Arm. I do say, thou art quick in answers: thou precedent. Boy, I do love that country girl, that heatest my blood.

Costard safe: and you must let him take no de- | In spending your wit in the praise of mine. light, nor no penance; but a' must fast three days But now to task the tasker, Good Boyet, a-week; for this damsel, I must keep her at the You are not ignorant, all-telling fame park: she is allow'd for the day-woman. Fare Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow, you well. Till painful study shall out-wear three years, No woman may approach his silent court: Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course, Before we enter his torbidden gates, To know his pleasure; and in that behalf, Bold of your worthiness, we single you As our best-moving fair solicitor :

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 pardon'd.

Cost. Well, Sir, I hope, when I do it, I shail do it on a full stomach.

Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punish'd.

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 Moth 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 Sampson was 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 call'd boy; but his glory is, to subdue men. Adieu, valour! Rust, rapier! Be still,drum! For your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure I shall turn sonneteer. Devise wit; write pen; for I am for whole volumes [Exit.

in folio.

ACT II.

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick dispatch,
Importunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble visaged suitors, his high will.

Boy. 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. Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast,
Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques 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, be like; is't so?
Mar. They say so most, that most his humours
know.

Prin. Such short lived wits do wither as they
grow.
Who are the rest?

Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd
youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue loved:
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.

Rosa. 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,)
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 in his discourse.
Prin. God bless my ladies! Are they all in love;
With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Mar. Here comes Boyet.

SCENE 1.-Another Part of the same.-A Pavilion That every one her own hath garnisbed
and Tents at a distance.

Enter the Princess of FRANCE, ROSALINE, MARIA,
KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants
Boy. Now, madam, summon up your dearest §
spirits:

Consider who the king your father sends;
To whom he sends; and what's Iris embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem ;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a nian 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

Re-enter BOYET.

Prin. Now, what admittance, lord?
Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair
proach;

a

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, DUMAIN, BIRON, and

Attendants.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my As you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart,
Though so denied fair harbour in my house.
Prin. I will be welcome then; conduct me thi-Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell:
ther.
To-morrow shall we visit you again.

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,

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?
Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow
Moth. Minime, honest inaster; or rather, master,

no.

Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd.
His face's own margent did quote such amazes,
That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes:
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,
An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.
Prin. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is disposed---1 shoot thee at the swain.
Boyet. But to speak that in words, which his eye
hath disclosed;

Arm. I say, lead is slow.

Moth. You are too swift Sir, to say so:

Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun?
Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric!

I only have made a mouth of his eye,
By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.
Res. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st
skilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news

of him.

Ros. Then was Venus like her mother; for her
father is but grim.

Boyet. Do you hear, my mad wenches?
Mar. No.

Boyet. What then, do you see?
Ros. Ay, our way to be gone.
Boyet. You are too hard for me.

ACT III.

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he:

Moth. Thump, then, and I flee.

{Erit.

Arm. A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!

By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy
face:

Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.'"

Re-enter MOTH and CoSTARD.

Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard

broken in a shin.

Arm. Some enigma, some riddle: come,-thy l'envoy-begin.

Cost. No egina, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salvė [Exeunt. in the mail, Sir: O, Sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, Sir, but a plantain ! Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and the word, l'envoy, tor a salve ?

'SCENE I.-Another Part of the same.
Enter ARMADO and MOTн.

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

Moth. Concolinel.

[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.

Moth. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl†?

Arm. How mean'st 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, humour it with turning up your eye-lids; sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through the throat, as if you swallow'd love with singing love; sometime through the nose, as if you snuff'd up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouse-like, o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms cross'd on your thin belly-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 compliments, these are humours; these betray nice wenches-that would be betray'd 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 penny of observation.
Arm. But O,—but 0,-

Moth. the hobby-horse is forgot.

Arm. Calls't thou my love, hobby-horse?

Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love, perhaps, a hackney. But have you forgot your love?

Arm. Almost I had.

Moth. Negligent student! Learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Moth. And out of heart, master: all those three
I will prove.

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: by heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her: in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.

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

Moth. A message well sympathised; a horse to

be embassador for an ass!

Arm, Ha, ha! What sayest thou?

Moth. Do the wise think them other? Is not l'envoy a salve?

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to
make plain

Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.
I will example it:

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
There's the moral: now the l'envoy.
Moth. I will add the l'envoy say the moral
again.

Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Moth. Until the goose came out of door,
And stay'd the odds by adding four.
Now will I begin your moral, and do
with my l'envoy.

you follow

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Arm. Until the goose came out of door,

Staying the odds by adding four.
Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose;
Would you desire more?

Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose,
that's flat-

Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be

fat.

To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and loose:
Let me see a fat envoy; ay, that's a fat goose.
Arm. Come hither, come hither: How did this
argument begin?

Moth. By saying, that a Costard was broken in a
shin.

Then call'd you for the l'envoy.

Cost. True, and I for a plantain; Thus came your

argument in:

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought:
And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard
broken in a shin?

Moth. I will tell you sensibly.

Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy :—

1, Costard, running out, that was safely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.

Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.
Arm. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
Cost. O, marry me to one Frances;-I smell some
P'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert im mured, restrain'd, captivated, bound.

Cost. True, true; and now you will be my pur

Moth. Marry, Sir, you must send the ass upon the gation, and let me loose. horse, for he is very slow-gaited: but I go.

Arm. The way is but short; away.

Moth. As swift as lead, Sir.

• Hastily.

A kind of dance.

Canary was the name of a spritely dance.

Arm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from du• • Quick, ready. + A head. An old French term for concluding verses which served either to convey the moral, or to ad dress the poem to some person.

rance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing
but this: bear this significant to the country maid
Jaquenetta; there is ren.uneration; [Giving him
money.] for the best ward of mine honour is reward-
ing my dependants. Moth, follow.
[Exit.
Moth. Like the sequel, I.-Signior Costard,
adieu.

Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my in-
cony Jew!
[Exit Moth.
Now will I look to his remuneration. Remunera-
tion! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings:
three farthings-remuneration.-What's the price of
this inkle? A penny ;—No, I'll give you a remunera-
tion-why, it carries it.Remuneration!-why,
it is a fairer name than French Crown. I will never
buy and sell out of this word.

Enter BIRON.

Biron. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly

well met.

Cost. Pray you, Sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

Biron. What is a remuneration ?
Cost. Marry, Sir, half-penny farthing.
Biron. O, why then, three farthings worth of

silk.

Cost. I thank your worship: God be with you!
Biron. O, stay, slave; I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.

Cost. When would you have it done, Sir?
Biren. O, this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, Sir: fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Cost. I shall know, Sir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.
Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow
morning.

Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this;

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady;

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-Another Part of the same.

Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHA
RINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester.
Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse
so hard
Against the steep uprising of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he.
Prin. Whoe'er he was, he shew'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. Here by, 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.
Prin. What, what? First praise me, and again
say, no?

O short-lived pride! Not fair? alack for woel
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.
Prin. See, see, my beauty will be saved by merit.
O heresy in fair, 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 shew my skill,
That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes;

When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;

name,

And Rosaline they call her: ask for her;
And to her white hand see thou do commend
This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go.
[Gives him Money.
Cost. Guerdon,-0 sweet guerdon! better than
remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better: Most
sweet guerdon!-I will do it, Sir, in print 1.-Guer-
don-remuneration.
[Exit.
Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have
been love's whip;

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

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

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 colours like a tumbler's hoop!
What? I! 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 perjured, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all:
A whitely 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.

The officers of the spiritual courts who serve citations.

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-sove-
reignty

Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be
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.

Cost. The thickest, and the tallest! It is so; truth
is truth.

An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit,
One of these maids' girdles for your waist should