, Lords? why, this was quite forgot. Biron. So ftudy evermore is overshot ; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it fhould: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; fo won, fo loft. King. We mult of force difpenfe with this decree, She muft lie here on mere neceffity.

Biron. Neceffity will make us all forfworn

Three thousand times within this three years space : For every man with his affects is born:

Not by might mafter'd, but by fpecial grace.
If I break faith, this word fhall speak for me:
I am forfworn on mere neceffity.-

So to the laws at large I write

my name,

And he, that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame.

Suggeftions are to others, as to me;

But, I believe, although 1 feem fo loth,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation 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 mufick of his own vain tongue
Doth ravifh, like inchanting harmony:
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny.
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our ftudies, fhall relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, loft in the world's debate.

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How

How you delight, my Lords, I know not, I;
But, I proteft, I love to hear him lie
And I will ufe him for my minftrelfy.

;

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight, A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. Long. Coftard the fwain, and he, fhall be our fport; And, so to study, three years are but short.

Enter Dull, and Coftard with a letter.

Dull. Which is the King's own perfon? (5)
Biron. This, fellow; what would't?

Dull. I myself reprehend his own perfon, for I am his Grace's Tharborough: but I would fee his own perfon in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

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

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

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

Long. A high hope for a low having; God grant us patience! (6)

Biron

(5) Dull. Which is the Duke's own perfon ?] The King of Navarre is in feveral paffages, thro' all the copies, call'd the Duke: but as this muft have fprung rather from the inadvertence of the editors, than a forgetfulness in the poet, I have every where, to avoid confusion, rẹftor'd King to the text.

(6) Ahigh hope for a low heaven;] A low heaven, fure, is a very intricate matter to conceive. But our accurate editors feem to obferve the rule of Horace, whenever a moot point staggers them, dignus vine dice nodus; and where they cannot overcome a difficulty, they bring in beaven to untie the knot. As God grant us patience immediately preceded, they thought, heaven of confequence muft follow. But, I dare warrant, I have retriev'd the poet's true reading; and the meaning is this. Tho' you hope for high words, and fhould have them, it will be but a low acquifition at beft'. This our poet callss a low baving: and it is a fubftantive, which he ufes in feveral other Baffages.

Merry Wives of Windfor.

Not by my confent, I promise you: the gentleman is of no having, ke kept company with the wild Prince and Peinz.

K. Henry

Biron. To hear, or forbear hearing?

Long. To hear meekly, Sir, to laugh moderately, or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, Sir, be it as the ftile fhall give us caufe to climb in the merrinefs.

Coft. The matter is to me, Sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.

Biron. In what manner?

Coft. In manner and form, following, Sir; all those three. I was feen with her in the manor-house, fitting 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 fome form.

Biron. For the following, Sir?

Coft. As it fhall follow in my correction; and God defend the right!

King. Will you hear the letter with attention?

Biron. As we would hear an oracle.

Coft. Such is the fimplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.

King. reads.

G

Reat deputy, the welkin's vice-gerent, and fole dominator of Navarre, my foul's earth's God, and body's foftring patron ·

t K. Henry VIII.

Is our beft bawing.

And again afterwards;

-Our content

But par'd my present havings, to bestow
My bounties upon you.

Timon of Athens.

The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debt.

And in many other places. So, amongst the older Romans, they made a fubftantive of Habentia, in the like fignification. Nonius Marcellus furnishes an authority from Claudius Quadrigarius his annals. Verebar enim ne animos eorum inflaret habentia, For I was afraid left their havings (i. e. their riches, large circumstances) fhould elate their minds. St. Auftin likewife, in the lower age of Latinity, ufes it in the fame manner. And the Spaniards have from thence form'd their bazienda, which fignifies either wealth, poffeffions, ability, or business.

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Coft.

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