Long. It did move him to paffion, and therefore let's

hear it.

Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. Biron. Ah, you whorefon loggerhead, you were born to do me thame. [To Coftard.

Guilty, my Lord, guilty: I confefs, I confefs.

King. What?

Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mefs.

He, he, and you; and you, my Liege, and I
Are pick-purfes in love, and we deferve to die.
O, difmifs this audience, and I fhall tell you more.
Dum. Now the number is even.

Biron. True, true; we are four :
Will these turtles be gone?

King. Hence, Sirs, away.

Coft. Walk afide the true folk, and let the traitors ftay. [Exeunt Coft, and Jaquen. Biron. Sweet Lords, fweet lovers, O, let us embrace : As true we are as flesh and blood can be.

The fea will ebb and flow, heaven will fhew his face :
Young blood doth not obey an old decree.

We cannot cross the caufe why we were born,
Therefore of all hands must we be forfworn.

King. What, did these rent lines fhew fome love of thine?

Biron. Did they, quoth you? who fees the heavenly Rofaline,

That (like a rude and favage man of Inde,

At the firft opening of the gorgeous eaft) Bows not his vaffal head, and, ftrucken blind, Kis the bafe ground with obedient breast?

What peremptory cagle-fighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,

That is not blinded by her Majefty?

King. What zeal, what fury, hath infpir'd thee now? My love (her miftrefs) is a gracious moon;

She (an attending ftar) fcarce feen a light.
Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron,
O, but for my love, day would turn to night.

Cf all complexions the cull'd fovereignty

Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek;

Where feveral worthies make one dignity;

Where nothing wants, that want itfelf doth feck. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues;

Fie, painted rhetoric! O, fhe necds it not : To things of fale a feller's praife belongs:

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

Might fhake 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 fun that maketh all things fine.
King. By heav'n, 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 fwear, Beauty doth beauty lack,
If that he learn not of her eye to look?

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 crete becomes the heavens well.
Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, refembling fpirits of
light:

O, if in black my Lady's brow be deckt,

It mourns, that painting and ufurping hair Should ravish doaters with a falfe afpect:

And therefore is the born to make black fair.

Her favour turns he 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.

Dum. To look like her are chimney-fweepers black. Long. And fince her time are colliers counted bright. King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your miftreffes dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours fhould be wash'd away. King. 'Twere good, your's 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 dooms-day

here.

King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as

fhe.

Dum. I never knew man hold vile ftuff fo dear. Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee.

Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine

eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for fuch tread. Dum. O vile! then as fhe goes, what upward lies The street should fee as fhe walk'd over-head. King. But what of this, are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing fo fure, and thereby all forfworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. [prove Dum. Ay, marry, there ; -fome flattery for this Long. O, fome authority how to proceed;

[evil. Some tricks, fome quillets, 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;
Confider what you firft did fwear unto :
To faft, to ftudy, and to fee no woman;
Flat treafon 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you faft? your ftomachs are too young:
And abftinence ingenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, (Lords),
In that each of you hath forfworn his book,
Can you ftill dream, and pore, and thereon look ?
For when would you, my Lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of ftudy's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?
Why, univerfal plodding prifons up
The nimble fpirits in the arteries;
As motion and long-during action tires
The finewy vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forfworn the use of eyes ?
And ftudy too, the caufer of your vow.
For where is any author in the world
Teaches fuch duty 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 likewife fee our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to ftudy, Lords;
And in that vow we have forfworn our books:
For when would you, my Liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation have found out

Such fiery numbers, 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 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,
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 ftopt.
'Love's feeling is more foft and fenfible,

Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails. Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in tafte; For valour, is not Love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ?
Subtle as Sphinx; as fweet and mufical

As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair:
And when Love fpeaks the voice of all the gods,
Mark, heaven drowsy with the harmony!
Never durft poct 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 womens' eyes this doctrine I derive :
They fparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academies,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe none at all in aught proves excellent.
Then fools you were thefe 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 all women love);
Or for mens' fake, (the author of these women);
Or womens' fake, (by whom we men are men):
Let us once lofe our oaths to find ourselves;
Or elfe we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forfworn,

For charity itself fulfils the law:

And who can fever love from charity?

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

Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay these glozes by; Shall we refolve to woo these girls of France? King. And win them too; therefore let us devife Some entertainment for them in their tents.

[ther;

Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thi-
Then homeward every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress; in the afternoon

We will with fome ftrange paftime folace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape:
For revels, dances, mafks, and merry hours,
Forerun 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 ! fown cockle reap'd no corn;
And juftice always whirls in equal measure;

Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

A CT V. SCENE I.

The Street.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel, and Dull.

Hol. S

Atis, fufficit.

Nat, quod fufiod for you, Sir, your reafons

at dinner have been sharp and fententious; pleasant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did converfe this quondam