Baron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the

heavenly Rosaline,

That, like a rude and savage man of Inde,
At the first opening of the gorgeous east,
Bows not his vassal head and strucken 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 ?

Kay. What zeal, what fury hath inspired thee now ?

My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; 230 She an attending star, scarce seen a light. Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron :

0, 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, 240 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: 0, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine. Kong. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.

249

Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine!
A wife of such wood were felicity.
0. who can give an oath ? where is a book?
That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack,
If that she learn not of her eye to look:

No face is fair that is not full so black.
King. O paradox! Black is the badge of
hell,

The hue of dungeons and the suit of night; And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.

0. if in black my lady's brows be deck'd,

It mourns that painting and usurping hair Should ravish doters with a false aspect; 260 And therefore is she born to make black fair. Her favor turns the fashion of the days,

For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, Paints itself black, to imitate her brow. Drum To look like her are chimney-sweepers black.

Long. And since her time are colliers counted bright.

King And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack.

Duni Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.

[rain, Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in For fear their colors 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.

Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.

Long. 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!

Dum. O vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies 280

The street should see as she walk'd overhead.

King. But what of this? are we not all in love?

Biron. Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.

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

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there; some lattery for

this evil.

fire.]

Why, universal plodding poisons ap
The nimble spirits in the arteries,
As motion and long-during action tires
The sinewy vigor of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes 310
And study too, the causer of your vow;
For where is any author in the world
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself
And where we are our learning likewise is:
Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords,
And in that vow we have forsworn our books.
For when would you, my liege, or you, or yon,
In leaden contemplation have found out

521

Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes
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,
Courses as swift as thought in every power,
And gives to every power a double power, 331
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd :
Love's feeling is more soit and sensible
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in

Still climbing trees in the Hesperides ?
Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair:
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 : 350
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 ought 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,
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women,
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men,
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forsworn,
For charity itself fulfils the law,
X. And who can sever love from charity?

King, Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!

Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;

Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advised,

In conflict that you get the sun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by:

Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France ? King. And win them too: therefore let us devise

Some entertainment for them in their tents.
Biron. First, from the park let us conduct
them thither;

Then homeward every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress in the afternoon

We will with some strange pastime solace
them,

Enter HOLOFERNFS, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL

Hol. Satis quod sufficit.

Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious: pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: his humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridienlous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Draws out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his ver bosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasimes, 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; neighbor vocatur nebor; neigh abbreviated ne. This is abhominable,-which he would call abbominable it insinuateth † me of insanie: anne intelligis, domine ? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus Deo, bene intelligo. Hol. Bon, bon, fort bon, Priscian! a little scratch'd, 'twill serve.

Nath. Videsne quis venit ?
Hol. Video, et gaudeo.

Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD.
Arm.

Chirrah !

Hol. Quare chirrah, not sirrah ? Arm.

30

[To Moth

Men of peace, well encountered Hol. Most military sir, salutation. Moth. [Aside to Costard] They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

Cost. O, they have lived long on the almsbasket 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 flapdragon.

Moth. Peace the peal begins.

Am. [To Hol.] Monsieur, are you not lettered?

Mith. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a, b, spelt backward, with the born on his head ? 51

H, Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Math. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning.

i. Quis, quis, thou consonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I.

H. I will repeat them,-a, e, i,— Mth. The sheep: the other two concludes i-, u.

60

Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venue of wit snip, snap, quick and home! it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit!

Moth. Offered by a child to an old man; which is wit-old. [ure?

H. What is the figure? what is the figMoth. Horns.

H. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig.

70

Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum dina, a gig of a cuckold's horu.

Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread : hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thon geon-egg of discretion. O, an the heavens Were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard, What a joyful father wouldst thou make me ! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' enis, as they say.

IO, I smell false Latin; dunghill for uguem

Arm Arts-man, preambulate, we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not elate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain?

Ho!. Or mous, the hill.

Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.

Hol. I do, sans question.

91

A. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection to congratulate the princess at her pavilion in the posteriors of this day, Which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well culled, chose, sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. Ar Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do assure ye, very good friend for what is inward between us, let it pass I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head: and

among other important and most serious de signs, and of great import indeed, too, but let that pass: 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, I recount no fable: sonie certain special honors 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,-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 antique, or firework. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies. Sir, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistants, at the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the princess; say none so fit as to present the Nine Worthies.

130

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

Hol. Joshua, yourself; myself and this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabeus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the Great; the page, Hercules,

Arm. Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for that Worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

Hol. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry Well done, Hercules now thou crushest the snake!' that is the way to make an offence gracious, though few have the grace to do it.

Arm. For the rest of the Worthies ?-
Hol. I will play three myself.
Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?
Hol. We attend.

Arm.

150

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

Hol. Via, goodman Dull ! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir.
Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I

will play

160 On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.

Hol.

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

SCENE II. The same. Enter the Princess, KATHARINE, ROSALINE and MARIA.

Prin. 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,

Ros. Madame, came nothing else along with that?

Prin. Nothing but this! yes, as much love in rhyme

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

Ros. That was the way to make his godhead wax,

10 For he hath been five thousand years a boy. Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows

too.

Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; a' kill'd your sister.

Kath. 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 ha' been a grandam ere she died:
And so may you; for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of
this light word?

Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. 20
Ros. We need more light to find your mean-
ing out.
[snuff;

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

Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the dark.

Kath. So do not you, for you are a light wench.

Ros. Indeed I weigh not you, and therefore light.

Kath. You weigh me not? O, that's you

Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Against your peace: Love doth approach dis

guised,

Armed in arguments; you'll be surprised. Muster your wits; stand in your own defence; Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

Prin. Saint Denis to Saint Cupid! What are they

That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say

Boyet. Under the cool shade of a sycamore I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour; When, lo! to interrupt my purposed rest, 91 Toward that shade I might behold addrest

110

Abetter speech was never spoke before;
Antier, with his finger and his thumb,
Cried, Via! we will do't, come what will
come;"

The third he caper'd, and cried, ‘All goes well;'
The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell.
With that, they all did tumble on the ground,
With such a zealous laughter, so profound,
That in this spleen ridiculous appears,
To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.
Prin. But what, but what, come they to
visit us?

Boyet. They do, they do; and are apparell'd thus,

120

Like Muscovites or Russians, as I guess.
Their purpose is to parle, to court and dance;
And every one his love-feat will advance
Tato his several mistress, which they'll know
By favors several which they did bestow.
Pri. And will they so? the gallants shall
be task'd;

For ladies, we will every one be mask'd ;
And not a man of them shall have the grace,
Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.

Hold, Rosaline, this favor thou shalt wear, 130
And then the king will court thee for his dear;
Hd, take thou this, my sweet, and give me
thine,

So shall Biron take me for Rosaline.

And change your favors too; so shall your

loves

Woo contrary, deceived by these removes. Ros. Come on, then; wear the favors most in sight.

Kath. But in this changing what is your intent ?

Prin. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs :

They do it but in mocking merriment;
And nock for mock is only my intent.
Their several counsels they unbosom shall
To loves mistook, and so be mock'd withal

Upon the next occasion that we meet,
With visages display'd, to talk and greet.

140

Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't ?

The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out. There's no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown,

To make theirs ours and ours none but our Own:

So shall we stay, mocking intended game, And they, well mock'd, depart away with shame. [Trumpets sound within. Boyet. The trumpet sounds: be mask'd; the maskers come. [The Ladies mask. Enter Blackamoors with music; MOTH; the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in Russian habits, and masked.