Cost. True, and I for a plantain: thus came your argu

ment in;

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought,
And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard broken in a shin?

Moth. I will tell you sensibly.

Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth: I will speak that l'envoy.

I, Costard, running out, that was safely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.

Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.

Arm. Sirrah Costard, marry, I will enfranchise thee". Cost. O! marry me to one Frances ?-I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person: thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound.

Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose.

Arm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: bear this significant to the country maid Jaquenetta. There is remuneration; for the best ward of mine honour is rewarding my dependents.-Moth, follow.

[Exit.

Moth. Like the sequel, I.—Signior Costard, adieu.
Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew'!—

[Exit MOTH. Remuneration! O!

Now will I look to his remuneration. that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings, remuneration."What's the price of this inkle"? a penny:

5 Sirrah Costard, MARRY, I will enfranchise thee.] The reply of Costard, "O! marry me to one Frances?" proves that the old copies are wrong in omitting the exclamation "marry," which is inserted in MS. in the corr. fo. 1632.

set thee from durance;] The corr. fo. 1632 has "set thee free from durance," but free is needless to the sense, and is in no old copy: so, in the preceding speech, "let me loose," is sufficient without the addition of be.

7 - my incony Jew!] Mr. Dyce, in his edition of Middleton's Works, i. 252, explains "incony" as fine, delicate, pretty. This was Warburton's interpretation of the word. It is of frequent occurrence, and we meet with it again in this play, A. iv. sc. 1. "Jew" seems used by Costard as a term of endearment, and for the sake of the rhyme, as well as the play upon Moth's adieu. In "Midsummer Night's Dream," A. iii. sc. 1, Thisbe calls Pyramus "most lovely Jew."

8 What's the price of this INKLE?]

"Inkle" seems to have been a species of

-No, I'll give you a remuneration:" why, it carries it.Remuneration!—why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word.

Enter BIRON.

Biron. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met. Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration ?

Biron. What is a remuneration?

Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing.

Biron. O! why then, three-farthing-worth of silk.
Cost. I thank your worship. God be wi' you.
Biron. O, stay, slave! I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.
Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Biron. O! this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, sir. Fare you well.
Biron. O! thou knowest not what it is.

Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.

Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.

Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.
Biron. It must be done this afternoon.

Hark, slave,

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,

And in her train there is a gentle lady;

When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name,
And Rosaline they call her: ask for her,

And to her white hand see thou do commend

This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon: go.

[Gives him money.

Cost. Guerdon.-O, sweet guerdon! better than remuneration'; eleven-pence farthing better. Most sweet guerdon!

tape. We have it mentioned again in "The Winter's Tale," A. iv. sc. 3, and in "Pericles," A. v. sc. 1.

* Guerdon.-O, sweet GUERDON! better than REMUNERATION;] Steevens, on the authority of Farmer, pointed out the subsequent apposite passage in a tract called "A Health to the gentlemanly Profession of Serving-men," by J. M.; but he mistook the date, giving it 1578, instead of 1598, the year in which "Love's Labour's Lost" was printed. The error is important, with reference to the question whether Shakespeare borrowed the joke from J. M., or J. M. from Shakespeare.

"There was, sayth he, a man, (but of what estate, degree, or calling, I will not name, least thereby I might incurre displeasure of any) that comming to

-I will do it, sir, in print '.-Guerdon-remuneration!

[Exit.

Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been

love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;

A critic, nay, a night-watch constable,
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior', giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of cod-pieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors', (O my little heart!)
And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
What! I love? I sue? I seek a wife?
A woman, that is like a German clock',
Still a repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright; being a watch,

his friend's house, who was a gentleman of good reckoning, and being there kindly entertayned and well used, as well of his friende, the gentleman, as of his servantes; one of the sayd servantes doing him some extraordinarie pleasure during his abode there, at his departure he comes unto the sayd servant, and saith unto him, Holde thee, heere is a remuneration for thy paynes, which the servant receyving, gave him utterly for it (besides his paynes) thankes, for it was but a three-farthinges piece: and I holde thankes for the same a small price, howsoever the market goes. Now, another comming to the sayd gentleman's house, it was the foresayd servant's good hap to be neare him at his going away, who calling the servant unto him, sayd, Holde thee, heere is a guerdon for thy desartes. Now, the servant payde no deerer for the guerdon than he did for the remuneration, though the guerdon was xj d. farthing better, for it was a shilling, and the other but a three-farthinges."

1 in print.] i. e. Exactly, with the utmost nicety.

2 wimpled,] An allusion to Cupid's blindness; a “wimple" being a covering for the eyes, a hood or veil.

3 This senior-junior,] In reference to the contrariety of love, Shakespeare calls Cupid "senior-junior," and "giant-dwarf." The 4to. and the folios have it "signior Junios giant dwarf." The change was made by Johnson.

- trotting PARITORS,] "An apparitor, or paritor," says Johnson, "is an officer of the bishop's court, who carries out citations: as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government."

5 A woman, that is like a German CLOCK,] In the old editions, quarto and folio,"clock" is misprinted cloake, but there cannot be a doubt that it is an error, as is shown by the context.

But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A witty wanton with a velvet brow',

With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard :
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.

Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan':
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Another part of the Same.

Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester.

Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard Against the steep uprising of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he.

Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind'.
Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.-
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?
For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;

A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.

6 A witty wanton with a velvet brow,] Rosaline's complexion was, as we are told in several places, dark, so that whitely, if there were such a word (Richardson in his Dict. can point out no other instance of the use of it), would be just the opposite of the truth. Rosaline was not "a whitely wanton," but "a witty wanton," as she has all along proved herself, and such is the change in the corr. fo. 1632. In the old copies the word is not whitely but whitly, a mere misprint for "witty," the h having been accidentally inserted.

1

sue, AND groan:] "And" is from the folio, 1632. I formerly objected to it; but it seems necessary to the line.

Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind.] This mode of putting "a"" for he, in familiar conversation, was not confined by Shakespeare to characters of low life, though with them it is, perhaps, most frequent.

Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, then again say, no? O, short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

For. Yes, madam, fair.

Prin.
Nay, never paint me now:
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true.

[Giving him money.

Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
Prin. See, see! my beauty will be sav'd by merit.
O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-
But come, the bow :-now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to show my skill,
That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes:
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart;

As I for praise alone now seek to spill

The

poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be

Lords o'er their lords ?

Prin. Only for praise; and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

Enter COSTARD.

Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.

Cost. God dig-you-den all ". Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

O heresy in FAIR,] The old corrector of the fo. 1632 tells us to read faith for "fair." It is, perhaps, one of those doubtful cases, where it is certainly safer to adhere to the old reading.

God dig-you-den all.] i. e. God give you good even all. usually good even.

"Good den" is