Assist

your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Another part of the Park. A Pavil ion and Tents at a distance.

Enter the PRINCESS OF FRANCE, ROSALINE, MARIA KATHARINE BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants.

N

Boyet.

OW, madam, summon up your dearest spirits;

Consider who the king your father
sends;

To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem,
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre: the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain; a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As Nature was in making graces dear,
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but

mean,

Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,

Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues :

I am less proud to hear you tell my worth,
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
But now to task the tasker,-Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
Till painful study shall out-wear three years,
No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,
To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor :

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick dispatch,
Importunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.

[Exit. Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is

SO.

Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?

I Lord. Longaville is one.

Prin.

Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast,
Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized

In Normandy, saw I this Longaville :
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;
Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms;
Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss
(If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil),
Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will;

Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still

wills

It should none spare that come within his power. Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike: is't

so?

Mar. They say so most, that most his humours know.

Prin. Such short-lived wits do wither as they

grow.

Who are the rest?

Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd

youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue loved:

Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I saw him at the duke Alençon's once;
And much too little, of that good I saw,
Is my report to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,

I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit:
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest ;
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That agèd ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble.is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love,

That every one her own hath garnished

With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

Mar. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord? Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;

And he and his competitors in oath

Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady, Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt,

He rather means to lodge you in the field,
(Like one that comes here to besiege his court,)
Than seek a dispensation for his oath,

To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.

[The ladies mask.

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON, and

Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.

Prin. Fair give you back again; and welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my

court.

Prin. I will be welcome then; conduct me thither.

King. Hear me, dear lady,-I have sworn an

oath.

Prin. Our lady help my lord! he'll be for

sworn.

King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my

will.

Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing 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 housekeeping:
'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.

[Gives a paper. King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away; For you'll prove perjured, 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 did.

Ros. How needless was it then to ask the question!

Biron. 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 lovers!
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;