Enter the KING, BIRON," LONGAVILLE, and

DUMAIN.

KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs, And then grace us in the disgrace of death; When, spite of cormorant devouring time, Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,

And make us heirs of all eternity.

Biron,-] In the old copies the name is spelt Berowne, probably in accordance with the ancient pronunciation of Biron, which appears to have been Beroon, with the accent on the last syllable. Thus in Act IV. Sc. 3, we find it rhyming to moon"My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon ;My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron."

Therefore, brave conquerors!-for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires,—(1)
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little Academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have sworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
That are recorded in this schedule here:

b Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,-] The allusion here is to the figures and inscriptions on plates of brass, with which it was the fashion to ornament the tombs of distinguished persons, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. Numerous examples still remain in the churches throughout England, and in those of Belgium and Germany.

Your oaths are pass'd, and now subscribe your

names;

That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein:

If you are arm'd to do, as sworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep them* too.
LONG. I am resolv'd: 'tis but a three years' fast;
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine:
Fat paunches have lean pates," and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.
DUм. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified.
The grosser manner of these world's delights
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all these living in philosophy.

BIRON. I can but say their protestation over;
So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
That is, to live and study here three years.
But there are other strict observances:
As, not to see a woman in that term;
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
Aud, one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day beside;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there:
And then to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day;
(When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night too of half the day;)
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to see ladies,-study,-fast,—not sleep.
KING. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from

these.

BIRON. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please; I only swore, to study with your grace, And stay here in your court for three years' space. LONG. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. BIRON. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study? let me know.

KING. Why, that to know, which else we should not know.

BIRON. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from

common sense?

Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eye-sight of his look:

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile : So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. Study me how to please the eye indeed,

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,
That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;
Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,

That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights,

Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame ; And every godfather can give a name.

KING. How well he's read, to reason against reading!

DUM. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!

LONG. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow
the weeding.

BIRON. The spring is near, when green geese
are a-breeding.
DUM. How follows that?

Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For, well you know, here comes in embassy The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak,-

A maid of grace, and complete majesty,— About surrender-up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither.

King of Nauar, will onely you sit out?

Nau. No, king of Praunce, my bloud's as hot as thine : And this my weapon shall confirme my words."

bLONG. To fright them hence with that dread penalty, A dangerous law against gentility.]

So the old copies, but Theobald first, and all the modern editors since, have deprived Longaville of the second line, and given it to Biron. I have no hesitation in restoring it to the proper speaker. The only difficulty in the passage is the word gentility, (in the quarto, gentletie,) which could never have been the expression of the poet. Mr. Collier's old annotator proposes garrulity; that, or scurrility, certainly comes nearer to the sense, but neither

KING. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot.

BIRON. So study evermore is over-shot; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, "T is won, as towns, with fire; so won, so lost. KING. We must, of force, dispense with this decree;

She must lie here on mere necessity.

BIRON. Necessity will make us all forsworn Three thousand times within this three years' space;

For every man with his affects is born,

Not by might master'd, but by special grace. If I break faith, this word shall speak* for me, I am forsworn on mere necessity.So to the laws at large I write my name:

[Subscribes. And he that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame :

Suggestions are to others, as to me; But, I believe, although I seem so loth, I am the last that will last keep his oath. But is there no quick recreation granted? KING. Ay, that there is: our court, you know, is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain:
One who the music of his own vain tongue

Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our studies, shall relate,

In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,

And I will use him for my minstrelsy.

BIRON. Armado is a most illustrious wight, A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.

g

(*) First folio, break.

is satisfactory. By a dangerous law, we are to understand a biting law. In Act I. Sc. 2, there is a similar use of the word:"A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red."

She must lie here-] i. e. reside here.

d Suggestions-] Temptations, seducements.

e No quick recreation-] i.e. lively pastime, brisk diversion. the quick comedians Extemporally will stage us."

Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 2. f A man of complements,--] One versed in punctilios, of pointde-vice manners,-a formalist.

"He walks most commonly with a clove or pick-tooth in his mouth; he is the very mint of compliment; all his behaviours are printed; his face is another volume of essays; and his beard is an Aristarchus."-BEN JONSON's Cynthia's Revels, (Gifford's Ed.) vol. ii. p. 264.

g Fire-new words,-] Words freshly coined; brand-new. "Your fire-new stamp of honour scarce is current." Richard the Third, Act I. Sc. 3. Again, in "Twelfth Night," Act III. Sc. 2:"And with some excellent jest, fire-new from the mint," &c.

Cosr. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.

KING. A letter from the magnificent Armado. BIRON. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

LONG. A high hope for a low heaven: (2) God grant us patience!

BIRON. To hear? or forbear laughing? LONG. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

BIRON. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.

COST. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.d

BIRON. In what manner?

COST. In manner and form following, sir; all

Or forbear laughing?] The old copies have, "forbear hearing." The emendation is due to Capell.

d I was taken with the manner.] Costard quibbles on manner, written mainour in the old law-books; i. e. the thing stolen, and manor house, where he was arrested. With the manner, meant in the fact.

and being taken with the manner, had nothing to say for himself."-HEYWOOD's Rape of Lucrece, 1630.