ACT I.

COSTARD, a Clown. MOTH, Page to Armado. A Forester.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE. ROSALINE,

MARIA,

KATHARINE,

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Ladies, attending on the Princess.

JAQUENETTA, a country Wench.

Officers and Others, Attendants on the King and Princess.

SCENE L-Navarre. A Park with a Palace in it. Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN.

King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Lave register'd upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring time,
The endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen
And make us heirs of all eternity.
[edge,
Therefore, brave conquerors!-for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires,-
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
-You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have sworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow scholars, and to keep those statutes,
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are past, and now subscribe your names;
That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein:
If you are arm'd to do, as sworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oath, and keep it too.
Long. I am resolv'd: 'tis but a three years' fast;
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine:
Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout quite the wits.
Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified;
The grosser manner of these world's delights'
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all these living in philosophy.

Biron. I can but say the protestation over.
So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
That is, to live and study here three years.
But there are other strict observances:
As, not to see a woman in that term;
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
Aud, one day in a week to touch no food;
And but one meal on every day beside;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there:
And then, to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day;
When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night too of half the day ;)
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
9. these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep.

King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Biron. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please; I only swore to study with your grace,

And stay here in your court for three years' space.
Long. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest.
Biron. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.-
What is the end of study? let me know.
King, Why, that to know, which else we should
not know.
[common sense?
Biron Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from
King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense.
Biron. Come on then, I will swear to study so,
To know the thing I am forbid to know:
As thus,-To study where I well may dine,
When I to feast expressly am forbid;
Or, study where to meet some mistress fine,
When mistresses from common sense are hid
Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.
If study's gain be thus, and this be so,
Study knows that, which yet he doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no.
King. These be the stops that hinder study quite,
And train our intellects to vain delight.

}

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most

vain,

Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile:
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies.
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;
Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that was it blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books. These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights,

Than those that walk, and wot not what they are Too much to know, is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he's read, to reason against reading! [ceeding! all good pro

Dum. Proceeded well, to stop
Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the
weeding.
[a-breeding.

Biron. The spring is near, when green geese are
Dum. How follows that?

Biron.

Dum. In reason nothing. Biron.

Fit in his place and time.

Something then in rhyme.

Long. Biron is like an envious sneaping frost, That bites the first-born infants of the spring.

Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast,

Before the birds have any cause to sing?
Why should I joy in an abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing, that in season grows.
So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.
King. Well, sit you out: go home, Biron; adieu!
Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay
with you:

And, though I have for barbarism spoke more,
Than for that angel knowledge you can say,
Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore,

And bide the penance of each three years' day.
Give me the paper, let me read the same;
And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name.
King. How well this yielding rescues thee
from shame!

Biron. (Reads.) Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court.And hath this been proclaim'd? Long.

Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty. (Reads.)-On pain of losing her tongue.Who devis'd this?

Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord, and why? Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.

Biron. A dangerous law against gentility. (Reads.) Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For well you know, here comes in embassy The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak,

A maid of grace, and complete majesty,— About surrender up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes the admired princess hither. King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot.

Biron. So study evermore is overshot; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost. King. We must, of force, dispense with this deShe must lie here on mere necessity. [cree;

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn Three thousand times within this three years' space :

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might master'd, but by special grace: If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, I am fors worn on mere necessity.So to the laws at large I write my name:

(Subscribes.) And he, that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame :

Suggestions are to others as to me;
But, I believe, although I seem so loth,
I am the last, that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?

In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight my lords, I know not, I;
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,
A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.
Long. Costard the swain, and he, shall be our
sport;

And so to study, three years is but short.

Enter DULL with a letter, and COSTARD. Dull. Which is the duke's own person? Biron. This, fellow; What would'st? Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for am his grace's tharborough: but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

Dull. Signior Arme-Arme-commends you. There's villainy abroad; this letter will tell yo

more.

Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words. [us patience! Long. A high hope for a low having. God grant Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing? Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh mode" rately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us canse to climb in the merriness.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with Biron. In what manner? [the manner.

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; al these three: I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken follow.ag her into the park; which, put together, is in ma ner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner, it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form,-in some form.

Biron. For the following, sir?

Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the right!

King. Will you hear this letter with attention" Biron. As I would hear an oracle.

Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.

King. (Reads.) Great deputy, the welkin's vir gerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my son s earth's God, and body's fostering patron,Cost. Not a word of Costard yet.

King. So it is,

Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is. in telling true, but so, so. King. Peace.

[fight

Cost-be to me, and every man that dares u King. No words.

Cost-of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressi humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, biras best peck, and men sit down to that nouristment which is called supper. So much for the time when: now for the ground which; which I mean I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park.

haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain:
One, whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our studies, shall relate,

I did encounter that obscene and most preposte rous event, that draweth from my snow whits pen the ebon coloured ink, which here then viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: but to the place, where,-It standeth north-north east and by east from the west corner of thy curious knotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,

Cost. Me.

King-that unletter`d small-knowing soul,

King. For Jaquenetta, (so is the weaker vessel ealed, which I apprehended with the aforesaid www.) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; d shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring ber to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted nd heart-burning heat of duty,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the est that ever I heard.

King. Ay, the best for the worst.-But, sirrah, that say you to this?

Cast. Sir, I confess the wench.

King. Did you hear the proclamation?

Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but ttle of the marking of it.

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, be taken with a weuch.

Cost. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken ith a damosel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel.

Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was

Cest. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was ken with a maid.

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir.
Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir.
Keng. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence; You
all fast a week with bran and water.

Cest. I had rather pray a month with mutton and dge.

King, And Don Armado shall be your keeper. y lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'erAnd go we, lords, to put in practice that,

Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

Exeunt King, Longaville, and Dumain. Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.rrah, come on,

Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I as taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true tand therefore, Welcome the sour cup of prosnity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till en, Sit thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt.

SCENE II-Another of the same. Armado's

House.

Enter ARMADO and MOTH.

Arm Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great tgrows melancholy?

Math. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad.

Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self-same 2. dear imp.

Moth. No, no; O lord, sir, no.

Arm. How canst thou part sadness and melanmy tender juvenal?

Moth. By a familiar demonstration of the workmy tongh senior.

Arm. Why tough senior? why tough senior? Moth. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal?

Arm. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

Moth. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough. Arm. Pretty, and apt.

[apt? wherefore

Moth. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my
saying apt? or I apt, and my saying pretty?
Arm. Thou pretty, because little."
Moth. Little pretty, because little
Arm. And therefore apt, because quick.
Moth. Speak you this in my praise, master
Arm. In thy condign praise.

Moth. I will praise an eel with the same praise.
Arm. What? that an eel is ingenious?
Moth. That an eel is quick.

Arm. I do say, thou art quick in answers: thou heatest my blood.

Moth. I am answered, sir.

Arm. I love not to be crossed.

Moth. He speaks the mere contrary, crosses love

not him.

(Aside.) Arm. I have promised to study three years with the duke.

Moth. You may do it in an hour, sir.
Arm. Impossible.

Moth. How many is one thrice told?

Arm. I am ill at reckoning, it fitteth the spirit of a tapster.

Moth. You are a gentleman, and a gamester, sir. Arm. I confess both; they are both the varnish of a complete man.

Moth. Then, I am sure, you know how much the gross sum of dence-ace amounts to.

Arm. It doth amount to one more than two.
Moth. Which the base vulgar do call, three.
Arm. True.

Moth. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here is three studied, ere you'll thrice wink : and how easy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing horse will tell yon.

Arm. A most fine figure!
Moth. To prove you a cypher.

(Aside.)

Arm. I will hereupon confess, I am in love: and, as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new devised courtesy. I think scorn to sigh; methinks, I should out swear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: what great men have been in love?

Moth. Hercules, master.

Arm. Most sweet Hercules!-More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage.

Moth. Sampson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love.

Arm. O well-knit Sampson! strong jointed Sampson! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too.Who was Sampson's love, my dear Moth?

Moth. A woman, master.

Arm. Of what complexion?

Moth. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the four.

Arm. Tell me precisely of what complexion? Moth. Of the sea-water green, sir. Arm. Is that one of the four complexions? Moth. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too.

Arm. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers: but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Sampson had small reason for it. He, surely, affected her for her wit.

Moth. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit. Arm. My love is most immaculate white and red.