and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the prin- |Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful cess kill'd. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed. the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge;| so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it argues facility. The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; Some say, a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps| from thicket; Or pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L! Of one sore I a hundred make, by adding but one more L. Nath. A rare talent! eyes; Where all those pleasures live, that art would comprehend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; All Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend: ignorant that soul, that sees thee without wonder; (Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire ;) Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, Which, not to anger bent, is music, and sweet fire. Celestial, as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue! Hol. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here him with a talent. are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovia foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, dius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Nase; shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of the jerks of invention? Imitari, is nothing: so doth memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater; and the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired deilver'd upon the mellowing of occasion: But the horse' his rider.-But damosella virgin, was this gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am directed to you? thankful for it. Jaq. Ay, sir, from one monsieur Biron, one of Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so the strange queen's lords. may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd Hol. I will overglance the superscript. To the by you, and their daughters profit very greatly un-snow-white hana the most beauteous Lady Rosader you: you are a good member of the common-line. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, wealth. for the nomination of the party writing to the person written unto: Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want no instruction: if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard. Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. Hol. Master parson, quasi pers-on. And if one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well. Jaq. Good master parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it. Hol. Fauste, precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbrâ. Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! Chi non le vede, ei non te pregia. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall swear to love? I Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! 1) Horse adorned with ribbands. Your ladyship's in all desired employment, BIRON. Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which, accidentally, Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the or by the way of progression, hath miscarried.royal hand of the king; it may concern much: Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu! Jaq. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl. [Exeunt Cost, and Jan. very religiously; and, as a certain father saithNath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear Did they please you, sir Nathaniel ? colourable colours. But to return to the verses ; Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall text) is the happiness of life. cludes it.-Sir, [To Dull.] I do invite you too; you (2) In truth. SCENE III-Another part of the same. Enter These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. Biron. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: This same snall go. [He reads the sonnet. Biron, with a paper. Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am Disfigure not his slop. coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil; I am Long. toiling in a pitch; pitch that defiles; defile! a foul word. Well, set thee down, sorrow! for so, they Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: Well proved again on my side! I will not love: if A I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her eye,by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: sonnets already; the clown bore it, the fool sent it, If broken then, it is no fault of mine; and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, If by me broke, What fool is not so wise, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a To lose an oath to win a paradise? pin if the other three were in: Here comes one with a paper; God give him grace to groan! [Gets up into a tree. Enter the King, with a paper. ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment. woman I forswore; but, I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee; My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gained, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth doth shine, King, Ah me! To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, Through the transparent bosom of the deep, And they thy glory through thy grief will show: Enter Longaville, with a paper. What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear. Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which A green goose a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. Enter Dumain, with a paper. stay. Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, Biron. O most profane coxcomb! [Aside. Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Her shoulder is with child. [Aside. Stoop, I say; As fair as day. but then no sun must [Aside. And I had mine! Aside Biron. Ay, as some days; Dum. O that I had my wish! King. And I mine too, good Lord! [Aside. word? Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. King. In love, I hope Sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name? [Aside. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know: Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move: O sweet Maria, empress of my love! (1) Outstripped, surpassed. sion Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision! [Aside. Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary Dum. On a day (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Y Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow; Thou for whom even Jove would swear, This will I send; and something else more plain, Long. Dumain, [advancing.] thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society: King. Come, sir, [advancing.] you blush; as his your case is such; You chide at him, offending twice as much: I would not have him know so much by me. Too bitter is thy jest. (1) Grief. (2) Cynic. (3) In trimming myself. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? King. Soft; Whither away so fast? Jaq. God bless the king! What present hast thou there? Cost. Some certain treason. What makes treason here? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it? Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, [To Cos tard.] you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess: He, he, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. True, true; we are four :Will these turtles be gone? King. Hence, sirs, away. [Exeunt Cost, and Jaq. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the trai tors stav. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us em brace! As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; Young blood will not obey an old decree: We cannot cross the cause why we were born; Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn. King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? Biron. Did thev, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind, Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; She, an attending star, scarce seen a light. Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek; Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not: To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot. A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. No face is fair, that is not full so black. O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, For native blood is counted painting now; Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. Long. O, some authority now to proceed, Biron. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, The nimble spirits in the arteries; Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is And gives to every power a double power, Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. 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 suspicious head of theft is stopp'd; Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible, Than are the tender horns of cockled snails; Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste For valour, is not love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides? Subtle as sphinx; as sweet, and musical, As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair; And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony. Never durst poet touch a pen to write, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! Until his ink were temper'd with love's sighs; Dum. O vile! then as she goes, what upward O, then his lines would ravish savage ears, King. No devil will fright thee then so much as Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. lies And plant in tyrants mild humility. (1) Law chicane. Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ; King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by: Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them Then, homeward every man attach the hand We will with some strange pastime solace them, SCENE I-Another part of the same. Hol. Satis quod sufficit. Enter Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons' Hol. Bone?-bone, for benè: Priscian a little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard. Nath. Videsne quis venit? Hol. Video, et gaudeo. [To Moth. Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah? Cost. O, they have lived long in the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. Moth. Peace; the peal begins. Arm. Monsieur, [To Hol.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook:What is a, b, spelt backward, with a horn on his head? Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old. Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure? Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; A gig at dinner have been sharp and sententious; plea- of a cuckold's horn! sant without scurrility, witty without affection, Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, audacious without impudency, learned without thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread: hold, opinion, and strange without heresy. I did con- there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, verse this quondam day with a companion of the thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that Adriano de Armado. thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father would'st thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too perigrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise' companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, fine, when he should say doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt; d, e, b, t; not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the ne: This is abhominable (which he would call afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie; Ne and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain ? Hol. Or, mons, the hill. intelligis do nine? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo. Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call the afternoon. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend : (6) A small inflammable substance, swallowed in a glass of wine. |