Biron. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy.— Ah, good my liege, I pray thee pardon me: [Descends from the tree. You found his mote; the king your mote did see; Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen! O me, with what strict patience have I sat, To see a king transformed to a gnat! King. Too bitter is thy jest. Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you: To break the vow I am engaged in ; I am betray'd, by keeping company With men like men," of strange inconstancy. groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time In pruning me? When shall you hear that I Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [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; • Men like men. Biron appears to us to say-I keep company with men alike in inconstancy-men like men-men having the general inconstancy of humanity. Preving-preening; trimming himself up as a bird trims Hence, sirs; away. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt CosT. and JAQ. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us embrace! The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; 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 now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; 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, Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not : To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; She passes praise: then praise too short doth blot. A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack, 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 my lady's brows be deck'd, 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. 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 wash'd away. King. T were good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you | But love, first learned in a lady's eyes, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. here King. No devil will fright thee then so much as Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. sworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now Long. O, some authority how to proceed; Biron. Lives not alone immured in the brain; O, 't is more than need! And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. Do we not likewise see our learning there? • Quillet and quodlibet each signify a fallacious subtilty-what you please--an argument without foundation. And who can sever love from charity? King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords; Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, In conflict that you get the sun of them. Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by; Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them Then, homeward, every man attach the hand Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon We will with some strange pastime solace them, corn; And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt When Love speaks, the responsive harmony of the cice a all the gods makes heaveu drowsy. ACT V. 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. Nori hominem tanquam te: His humour is lufty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitions, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour van, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, 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, Detour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable, (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of inanie; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus Deo bone intelligo. Hol. Bone?-bone, for bene: Priscian a little scratch'd; 't will serve. Enter ARMADO, MоTH, and COSTARD. Nath. Videsne quis venit? Hol. Video et gauleo. Arm. Chirra! Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah? Arm. Men of peace, well encountered. Hol. Most military sir, salutation. Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. [To COSTARD aside. Cust. O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of wrds! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorifi Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit: snip, snap, quick, and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit. Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old. Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure? Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy giz whip about your infamy circum circà: A gig of a Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I wil cuckold's horn! shouldst have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny Heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard! purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled 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 culled, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my [To MOTH. 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, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio: but, sweet heart, let that 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 antic, or fire-work. 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 estitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a Lip-dragon. Meth. Peace! the peal begins. Arm. Monsieur [to HoL.], are you not lettered? Lis learning. Hol Quis, quis, thou consonant? pass. Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; withal, to the end to crave your assistance. or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i.— Moth. The sheep: the other two concludes it; o, u.s • Tranmical-from Thraso, the boasting soldier of Terence. • Primo-derise-bice to excess, and sometimes, adverbially, faixety, with the utmost nicety. Taylor, the water-poet, has given us a syllable more of this elight of schoolboys--honorificicabilitudinitatibus. But he has tequailed Rabelis, who has thus furnished the title of a ok that might puzzle Paternoster Row-Antipericatamctaparemplueribrationes. The pedant asks who is the silly sheep-quis, quis? "The end of the five towels, if you repeat them." says Moth; and e pecant does repeat them-a, e,I; the other two clinches it, * ya Muth, o, a (O vou). Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine wor thies.-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 Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the Page, Hercules. • l'enew and bout equally denote a nut in fencing. E Arm. Pardon, sir, error: ne is not quantity enough | The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too, for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of I were the fairest goddess on the ground: his club. I am compard to twenty thousand fairs. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter! Prin. Anything like? 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 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?Hol. I will play three myself. Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman! Arm. Shall I tell you a thing? Hol. We attend. a Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antic. I beseech you, follow. Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while. Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir. Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I 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 Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? Ros. That was the way to make his godhead wax ;b your sister. Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out. for me. An if my face were but as fair as yours, Ros. Much in the letters; nothing in the praise. Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor, O that your face were not so full of O's! Kath. A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows! Kath. Madam, this glove. Prin. Did he not send you twain? Mar. This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville; Prin. I think no less: Dost thou not wish in heart, Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, Enter BOYET. Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour; a Rosaline, it appears, was a brunet e; Katharine far, Fadge. This word is from the Anglo-Saxon feg-an-to join perhaps red haired, marked with small pox In the early together, and thence to fit, to agree. alphabets for children, A was printed in red, B, as well as the remainder of the alphabet, in black; and thus the ladies jest upon their complexions. Tar-to grow; as we say, the moon waxeth. • Set of wit. Set is a term used at tennis. Their herald is a pretty knavish page, Presence majestical would put him out; For." quota the king," an angel shalt thou see, Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously." The lay replied, "An angel is not evil; I should have fear'd her had she been a devil." With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder; Cried," Via! we will do 't, come what will come:" Prin. But what, but what, come they to visit us? Unto his several mistress; which they 'll know Prin. And will they so the gallants shall be task'd: For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; And not a man of them shall have the grace, Despite of suit, to see a lady's face. Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear, 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. Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to 't? Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart, And quite divorce his memory from his part. Prin. Therefore I do it; and, I make no doubt, The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out. There's no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown; To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own: So shall we stay, mocking intended game; And they, well mock'd, depart away with shame. [Trumpets sound within. Boyet. The trumpet sounds; be mask 'd, the maskers [The ladies mask. Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in Russian habits and masked; MOTH, Musicians, and Attendants. come. Biron. Is this your perfectness? begone, you rogue! If they do speak our language, 't is our will Boyet. What would you with the princess? Boyet. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation. Boyet. They say that they have measur'd many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass. Ros. It is not so: ask them how many inches Is in one mile: if they have measur'd many, The measure then of one is easily told. Boyet. If, to come hither, you have measur'd miles, And many miles, the princess bids you tell, How many inches do fill up one mile. Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps Boyet. She hears herself. Ros. How many weary steps, Of many weary miles you have o'crgone, Are number'd in the travel of one mile? Biron. We number nothing that we spend for you; Our duty is so rich, so infinite, That we may do it still without accompt. Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face, That we, like savages, may worship it. Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. King. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine (Those clouds remov'd) upon our watery eyne. Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou now request'st but moonshine in the water. King. Then, in our measure, vouchsafe but one change: Thou bidd'st me beg; this begging is not strange. Ros. Play, music, then: nay, you must do it soon. [Music plays. Not yet;-no dance:-thus change I like the moon. King. Will you not dance? How come you thus estranged? Ros. You took the moon at full; but now she's changed. King. Yet still she is the moon, and I the man. The music plays; vouchsafe some motion to it. Ros. Our ears vouchsafe it. King. But your legs should do it. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands;--we will not dance. King. Why take we hands then? a Tread a measure. The measure was a grave courly dance, of which the steps were slow and measured, like those of a modern minuet. |