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,
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 purchas'd, 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.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed star,

Have no more profit of their shining nights,

looks:

Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.

♦ When I to FEAST expressly am forbid ;] All the old editions read fast for "feast." The word is altered to feast in the corr. fo. 1632, and so it was first printed by Theobald.

If study's gain be THIS,] • BUT that most vain,] "but" of the 4to, 1598.

So the corr. fo. 1632, and rightly, no doubt.

The folio, 1623, erroneously substitutes and for

Too much to know is to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he's read, to reason against reading!
Dum. Proceeded 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. Biron is like an envious sneaping 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 any abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate'.

King. Well, sit you out: go home, Biron: adieu !

Biron. No, my good lord; I have 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 to what I swore 10,

And bide the penance of each three years' day. Give me the read the same,

paper;

let me

And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name.

King. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!

7 Proceeded well,] To "proceed," as Johnson observes, "is an academical term, and means to take a degree, as he proceeded bachelor in physic."

8

64

an envious SNEAPING frost,] Sneaping" is snipping, or as we now say, "nipping,"-vide "Winter's Tale," A. i. sc. 2. In Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, this speech is given, without warrant, to Longaville.

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.] The folio, 1623, spoils the line and injures the sense by reading,

"That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate."

There seems no adequate ground for altering the text of the 4to, 1598, but the corr. fo. 1632 thus gives the couplet:

10

"So you, by study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the housetop to unlock the gate."

· I'll keep to what I SWORE,] So the corr. fo. 1632, thereby preserving the rhyme and correcting the grammar: the line in the 4to. and in the folio, 1623, is, "Yet confident I'll keep what I have sworne," which is right in grammar, but wrong in rhyme. There is no need to offend against the one or the other.

Biron. [Reads.] Item, "That no woman shall come within a mile of my court."-Hath this been proclaim'd?

Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.] "On pain of losing her tongue."-Who devis'd this penalty?

Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron.

Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.
Biron. A dangerous law against garrulity '!

[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 bed-rid father:
Therefore, this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither.

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 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 is born,

Not by might master'd, but by special grace.

1 A dangerous law against GARRULITY!] The old reading is gentility, decidedly a misprint for "garrulity." The corr. fo. 1632 gives "garrulity," and although Mr. Singer has a copy of the same impression with the same emendation in MS., he refuses to alter the text. If "garrulity" were a mere guess, it is somewhat strange that two guessers should have hit upon the very same word: Mr. Singer's power of calculation should have shown him the great improbability that two separate persons should have made the same alteration, if it had not been the genuine text of the poet. It is to be observed that the 4to, 1598, has gentletie, an error for a word with which the old compositor was not familiar; and the printer of the folio, 1623, concluded hastily, but naturally, that the word intended was gentility. Hence the blunder: the increased humour is indisputable.

2

- as the rest of the court CAN possibly devise.] This is the preferable reading of the 4to, 1598: the folio substitutes shall for "can."

VOL. II.

H

1

If I break faith, this word shall speak 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 are to others, as to me;
But, I believe, although I seem so loth,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick 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 fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain:
One, whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies, shall relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I,
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy'.

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,

A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.

Long. Costard, the swain, and he shall be our sport; And so to study, three years is but short.

3

Enter DULL, with a letter, and COSTARD.

Dull. Which is the duke's own person?

shall SPEAK for me,] Shall break for me, folio, 1623. The corr. fo. 1632 has "plead for me," but "speak" is on every account to be preferred.

SUGGESTIONS] i. e. Temptations, repeatedly so used by Shakespeare.

5 A man in all the world's new fashion planted,] We refrain from disturbing the old text, but the corr. fo. 1632 reads,

"A man in all the world-new fashions flaunted."

It may be right, but Shakespeare does not elsewhere use flaunt as a verb, although "planted" and flaunted might have been easily misheard, or misprinted. The text in the folio, 1632, is "world new," without the hyphen.

61

that Armado HIGHT,] i. e. That is named Armado.

7 And I will use him for my MINSTRELSY.] i. e. "I will make a minstrel of him, whose occupation," says Douce, "was to relate fabulous stories."

8 Enter Dull,] In the old copies Dull is not named here, but called a "Constable:" "with a letter," is added after Costard, in the old stage-direction.

Biron. This, fellow. What would'st ?

Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough': but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

Dull. Signior Arm-Arm-commends you. There's villainy abroad: this letter will tell you more.

Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.

King. A letter from the magnificent Armado.

Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

Long. A high hope for a low hearing: God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear, or forbear laughing'?

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness'.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner3.

Biron. In what manner?

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner,—it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman; for the form,-in some form.

Biron. For the following, sir?

Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the right!

9

- I am his grace's THARBOROUGH :] i.e. Thirdborough, or constable: farborough in the 4to, 1598.

1 To hear, or forbear LAUGHING?] I adopt this emendation, because it was not only recommended by Steevens, but because it is found in a copy of the folio, 1632, in the possession of Mr. Singer. In the preceding line the old copies have "heaven,","—"a high hope for a low heaven," which Theobald altered to having. The corr. fo. 1632 gives us "hearing," and in the difficulty of the case we may be disposed to accept the alteration. What Longaville means, is that Biron's hope of "high words" is likely to be disappointed,—that the words, on being heard, will turn out, like the matter, to be low, and not high: therefore he adds, "God grant us patience!"

2- to CLIMB in the merriness.] Steevens supposes a play upon words between "style" (i.e. stile) and “climb" to have been intended. The corr. fo. 1632 has chime for "climb," but nevertheless "climb" seems right. The word "style" is played upon again after the reading of Armado's letter.

31

- taken with the manner.] i. e. In the fact, -a legal expression.