Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. Enter Dumain, with a Paper. Long. By whom shall I send this ?-Company! [Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play: stay. Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish! O most profane coxcomb! Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well Dum. As upright as the cedar Her shoulder is with child. Dum. O that I had my wish! 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 for sworn for thee;- This will I send : and something else more plain That in love's grief desir'st society; 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. These worms for loving, that art most in love? Biron. A fever in your blood, why, thea inci-To see a king transformed into a gnat! sion Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision! 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. Too bitter is thy jest. I am betray'd, by keeping company Jaq. Of Costard. Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. naine. 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. O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. Dum. Now the number is even. True, true; we are four :- 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; Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn. King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That ilke a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, stricken blind, Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? A wither'd hermit, five-acore winters worn And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. No face is fair, that is not full so black. King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. O, if in black ny 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 aer blew. Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black. Long. And since her time are coiliers 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 he washed away. King. 'Twere good, yours did; for. sir, to tell you plain, I'll find a fairer face not wash' to-day. Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk ill doomsday here. King. No devil will fright thee then so much. as she. Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Long, Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see. [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 Long. O, some authority how to proceed; Somne 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: Consider what you first did swear unto;— To fast,-to study,-and to see no woman ;Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young; And abstinence engenders maladies. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, In that each of you hath forsworn his book: Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look? For when would you, my lord, ar you, or you, Why, universal plodding prisons up And where we are, our learning likewise is. For valour, is not love a Hercules, Biron. Advance your 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; plea sant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did con verse 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. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his ver bosity 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 Den, bone intelligo. Hol. Bone?bone, for Bene: Priscian a little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard. [To Mothi 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-bas ket 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 let ter'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 horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn:You hear his learning. Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you re peat 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. Moth. Offered by a child to an old man; which, audience hiss, you may cry well done, Heris wit-old. 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 1 will whip about your infamy circum circa ; A gig of a cuckold's horn! 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 pigeonegg 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. 6, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unitem. Arm. Arts-man, præamoula; 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, 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. cules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the Arm. For the rest of the worthies 7- Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an an- Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we If fairings thus come plentifully in: Prin. Nothing but this ? yes, as much love in As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, wax: For he hath been five thousand years a boy. Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and 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 ;-1 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, 1 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 sud-Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument. den breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the 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 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, cause of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Ilercules. 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 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,-0, 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 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 I too, Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. Prin. Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion. My red dominical, my golden letter: shrows! Prin. But what was sent to you from fair Dumain ? Kath. Madam, this glove. Did he not send you twain. A huge translation of hypocrisy, Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity. Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously. Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. swore, A better speech was never spoke before: Mar. This, and these pearls, to me sent Lon- To check their folly, passion's solemn tears. gaville; 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. Prin. We are wise girls, to mock our lovers so. Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so. That same Biron I'll torture ere I go. O, that I knew he were but in by the week! So potent-like would I o'ersway his state, Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school; And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. 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, Te prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. Enter Boyet. Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. Boyet. 0,1 am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace? Prin. Thy news, Boyet? Boyet. Prepare, madam, prepare!Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Against your peace: Love doth approach disguised, Armed in argument; you'll be surpris'd; Muster your wits: stand in your own defence: Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence. Prin. Saint Dennis to saint Cupid! What are they, That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say. Boyet. Under the cool shade of a sycamore, I stole into a neighbour thicket by, Prin. But what, but what, come they to visit us ? Boyet. They do, they do; and are apparel'd thus, Like Muscovites, or Russians: as I guess, For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; So shall Biron take me for Rosaline.- Ros. Come on then; wear the favours most in sight. Kath. But, in this changing, what is your intent ? Prin. The effect of my intent is, to cross theirs: They do it but in mocking merriment; And mock for mock is only my intent. 'Their several counsels they unbosom shall To loves mistook; and so be mock'd withal, Upon the next occasion that we meet, With visages display'd, to talk, and greet. Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't? Prin. No; to the death, we will not move a foot: Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace; But, while 'tis spoke, each turn away her face. Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speak er's heart, And quite divorce his memory from his part. To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own: Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, in Russian habits, and masked; Moth, Musicians and Attendants. Moth. All hail, the richest beauties on the earth! Boyet. Beanties no richer than rich taffata." Moth. A holy parcel of the fairest dames, [The ladies turn their backs to him. That ever turn'd their-backs-to mortal views! Biron. Their eyes, villain, their eyes. Moth. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! Out Boyet. True; out, indeed. Moth. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe |