7 Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse: Away; the gentles are at their game, and we Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another part of the same. ful prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all those pleasures live that art would If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall Well learned is that tongue, that well can All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without (Which is to me some praise, that I thy Which, not to anger bent, is musick and sweet fire. Celestial, as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly foul word. Well, set thee down, sorrow! for grace to groan ! Enter the King, with a Paper. King. Ah me! Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by heaven !-Proceed, birdbolt under the left pap:-1' faith, secrets.King. [Reads. So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not Hol. You find not the apostrophes, and so Hol. I will overglance the superscript. To To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows. Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep: Your ladyship's in all desired employment, Jaq. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God Cost. Have with thee, my girl. Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, 1 will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention: I beseech your society. Nath. And thank you too; for society, (saith the text,) is the happiness of life. paper; Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes [Steps aside. here ? name. [Aside. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know: Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear, these stubborn lines lack power Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Ezhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well Dum. O that I had my wish! And I had mine! Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. Vow, alack, for youth unmeet; That I am forsworn for thee;- This will I send : and something else more plain You chide at him, offending twice as much : sion: Ah me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. prove These worms for loving, that art most in love 7 Biron. A fever in your blood, why, then inci-To see a king transformed into a gnat! sion Would let her out in saucers; Sweetinisprision! Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary Dum. On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, To see great Hercules whipping a gigg, King. name. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, [To Costard. you were born to do me shame.Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess; He, he, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. inore. Dum. Now the number is even. True, true; we are four :- As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: Young blood will not obey an old decree: Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the That ilke a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeons east, Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, now? A wither'd hermit, five-score wiiters worn And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. No face is fair, that is not full so black. 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 how. Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweeperr 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, For fear their colours should be washed away. King. 'Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, I'll find à 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 Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. 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 overhead. 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 Biron, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there;-some flattery for this evil. devil. Long. O, some authority how to proceed; For when would you, my lord, ar you, or you, fire. Why, universal plodding prisons up And where we are, our learning likewise is. taste: For valour, is not love a Hercules, Biron. Advance you standards, and upon them, lords; Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France? Then, homeward, every man attach the hand 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 peregrinate, as I may call it. Math. A most singular and choice epithet, I [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. abhor such fantastical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak doubt, 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; neighbour, vocatur, nebour, neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie; Ne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatick. Nath. Laus Deo, bone intelligo. Hol. Bone?bone, for Bene: Priscian & little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard. [To Moth. Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah? Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd. Hol. Most military sir, salutation. 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! 1 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 horn-book: What is a, b, spelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horp added. Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat 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 Mediter raneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit: snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit. 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 1 will whip about your infamy circum circa ; A gig of a cuckold's horn! 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 ?- Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an an tick. I beseech you, follow. Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-no word all this while. 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 the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. Ŏ, I smell false Latin; dunghill for un guem. Arm. Arts-man, præamoula; we will be sin-1 gled 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 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, daily 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 some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or firework. 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. Šir 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 Maccabeus; 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 Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir. Hol. Allons! we will employ thee." Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or 1 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 Princess's Pavilion. Enter the Princess, Katharine, Rosaline, and Maria. Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, If fairings thus come plentifully in: As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, 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; And so she died: had she been light, like you, Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. Kath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff'; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument. dark. 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: And if my face were but as fair as yours, My favour were as great: be witness this. Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron : The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring I were the fairest goddess on the ground: I am compared to twenty thousand fairs. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter! Prin. Any thing like? too, Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. |