your wit, insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explica- Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple ; tion; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination, after shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, rehis undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, volutions : these are begot in the ventricle of meuntrained, or rather unlettered, or, ratherest, un- mory, nourished in the womb of pia mater; and confirmed fashion, to insert again my head credo deliver'd upon the mellowing of occasion : But the for a deer. gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am Dull. I said, the deer was not a haud credo ; 'twas thankful for it. a pricket. Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so may Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus ! O thou my parishioners; for their sons are well tutor’d by monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look ! you, and their daughters profit very greatly under Nach. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that you : you are a good member of the commonwealth. are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they were; he hath not drunk ink : his intellect is not shall want no instruction : if their daughters be replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in capable, I will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui the duller parts; pauca loquitur : a soul feminine saluteth us. And such barren plants are set before us, that we Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD. thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. that do fructify in us more than he. Hol. Master person, — quasi pers-on. And if one For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, should be pierced, which is the one ? or a fool, Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of a school : But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind, conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind. pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty ; it is well. Dull. You two are book-men: Can you tell by this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me Juq. Good master parson, be so good as read me What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not from Don Armatho : I beseech you, read it. five weeks old as yet? Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbrá Hol. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good Ruminat, dan Dull. - and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! Dull. What is Dictynna ? I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice: Nath. A title to Fhæbe, to Luna, to the moon. Vinegia, Vinegia, Old Mantuan ! old Mantuan! Who understandeth And raught not to five weeks, when he came to thee not, loves thee not. – · Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. fivescore. Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or, rather, The allusion holds in the exchange. as Horace says in his — What, my soul, verses ? Dull. 'Tis true indeed; the collusion holds in the Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. exchange. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allu- | domine. sion bolds in the exchange. Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall I Dull. And I say the pollusion holds in the ex swear to love ? change; for the moon is never but a month old : Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the prin vowed ! cess kill'd. Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal prove; epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess kill'd, osiers bowed. a pricket. Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so eyes; it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Where all those pleasures live, that art would Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it comprehend : argues facility. If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty suffice; pleasing pricket ; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee Some say, a sore ; but not a sore, till now made commend : sore with shooting. All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without The dogs did yell; put I to sore, then sorel jumps wonder ; from thicket; (Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts Or pricket, sore, or else sorel ; the people fall a admire ;) hooting. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his If sore be sore, then I to sore makes fifty sores; 0 dreadful thunder, Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and sweet Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one fire. Celestial, as thou art, oh pardon, love, this Nath. A rare talent ! wrong, Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly him with a talent. tongue ! was no more ; sore L! more L. your life! (Steps aside. Hol. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here one o' my sonnets already; the clown bore it, the are only numbers ratified ; but, for the eleganey, fool sent it, and the lady hath it : sweet clown, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovi- sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would dius Naso was the man : and why, indeed, Naso ; not care a pin if the other three were in: Here but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, comes one with a paper; God give him grace to the jerks of invention ? Imitari, is nothing: so groan. (Gets up into a tree. doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But damosella virgin, was Enter the King, with a paper. this directed to you? king. Ah me! Jup. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of Biron. [ Aside.] Shot by heaven! Proceed, the strange queen's lords. sweet Cupid ; thou hast thump'd him with thy birdHål. I will overglance the superscript. To the bolt under the left pap : l'faith secrets. snow-while hand of the most beauteous Laily Rosa- King. [Reads.] So sweet a kiss the golden 528 line. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, gives not for the nomination of the party writing to the person To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, written unto : As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smole Your Ladyship’s in all tlesired employment, Biron. The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows: Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a se- Through the transparent bosom of the deep, quent of the stranger queen's, which, accidentally, As doth thy face through tears of mine give light or by the way of progression, hath miscarried. — Trip Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep; and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the royal | No drop but as a coach doth carry thee, hand of the king; it may concern much : Stay not So ridest thou triumphing in my woe : thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu. Do but behold the tears that swell in me, Jaq. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save And they thy glory through my grief will show : But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. 0 queen of queens, how far dost thou ercel ! Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell. God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith How shall she know my griefs ? I'll drop the paper; Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear co Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here? lourable colours. But, to return to the verses; Did they please you, sir Nathaniel ? Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper. Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. Wlinn, Longaville! and reading ! listen, ear. Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain Biron. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool, appupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall Aside. please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the fore Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. said child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. [ Aside. where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention : I King. In love, I hope; Sweet fellowship in shame! beseech your society. Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name. Nath. And thank you too: for society, (saith the text,) is the happiness of life. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. Sir, [to Dull.] I do invite you too ; Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort ; not by two, that I know : you shall not say me, nay: pauca verba. Away; Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner cap of the gentles are at their game, and we will to our society, recreation. [Ereunt. The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up sim plicity. SCENE III. - Another part of the same. Long. I fear, these stubborn lines lack power to Enter Biron, with a paper. O sweet Maria, empress of my love ! Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am These numbers will I tear and write in prose. coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil ; I am Biron. [Aside.] 0, rhymes are guards on wanton toiling in a pitch ; pitch that defiles ; defile ! a foul Cupid's hose : word. Well, Set thee down, sorrow! for so they Disfigure not his slop. say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Long. This same shall go. Well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax : it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep : Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye Well proved again on my side! I will not love : if ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,) I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her Persuade my heart to this false perjury? eye, - by this light, but for her eye, I would not Vous for thee broke, deserve not punishment. love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do no A woman I foreswore ; but, I will prove, thing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, | My vol was earthly, thwu a heavenly love ; Thou being a goddess, I foreswore not thee : and to be melancholy ; and here is part of my Thy grace being gain'd, curs all disgrace in me pear ! (Aside. [ Aside. move : [He reads the sonnet. the way. Vor's are but brenth, and breath a vapour is : And deny himself for Jove, Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Turning mortal for thy love. Eskal's this vapour vow; in thee it is : This will I send ; and something else more plain, If broken then, it is no fault of mine ; That shall express my true love's fasting pain. If by me broke. What fool is not so wise, 0, would the King, Birón, and Longaville, To lose an oath to win a paradise ? Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill, Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note; makes flesh a deity : For none offend, where all alike do dote. A green goose, a goddess : pure, pure idolatry. Long. Dumain, (advancing. ) thy love is far from God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' charity, You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o’erheard, and taken napping so. Long. By whom shall I send this ? - Company ! King. Come, sir, (advancing.) you blush ; as bis stay. (Stepping aside. your case is such ; Biron. (Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant You chide at him, offending twice as much : play : You do not love Maria ; Longaville Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, Did never sonnet for her sake compile; And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; His loving bosom, to keep down his heart. Dumain transform’d: four wood-cocks in a dish! I have been closely shrouded in this bush, Dum. O most divine Kate ! And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush. Birun. O most prophane coxcomb ! I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion ; [Aside. Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion : Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye ! Ah me! says one ; 0 Jove! the other cries ; Biron. By earth she is but corporal : there you One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes : lie. [ Aside. You would for paradise break faith and troth; Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber [ To Long. coted. And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. [ To DUMAIN. (Aside. What will Birón say, when that he shall hear Dum. As upright as the cedar. A faith infring’d, which such a zeal did swear ? Biron. Stoop, I say ; How will he scorn? how will he spend his wit ? Her shoulder is with child. [Aside. How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it? Dun. As fair as day. For all the wealth that ever I did see, Biron. Ay, as some days ; but then no sun must I would not have him know so much by me. shine. (Amue. Biron. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy. Dum. O that I had my wish! Ah, good my liege, I pray thee pardon me : [Descends from the tree [ Aside. Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to reprove King. And I mine too, good lord ! Aside. These worms for loving, that art most in love ? Biron. Amen, so I had mine : Is not that a good | Your eyes do make no coaches ; in your tears, word ? [ Aside. There is no certain princess that appears : Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she You'll not be perjured, 'tis a hateful thing ; Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting. Biron. A fever in your blood, why, then incision But are you not asham’d? nay, are you not, [Aside. You found his mote ; the king your mote did sae ; Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have But I a beam do find in each of three. writ. 0, what a scene of foolery I have seen, Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen! wit. [Aside. O me, with what strict patience have I sat, Dum. On a day, (alack the day!) To see a king transformed to a gnat! To see great Hercules whipping a gigg, And profound Solomon to tune a jigg, And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, And critick Timon laugh at idle toys! Where lies thy grief, O tell me, good Dumain ? And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain ? And where my liege's? all about the breast : 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 With moon-like men, of strange inconstancy. Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time, In pruning me? Wien shall you hear that I Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek; Where several worthies make one dignity; A leg, a limb ? Where nothing wants, that want itself doth seek King. Soft; Whither away so fast ? Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, A true man, or a thief, that gallops so ? Fye, painted rhetorick! O, she needs it not: Biron. I post from love; good lover, let me go. To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; She passes praise : then praise too short dott Enter JAQUENETTA and CostaRD. blot. Jaq. God bless the king ! A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Kiny. What present hast thou there? | Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye : Cost. Some certain treason. Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, K'ing. What makes treason here? And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. O, 'tis the sun, that maketh all things shine! King. If it mar nothing neither, King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony. The treason, and you, go in peace away together, Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine ! Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read; A wife of such wood were felicity. King. Biron, read over. [Giving him the letter. That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack : Where hadst thou it? If that she learn not of her eye to look : Jaq. Of Costard. No face is fair, that is not full so black. k’ing. Where hadst thou it ? King. ( paradox! Black is the badge of hell, Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night: King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. tear it; Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs of light. not fear it. O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, let's hear it. Should ravish doters with a false aspéct ; Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. And therefore is she born to make black fair. [Picks up the pieces. Her favour turns the fashion of the days ; Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, (to Cos- For native blood is counted painting now; TARD.] you were born to do me shame. And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. Paints itself black, to imitate her brow. King. What? Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to black. Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted He, he, and you, my liege, and I, bright. Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion 0, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. crack. Dum. Now the number is even. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is Biron. True, true; we are four: light. Will these turtles be gone? Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, King. Hence, sirs; away. For fear their colours should be wash'd away. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors King. 'Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell stay. [Ereunt Cost, and JAQUENET. you plain, Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us em- I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. brace! Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day As true we are, as flesh and blood can be : here. The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face ; King. No devil will fright thee then so much as Young blood will not obey an old decree : she. We cannot cross the cause why we were born ; Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn. Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her k'ing. What, did these rent lines show some love face see. [Showing his shoe. of thine? Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the eyes, heavenly Rosaline, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, Dum. O vile ! then as she goes, what upward lies At the first opening of the gorgeous east, The street should see as she walk'd over head. Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind, King. But what of this ? Are we not all in love? Kisses the base ground with obedient breast ? Biron. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all forWhat peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, King. Then leave this chat; and, good Birón, That is not blinded by her majesty? now prove King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. now? Dum. Ay, marry, there ; - some flattery for this My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon ; evil. She, an attending star, scarce seen a light. Long. O, some authority how to proceed ; Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Birón : Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. O, but for my love, day would turn to night! Dum. Some salve for perjury. the mess; Sworn. Biron. O, 'tis more than need ! Suill climbing trees in the Hesperides ? Have at you then, affection's men at arms : Subtle as sphinx ; as sweet, and musical, Consider, what you first did swear unto; As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair; Until his ink were temper’d with love's sighsı That show, contain, and nourish all the world; From women's eyes this doctrine I derive : Else, none at all in ought proves excellent : They are the ground, the books, the academes, Then fools you were these women to forswear ; From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools Why, universal plodding prisons up For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love; The nimble spirits in the arteries ; Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ; As motion, and long during-action, tires Or for men's sake, the authors of these women; The sinewy vigour of the traveller. Or women's sake, by whom we men are men ; Now, for not looking on a woman's face, Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves, You have in that forsworn the use of eyes; Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths : And study too, the causer of your vow : It is religion to be thus forsworn : For where is any author in the world, For charity itself fulfils the law ; Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye? And who can sever love from charity ? Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the And where we are, our learning likewise is. field ! Then, when ourselves we see in ladies eyes, Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, Do we not likewise see our learning there? lords; 0, we have made a vow to study, lords ; Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, And in that vow we have forsworn our books; In conflict that you get the sun of them. For wben would you, my liege, or you, or you, Long. Now to plain-dealing ; lay these glozes by; In leaden contemplation, have found out Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France? Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes King. And win them too: therefore let us devise Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with: Some entertainment for them in their tents. Other slow arts entirely keep the brain; Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them And therefore finding barren practisers, thither ; Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil: Then, homeward, every man attach the hand But love, first learned in a lady's eyes, Of his fair mistress : in the afternoon Lives not alone immured in the brain; We will with some strange pastime solace them, But with the motion of all elements, Such as the shortness of the time can shape; Courses as swift as thought in every power ; For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours, And gives to every power a double power, Fore-run fair Love, strewing her way with flowers. Above their functions and their offices. King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted, It adds a precious seeing to the eye; That will be time, and may by us be fitted. A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind ; Biron. Allons ! Allons ! - Sow'd cockle reap'd no A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound, corn ; When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd ; And justice always whirls in equal measure : Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible, Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; Than are the tender horns of cockled snails; If so, our copper buys no better treasure. Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste: [Ereunt. For valour, is not love a Hercules, ACT V. SCENE I. - Another part of the same. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam le: His humour is Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and Dull. lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general Hol. Satis quod sufficit. behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He Nath. I praise God for you, sir : your reasons at is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. without scurrility, witty without affection, auda- Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. cious without impudency, learned without opinion, [Takes out his table book. and strange without heresy. I did converse this Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity quondam day with a companion of the king's, who finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de fanatical fantasms, such insociable and point-devise Armado. companions; such reckers of orthograplıy, as to |