Where feveral worthies make one dignity;

Teek.

Where nothing wants, that want itself doth feek, Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues;

Fie, painted rhetoric! O, fhe needs it not: To things of fale a feller's praise belongs:

She paffes praife; the praise, too fhort, doth blot.
A wither'd hermit, fivescore 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 fun, that maketh all things fhine.
King. By heav'n, thy love is black as ebony.
Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine!
A wife of fuch wood were felicity.

O, who can give an oath? where is a book,
That I may fwear, 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 fcowl of night; And beauty's crete becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, resembling spirits of light:

O, if in black my lady's brow be deckt,

It mourns, that Painting and ufurping Hair Should ravish doters with a false aspect :

And therefore is the 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 difpraife, Paints itself black to imitate her brow.

Dum. To look like her, are chimney-fweepers black. Long. And fince her time, are colliers counted bright.

King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is

light. VOL. II.

Р

Biron.

Liron. Your miftreffes dare never come in rain, For fear their colours fhould 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

here.

King. No devil will fright thee then so much as fhe. Dum. I never knew man hold vile ftuff fo dear. Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee.

Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for such tread. Dum. O vile then as fhe goes, what upward lies

The ftreet fhould fee as fhe walkt over head. King. But what of this, are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing fo fure, and thereby all forfworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there;-fome flattery for this evil.

Long. O, fome Authority how to proceed; Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devil. Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron. O, 'tis more than need.

Have at you then, Affection's Men at arms;
Confider, what you firft did fwear unto:
To faft, to ftudy, and to fee no woman;
Flat treafon 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you faft? your ftomachs are too young:
And abftinence ingenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to fludy, (Lords)
In that each of you hath forfworn his book.
Can you fill dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my Lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of Study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?

Why,

Why, universal plodding prifons up
The nimble fpirits in the arteries;
As motion and long-during Action tires
The finewy Vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in That forfworn the use of eyes;
And Study too, the caufer of your vow.
For where is any author in the world,
* Teaches fuch duty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our Learning likewife is.
Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies eyes,
Do we not likewise fee our Learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forsworn our books:
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce fhew a harvest of their heavy toil.
But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain:
But with the motion of all elements,
Courfes as fwift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious Seeing to the eye:
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind!
A lover's ear will hear the lowest Sound,
When the fufpicious head of theft is stopt.

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Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye?] This Line is abfolute Nonfenfe. We should read duty, i. e. Ethics, or the Offices and Devoirs that belong to Man. A Woman's Eye, fays he, teaches Obfervance above all other Things.

+ the fufpicious head of theft is flopt.] i. e. a Lover in pursuit of his Miftrels has his Senfe of hearing quicker than a Thief (who fuf

fpe&s

Love's Feeling is more foft and fenfible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails.
Love's Tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in Tafte;
For valour, is not Love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides?

Subtle as Sphinx; as fweet and mufical
As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair:
And when Love speaks the voice of all the Gods,
Mark, Heaven drowsy with the harmony!
Never durft Poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.-
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire,
They are the books, the arts, the academies,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe none at all in aught proves excellent.
Then fools you were, these women to forswear:
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake (a word, that all men love)
Or for love's fake, (a word, all women love ;)
Or for men's fake, (the author of these women ;)
Or women's fake, (by whom we men are men ;)
Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves;
Or elfe we lofe ourselves, to keep our Oaths.
It is religion to be thus forfworn,

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field!
Bion. Advance your ftandards, and upon them,
Lords:

Pell-mell, down with them; but be first advis'd,
In conflict that you get the fun of them.

pects every Sound he hears) in pursuit of his Frey. But Mr. Theobald fays, there is no Contrast between a Lover and a Thief: and therefore alters it to thrift, between which and Love, he says, there is a remarkable Antithefis.

Long.

Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay these glozes by; Shall we refolve to woo these girls of France?

King. And win them too; therefore let us devise Some entertainment for them in their Tents.

Biron. First, from the Park let us conduct them thi-
ther;

Then homeward every man attach the hand
Of his fair miftrefs; in the afternoon

We will with fome strange pastime folace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can fhape:
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Forerun fair love, ftrewing,her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.

Biron. Allons! Allons! fown Cockle reap'd no corn;
And justice always, whirls in equal measure;
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

V. SCENE I.

ACT V.

The STREET.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull.

HOLOFERNES.

SATIS, quod fufficit.

Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reasons at dinner have been fharp and fententious; pleasant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy: I did converse this quondam-day with a companion of the King's, who is entituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is

P 3

lofty,