My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek; Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not: A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack, No face is fair, that is not full so black. O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, For native blood is counted painting now; Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. Long. O, some authority how to proceed; O, 'tis more than need!- And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is you plam, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. here. King. No devil will fright thee then so much as Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! Dum. O vile! then as she goes, what upward lies The street should see as she walk'd over King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd; (1) Law chicane. Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ; King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by: Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them Then, homeward every man attach the hand We will with some strange pastime solace them, SCENE I-Another part of the same. Hol. Satis quod sufficit. Enter Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons Hol. Bone?-bone, for benè: Priscian a little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard. [To Moth. Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah? Cost. O, they have lived long in the alms-basket 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 flap-dragon. Moth. Peace; the peal begins. Arm. Monsieur, [To Hol.] are you not letter'd ? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook:What is a, b, spelt backward, with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn :-You hear his learning. Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you re peat them; or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i. Moth. The sheep: the other two concludes it a o, u. Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterra neum, a sweet touch," a quick venew of wit: snip, snap, 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? Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; A gig at dinner have been sharp and sententious; plea-of a cuckold's horn! sant without scurrility, witty without affection, Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, audacious without impudency, learned without thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread: hold, opinion, and strange without heresy. I did con- there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, verse this quondam day with a companion of the thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that Adriano de Armado. 3 thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father would'st thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-houses on the top of the mountain ? Hol. Or, mons, the hill. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too perigrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-de-m. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure vise companions; such rackers of orthography, as and affection, to congratulate the princess at her to speak, dout, fine, when he should say doubt; pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the det, when he should pronounce debt; d, e, b, t; rude multitude call the afternoon. Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the ne: This is abhominable (which he would call afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie; Ne and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend : (6) A small inflammable substance, swallowed in a glass of wine. (7) A hit. (8) Free-school. For what is inward' between us, let it pass :-I do Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in beseech thee, remember thy courtesy-I beseech rhyme 2 Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax; For he hath been five thousand years a boy. thee, apparel thy head; and among other importu- As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, nate and most serious designs,-and of great im- Writ on both sides the leaf, margent and all;' port, indeed, too;-but let that pass:-for I must That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name. 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; some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of And so she died: had she been light, like you, all is,-but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,-Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, that the king would have me present the princess, She might have been a grandam ere she died: sweet chuck,' with some delightful ostentation, or And so may you; for a light heart lives long. show, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse," of this 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 Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,-the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; Í say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies. Nath, Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? Hol. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. light word? Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. out. Kath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff;" Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care. Ros. I would, you knew. An if my face were but as fair as yours, Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity My favour were as great; be witness this. ough for that worthy's thumb; he is not so big Nay, I have verses too, I thank Birón: 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 crusheth 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? Arm. We will have, if this fadge" not, an antic. Hol. Via, good man Dull! thou has spoken no word all this while. Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir. Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay. Hal. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another part of the same. Before the Princess's Pavilion. Enter the Princess, Katharine, Rosaline, and Maria. I The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too. I Ros, Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise, My red dominical, my golden letter: Kath. A pox of that jest! and beshrew all shrows! Kath. Madam, this glove. Prin. The letter is too long by half a mile, Prin. I think no less: Dost thou not wish in heart, The chain were longer, and the letter short? part. Prin. We are wise girls, to mock our lovers so. Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, That same Birón I'll torture ere I go. If fairings come thus plentifully in: A lady walled about with diamonds!- O, that I knew he were but in by the week! (7) Formerly a term of endearment. (8) In anger. Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. Boyet. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace? Prin. Thy news, Boyet? That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say. I should have fear'd her, had she been a devil. shoulder; Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. Cry'd, Via! we will do't, come what will come: Unto his several mistress; which they'll know Prin. And will they so? the gallants shall be task'd: For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear; Ros. Come on then; wear the favours most in sight. Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't! Prin. No; to the death, we will not move a foot: Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace; But, while 'tis spoke, each turn away her face. Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart, And quite divorce his memory from his part. Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, in Russian habits, and masked; Moth, musicians, and attendants. Moth. All hail! the richest beauties on the earth! Boyet. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta. Moth. A holy parcel of the fairest dames, The ladies turn their backs to him. That ever turn'd their-backs-to mortal views! Biron. Their eyes, villain, their eyes. Moth. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! Out Boyet. True; out, indeed. Moth. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe Not to behold Biron. Once to behold, rogue. Moth. Once to behold with your sun-beamed eyes, with your sun-beamed eyes Boyet. They will not answer to that epithet; You were best call it, daughter-beamed eyes. Moth. They do not mark me, and that brings me out. Biron. Is this your perfectness? be gone, you Is in one mile: if they have measur'd many, Boyet. If, to come hither you have measur'd miles, Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps. How many weary steps, Biron. We number nothing that we spend for you, Our duty is so rich, so infinite, That we may do it still without accompt. Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. King. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine (Those clouds remov'd,) upon our wat'ry eyne. Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou now request'st but moonshine in the water. King. Then, in our measure do but vouchsafe one change: soon. Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange. Ros. Play, music, then: nay, you must do it [Music plays. Not yet;-no dance:-thus change I like the moon. King. Will you not dance? How come you thus estrang'd? Ros. You took the moon at full; but now she's chang'd. King. Yet still she is the moon, and I the man. The music plays; vouchsafe some motion to it. Kus. Our ears vouchsafe it. King. But your legs should do it. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands ;-we will not dance. King. Why take we hands then? Ros. Only to part friends:Court'sy, sweet hearts; and so the measure ends. King. More measure of this measure; be not nice. Ros. We can afford no more at such a price. King. Prize you yourselves; What buys your company? Ros. Your absence only. King. That can never be. Ros. Then cannot we be bought and so adieu; Twice to your visor, and half once to you! King. If y you deny to dance, let's hold more chat. Ros. In private then. King. I am best pleas'd with that. [They converse apart. Biron. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. Prin. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three. Biron. Nay then, two treys (an if you grow so nice,) Metheglin, wort, and malmsey ;-Well run, dice! There's half a dozen sweets. tongue? Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. And would afford my speechless visor half. No, I'll not be your half: Will you give horns, chaste lady? do not so. cry. Boyet. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor's edge invisible, Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen; Above the sense of sense: so sensible Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings, Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things. Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off. Biron. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff! King. Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits. [Exeunt King, Lords, Moth, music, and attendants. Prin. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovites.Are these the breed of wits so wonder'd at? Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out. Ros. Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross fat, fat. Prin. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout! Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night? Or ever, but in visors, show their faces? This pert Birón was out of countenance quite. Ros. O they were all in lamentable cases! The king was weeping-ripe for a good word. Prin. Birón did swear himself out of all suit. Mar. Dumain was at my service, and his sword: No point, quoth I: my servant straight was mute. Kath. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er his heart; And trow you, what he call'd me? Prin. Kath. Yes, in good faith. Prin. Qualm, perhaps. Go, sickness as thou art! Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps. But will you hear? the king is my love sworn. Prin. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me. Kath. And Longaville was for my service born. Mar. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree. Boyet. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear: Immediately they will again be here (3) Better wits may be found among citizens, |