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 practisers,
Scarce fhew a harveft 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 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 stopt..
'Love's feeling is more foft and fenfible,

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

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides?
Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair:
And when Love fpeaks the voice of all the gods,
Mark, heaven drowfy with the harmony!
Never durft poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with Love's fighs;
O then his lines would ravish favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From womens' eyes this doctrine I derive :
They fparkle ftill 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 forswear:
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For Wisdom's fake, (a word that all men love);

Or for Love's fake, (a word all women love);
Or for men's fake, (the author of thefe women);
Cr womens' fake, (by whom we men are men):
Let us once lofe our oaths to find ourselves;
Cr elfe we lofe 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 ftandards, and, upon them,
Lords;

Pell-mell, down with them; but be firft advis'd,
In conflict that you get the fun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay thefe glozes by; Shall we refolve to woo thefe girls of France ?

King. And win them too; therefore let us devise 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 miftrefs; in the afternoon

We will with fome ftrange paftime folace them,
Such as the fhortnefs of the time can fhape:
For revels, dances, masks, 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 juflice always whirls in equal measure;
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

ACT

V.

SCENE

The Street.

I.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel, and Dull.

Hol. Atis, quod fufficit.

Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reafons at diner have been fharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did converfe this quondam

day

day with a companion of the King's, who is intitled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet.

[Draws out his table-book.

Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the ftaple of his argument. I abhor fuch phanatical phantafms, fuch infociable and point-devise companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as do speak dout fine, when he should say doubt; det, when he fhould 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 abominable, which we would call abhominable: it infinuateth me of infanity: Ne intelligis, Domine, to make frantic, lunatic?

Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo.

Hol. Bone?

bone, for benè; Prifcian a little

fcratch'd; 'twill ferve.

SCENE II. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard.

Nath. Videfne quis venit?

Hol. Video, et gaudeo.

Arm. Chirra.

Hol. Quare chirra, not firrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd.

Hol. Moft military Sir, falutation.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages,

and ftole the feraps.

Coft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art eafier fwallow'd than a flap-dragon.

Moth. Peace, the peal begins.

Arm. Monfieur, are you not letter'd?

Moth. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book:

What

What is A B fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth. Ba, moft filly sheep, with a horn. You hear his learning.

Hol. Quis, quis, thou confonant ?

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I.

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, I.

Moth. The fheep; the other two concludes it, o, u, Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit; fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect; true wit.

Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man: which is wit-old.

Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure?.
Moth. Horns.

Hol. Thou difputeft like an infant; go, whip thy gigg. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circù; a gigg of a cuckold's horn.

Coft. An' I had but one penny in the world, thou fhouldft have it to buy ginger-bread; hold there is the very remuneration I had of thy mafter, thou halfpenny purfe of wit, thou piegeon-egg of difcretion. O, that the heav'ns were so pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me? go to, thou haft it ad dunghill; at the finger's ends, as they say.

Hol. O, I fmell falfe Latin, dunghill for unguem.

Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-houfe on the top of the mountain?

Hol. Or mons the hill,

Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. Hol. I do, fans queftion.

Arm. Sir, it is the King's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the Princess at her pavilion, in the pofteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

Hol. The pofterior of the day, moft generous Sir, is liable, congruent, and meafurable for the afternoon:

the

the word is well cull'd, choice, fweet, and apt, I do affure you, Sir, I do affure.

Arm. Sir, the King is a noble gentleman, and my familiar; I do affure you, my very good friend; for what is inward between us, let it pass- I do befeech thee, remember thy curtefy-I befeech thee, apparel thy head, and among other importunate and most serious defigns, and of great import indeed too but let that pafs:-for I must tell thee, it will please his Grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor fhoulder, and with his royal finger thus dally with my excrement, with my muftachio; but, fweet heart, let that pafs. By the world, I recount no fable; fome certain special honours it pleaseth his Greatnefs to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world; but let that pafs-the very all of all is-but, fweet heart, I do implore fecrecy--that the King would have me prefent the Princefs (fweet chuck) with fome delightful oftentation, or fhow, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet felf are good at fuch eruptions, and fudden breaking out of mirth, (as it were), I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your affiftance.

Hol. Sir, you fhall present before her the nine worthies. Sir, as concerning fome entertainment of time, fome fhow in the pofterior of this day, to be rendered by our affiftants at the King's command, and this most gallant, illuftrate, and learned gentleman, before the Princess: I fay, none so fit as to prefent the nine worthies.

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

Hol. Jofhua, yourself; this gallant man, Judas Maccabeus; this fwain (because of his great limb or joint) fhall pafs Pompey the great; and the page Hercules.

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

Hol. Shall I have audience? he shall prefent Hercules in minority; his enter and exit fhall be ftran