Enter Dumaine, with a paper.
Longaville.

By whom shall I send this? - Company! stay.
[Steps aside.
[Aside.

Biron.

All hid, all hid; an old infant play.
Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky,
And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.

More sacks to the mill ! O heavens ! I have my

Dumaine transform'd? four woodcocks in a dish!

Thou for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiop were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

This will I send, and something else more plain,
That shall express my true love's fasting pain.
O, would the King, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! III, to example ill,
For none offend, where all alike do dote.
Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;

Longaville. [Advancing.

Dumaine, thy love is far from charity,
That in love's grief desir'st society:
You may look pale, but I should blush, I know,

[Aside. To be o'erheard, and taken napping so.

wish:

By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye!

King.

[Advancing.

Come, sir, you blush; as his your case is such;
You chide at him, offending twice as much:
You do not love Maria; Longaville
Did never sonnet for her sake compile,
Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart
His loving bosom, to keep down his heart.
I have been closely shrouded in this bush,
And mark'd you both, and for you both did
I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your
[fashion,
Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your

blush.

passion:

eyes:

Ay me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; [Aside. One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's You would for paradise break faith and troth; [To Longarile. And Jove for your love would infringe an oath. [To Dumaine.

As fair as day.

Biton.

[Aside.

Ay, as some days: but then no sun must shine.

Dantaine.

O, that I had my wish!

On a day, alack the day!
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But alack! my hand is sworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:
Vow, alack! for youth unmeet,
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.
Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee;

What will Biron say, when that he shall hear
Faith infringed, which such zeal did swear?
How will he scorn! how will he spend his wit!
How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it!
For all the wealth that ever I did see,

I would not have him know so much by me.

And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain ?
And where my liege's? all about the breast:
A caudle, ho I

King.
Too bitter er is is thy jest.
Are we betrayed thus to thy over-view?

1

To break the vow I am engaged in;
I am betray'd, by keeping company
With men, like men of strange inconstancy.
When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme?
Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time
In pruning me? When shall you hear that I
Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye,
A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist,
A leg, a limb?-

King.

Soft! Whither away so fast?

A true man, or a thief, that gallops so?

Biron.

I post from love; good lover, let me go.
Euter Jaquenetta and Costard

Jaquenetta.

God bless the king !

King.

Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O! let us embrace.
As true we are, as flesh and blood can be:
The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face;
Young blood doth not obey an old decree:
We cannot cross the cause why we were born;
Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn.

King.
What, did these rent lines show some love of
thine?
Biron.

Did they? quoth you. Who sees the heavenly
Rosaline,

What present hast thou there? That, like a rude and savage man of Inde,

A toy, my liege, a toy: your grace needs not
fear it?
Longaville.

At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, stricken blind,

Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?

What peremptory, eagle-sighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,

That is not blinded by her majesty ?

King.

What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now?
My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon,
She, an attending star, scarce seen a light.

Biron

My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron.
O! but for my love, day would turn to night.
of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty
Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek;
Where several worthies make one dignity,
Where nothing wants that want itself doth
seek.

Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, -
Fie, painted rhetoric! O! she needs it not:
To things of sale a seller's praise belongs;
She passes praise; then praise too short doth
blot.

A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn,
Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye:
Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born,
And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy.
O! 'tis the sun, that maketh all things shine!

King

By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.

Biran

It did move him to passion, and therefore Is ebony like her? O wood divine!

let's hear it.

Dumalne.

Longaville.

And since her time are colliers counted bright.

King.

And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.

Dumaine.

Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.

Biron.

Your mistresses dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours should be wash'd away.

King.

'Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you
plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.
Biron.

I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.
King.

No devil will fright thee then so much as she.
Dumaine.

I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.

Longaville.

Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face

see.

Biron.

O! if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.

Dumaine.

O vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies

The street should see, as she walk'd over

head.

King.

But what of this? Are we not all in love?
Biron.

O! nothing so sure; and thereby all for-
King.

sworn.

Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now
prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.
Dutnaine.

Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.
Longaville.

O! some authority how to proceed;

And where we are, our learning likewise is:
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
With ourselves,

Do we not likewise see our learning there?
And in that vow we have forsworn our books;
O! we have made a vow to study, lords,
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
In leaden contemplation have found out
Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with ?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain,
And therefore, finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest 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
And gives to every power a double power,
Courses as swift as thought in every power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd:
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails:
For valour is not love a Hercules,
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
[taste.
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
Subtle as sphinx; as sweet, and musical,
And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durst poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's sighs;
O! then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the Academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world,
Else none at all in aught proves excellent.
Then, fools you were these women to forswear,
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love,
Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men,

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the Or for men's sake, the authors of these women,

Have at you, then, affection's men at arms.
Consider, what you first did swear unto; -
To fast, to study, and to see no woman:
Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young,
And abstinence engenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, lords,
In that each of you hath forsworn 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 books, the Academes,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean

Biron.

Why, universal plodding prisons up

[fire.

The nimble spirits in the arteries,

First, from the park let us conduct them thither;

As motion, and long-during action, tires

The sinewy vigour of the traveller.

Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes,
And study, too, the causer of your vow;
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?

Then, homeward, every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress. In the afternoon
We will with some strange pastime solace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Fore-run fair Love, strewing her way with
flowers.

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak dout, fine, when he should say, doubt; det, when he should pronounce, debt-d, e, b, t, not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh abbreviated ne. This is abhominable, (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie: ne intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

Nathaniel.

Laus Deo, bone intelligo.
Holofernes.

Most military sir, salutation.

Moth.

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

Costard.

O! they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.

Moth.

Peace! the peal begins.

Armado.

Monsieur, [To Holofernes,) are you not let

ter'd?

Moth.

Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book.What is a, b, spelt backward with the horn on his head?

Holofernes.

Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth.

Ba! most silly sheep, with a horn.- You hear

his learning.

Holofernes.

Bone?-bone, for bene: Priscian a little discretion. O! an the heavens were so pleased, scratch'd; 'twill serve.

Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend.For what is inward between us, let it pass.-1 do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; - I beseech thee, apparel thy head: - and among other important and most serious designs, -and of great import indeed, too, but let that pass;

Thrice-worthy gentleman I

Armado.

Shall I tell you a thing?

We attend.

Holofernes.

Armado.

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

Holofernes.

Via! - Goodman Dull, thou hast spoken no word all this while.

Dull.

Nor understood none neither, sir.
Holofernes.
Allons! we will employ thee.
Duli.

I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play on the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.

Holofernes.

Most dull, honest Dull. To our sport, away!
Exeunt.

SCENE II. Another part of the same. Before

for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal finger, thus dally with my excrement, with my mustachio: but, sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, 1 recount no fable: some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world; but let that pass - The very all of all is, Enter the -but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy, - that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions, and sudden udden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Holofernes.

the Princess's Pavilion.

Princess, Katharine, Rosaline, and

Maria.
Princess.

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.

Rosaline.

Madam, came nothing else along with that?
Princess.

Nothing but this? yes; as much love in

rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ on both sides the leaf, margin and all,
That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Rosaline.

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

Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.

Rosaline.

He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;
And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
She might a' been a grandam ere she died;
And so may you, for a light heart lives long.

Rosaline.

You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Rosaline.