Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.

Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.
Leon. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves,
And, when I send for you, come hither mask'd.
The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour
To visit me. You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies.
Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.
Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
Friar. To do what, signior?

Bene. To bind me, or undo me; one of them.-
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favor.
Leon. That eye my daughter lent her: 'tis most true.
Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her.
Leon. The sight whereof, I think, you had from me,
From Claudio, and the prince. But what's your will?
Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is, your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd
In the state of honorable marriage:-

In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
Leon. My heart is with your liking.
Friar.

And my help.

Here come the prince, and Claudio.
Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants.
D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly.
Leon. Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Clau-
We here attend you. Are you yet determin'd [dio:
To-day to marry with my brother's daughter?

Claud. I'll hold my mind were she an Ethiop. Leon. Call her forth, brother: here's the friar ready. [Exit ANTONIO. D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's That have such a February face, [the matter,

you

So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?

Claud. I think, he thinks upon the savage bull.Tush! fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold, And all Europa shall rejoice at thee, As once Europa did at lusty Jove, When he would play the noble beast in love.

Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low; And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow, And got a calf in that same noble feat, Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked. Claud. For this I owe you: here come other reel Which is the lady I must seize upon? [onings. Leon. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine.-Sweet, let me see your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand Before this friar, and swear to marry her.

Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar: I am your husband, if you like of me. Hero. And when I liv'd, I was your other wife: [Unmasking. And when you lov'd, you were my other husband. Claud. Another Hero?

Hero.

Nothing certainer.

One Hero died 'belied; but I do live,
And, surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead! Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander Friar. All this amazement can I qualify; [liv'd. When after that the holy rites are ended,

Have been deceived, for they swore you did. Beat. Do not you love me?

4

Bene. 3 Troth, no more than reason. Beat. Why, then, my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula, Are much deceived; for they swore, you did. [me. Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.

Bene. It is no matter.-Then, you do not love me? Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.

Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves her; For here's a paper, written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion'd to Beatrice.

Hero. And here's another, Writ in my cousin's hand, stol'n from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

Beat. I would not deny you;-but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and, partly, to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption. :

Bene. Peace! I will stop your mouth.

D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?

crackers cannot flout me out of my humor. Dost Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of witthou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram? No:

if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear

nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any pur pose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it, for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.thee; but, in a that thou art like to be my kinsman, For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten live unbruised, and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends.-Let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterward.

Bene. First, of my word; therefore, play, music! -Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

And not be seen to wink of all the day,
When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night, too, of half the day,
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there.
O! these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep.

King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.
Biron. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please.
I only swore to study with your grace,
And stay here in your court for three years' space.

Long. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. Biron. By yea, and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study, let me know? [know. King. Why, that to know which else we should not Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?

King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense. Biron. Come on, then: I will swear to study so, To know the thing I am forbid to know; As thus, to study where I well may dine, When I to feast expressly am forbid; Or study where to meet some mistress fine, When mistresses from common sense are hid; Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth. If study's gain be this, and this be so, Study knows that which yet it doth not know. Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no. King. These be the stops that hinder study quite, And train our intellects to vain delight. [vain,

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain: As painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:

a

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;
Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks:
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining 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.
[ing!
King. How well he's read, to reason against read-
Dum. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!
Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the
weeding.
[breeding.
Biron. The spring is near, when green geese are a
Dum, How follows that?
Biron.
Fit in his place and time.
Dum. In reason nothing.
Biron.

Something, then, in rhyme. King. Biron is like an envious sneaping frost, That bites the first-born infants of the spring. Biron. Well, say I am: why should proud summer boast,

Before the birds have any cause to sing?

Why should I joy in any abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.

Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.] "On pain of losing her tongue." Who devis'd this penalty?

Sweet lord, and why?

Long. Marry, that did I. Biron. Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. Biron. A dangerous law against "garrulity! [Reads.] Item, "If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise."

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For, well you know, here comes in embassy The French king's daughter with yourself to speak,— A maid of grace, and complete majesty,About surrender up of Aquitain

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

Or vainly comes th' admired princess rather.
King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite
Biron. So study evermore is overshot: [forgot.
While it doth study to have what it would,
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 faffects is born,

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

If I break faith, this word shall plead 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.

g Suggestions are to others, as to me;
But, I believe, although I seem so loath,
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
With a refined traveller of Spain; [haunted
A man in all the world-new fashions flaunted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain :
One, whom the music 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:
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,

•Reside. Affections; passions.- Temptations.- Lively; sprightly. Accomplishments.- "Armado hight,” i. e. is called Armado.

But, I protest, I love to hear him lie, And I will use him for my a minstrelsy.

b

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 Arm-Arm-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.

Long. A high hope for a low 1 hearing: 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 chime in 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,

King. Peace!

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

King. No words.

Cost. of other men's secrets, I beseech you, King. "So it is, besieged with sable-colored melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humor to the most wholesome physic 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, did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the

I

"For my minstrelsy," i. e., instead of a minstrel.-b Fellow. Brand-new. Third borough, a peace-officer. "With the manner," i e., in the fact.

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 complements of devoted and heart burning heat of duty,

"DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO." Biron. This is not so well as I looked 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 damsel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed damsel.

Cost. This was no damsel 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: And go we, lords, to put in practice that Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

[Exeunt KING, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAINE. Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. 4 Dull. Sirrah, come on.

Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and, therefore, welcome the sour cup of pros

Curious-figured.-"Base minnow," i, e., contemptible object."Hight," i. e., is called.-iTo "passion" is to be extremely agitated.

perity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till then, set thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-ARMADO'S House in the Park.

Enter ARMADO and MOTH, his page.

Arm. Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great spirit grows melancholy?

Moth. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. Arm. Why? sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.

Moth. No, no; O lord! sir, no.

Arm. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender bjuvenal?

Moth. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough senior.

Arm. Why tough senior? why tough senior?

Moth. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal? Arm. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

Moth. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough.

Arm. Pretty, and apt.

devised courtesy. I think scorn to sigh: methinks, I should out-swear Cupid. Comfort me, boy. What great men have been in love?

Moth. Hercules, master.

Arm. Most sweet Hercules!-More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage.

Moth. Samson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter, and he was in love.

Arm. O well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too. Who was Samson's love, my dear Moth?

Moth. A woman, master.
Arm. Of what complexion?

Moth. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the four.

Arm. Tell me precisely of what complexion.
Moth. Of the sea-water green, sir.

Arm. Is that one of the four complexions?
Moth. As I have read, sir; and the best of them

too.

Arm. Green, indeed, is the color of lovers; but

Arm. Thou pretty, because little.

Moth. Little pretty, because little. Wherefore

apt?

Arm. And therefore apt, because quick. Moth. Speak you this in my praise, master? Arm. In thy condign praise.

Moth. I will praise an eel with the same praise. Arm. What, that an eel is ingenious?

Moth. That an eel is quick.

Arm. I do say, thou art quick in answers.

Thou

heatest my blood.

Moth. You may do it in an hour, sir.
Arm. Impossible.

Moth. How many is one thrice told?

Arm. I am ill at reckoning: it fitteth the spirit of a tapster.

Moth. You are a gentleman, and a gamester, sir. Arm. I confess both: they are both the varnish of a complete man.

Moth. Then, I am sure, you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace amounts to.

Arm. It doth amount to one more than two.
Moth. Which the base vulgar do call three.
Arm. True.

Moth. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now, here is three studied ere you'll thrice wink ; and how easy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing dhorse will tell you.

Arm. A most fine figure!

Moth. [Aside.] To prove you a cypher.

Arm. I will hereupon confess I am in love; and, as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humor of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new

Boy. Youth. The "crosses" alluded to were pieces of money stamped with a cross. This allusion is to a celebrated horse, remarkable for his sagacity, belonging to one Bankes.

small reason for it. He, surely, affected her for her wit.

Moth. It was so, sir, for she had a green wit.
Arm. My love is most immaculate white and red.
Moth. Most 'maculate thoughts, master, are mask-
ed under such colors.

Arm. Define, define, well-educated infant.
Moth. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue,

assist me!

Arm. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty, and poetical!

Moth. If she be made of white and red,

Her faults will ne'er be known;

For blushing cheeks by faults are bred,

And fears by pale white shown:
Then, if she fear, or be to blame,

By this you shall not know;

For still her cheeks possess the same,
Which native she doth owe.

A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red.

Arm. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?

Moth. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since, but, I think, now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would neither serve for the writing, nor the tune.