You would for paradise break faith and troth; And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. What will Birón say, when that he shall hear King. Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? King. Soft; whither away so fast? Biron. I post from love; good lover, let me go! Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD. Jaq. God bless the king! King. What present hast thou there? King. What makes treason here? The treason, and you, go in peace away together. Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it? Cost. Of Duu Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tearit? Biron. Atoy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt Costurd and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, o let us embrace! As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; Young blood will not obey an old decree: We cannot cross the cause, why we were born; King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, Should ravish doters with a false aspect; And therefore is she born to make black fair. Her favour turns the fashion 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-sweepers black. Long. And, since 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 mistresses dare never come in rain, see. For fear their colours 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. Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here, King. No devil will fright thee then so much as she. Dum. Inever knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face [Showing his shoe. Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, 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 head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Birón, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there;-some flattery for this evil. Long. O, some authority how to proceed; Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil! Dum. Some salve for perjury! Biron. O, 'tis more than need! Have at you then, affection's men at arms: From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. The nimble spirits in the arteries; As motion, and long-during action, tires When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd; King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field! Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thither; Then, homeward, every man attach the hand We will with some strange pastime solace them, SCENE I. Another part of the same. Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL. Hol. Satis quod sufficit. Nath. I 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. 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. is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the stable of his argument. I abhor such fanatical Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my faphantasms, such insociable and point-devise compa- miliar, I do assure you, very good friend. -For what nions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, is inward between us, let it pass :-I do beseech thee, fine, when he should say, doubt; det, when he should remember thy courtesy;-I beseech thee, apparel thy pronounce, debt; d, e, b, t; not, d, e, t: he clepeth head;-and among other importunate and most seria calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour, vocatur, nebour; ous designs,-and of great import indeed, too;-but neigh, abbreviated, ne: this is abhominable, (which let that pass:-for I must tell thee, it will please his he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo. Hol. Bone?--bone, for bené: Priscian a little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and CoSTARD. Nath. Videsne quis venit? Hol. Video, et gaudeo. Arm. Chirra! Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah? Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd! 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 seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is,but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,-that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with [To Moth. some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, 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. 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. 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? 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; I 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 Maccabaeus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough them; or the fifth, if I. for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i,— 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 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 halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at thy fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, praeambula; 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. Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, 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, 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 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 this fadge not, an antic. I beseech you, follow. Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word 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. Hol. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away! [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another part of the same. Before the Enter the Princess, KATHARINE, ROSALINE and MARIA. A lady wall'd about with diamonds!- Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme, | Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax; For he hath been five thousand years a boy. Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your sister. Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; She might have been a grandam ere she died: As gravity's revolt to wantonness. Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote; Since all the power thereof it doth apply, To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. Enter BOYET. 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? Boyet. Prepare, madam, prepare! Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light Against your peace. Love doth approach disguis'd, word? Kath. A light condition in a beanty dark. Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out. Kath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument. Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the dark. Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care. Prin. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd. But Rosaline, you have a favour too: Who sent it? and what is it? Ros. I would, you knew: An if my face were but as fair as yours, The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too, I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs. Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor, My red dominical, my golden letter: O, that your face were not so full of O's! Kath. A pox of that jest! and beshrew all shrows! Prin. But what was sent to you from fair Dumain? Kath. Madam, this glove. Prin. Did he not send you twain? Kath. Yes, madam; and moreover, Some thousand verses of a faithful lover: A huge translation of hypocrisy, Mar. This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville; The letter is too long by half a mile. Prin. I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart, O, that I knew he were but in by the week! As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, I Armed in arguments; you'll be surpris'd: I should have fear'd her had she been a devil. Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. Ros. Come on then; wear the favours most in sight. Their several counsels they unbosom shall 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 maskers [The ladies mask. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in Russian habits, and masked; MOTH, Musicians and Attendants. come. Moth. All hail, the richest beauties on the earth! [The ladies turn their backs to him. That ever turn'd their-backs-to mortal views! Biron. Their eyes, villain, their eyes. f your face, Vouchsafe to show the sunshine ofy Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange. Ros. Play, music, then: nay, you must do it soon, [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. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands; -we will not dance. Court'sy, sweet hearts; and so the measure ends. Moth. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! King. Prize you yourselves; what buys your com Out Boyet.True; out, indeed. pany? Ros. Your absence only. Moth. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouch- King. That can never be. safe 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. If they do speak our language, 'tis our will Boyet. What would you with the princess? Boyet. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation. To tread a measure with you on this grass. The measure then of one is easily told. many, Ros. Then cannot we be bought; and so adieu; Twice to your visor, and half once to you! 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. Biron. Nay then, two treys, (au if you grow so nice,) Methegliu, wort, and malmsey;-Well run, dice! There's half a dozen sweets. Prin. Seventh sweet, adieu! Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you. Prin. Let it not be sweet. Biron. Thou griev'st my gall. Biron. Therefore meet. [They converse apart. Dum. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word? Mar. Name it. [They converse apart. Boyet. If, to come hither, you have measur'd miles, Kath. What, was your visor made without a tongue? 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'ergone, Biron. We number nothing that we spend for you; Our duty is so rich, so infinite, That we may do it still without accompt. Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. Kath. O, for your reason! quickly, sir; Ilong. Long. You have a double tongue within your mask, And would afford my speechless visor half. Kath. Veal, quoth the Dutchman; is not veal a calf? Long. A calf, fair lady? Kath. No, a fair lord calf. Long. Let's part the word. Kath. No, I'll not be your half: |