Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine;
So shall Biron take me for Rosaline.-
And change your favours too; so shall your loves
Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes.

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. Their several counsels they unbosom shall To loves mistook; and so be mock'd withal, Upon the next occasion that we meet, With visages display'd, to talk and greet.

Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't? PRIN. No; to the death we will not move a foot, Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace: But, while 't is spoke, each turn away her* face. 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 come. [The ladies mask,

BOYET. They will not answer to that epithet, You were best call it, daughter-beamed eyes. Mотн. They do not mark me, and that brings me out.

BIRON. Is this your perfectness? begone, you rogue!

Ros. What would these strangers? know their minds, Boyet:

If they do speak our language, 't is our will
That some plain man recount their purposes:
Know what they would.

BOYET. What would you with the princess?
BIRON. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation.
Ros. What would they, say they?

BOYET. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation. Ros. Why, that they have; and bid them so be

many

KING. Say to her, we have measur'd many miles, To tread a measure (2) with her -*- on the grass. BOYET. They say that they have measur'd 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

(*) Old copies, his.

(1) First fole, keeper's.

(*) First folio. you.

(+) Old editions, dott.

BOYET. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen

As is the razor's edge invisible,
Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen;

Above the sense of sense: so sensible Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings,

Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things.

Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off.

BIRON. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff!

KING. Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits.

[Exeunt KING, Lords, MoтH, Music, and Attendants.

PRIN. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovits.— Are these the breed of wits so wonder'd at? BOYET. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out.

Ros. Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat.

PRIN. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout! b Will they not, think you, hang themselves tonight?

Or ever, but in visors, show their faces?
This pert Biron was out of countenance quite.
Ros. O they were all in lamentable cases!
The king was weeping-ripe for a good word.
PRIN. Biron did swear himself out of all suit.
MAR. Dumain was at my service, and his sword;
No point, quoth I; my servant straight was mute.
KATH. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er his
heart;

And trow you what he call'd me?
PRIN.

KATH, Yes, in good faith.

PRIN.

Qualm, perhaps.

Go, sickness as thou art!

Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps,(3)

But will

you hear? the king is my love sworn. PRIN. And quick Biron hath plighted faith

to me.

KATH. And Longaville was for my service born. MAR. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree. BOYET. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear:

by a transposition. Kingly-poor, I suspect, is no other than a printer's error for poor-lyking. Rosaline, in irony, speaks of their visitors having rich, well-liking, i. e. good-conditioned, wits; to which the Princess replies :

"O poverty in wit, poor-liking flout!" Liking, of old, was spelt, indifferently, liking, or lyking. No point,-] See note (c), p. 62.

Immediately they will again be here
In their own shapes; for it can never be,
They will digest this harsh indignity.
PRIN. Will they return?

BOYET. They will, they will, God knows, And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows: Therefore, change favours; and, when they repair, Blow like sweet roses in this summer air.

PRIN. How blow? how blow? speak to be understood.

BOYET. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud:

Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.

PRIN. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, If they return in their own shapes to woo?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis❜d, Let's mock them still, as well known, as disguis'd: Let us complain to them what fools were here, Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear; And wonder what they were; and to what endTheir shallow shows, and prologue vilely penn'd, And their rough carriage so ridiculous, Should be presented at our tent to us.

BOYET. Ladies, withdraw: the gallants are at hand.

PRIN. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land.* [Exeunt PRINCESS, Ros., KATH., and MARIA.

peas,

And utters it again when God doth please:
He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares
At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve (4) too, and lisp: Why, this is he,
That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy;
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice

(*) Old copies, runnes ore land. (+) Old copies, where's. (1) First folio omits thither. (§) First folio, picks. #First folio, Jore.

In honourable terms; nay, he can sing
A mean most meanly; and, in ushering,
Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales' bone:
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due* of honey-tongued Boyet.
KING. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my
heart,

That put Armado's page out of his part!

Enter the PRINCESS, ushered by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants. BIRON. See where it comes !-Behaviour, what wert thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?

KING. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!

PRIN. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive. KING. Construe my speeches better, if you may. PRIN. Then wish me better, I will give you leave. KING. We came to visit and purpose now you; To lead you to our court; vouchsafe it then. PRIN. This field shall hold me; and so hold your vow:

Nor God, nor I, delights in perjur'd men.

KING. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ;

The virtue of your eye must break my oath.
PRIN. You nick-name virtue: vice you should
have spoke ;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,
I would not yield to be your
house's guest:
So much I hate a breaking-cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
KING. O, you have liv'd in desolation here,
Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.
PRIN. Not so, my lord, it is not so,
We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game;
A mess of Russians left us but of late.
KING. How, madam? Russians?
PRIN.

I swear

;

Ay, in truth, my lord;
Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state.
Ros. Madam, speak true :-It is not so, my
lord;

My lady (to the manner of the days),
In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.
We four, indeed, confronted were with four

BIRON. I am a fool, and full of poverty. Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong, It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue. BIRON. O, I am yours, and all that I possess. Ros. All the fool mine? BIRON. I cannot give you less. Ros. Which of the visors was it that you wore? BIRON. Where? when? what visor? why demand you this?

Ros. There, then, that visor; that superfluous

perjury.

Can any face of brass hold longer out?— Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me ; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout; Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance; Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; And I will wish thee never more to dance Nor never more in Russian habit wait. 0! never will I trust to speeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue; Nor never come in visor to my friend;

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song: Taffata phrases, silken terms precise,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation,* Figures pedantical; these summer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forswear them: and I here protest,

(*) Old copies, affection.

▲ Fair gentle-sweet,-] Fair was supplied by the second folio, 1632. Mr. Malone reads " My."

You force not to forswear.] To force not is to care not. Mr.

By this white glove, (how white the hand, God

knows!)

Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd
In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes:
And, to begin, wench,-so God help me, la !—
My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.
Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you.

BIRON.
Yet I have a trick
Of the old rage:-bear with me, I am sick;
I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see;—
Write Lord have mercy on us,(5) on those three;
They are infected, in their hearts it lies;
They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes:
These lords are visited; you are not free,
For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.

PRIN. No, they are free that gave these tokens

to us.

BIRON. Our states are forfeit, seek not to undo us.

Ros. It is not so. For how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, being those that sue? BIRON. Peace; for I will not have to do with you.

Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend.
BIRON. Speak for yourselves, my wit is at

an end.