Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and no-| Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand, thing else.

King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.
Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
I hear your grace hath sworn-out house-keeping:
Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
And sin to break it:

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold;
To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

King, Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
[Gives a Paper.
Prin. You will the soomer, that I were away;
For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant

once ?

Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant

once?

Biron. I know you
Ros.

To ask the question!
Biron.

did.

How needless was it then

You must not be so quick. Ros. 'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast,

'twill tire.

Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
Biron. What time o' day ?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.

Biron. Now fair befall your mask!

Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And send you many loyers!
Ros. Amen, so you be none.
Biron. Nay, then will I be gone.

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate
The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
Being but the one half of an entire sum,
Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say, that he, or we (as neither have,)
Receiv'd that sum; yet there remains unpaid
A hundred thousand more; in surety of the
which,

One part of Aquitain is bound to us,

Although not valued to the money's worth.
If then the king y ur father will restore
But that one half which is unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth.
For here he doth demand to have repaid

A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;

Which we much rather had depart withal,
And have the money by our father lent,

Than Aquitain so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far

From reason's yielding, your fair self should
make

A yielding 'gainst some reason, in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much
wrong,

And wrong the reputation of your name,
In so unseeming to confess receipt

Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin.
We arrest your word:-
Boyet, you can produce acquittances,
For such sum, from special officers
Of Charles his father.

Satisfy me so.

King.
Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not
come,

Where that and other specialties are bound;
To morrow you shall have a sight of them.
King. It shall suffice me: at which interview,
All liberal reason I will yield unto.

As honour, without breach of honour, may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness:
You may not come, fair princess, in my gates;
But here without you shall be so receiv'd,
As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart,
Though so denied fair harbour in my house.
Your own good thoughts excuse me, and fare-
well;
To-morrow shall we visit you again.

Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort
your grace!

King. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place! [Exeunt King and his Train. Biron. Lady, I will commend you to my own

heart.

Ros. 'Pray you, do my commendations; 1 would be glad to see it.

Biron. I would, you heard it groan.

Ros. Is the fool sick?
Biron. Sick at heart.
Ros. Alack, let it blood.
Biron. Would that do it good?
Ros. My Physick says, I.
Biron. Will you prick't with your eye?
Ros. No point, with my knife.
Biron. Now, God save thy life!
Ros. And yours from long living!
Biron. I cannot stay thanksgiving. [Retiring.
Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word: What lady is
that same?

Boyet. The heir of Alencon, Rosaline her name.
Dum. A gallant lady! Monsieur, fare you well.

[Exit.

Long. I beseech you a word; What is she in the white?

Boyet. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.

Long. Perchance, light in the light: I desire her name.

Boyet. She hath but one for herself; to desire
that were a shame.

Long. 'Pray you, sir, whose daughter?
Boyet. Her mother's, I have heard.
Long. God's blessing on your beard!
Boyet. Good sir, be not offended;
She is an heir of Falconbridge.
Long. Nay, my choler is ended.
She is a most sweet lady.

Boyet. Not unlike, sir; that may be.

[Exit Long.

Biron. What's her name, in the cap?
Boyet. Katharine, by good hap.
Biron. Is she wedded, or no?"
Boyet. To her will, sir, or so.
Biron. You are welcome, sir; adieu!
Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to
you. [Exit Biron.-Ladies unmask.
Mar. That last is Biron, the merry mad-cap

lord;

Not a word with him but a jest.
Boyet.

And every jest but a word. Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his word.

Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was

to board.

Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry!

Boyet.

And wherefore not ships? No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips. Mar. You sheep, and I pasture; Shall that

finish the jest?

Boyet. So you grant pasture for me.

Mar.

[Offering to kiss her.
Not so, gentle beast:
My lips are no common, though several they be.
Boyet. Belonging to whom?
To my fortunes and me.
Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles,

Mar.

agree:

The civil war of wits were much better used
On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis
abused.

Boyet. If my observation (which very seldom
lies,)

By the heart's still rhetorick, disclosed with eyes,
Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.
Prin. With what 7'

Moth. By my penny of observation.
Arm. But 0,-but 0,-

Moth. the hobby-horse is forgot.

Arm. Callest thou my love, hobby-horse 7
Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a

Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle, af- colt, and your love perhaps a hackney. But fected.

Prin. Your reason?

Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their retire

have you forgot your love?
Arm. Almost I had.

Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Moth. And out of heart, master: all. those

To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire:
His heart, like an agate, with your print im-three I will prove.
pressed,

Proud with his form, in his eye príde expressed:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;
All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair;
Methought, all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
Who, tend'ring their own worth, from where
they were glass'd,

Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd.
His face's own margent did quote such amazes,
That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes;
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,

An you give him for my sake but one loving
kiss.

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her. Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.

Arm. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter.

Moth. A message well sympathised; a horse to be embassador for an ass!

Arm. Ha, ha! what sayest thou? Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon Prin. Come to our pavilion: Boyet is dispos'd-the horse, for he is very slow-gaited: But I'go Boyet. But to speak that in words, which his Arm. The way is but short; away.

eye hath disclos'd:

I only have made a mouth of his eye,

By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. Ros. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st skilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him.

Ros. Then was Venns like her mother; for her father is but grim.

Boyet. Do you hear, my mad wenches?

Mar.

No.

Arm. Warble, child, make passionate my sense of hearing.

Moth. Concolinel[Singing. Arm. Sweet air! Go tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love.

Moth. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?

Moth. As swift as lead, sir.

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?
Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?
Moth. Minime, honest master; or rather, mas-

ter, no.

of grace!

By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy
face:

Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.

Re-enter Moth and Costard.

Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard broken in a shin.

Arm. Some enigma, some riddle;-come,-thy l'envoy-begin.

Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy: no salve in the mail, sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain: no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain !

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain

Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my Arm. How mean'st thou ? brawling in French? lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: 0, Moth. No, my complete master: but to jig off pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your take salve for l'envoy, and the word, l'envoy, feet, humour it with turning up your eyelids; for a salve? sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through Moth. Do the wise think them other? is net the throat, as if you swallowed love with sing-l'envoy a salve? ing love! sometime through the nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouselike o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin belly-doublet, like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away: These are complements, these are humours; these betray nice wenches-that would be betrayed without these; and make them men of note, (do you note, men ?) that most are affected to these.

Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience ?

sain.

Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been
I

will example it:

The fox, the ape, and the humblebee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
There's the moral: Now the l'envoy.
Moth. I will add the l'envoy: Say the moral
again.

Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humblebee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Moth. Until the goose came out of door,
And stay'd the odds by adding four.

Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow
with my l'envoy.

The fox, the ape, and the humblebee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Arm. Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.
Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose,
Would you desire more?

Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a
goose; that's flat:-

Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.

To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and

loose :

Let me see a fat l'envoy: ay, that's a fat goose. Arm Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin 7

Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin.

Then call'd you for the l'envoy.

Cost. True, and I for a plantain ; Thus came your argument in;

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;

And he ended the market.

Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this ;

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 ;-I will do it, sir, in print.
-Guerdon-remuneration.
[Erit.

Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! Ì, that have been love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;
A critick; 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,"
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
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, 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 in 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 [Giving him money.] 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. Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings-remuneration.-What's the price of this inkle? a penny:-No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it.-Re muneration !-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.

silk.

Cost. 'Pray you, sir, how much carnation rib-
bon may a man buy for a remuneration?
Biron. What is a remuneration?
Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing.
Biron. O, why then, three-farthings-worth of
Cost. I thank your worship: God be with 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. 0, 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. 1 will come to your worship to-morrow
morning.

Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
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! 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,
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 whitely 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
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
[Exit.

groan:

ACT IV.

SCENE 1. 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 he was, he showed 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. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot.
Prin. 1 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, and again
say no?

O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for wo!
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. treat thy love? I will. What shalt thou ez
Prin. See, see, my beauty will be sav'd by change for rags? robes; For tittles, titles;

Boyet. An if my hand be out, then, belike your] Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam

hand is in.

Cost. Then will she get the upshot by cleaving the pin.

Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily, your lips grow foul.

Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; challenge her to bowl.

Boyet. I fear too much, rubbing; Good night, my good owl. [Ereunt Boyet and Maria. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple

clown!

Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him down!

was no more;

And raught not to five weeks, when he came to fivescore.

The allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I say the pollution holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the princess kill'd.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extem

O my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vul-poral epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to gar wit!

When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit.

Armatho o' the one side,-O, a most dainty man! To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan!

To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly
a' will swear!-

And his page o' t'other side, that handful of wit!
Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit!
Sola, sola!

[Shouting within. Erit Cost. running.
SCENE II. The same.

Enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull. Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done 'n the testimony of a good conscience.

Hol. The deer was, as you know, in sanguis,olood; ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cælo,-the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of terra,-the soil, the land, the earth.

Nath. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least; But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

humour the ignorant, I have called the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.

Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it argues facility.

The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket:

Some say, a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting.

The dogs did yell! put I to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket;

Or, pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a hooting.

If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores;

O sore LI

Of one sore I a hundred make, by adding but
one more L.
Nath. A rare talent!

Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.

Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater; and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occasion: But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

Dull. Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket. Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of ex-may my parishioners; for their sons are well plication; facere, a it were, replication, or, ra- tutor'd by you; and their daughters profit very ther, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclina-greatly under you: you are a good member of tion-after his undressed, unpolished, unedu- the commonwealth. cated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,-to insert again my hand credo for a deer.

Nath. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were: he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts;

Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want no instruction: if their daughters be capable, 1 will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard.

Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. Hol. Master person,-quasi pers-on. And if one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead.

Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well.

And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those Jaq. Good master parson, be so good as read parts that do fructify in us more than he. me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and For as it would ill become me to be vain, indis-sent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, creet, or a fool,

o, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school:

But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind,

Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.

Dull. You two are book-men: Can you tell by your wit,

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

Hol. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good man Dull.

Dull. What is Dictynna?

read it.

Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne
sub umbra

Ruminat,-and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan!
I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of
Venice:

Vinegia, Vinegia,

Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia. Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.-Under pardon, sir, what are the contests or, rather, as Horace says in his-What my soul, verses?

Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned.