Arm. I do betray myself with blushing.-Maid. Jaq. Man.

Arm. I will visit thee at the lodge.

Jaq. That's hereby.

Arm. I know where it is situate.

Jaq. Lord, how wise you are!

Arm. I will tell thee wonders.
Jaq. With that face?

Arm. I love thee.

Jaq. So I heard you say.
Arm. And so farewell.
Jaq. Fair weather after you.
Dull. Come, Jaquenetta, away.

[Exeunt DULL and JAQUENETTA. Arm. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences, ere thou be pardoned.

Cost. Well, sir, I hope, when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach.

Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punished.

Cost. I am more bound to you than your fellows, for they are but lightly rewarded.

Arm. Take away this villain: shut him up. Moth. Come, you transgressing slave: away! Cost. Let me not be pent up, sir: I will fast, being loose.

Moth. No, sir; that were fast and loose: thou shalt to prison.

Cost. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I have seen, some shall seeMoth. What shall some see?

Cost. Nay nothing, master Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words; and therefore I will say nothing: I thank God I have as little patience as another man, and therefore I can be quiet.

[Exeunt MоTH and CoSTARD. Arm. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, (which is a great argument of falsehood) if I love; and how can that be true love, which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent strength: yet was Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy, but his glory is, to subdue men. Adieu, valor! rust, rapier! be still, drum! for your 6 armiger1 is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn 2 sonnet-maker. Devise wit, write pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio. [Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I-Another part of the Park. A Pavilion and Tents at a distance.

Enter the PRINCESS of France, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attend

ants.

Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your 3 clearest Consider whom the king your father sends, [spirits.

Dairy woman." Hereby," i. e., as it may happen. Love. A "butt-shaft" was an arrow for shooting at butts, on which the mark to be shot at was placed.— Thrust.— Duel.-"Armiger," i. e., armor-bearer.

Yourself held precious in the world's esteem, To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain, a dowry for a queen.

Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As nature was in making graces dear,

When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues. I am less proud to hear you tell my worth, Than you much willing to be counted wise In spending your wit in the praise of mine. But now to task the tasker.-Good Boyet, You are not ignorant, all-telling fame Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow, Till painful study shall out-wear three years, No woman may approach his silent court: Therefore to us seem'th it a needful course, Before we enter his forbidden gates,

h

Know you the man?

To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best moving fair solicitor.
Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Importunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble-visag'd suitors, his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go. [Exit.
Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.-
Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
1 Lord. Longaville is one.
Prin.
Mar. I know him, madam: at a marriage feast,
Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jacques Falconbridge, solemnized
In Normandy, saw I this Longaville.
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;
Well fitted in the arts; glorious in arms:
Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,
If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,
Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will;
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
It should none spare that come within his power.
Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so?
Mar. They say so most that most his humors know.
Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.
Who are the rest?
[youth,

Kath. The young Dumaine, a well-accomplished
Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd:
Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill,
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I saw him at the duke Alençon's once;
And much too little of that good I saw
Is my report to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)

Confident Qualified.

Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished,
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love,
That every one her own hath garnished
With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Lord. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BoYET.

Now, what admittance, lord? Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach; And he, and his competitors in oath, Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady, Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt, He rather means to lodge you in the field, Like one that comes here to besiege his court, Than seek a dispensation for his oath, To let you enter his unpeopled house. Here comes Navarre. [The ladies mask. Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAINE, BIRON, and

Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Na

varre.

Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours, and welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. Prin. I will be welcome then. Conduct me thither. King. Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath. Prin. Our lady help my lord! he'll be forsworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is. [else. Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise, Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance. I hear, your grace hath sworn out house-keeping: 'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord, And sin to break it.

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold:

To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
And suddenly resolve me in my suit. [Gives a paper.
King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. [Reads.
Prin. You will the sooner that I were away,
For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
Biron. I know you did.
Ros.

To ask the question! Biron.

How needless was it, then,

You must not be so quick.

Ros. Tis 'long of you, that spur me with such

questions.

[tire.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.

Biron. Now fair befall your mask!

Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!

Biron. And send you many lovers!
Ros. Amen, so you be none.
Biron. Nay, then will I begone.

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate
The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
Being but the one half of an entire sum,
Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say, that he, or we, (as neither have)
Receiv'd that sum, yet there remains unpaid

A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which,

■ Confederates. Prepared. Whereas,

One part of Aquitain is bound to us,
Although not valued to the money's worth.
If, then, the king your father will restore
But that one half which is unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid
An hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;
Which we much rather had depart withal,
And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain, so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding, 'gainst some reason in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much wrong,
And wrong the reputation of your name,
In so unseeming to confess receipt
Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin. We farrest your word. Boyet, you can produce acquittances For such a sum from special officers Of Charles his father. King. Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not come, Where that and other specialties are bound: To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

Satisfy me so.

King. It shall suffice me: at which interview, All liberal reason I will yield unto. Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand, As honor, without breach of honor, may Make tender of to thy true worthiness. You may not come, fair princess, within my gates; But here without you shall be so receiv'd, As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart, Though so denied free harbor in my house. Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell: To-morrow shall we visit you again.

Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort your

grace!

King. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place! [Exeunt KING and his train. Biron. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.

Ros. Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it.

Biron. I would, you heard it groan.

Ros. Is the fool sick?
Biron. Sick at the heart.

Ros. Alack! let it blood.

Biron. Would that do it good?

Ros. My physic says, ay.

Biron. Will you prick't with your eye?

Ros. No point, with my knife.

Biron. Now, God save thy life.

Ros. And yours from long living.

same?

Biron. I cannot stay thanksgiving. [Stands back. Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word. What lady is that [Coming forward. Boyet. The heir of Alençon, Rosaline her name. Dum. A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well. [Exit. What is she in the [Coming forward.

Long. I beseech you a word.

white?

Boyet. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in
the light.
[name.
Long. Perchance, light in the light. I desire her
Boyet. She hath but one for herself; to desire that,
were a shame.

Long. Pray you, sir, whose daughter?
Boyet. Her mother's, I have heard.

Long. God's blessing on your beard!

Boyet. Good sir, be not offended.

She is an heir of Falconbridge.

Long. Nay, my choler is ended.

She is a most sweet lady.

Boyet. Not unlike, sir: that may be. [Exit LONG. Biron. What's her name, in the cap?

[Coming forward.

Boyet. Katharine, by good hap. Biron. Is she wedded, or no?

Boyet. To her will, sir, or so.
Biron. O! you are welcome, sir. Adieu.
Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
[Exit BIRON.-Ladies unmask.

Mar. That last is Biron, the merry mad-cap lord:
Not a word with him but a jest.
Boyet.
And every jest but a word.
Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his
word.
[board.
Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to
Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry!
Boyet.
And wherefore not ships?
No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.
Mar. You sheep, and I pasture: shall that finish
Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. [the jest?
[Offering to kiss her.
Mar.
Not so, gentle beast.
My lips are no common, though several they be.
Boyet. Belonging to whom?
Mar.

To my fortunes and me. Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles,

b

Boyet. Why, all his behaviors did make their retire
To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire;
His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble with haste in his eye-sight to be;
All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair.

Methought, all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
Who, tend'ring their own worth, from where they
were glass'd,

с

Arm. Warble, child: make passionate my sense of hearing.

Moth. Concolinel- _3 (Amato bene.) [Singing. Arm. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years: take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love. [French brawl! Moth. Master, will you win your love with a Arm. How meanest thou? brawling in French? Moth. No, my complete master; but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet, humor it with turning up your eye-lids; sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through the throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love; sometime through the nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouse-like, o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin belly's doublet, like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. These are complements, these are humors; these betray nice wenches, that would be betrayed without these, and make them men of note, (do you note, men?) that most are affected to these. Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience? Moth. By my pain of observation.

4

Arm. But 0,-but 0,

h

hath disclos'd.

I only have made a mouth of his eye,
By adding a tongue, which I know will not lie.

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet

Arm. Fetch hither the swain: he must carry me a letter.

d" Concolinel" is probably the beginning of some Italian song. Hastily" Brawl," from the French branle, was a kind of dance-"Canary" was a dance accompanied by the castanets. A "penthouse" is a shed projecting from the main wall-Accomplishments. The "hobby-horse" was a character in the old May-games.

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;
A critic, nay, a night-watch constable,
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so bmagnificent!

This whimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,

d

Dread prince of plackets, king of cod-pieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors, (O my little heart!)
And I to be a corporal of his field

And wear his colors like a tumbler's hoop!
What? I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright; being a watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
1 witty wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.

Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan. [Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-Another part of the Same. Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester. Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so Against the steep uprising of the hill? [hard

Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; On Saturday we will return to France.Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush, That we must stand and play the murderer in? For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may make the fairest shoot. Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.

For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. [no? Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say, O, short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe! For. Yes, madam, fair. Prin. Nay, never paint me now: Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Here, good my glass, take this for telling true. [ Giving him money. Fair payment for foul words is more than due. For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.

A beadle was an officer whose business it was to punish petty offenders-b"Magnificent" here means boasting, glorying. Hoodwinked. Stomachers.-"Paritors" or apparitors are officers of the spiritual courts who serve cita tions. A "corporal of the field" was formerly employed in the business of an aid-de-camp. It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colors. To "play the murderer" refers to the sport of shooting deer with a cross-bow.The Forester was the princess' glass, because he told her of her complexion.

Prin. See, see! my beauty will be saved by merit. O heresy in faith, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-
But come, the bow:-now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to show my skill,
That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes:
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,
When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart;
As I for praise alone now seek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.

Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-soverOnly for praise' sake, when they strive to be [eignty Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise; and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

Enter COSTARD.

Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Cost. God 'dig-you-den all. Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickest, and the tallest. [is truth. Cost. The thickest, and the tallest? it is so; truth An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit. [here. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? Cost. I have a letter, from monsieur Biron to one lady Rosaline. [ Giving it. Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter! he's a good friend

of mine.

m

Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve;
Break up this capon. [Handing it to him.
Boyet.
I am bound to serve.-
This letter is mistook; it importeth none here:
It is writ to Jaquenetta.
Prin.

We will read it, I swear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads.] "By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most "illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Penelophon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicit, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Whom overcame he? the beggar. The conclusion is victory: on whose side? the king's: the captive is enriched on whose side? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose side? the king's? -no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command king, for so stands the comparison; thou the beggar, thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; for tittles?

* Shrewish.-"Dig-you-den," i. e., give you good even.In The French word for a capon or chicken, poulet, significs also a love-letter. Illustrious.