The Works of Shakespeare

Arm. I say, sing.

Moth. Forbear, till this company be past.

ACT II.

Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQUENETTA.

Dull. Sir, the duke's pleasure is, that you keep Costard safe and you must let him take no delight, nor no penance; but a' must fast three days a week: For this damsel, I must keep her at the park; she is allowed for the day-woman. Fare you well. Arm. I do betray myself with blushing.-Maid. Jaq. Man.

Arm. I will visit thee at the lodge.
Jaq. That's hereby.

Arm. I know where it is situate.

Jaq. Lord, how wise you are!

Arm. I will tell thee wonders.
Jaq. With that face?

Arm. I love thee.

Jaq. So I heard you say.
Arm. And so farewell.

Jaq. Fair weather after you !
Dill. Come, Jaquenetta, away.

[Exeunt DULL and JAQUENETTA. Arm. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou be pardoned,

Cost. Well, sir, I hope, when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach.

Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punished. Cost. I am more bound to you, than your fellows, for they are but lightly rewarded.

Arm. Take away this villain; shut him up. Moth. Come, you transgressing slave; away. Cost. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose.

Moth. No, sir; that were fast and loose: thou shalt to prison.

Cost. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I have seen, some shall seeMoth. What shall some see ?

Cost. Nay nothing, Master Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words; and, therefore, I will say nothing: I thank God I have as little patience as another man; and, therefore I can be quiet.

[Exeunt MOTI and COSTARD. Arm. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn (which is a great argument of falsehood), if I love: And how can that be true love, which is falsely atempted? Love is a familiar; love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet Sampson was so tempted; and he had an excellent strength: yet was Solomon so seduced; and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's tapier. The first and second cause will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his glory is, to subdue men. Adieu, valour! just rapier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal od of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonneteer. Devise wit; write pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. [Exit.

Enter the Princess of FRANCE, ROSALINE, MARIA,
KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants.
Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your dearest
Consider who the king your father sends;
spirits;

To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteemn;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain; a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As nature was in making graces dear,
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

Prin. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but

mean,

Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
I am less proud to hear you tell my worth,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:
Than you much willing to be counted wise
But now to task the tasker,-Good Boyet,
In spending your wit in the praise of mine,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
No woman may approach his silent court:
Till painful study shall out-wear three years,
Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
As our best-moving fair solicitor :
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Tell him, the daughter of the King of France,
Impórtunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humbly-visag'd suitors, his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.

[Exit.

Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is Who are the votaries, my loving lords, That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? 1 Lord. Longaville is one. Prin. Know you the man Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage-feast Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge solemnized, In Normandy saw I this Longaville: A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd; Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms: Nothing becomes bim ill, that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss, Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will; (If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,) Whose edge hath power to cut whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power.

Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so? Mar. They say so most, that most his humours know.

Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.

Who are the rest?

Of all, that virtue love, for virtue lov'd:
Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I saw him at the Duke Alençon's once;
And much too little of that good I saw,
Is my report, to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit:
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest ;
Which bis fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love;
That every one her own hath garnished
With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Mar. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?
Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;
And he, and his competitors in oath,
Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady,
Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt,
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
(Like one that comes here to besiege his court,)
That seek a dispensation for his oath,
To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.

[The Ladies mask.

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON, and
Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of

Navarre.

Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and, welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wild fields too base

to be mine.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my

court.

Prin. I will be welcome then; conduct me

thither.

King. Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath.
Prin. Our lady help my lord! he'll be forsworn.
King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.
Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing
else.

King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.
Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
I hear, your grace hath sworn-out house-keeping:
Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
And six to break it:

But pardon me, I am too sudden bold;
To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming.
And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

[Gives a paper.

King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away;
For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant

once ?

Res. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
Biron. I know you did.

SIAX.-NO. XX.

Ros.

To ask the question!

How needless was it then

Biron.
Ros. 'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such
questions.

You must not be so quick.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast,
'twill tire.

Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.
Biron. Now fair befall your mask!
Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And send you many lovers!
Ros. Amen, so you be none.
Biron. Nay, then will I be gone.

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate
The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
Being but the one half of an entire sum,
Disbursed by my father in his wars,

But say, that he, or we, (as neither have,)
Receiv'd that sum; yet there remains unpaid
A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which
One part of Aquitain is bound to us,
Although not valued to the money's worth.
If then the king your father will restore
But that one half which is unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And bold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that it seems, be little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid
A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;
Which we much rather had depart withal,
And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding, 'gainst some reason, in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much
wrong,

And wrong the reputation of your name,
In so unseeming to confess receipt
Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.
Prin.
We arrest your word :-
Boyet, you can produce acquittances,
For such a sum, from special officers
Of Charles his father.

Where that and other specialties are bound;
To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

King. It shall suffice me: at which interview,
All liberal reason I will yield unto.
Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand,
As honour, without breach of honour, may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness:
You may not come, fair princess, in my gates;
But here without you shall be so receiv'd,
As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart,
Though so denied fair harbour in my house.
Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell:
To-morrow shall we visit you again.

Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort your
grace!

King. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place' [Exeunt KING and his train.

Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle, af fected.

Prin. Your reason.

Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their retire

To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire :
His heart like an agate, with your print impressed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble in haste, in his eye-sight to be;
All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair:
Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
Who, tend'ring their own worth, from where they
were glass'd,
Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd.
His face's own margent did quote such amazes,
That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,
An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.
Prin. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is disposed.
Boyet. But to speak that in words, which his eye
hath disclos'd:

I only have made a mouth of his eye,
By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.
Ros. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st
skilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news

of him.

Biron. You are welcome, sir; adieu !

Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.

[Exit BIRON.-Ladies unmask.

Mar. That last is Biron, the merry mad-cap lord; Not a word with him but a jest.

Boyet. Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his word.

And every jest but a word.

Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to board.

Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry! Boyet. And wherefore not ships? No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.

Mar. You sheep, and I pasture; Shall that finish

the jest?

Boyet. So you grant pasture for me.

;

[Offering to kiss her. Mar. Not so, gentle beast My lips are no common, though several they be. Boyet. Belonging to whom? Mar. To my fortunes and me. Prin. Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles,

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Another part of the same.

Enter ARMADO and MOTH.

Arm. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing. Moth. Concolinel·

[Singing.

Arm. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years! take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love.

Moth. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?

Arm. How mean'st thou ? brawling in French? Moth. No, my complete master: but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your eye-lids; sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through the throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love; sometime through the nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouselike, o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crosscd on your thin belly-doublet, like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away: These are compliments, these are humours; these betray nice wenches that would be betrayed without them,

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.

There's the moral: Now the l'envoy.

and make them mon of note, (do you note, men?)
that most are affected to these.

Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience?
Moth. By my penny of observation.
Arm. But 0,-but O-

Moth. the hobby-horse is forgot.

Arm. Callest thou my love, hobby-horse?

Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love, perhaps, a hackney. But have you forgot your love?

Arm. Almost I had.

Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Moth. And out of heart, master: all those three
I will prove.

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with ber; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, nothing at all.

and yet

Arm. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me letter.

Moth. A message well sympathized; a horse to be ambassador for an ass!

Arm. Ha, ha! what sayest thou?

Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon
borse, for he is very slow-gaited: But I go.
Arm. The way is but short; away.
Moth. As swift as lead, sir.

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?

Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?

по

Moth. Minimè, honest master; or rather, master,

Moth. I will add the l'envoy: say the moral again.
Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Moth. Until the goose came out of door,
And stay'd the odds by adding four.

Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow
with my l'envoy.

The fox, the ape, and the humble bee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Arm. Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.
Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose;
Would you desire more

Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose.
that's flat :-

Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.

To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and
loose :

Let me see a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose.
Arm. Come hither, come hither: How did this
argument begin?

Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a
shin.

Then call'd you for the l'envoy.

Cost. True, and I for a plantain: Thus cam> your argument in;

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;

And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard broken in a shin?

Moth. I will tell you sensibly.

Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy.

I, Costard, running out that was safely within, You are too swift, sir, to say so: Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.

Arm. I say, lead is slow.
Moth.

Is that lead slow which is fir'd from a gun?
Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric!

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he :-
I shoot thee at the swain.
Moth.

Thump then, and I flee. [Exit. Arm. A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!

By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy
face:

Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.

Re-enter MOTH and COSTARD.

Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard broken in a shin.

Arm. Some enigma, some riddle: come,-thy l'envoy;-begin.

Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.
Arm. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
Cost. O, marry me to one Frances ;-1 smell
some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound.

Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose.

Arm. give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: Bear this significant to the country maid Jaquenetta; there is remuneration; [giving him money] for the best ward of mine honour, is, rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu.

Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony in the mail, sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain; Jew! [Exit MOTH. no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain ! Now will I look t› his remuneration. Remunera. Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly tion! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings. thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs pro-three farthings-remuneration. — What's the price vokes me to ridiculous smiling: O, pardon me, my of this inkle? a penny :-No, I'll give you a remustars Doh the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy,neration: why, it carries it. Remuneration!and the word, l'envoy, for a salve? why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word.

Moth. Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve?

Ari. No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse,
to make plain

Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.
I will example it:

Enter BIRON.

Biren. , my good knave Costard exceedingly well met.

Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration? Biron. What is a remuneration?

Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing.

Biron. O, why then, three-farthings-worth of silk.

Cost. I thank your worship: God be with you!
Biron. O, stay, slave; I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.

Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Biron. O, this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.
Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow
morning.

Biron. It must be done this afternoon. slave, it is but this:

Hark,

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady;
When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her

name,

And Rosaline they call her ask for her; And to her white band see thou do commend This seal'd up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. [Gives him money. Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration, eleven-pence farthing better: Most sweet guerdon! I will do it, sir, in print.-Guerdon-remuneration. [Exit.

Biron. O!- And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;

very beadle to a humorous sigh;

A critic; nay, a night-watch constable;
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid:
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator, and great general
Of trotting paritors, O my little heart!-
And I to be a corporal of his field,
And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
What? I! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing; ever out of frame;
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan;
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan. [Exit.

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.-
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?

For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot.
Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot,
And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.
For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.
Prin. What, what? first praise me,
and again

say, no?

O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!
For. Yes, madam, fair.
Prin.
Nay, never paint me now;
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true;
[Giving him money.

Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
Prin. See, see, my beauty will be gav'd by merit.
O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-
But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to show my skill,

That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;
When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart:

As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill
The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.
Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sove-
reignty

Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

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