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What peremptory eagle-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 mistrefs) 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.
Of all complexions the cull'd Sovereignty

Do meet, as at a Fair, in her fair cheek;,:
Where feveral worthies make one dignity;

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

Fy, painted rhetorick! O, fhe needs 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 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 fun, that maketh all things thine. 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.

She an attending ftar.] Something like this is a stanza of Sir Henry Wotton, of which the poetical reader will forgive the infertion.

-Ye fars, the train of night,
That poorly fatisfy our eyes
More by your number than your
light:

Ye common people of the fkies,

What are ye when the fun fall rife!

2 Is Ebony like her? O Word

divine!] This is the Read ing of all the Editions that I have fcen: but both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concurr'd in reading (as I had likewife conjec tur'd) Wood divine !

THEOBALD.

O, who

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 creft becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, resembling fpirits of light:

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

It mourns, that Painting and ufurping Hair Should ravish doters with a false afpect:

And therefore is the born to make black fair.

3 In former editions; The School of Night.] Black, being the School of Night, is a Piece of Mystery above my Comprehenfion. I had guess'd, it should be, the Stole of Night: but I have preferr'd the Conjecture of my Friend Mr. Warburton, who reads the fcowl of night, as it comes nearer in Pronunciation to the corrupted Reading, as well as agrees bettter with the other Images. THEOBALD. 4 And beauty's CREST becomes the heavens well.] This is a contention between two lovers about the preference of a black or white beauty. But, in this reading, he who is contending for the white, takes for granted the thing in difpute; by faying, that white is the creft of beauty. His adverfary had just as much reafon to call black fo. The queftion debated between them being which was the creft of beauty, black or white. Shakespear could never write fo abfurdly Nor has the Oxford Editor at all

:

mended the matter by fubftituting dress for creft. We should read,

And beauty's CRETE becomes the

heavens well,

i. . beauty's white from creta, In this reading the third line is a proper antithefis to the first. 1 fuppofe the blunder of the tranfcriber arole from hence, the French word crefte in that pronunciation and orthography is crete, which he understanding, and knowing nothing of the other fignification of crete from creta, critically altered it to the English way of spelling, crefte.

WARBURTON.

This emendation cannot be received till its author can prove that crete is an English word. Befides, creft is here properly posed to Badge. Black, fays the king, is the badge of hell, but that which graces the heaven is the creft of beauty Black darkens bell, and is therefore hateful : white adorns heaven, and is therefore lovely.

Her

Her Favour turns the fafhion of the days,

For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, 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 mistreffes dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours fhould be wafh'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 dooins-day here.
King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as the.
Dum. I never knew man hold vile ftuff fo dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face
fee.
[Showing his fhoe..
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 the walkt over head.
King. But what of this, are we not all in love?
Biron. Nothing fo fure, and thereby all for-
fworn.

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

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

um. Ay, marry, there; fome flattery for this evil.

Long. O, fome Authority how to proceed; Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devils. Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron.

Some tricks, Jome quillets, is the peculiar word applied to how to cheat the devil.] Quillet law-chicane. I imagine the ori

ginal

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 ftudy, (Lords)
In that each of you hath forfworn 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 book, the academies,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire:
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 Study too, the caufer of your vow.
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye;

ginal to be this, in the French pleadings, every feveral allegation in the plaintiff's charge, and every diftinct plea in the defendant's anfwer, began with the words Qu'il eft;from whence was formed the word quillet, to fignify a falfe charge or an evafive answer. WARBURTON.

• Affection's men at arms.] A man at arms, is a foldier armed at all points both offenfively and defenfively. It is no more than, Ye foldiers of affection.

Learn

*This and the two following lines are omitted, I fuppofe, by mere over-fight, in Dr. Warbur ton's edition.

7 The nimble fpirits in the arteries;] In the old fyftem of phyfic they gave the fame office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves; as appears from the name which is derived from arga The. WARBURTON. 8 Teaches fuch BEAUTY as a woman's eye?] This line is abfolute nonfenfe." We fhould read,

Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our Learning likewife is.
Then, when ourfelves we fee 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 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 beauty's 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, firft learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain:
But with the motion of all elements,
Courfes as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious Seeing to the eye:
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind!

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