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, 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. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend :-For what is inward between us, let it pass :-I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy ;-I beseech thee, apparel thy head; and among other importunate and most serious designs, and of great import indeed, too ;-but let that pass-for I must 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 :3 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 some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, 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. 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 [1] The charge-house-I suppose, is the free-school. STEEVENS. By" remember thy courtesy," I suppose Armado means" remember that all this time thou art standing with thy hat off." STEEVENS. [3] The author calls the beard valour's excrement in The Merchant of Venice. JOHNSON [4] i. e. chicken; an ancient term of endearment. STEEVENS. 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 Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big 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 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. Hol. We attend. Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow. Hol. Via, good man 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 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. SCENE II. [Exeunt. Another part of the same. Before the Princess' pavilion. En- A lady wall'd about with diamonds !— Look you, what I have from the loving king. Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Writ on both sides the leaf, margent and all; Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax ;' 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: Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word? Kath. A light condition in a beauty 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' th' dark. Kath. So do not you; for you are a light wench. Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light. Kath. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not for me. 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, Nay, I have verses too, I thank Birón: The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too, I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter! Prin. Any thing like? Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor, [5] To wax anciently signified to grow. It is yet said of the moon, that she waxes and wanes. STEEVENS. [6] A term from tennis. STEEVENS. [7] Rosaline, a black beauty, reproaches the fair Katharine for painting. JOHNSON. 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. Did he not send you twain ? Kath. Yes, madam; and moreover, 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, The chain were longer, and the letter short? Mar. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. O, that I knew he were but in by th' week! Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, [8] The meaning of this obscure line seems to be, "I would make him proud to flatter me who make a mock of his flattery." Edin. Mag. STEEVENS. [9] In old farces, to show, the inevitable approaches of death and destiny, the Fool of the farce is made to employ all his stratagems to avoid Death or Fate, which very stratagems as they are ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into the very jaws of Fate. To this Shakespeare alludes again in Measure for Measure: -" merely thou art Death's fool: "For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, WARBURTON. Until some proof be brought of the existence of such characters as Death and the Fool, in old farces, (for the mere assertion of Dr. Warburton is not to be relied on,) this passage must be literally understood, independently of any particular allusion. The old reading might probably mean-"so scoffingly would I o'ersway," &c. DOUCE. [1] These are observations worthy of a man who has surveyed human nature with the closest attention. JOHNSON. Ros The blood of youth burns not with such excess, 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 I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour : [2] Johnson censures the Princess for invoking with so much levity the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid; but that was not her intention. Being determined to engage the King and his followers, she gives for the word of battle St. Dennis, as the King, when he was determined to attack her, had given for the word of battle St. Cupid: "Saint Cupid then, and, soldiers, to the field." M. MASON |