But there are other strict observances,
As, not to see a woman in that term,
Which I hope well is not enrolled there;
And one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day besides,
The which I hope is not enrolled there;
And then, to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day,
(When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night too of half the day,)
Which I hope well is not enrollèd there.
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, -
Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!

King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Biron. Let me say no, my liege, an if5 you please: I only swore to study with your Grace,

And stay here in your Court for three years' space.

Long. You swore to that, Birón, and to the rest.
Biron. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.

What is the end of study? let me know.

King. Why, that to know which else we should not know. Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?

King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense.

Biron. Come on, then; I will swear to study so,

To know the thing I am forbid to know:

As thus, to study where I well may dine,

When I to feast expressly am forbid ;

Or study where to meet some mistress fine,

4 To wink, as the word is here used, is to doze, snooze, or take a nap. "Of all the day" is, as we should say, through or during all the day. Of was not unfrequently used thus.

5 An if is an old reduplicative phrase, for if or an, which two words had the same meaning. So the Poet uses an, or if, or an if, indifferently.

When mistresses from common sense are hid;

Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.

If study's gain be this, and this be so,

Study knows that which yet it doth not know:

Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no.

King. These be the stops that hinder study quite,

And train our intellects to vain delight.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain
Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:
Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile :
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.8
Study is like the heaven's glorious Sun,
That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks:
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save bare authority, from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,

6 Sense for sight or observation.

7 Here, as often, me is redundant, but with a slight dash of humour. So, in Falstaff's praise of sack, 2 Henry IV., iv. 3: "It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; " &c.

8 The meaning seems to be, that when he has his eye dazzled or made weak by fixing it upon a fairer eye, this fairer eye shall be his heed, that is to say, his guide or lode-star, and give light to him who was blinded by it. Dazzling for dazzled; the active form with the passive sense. This indiscriminate use of the two forms, both in participles and adjectives, is quite frequent.

That give a name to every fixèd star,

Have no more profit of their shining nights

Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
Too much to know, is to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.9

King. How well he's read, to reason against reading! Dum. Proceeded 10 well, to stop all good proceeding! Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding. Biron. The Spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding. Dum. How follows that?

Biron.

Dum. In reason nothing.
Biron.

Fit in his place and time.

Something, then, in rhyme.

King. Birón is like an envious-sneaping 11 frost,

That bites the first-born infants of the Spring.

Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud Summer boast, Before the birds have any cause to sing?

Why should I joy in an abortive birth?

At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled earth; 12
But like of each thing that in season grows.

9 In the baptismal service of the Church, it is made the special office of the sponsors to give names to the persons baptized. And the meaning here is, that too much knowledge, or learning, only gives fame, that is, a name, which every godfather can do. Well explained by Heath: "Too eager a pursuit of knowledge is rewarded, not with the real possession of its object, but only with the reputation of having attained it. And this observation is the more pertinent, as the King himself, at the beginning of the play, proposed fame as the principal aim and motive of their studies."

10 Proceed was an academical term for taking a degree; as, to proceed master of arts.

11 Sneaping is nipping or biting. So in The Winter's Tale, i. 1, we have “sneaping winds." Elsewhere the Poet has sneap, a substantive, for check or rebuke. - Envy was continually used for malice, and envious for malicious.

12" May's new-fangled earth" is the earth dressed out or decked anew with the flowers that spring on its bosom in May.

So you

to study now it is too late

Climb o'er the house 't unlock the little gate.

King. Well, sit you out: 13 go home, Birón: adieu. Biron. No, my good lord; I've sworn to stay with you: And though I have for barbarism spoke more Than for that angel knowledge you can say, Yet confident I'll keep what I have sworn, And bide the penance of each three years' day. Give me the paper; let me read the same; And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name.

King.

How well this yielding rescues thee from shame! Biron. [Reads.] Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my Court, - Hath this been proclaimed?

Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty. - [Reads.] on pain of losing her tongue. - Who devised this penalty?

Long. Marry,14 that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.
Biron. A dangerous law, against gentility!-

[Reads.] Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the Court can possibly devise.

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For well you know here comes in embassy

The French King's daughter with yourself to speak,

A maid of grace and complete majesty,

About surrender-up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bedrid father:
Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admirèd Princess hither.

18 Sit you out is an expression borrowed from the card-table.

14 Marry is an old corruption of Mary, and grew into use as a general intensive from a custom of swearing by the Virgin Mother. It means truly, verily, indeed, or to be sure.

King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot. Biron. So study evermore is overshot: While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should; And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won as towns with fire, so won, so lost.

King. We must of force dispense with this decree ;

She must lie 15 here on mere necessity.

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn

Three thousand times within this three years' space;
For every man with his affects 16 is born,
Not by might master'd, but by special grace :
If I break faith, this word shall break't for me,

I am forsworn on mere necessity. —

So to the laws at large I write my name :

And he that breaks them in the least degree
Stands in attainder of eternal shame :

Suggestions 17

are to others as to me;

But I believe, although I seem so loth,

I am the one that last will keep his oath.
But is there no quick 18 recreation granted?

[Subscribes.

King. Ay, that there is. Our Court, you know, is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashions planted,

That hath a mint of phrases in his brain;

One whom the music of his own vain tongue

Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;

15 To lie is, in the ambassadorial sense, to reside. So in Sir Henry Wotton's punning definition: "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

16 Affects for affections or passions. A frequent usage.

17 Temptations; the more common meaning of suggestion in Shakespeare's time. So in v. 2, of this play: "Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults suggested us to make them."

18 Quick for lively, spirited, or mirth-moving.