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Biron. [Aside.] O, rhimes are guards on wanton

Cupid's hose :

Disfigure not his slop.

Long. This same shall go.

[He reads the Sonnet.

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye
('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument)
Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but, I will prove,

Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;

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Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is :

If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke, What fool is not so wise, To lose an oath to win a paradise?

Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vien, which makes

flesh a deity;

400

A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry.
God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the

way.

Enter DUMAIN.

Long. By whom shall I send this ?– -Company!

stay.

[Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant

play:

Like a demy-god here sit I in the sky,

And wretched fool's secrets heedfully o'er-eye.

More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd, four woodcocks in a dish!

Dum. O most divine Kate!

Biron. O most prophane coxcomb!

409

[Aside.

Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye!
Biron. By earth, she is not corporal; there

you

lie. [Aside.

Dum. Her amber hair for foul hath amber coted. Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted.

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Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must

shine.

Dum. O that I had my wish!

Long. And I had mine!

King. And I mine too, good Lord!

[Aside.

420

[Aside.

[Aside.

Biron. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good

word?

Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remembred be.

[Aside.

Biron. A fever in your blood! why, then incision Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision!

[Aside.

Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have

writ.

Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary

wit.

DUMAIN reads his Sonnet.

On a day (alack the day!)

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spy'd a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air (quoth he), thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!

But, alack, my hand is sworn,

Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn :

Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;

Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee:

Thou, for whom even Jove would swear,

Juno but an Ethiope were;

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.

[Aside.

430

440

This will I send; and something else more plain, 450
That shall express my true love's fasting pain.
O, would the king, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! ill, to example ill,

Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;

For

For none offend, where all alike do dote.

Long. Dumain, thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society: [Coming forward. You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o'er heard, and taken napping so.

459

King. Come, sir, you blush; as his, your case is

such;

[Coming forward, You chide at him, offending twice as much :

You do not love Maria? Longaville

Did never sonnet for her sake compile ?
Nor never lay'd his wreathed arms athwart
His loving bosom, to keep down his heart?
I have been closely shrowded in this bush,
And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush.
I heard your guilty rhimes, observ'd your fashion
Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion :
Ay me! says one; O Jove! the other cries;
Her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes:
You would for paradise break faith and troth;

470

[To LONG. And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. [To DUMAIN.

What will Biron say, when that he shall hear
A faith infringed, which such zeal did swear?
How will he scorn? how will he spend his wit?
How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it?
For all the wealth that ever I did see,

I would not have him know so much by me.
Biren. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy.- 480

F

Ah,

Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me :

[Coming forward. Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to reprove These worms for loving, that art most in love? Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears, There is no certain princess that appears ? You'll not be perjur'd, 'tis a hateful thing; Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting. But are you not asham'd? nay, are you not, All three of you, to be thus much o'er-shot? You found his mote; the king your mote did see; But I a beam do find in each of three.

O, what a scene of foolery I have seen,

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 knot!
To see great Hercules whipping a gig,
And profound Solomon tuning a jig,
And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys,
And critic Timon laugh at idle toys!

491

Where lies thy grief? O tell me, good Dumain ! 500

And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain?

And where my liege's all about the breast:-
A caudle, ho!

King. Too bitter is thy jest.

Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view?

Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you:
I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin
To break the vow I am engaged in ;
I am betray'd, by keeping company

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