Your oaths are pass'd, and now subscribe your names; That his own hand may strike his honour down, That violates the smallest branch herein: a If you are arm'd to do, as sworn to do, BIRON. I can but say their protestation over; BIRON. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please; I only swore, to study with your grace, And stay here in your court for three years' space. LONG. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. BIRON. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study? let me know. KING. Why, that to know, which else we should not know. BIRON. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense? If study's gain be thus, and this be so, quite, And train our intellects to vain delight. BIRON. Why, all delights are vain; but that Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain: To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eye-sight 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, Save base authority from others' books. Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. 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 BIRON. The spring is near, when green geese Fit in his place and time. DUM. In reason nothing. BIRON. 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? Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate." (*) First folio, and. "Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina; or, Proverbs English and Latine," &c., 8vo. 1630 Fat paunches make lean pates; and grosser bits b Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.] This is the reading of the quarto. The folio has "That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate." 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? BIRON. Sweet lord, and why? LONG. To fright them hence with that dread penalty, A dangerous law against gentility." 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,— To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: King of Nauar, will onely you sit out? "Nas. No, king of Fraunce, my bloud's as hot as thine: And this my weapon shall confirme my words." Love. To fright them hence with that dread penalty, So the old copies, but Theobald first, and all the modern editors since, have deprived Longaville of the second line, and given it to Biron. I have no hesitation in restoring it to the proper speaker. The only difficulty in the passage is the word gentility, (in the quarto, gentletie,) which could never have been the expression of the poet. Mr. Collier's old annotator proposes garrulity; that, or scurrility, certainly comes nearer to the sense, but neither KING. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot. BIRON. So study evermore is over-shot; 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, 'T is 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 me, For every man with his affects is born, d [Subscribes. 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? KING. Ay, that there is: our court, you know, is haunted e With a refined traveller of Spain; A man in all the world's new fashion planted, Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony ;. For interim to our studies, shall relate, In high-born words, the worth of many a knight BIRON. Armado is a most illustrious wight, (*) First folio, break. is satisfactory. By a dangerous law, we are to understand a biting law. In Act I. Sc. 2, there is a similar use of the word:"A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red." c She must lie here-] i. e. reside here. d Suggestions-] Temptations, seducements. • No quick recreation-] i.e. lively pastime, brisk diversion. "the quick comedians Extemporally will stage us." Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 2. f A man of complements,-] One versed in punctilios, of pointde-vice manners,-a formalist. "He walks most commonly with a clove or pick-tooth in his mouth; he is the very mint of compliment; all his behaviours are printed; his face is another volume of essays; and his beard is an Aristarchus."-BEN JONSON's Cynthia's Revels, (Gifford's Ed.) vol. ii. p. 264. " g Fire-new words,-] Words freshly coined; brand-new. "Your fire-new stamp of honour scarce is current." Richard the Third, Act I. Sc. 3. Again, in "Twelfth Night," Act III. Sc. 2:"And with some excellent jest, fire-new from the mint," &c. 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 heaven: (2) 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 manner. BIRON. In what manner? COST. In manner and form following, sir; ail 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! KING. Will you hear this letter with attention? BIRON. As we would hear an oracle. COST. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. KING. [Reads.] So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when : Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon it is yeleped, thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my now-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest : But to the place where,—it standeth north-northeast and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth, COST. Me. KING. -that unletter'd small-knowing soul, COST. Me. Thy curious-knotted garden:] Ancient gardens, Steevens observes, abounded with figures, of which the lines intersected each other in many directions. Thus in "Richard II." Act III. Se. f BIRON. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard. KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirral, what say you to this? COST. Sir, I confess the wench. KING. Did you hear the proclamation? COST. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it. KING. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench. COST. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a damosel. KING. Well, it was proclaimed damosel. COST. This was no damosel, neither, sir; she was a virgin. KING. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed virgin. COST. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid. KING. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. COST. This maid will serve my turn, sir. KING. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week with bran and water. (*) Old copies, which with. "Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots disorder'd," &c. COST. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. KING. And don Armado shall be your keeper.My lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'er.And go we, lords, to put in practice that Which each to other hath so strongly sworn. [Exeunt KING, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN. BIRON. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. Sirrah, come on. COST. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, Welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till then, Sit thee down, sorrow !* [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Another part of the same. Armado's House. Enter ARMADO and MOTH. ARM. Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great spirit grows melancholy? MOTH. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. ARM. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp. MOTH. No, no; O lord, sir, no. ARM. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal? MOTH. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough senior.+ ARM. Why tough senior?+ why tough senior?+ MOTH. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal ? ARM. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate, tender. MOTH. And I, tough senior,† as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name, tough. ARM. Pretty, and apt. MOTH. How mean you, sir; I pretty, and my saying apt or I apt, and my saying pretty? ARM. Thou pretty, because little." MоTH. Little pretty, because little: Wherefore apt? ARM. And therefore apt, because quick. (*) First folio, until then sit down, &c. (t) First folio, signeur. a Armado.] Here and throughout the scene in the old copies we have Braggart, instead of Armado. b Thou pretty, because little:] So in Ben Jonson's play of "The Fox," (Gifford's edition,) vol. iii. p. 236: "First for your dwarf, he's little and witty, e Crosses love not him.] A punning allusion, very frequent in praise. ARM. What? that an eel is ingenious? MоTн. That an eel is quick. ARM. I do say, thou art quick in answers: Thou heat'st my blood. MOTH. I am answered, sir. ARM. I love not to be crossed. Mотн. He speaks the mere contrary, crosses love not him. [A side. ARM. I have promised to study three years with the duke. MOTH. You may do it in an hour, sir. MOTH. HOW many is one thrice told? ARM. I am ill at reckoning; it fitteth† the spirit of a tapster. MOTH. You are a gentleman, and a gamester, sir.(3) ARM. I confess both; they are both the varnish of a complete man. MOTH. Then, I am sure, you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace amounts to. ARM. It doth amount to one more than two. MOTH. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here's three studied, ere you'll thrice wink : and how easy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing horse (4) will tell you. ARM. A most fine figure! [Aside. ARM. I will hereupon confess, I am in love: and, as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new devised courtesy. I think scorn to sigh; methinks, I should outswear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men have been in love? MOTH. Hercules, master. ARM. Most sweet Hercules!-More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. MOTH. Sampson, master; he was a man of |