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. Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration ? Biron. What is a remuneration ? Cost. When would you have it done, sir ? Cost. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this ; The princess comes to hunt here in the park, When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe! Fair payment for foul words is more than due. A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.➡ But come, the bow :-Now mercy goes to kill, And shooting well is then accounted ill. Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: Not wounding, pity would not let me do't; And Rosaline they call her: ask for her; If wounding, then it was to show my skill, And to her white hand see thou do commend That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill. This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. And, out of question, so it is sometimes; [Gives him money. Glory grows guilty of detested crimes; Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better: Most We bend to that the working of the heart : sweet guerdon-I will do it, sir, in print.-As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill Guerdon-remuneration. [Exit. The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sove Biron. O-And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; A very beadle to a humorous sigh; A critick; nay, a night-watch constable ; This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy; And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop! ACT IV. [Exit. SCENE I.-Another part of the same. Against the steep uprising of the hill? Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve ; Boyet. I am bound to serve,This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; It is writ to Jaquenetta. Prin. "We will read it, I swear; Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads.] By heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous; truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. hand is in. Who came the king. Why did he come to see Boyet. An if my hand be out, then, belike your Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? [the pin. to the beggar: What saw he? the beggar: Who over- Cost. Then will she get the upshot by cleaving came he 1 the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily, your lips whose side? the king's the captive is enrich'd; On grow foul. [lenge her to bowl. whose side? the beggar's: The catastrophe is a nup- Cost, She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; chaltial: On whose side? The king's -no, on both in Boyet. I fear too much rubbing; Good night my one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the good owl. [Exeunt Boyet and Maria, comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! lonliness. Shall command thy love? I may: Shall Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat thy [wit! love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar robes: For tittles, titles; For thyself, me. Thus, When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. Thine, in the dearest design of industry, Don Adriano de Armado. Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play: But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den. Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited this letter? [better? What vane? what weather-cock ? did you ever hear Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. [erewhile. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; A phantasm, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport Cost. Thou, fellow, a word: I told you; my lord. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? Cost. From my lord to my lady. "Prin. From which lord, to which lady? [mine; Cost. From my lord Biron, a good master of To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, away. Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another day. Why, she that bears the bow. Ros. Well then, I am the shooter. Boyet. And who is your deer? Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come Finely put on, indeed! [near. Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow, [her now? Boyet. But she herself is hit lower: Have I hit Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, [Singing. An I cannot, another can. [Exeunt Ros. and Kath. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! [both did hit it. Mar. A mark marvellous well shot; for they Boyet. A mark! O, mark but that mark; Á mark, says my lady! [be. Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it may Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! I'faith your hand is out. Cost. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout. down! were, so fit. Armatho o' the one side,-O, a most dainty man! And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit! [Shouting within. [Exit Costard, running. SCENE II.-The same. Enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull. Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. Hol. The deer was, as you know, in sanguis, blood; ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of calo,-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. Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination,-after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,-to insert again my haud credo for a deer. Dull. I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!-0 thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! 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; And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he. For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, [in a school: So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him 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 change; 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 extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have called the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty sore L! Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent. wrong, Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, [fire. Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and sweet Celestial, as thou art, oh pardon, love, this [tongue! That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly Hol. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovi dious Naso was the man and why, indeed, Naso; but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention? Imitari, is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But damosella virgin, was this directed to you? Jaq. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords. Hol. I will overglance the superscript. To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person written unto: Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; Your Ladyship's in all desired employment, Biron. a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, re- with the king; and here he hath framed a letter volutions: these are begot in the ventricle of me- to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which, acci mory, nourished in the womb of pia mater; and dentally, or by the way of progression, hath misdeliver'd upon the mellowing of occasion: But the carried.-Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am paper into the royal hand of the king; it may conthankful for it. cern much: Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu. Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so may my parishioners; for their sons are 'well tutor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth. Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want no instruction: if their daughters be capable, I 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. Jaq. Good master parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it. Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia. Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me fors worn, how shall I swear to love? Jag. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl." [Exeunt Cost. and Jaq; Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear colourable colours. But, to return to the verses; Did they please you, sir Nathaniel ? Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. Hol. I do díne 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, I 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 un learned, 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. Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.-Sir, [to Dull.] I do invite you too; you shall not say me, nay: pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to our [Exeunt. recreation. SCENE III. Another part of the same. Enter Biron, with a paper. Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil; I am toiling in a pitch; pitch that defiles; defile! a foul word. Well, Set thee down, sorrow! for so they say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: [vowed! Well proved again on my side! I will not love: if Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful eye, by this light, but for her eye, I would not prove; [osiers bowed. love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I de noThose thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like thing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, [comprehend: and to be melancholy; and here is part of my Where all those pleasures live, that art would rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall one o' my sonnets already; the clown bore it, the suffice; [commend: fool sent it, and the lady hath it sweet clown, Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee sweeter fool, sweetest lady! by the world, I would All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without not care a pin if the other three were in: Here wonder; [admire ;) comes one with a paper; God give him grace to (Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts groan. [Gets up into a tree. eyes; Biron. Enter the King, with a paper. King. Ah me! Biron. [4side.] Shot by heaven - Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy birdbolt under the left pap:-I'faith secrets. King. [Reads.] So sweet a kiss the golden sun To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, 4s doth thy face through tears of mine give light : And they thy glory through my grief will show : What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear. Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. Biron, Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. [Aside. King. In love, I hope; Sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye If broken then, it is no fault of mine; A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. O most prophane coxcomb! Dum. As upright as the cedar. Her shoulder is with child. And I had mine. [Aside. [Aside. [Aside. King. And I mine too, good lord! [Aside. Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. Dum. On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, That I am forsworn for thee: [Aside. Thou for whom even Jove would swear, And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love. This will I send; and something else more plain, Long. Dumain, [advancing.] thy love is far from You chide at him, offending twice as much : You do not love Maria; Longaville Did never sonnet for her sake compile ; Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart His loving bosom, to keep down his heart. I have been closely shrouded in this bush, And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush. I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion; Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion: Ah me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes: Enter Dumain, with a paper. You would for paradise break faith and troth; [To Long, Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. stay. [Stepping aside. [To Dumain. Biron. [Aside. All hid, all hid, an old infant What will Biron say, when that he shall hear Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, [play: A faith infring'd, which such a zeal did swear? And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd: four wood-cocks in a dish! Dum. O most divine Kate the way. How will he scorn? how will he spend his wit? I would not have him know so much by me. Biron. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy.- King. Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you: King. Soft; Whither away so fast? Jaq. God bless the king! What present hast thou there? Cost. Some certain treason. King. What makes treason here ? Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. King. If it mar nothing neither, The treason, and you, go in peace away together. Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read; Our parson misdoubts it; 'twas treason, he said. King. Biron, read it over. [Giving him the letter. Where hadst thou it? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it ? 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. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, [to Costard.] yon 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. True, true; we are four :- Hence, sirs; away. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt Cost. and Jaquenet. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us embrace ! 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, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken 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 My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; [now? She, an attending star, scarce seen a light. Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron : O, but for my love, day would turn to night! Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek; Where several worthies make one dignity; Where nothing wants, that want itself doth seek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, Fye, painted rhetorick! O, she needs it not: To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; [blot. She passes praise: then praise too short "doth A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. O, tis the sun, that maketh all things shine! King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony. Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine! A wife of such wood were felicity. O, who can give an oath? where is a book? That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack: If that she learn not of her eye to look : 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 O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, [of light. 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 brow. Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black. [bright. Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion [light. crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away. King. 'Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day [she. here. King. No devil will fright thee then so much as 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 The street should see as she walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all for sworn. |