U, who can give an oath! where is a book!

That I may swear, beauty doin beauty lack,
If that she learn not of her eye to look:

30 lace is fair, that is not full so black.
Kong. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell.
The hue of dungeons, and the scowl 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 deckt,

it mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, Should ravish co.ers with a false aspect;

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 unitate her brow.
Dum. To look like her, are chunney-sweepers
Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted
bright.

black.

King And Ethiops of their sweet complexion

crack.

Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is
Light.

Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain.
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.
Buron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till cooms-day
here.

ste.

King. No devil will fright thee then so much as
Dun. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her
face see.
[Showing his shoe.
Baron. O, if the streets were paved with thine
eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for such tread!
Dam. O vile! then as she goes, what upward

les

The street should see as she walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love! Buron. Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn. Avg. Then leave this chat: and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to yourseli,
And where we are, our learning likewise is.
Then, wien 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 hege, or you, or you
In eaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Or beauteous 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 .ady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the bram;
But, with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their officers.
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 soft, and sensible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;
Love's tongue proves damity Bacchus gross in taste
For valor, is not love a Hercules,

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 sigh;
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
Froni women's eyes this doctrine 1 derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academnes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Else none at all in aught proves excellent:
Then fools you were these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove lools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all mien 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:

Dum. Ay, marry, there,-sonie flattery for this Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves,

evil.

Long. O, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.
Dim. Some salve for perjury.
Buon
O,'us more than need!-
Have at you then, affection's men at arms:
Consider, what you first did swear unto;—
To last.-to study, and to see no woman;—
Hat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? your stoinachs are too young
And abstinence engenders maladies.
And where that you have vow d to study, lords,
that each of you nath forsworn his book:
you still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
Fr when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
have found the ground of study's excellence,
out the beauty of a woman's face?
Fran women's eyes this doctrine 1 derive:

ey are the ground, the books, the academnes,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
by, universal plodding prisons up
The aimble spirits in the arteries;
As motion, and long-during action, tires
Ale sinewy vigor of the traveller.

Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the causer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,

• Law-chicane.

10

Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion to be thus forsworn:
For charity itself fulfils the law;

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 advis'd,
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,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and inerry hours,
Fore-run fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! Allons!-Sow'd cockle reap'd

no corn;

And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn, If so, our copper buys no better treasure. Exeunt

SCENE-A Street.

ACT V.

Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL.
Hol. Satis quod sufficit.

Nath. 1 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.

penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert make ine! 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-house on the top of the mountain!
Hol. Or, mons, the hill.

Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, sans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and allection, 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 cull'd, chose; swell and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.

Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, 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. 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 phantasins, such insociable and point-de-familiar, I do assure you, very good friend-of vise 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, nebour, neigh abbreviated, ne: This is abhoiinable, (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insaine; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

Arin. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and m what is inward between us, let it pass.-1 do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy;-1 besecca thee, apparel thy head;-and among other in portunate and most serious designs,- and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass:-för 1 must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the worl 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

Hol. Bone?-bone, for bene: Priscian a little By the world, I recount no fable; some certain scratch'd; 'twill serve.

Enter ARMADO, MOтH, and COSTARD.

Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd.
Hol. Most military sir, salutation.

special honors it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that Lath seen the world: but let that pass.- he very all c all is, but sweet heart, I do implore secrecy.that the king would have me present the princess, [To MOTH. Sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, of show, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet sull are good at such eruptions, and sudden breakit? out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted y ú Withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. [To COSTARD aside. 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.3

Moth. Peace; the peal begins.

Arm. Monsieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book: -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?

Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies.-Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some s tertainment of time, some show in the posterio, of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,-the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enou 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, Hurcules.

Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enou

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the them; or the fifth, if I.

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i.—

Moth. The sheep; the other two concludes it;

o, u.

Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit: snip, nap, quick and hoine; 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 disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig.

Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum circu; A gig of a cuckold's horn!

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 halfAffectation. • Boastful.

• Discourses.

Over-dressed.

2 Finical exactness.

A small inflammable substance, swallowed in a glass of wine.

end of his club.

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

Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, Well done, Hurcules! 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. We will have, if trus fadges not, an antic.
I beseech you, follow.

Hol. Vid, 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 dauce, or so; or I will

As gravity's revolt to wantonness.

Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote;

Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,

Like Muscovites, or Russians: as I guess,
Their purpose is, to parle, to court, and dance:
And every one his love-feat will advance
Unto his several mistress; which they'll know
By favors several, which they did bestow.

Prin. 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,

Mr. This, and these pearls, to me sent Lon- Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.

Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart,

And quite divorce his memory from his part.

Prin. Therefore I do it; and I make no doubt
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
[The Ladies mask.

maskers come.

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 attord no more at such a price.
King. Prize you yourselves; What buys your
company?
Ros. Your absence only.
King.
That can never be.
Kos. Then cannot we be bought and so adieu;

Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and Du-Twic to your visor, and half once to you!
MAIN, in Russian habits, and musked; Mотн,
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 farist 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 favors, 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? begone, you rogue.
Ros. What would these strangers! know their

minds, Boyet:

If they do speak our language, 'tis our will
That some plain man recount their purposes:
Know what they would.

Boyet. What would you with the princess?
Biron. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.
Ros. What would they, say they?

Boyet. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation.
Ros. Why, that they have; and bid them so begone.
Boyet. She says, you have it, and you may begone.
King. Say to her, we have mesur'd many miles
To tread a measure with her on this grass.

Boyet. They say that they have measur'd many a mile,

To tread a measure with you on this grass.

Ros. It is not so: ask them how many inches
Is in one mile: if they have measur,d many,
The measure then of one is easily told.

Boyet. If to come hither you have measur'd miles,
And many miles; the princess bids you tell,
How many inches do fill up one mile.
Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps.
Boyet. She hears herself.
Ros.

How many weary steps,
Of many weary miles you have o'er one,
Are number'd in the travel of one mile?
Biron. We number nothing that we spend for

you;

Our duty is so rich, so infinite,

That we may do it still without accompt.
Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,
That we, like savages, may worship it.

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 vochsafe 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.
Ros. Our ears vouchsafe it.
King.

But your legs should do it.

King. If 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.
Buron. Nay then, two treys, (an if you grow so
nice,)

Metheglin, wort, and malmsey ;-Well run. dice
There's half a dozen sweets.
Frin.

Seventh sweet, adieu!
Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you
Biron. One word in secret.
Prin.

Biron. Thou griev'st my gall.

Prin.
Biron.

Let it not be sweet.

Gall? bitter.

Therefore meet. [They converse apart.

Dum. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a

word?
Mar. Name it.
Dum.
Mar.

Fair lady,-
Take that for your fair lady.

Dum.

Say you so? Fair lord,

Please it you,

As much in private, and I'll bid adieu.

They converse apart. Kath. What, was your visor inade without a tongue!

Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask.
Kuth. O, for your reason! quickly, sir; 1 long.
Long. You have a double tongue within your
mask,

And would afford my speechless visor half.
Kath. Veal, quoth the Dutchman;-1s not veal
a calf?
Long. A calf, fair lady?
Kath.

Long. Let's part the word.
Kath.

Will you give horns, chaste lady? do not so.
Kath. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow.
Long. One word in private with you, ere I die.
Kath. Bleat softly then, the bu cher hears you
cry.
They converse apart.

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 concerts have wings, Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swiller things.

Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off.

Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest.
Frin. Amaz d, my lord! Why looks your high-
ness sad!

Ros. Heip, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why
look you pale?

Sea-sick, I think, coming from Moscovy.
Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for
perjury,

Can any face of brass hold longer out?-
Here stand 1, lady; dart thy skill at me;

Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a
fout;

Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance;
Cut ine to peices with thy keen conceit;
And I will wish thee never more to dance,

Nor never more in Russian habit wait.
O! never will I trust to speeches penn d,

Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue;
Nor never come in visor to my inend;

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song; Talleta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pi'd hyperboles, spruce allectation, ROSA-Figures pedantical; these summer-nes