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Should ravish doters with a false aspect;

And therefore is she born to make black fair. Her favour turns the fashion of the days,

For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, Paints itself black to imitate her brow. DUM. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black.

LONG. And, since her time, are colliers counted bright.

KING. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.

DUM. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.

BIRON. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away. KING. 'T were good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.

BIRON. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.

KING. No devil will fright thee then so much as she.

DUM. I never knew man hold vile stuff so
dear.

LONG. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her
face see.
[Showing his shoe.
BIRON. O, if the streets were paved with thine
eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! DUM. O vile! then as she goes, what upward lies

The street should see as she walk'd over head. KING. But what of this? Are we not all in love?

BIRON. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.

KING. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. DUм. Ay, marry, there;-some flattery for this evil.

LONG. O, some authority how to proceed; Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. DUм. Some salve for perjury.

BIRON. O, 't is more than need!Have at you then, affection's men at arms:a Consider, what you first did swear unto ;To fast, to study, and to see no woman :Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast? stomachs are too young; your And abstinence engenders maladies. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, In that each of you hath forsworn his book:

a Affection's men at arms :] That is to say, Love's soldiers.

b Such beauty as a woman's eye?] Mr. Collier's annotator suggests, "Such learning," &c. If any change is necessary, I should prefer reading, "Such study," &c.

you

Can still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They are the ground, the books, the academes,
From whence doth spring the truc Prome-
thean fire.

b

(4)

(4)

Why, universal plodding prisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries;
As motion, and long-during action, tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the causer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our learning likewise is.
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords,
And in that vow we have forsworn our books;
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil :
But love, first learned in alady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain
But with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
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 sphynx; 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,
Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs;
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.

(*) Old editions, Make.

We see in ladies' eyes,-] After this line, the words, " With ourselves," have, apparently by inadvertence, been inserted in the early copies. See Note (4), Illustrative Comments on Act IV.

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Else, none at all in aught proves excellent :
Then fools you were, these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ;
Or for men's sake, the authors* of these women;
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion to be thus forsworn:
For charity itself fulfils the law;
And who can sever love from charity?

KING. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!

BIRON. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;

Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, In conflict that you get the sun of them.

(*) Old editions, author.

aThat will betime, &c.] This is invariably printed, "That will be time," &c.; with what meaning, I am at a loss to know. If betime is right, it appears to be used like beteem, from the Anglo-Saxon, Tym-an, to bear, to yield, &c.; but I suspect Shakespeare wrote, "That will betide," &c., i. e. will fall out, will come to pass, &c.

b Allons! Allons!-] The old copies, read, "Alone, alone;" which may be right, and mean along. The word occurs again

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LONG. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by; Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France? KING. And win them too: therefore let us devise

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

BIRON. First, from the park let us conduct them thither;

Then, homeward, every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon
We will with some strange pastime solace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
KING. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will betime," and may by us be fitted.
BIRON. Allons! Allons! b Sow'd cockle
reap'd no corn;

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And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men for

sworn;

If so, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Exeunt.

at the end of the first scene of Act V. of this Play, in "The Tempest," Act IV. Sc. 1,-Let's alone, where it has been the source of interminable controversy; and in other places in these dramas,-in the sense of along; and, in every instance, it is spelt alone. I find it with the same meaning in Beaumont and Fletcher's Play of "The Loyal Subject," Act III. Sc. 5, where it rhymes to gone; and could hardly, therefore, in that case, be a misprint.

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Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL."

HOL. Satis quod sufficit.

NATH. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection," audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

HOL. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour

a Enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull.] In the quarto and the folio. 1623, the direction here is, "Enter the Pedant, Curate, and Dull." And Holofernes is styled the "Pedant," to the end of the Scene.

.b Satis quod sufficit.] The ancient copies have quid; and in them the errors in the Latinity are so frequent and so barbarous that, in mercy to the reader, I have refrained from noting them severally, and have silently adopted the obvious corrections of my predecessors.

c Without affection,-] That is, without affectation. Thus, in "Hamlet," Act II. Sc. 2,

"No matter that might indite the author of affection."

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 peregrinate, 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

d He is too picked,-] Picked was applied both to manners and to dress. It seems to have meant, scrupulously nice; or, as we should now term it, priggish, foppish. "Hamlet," Act. V. Sc. 1,

says,

"the age is grown so picked."

So Chaucer, "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales," speaking of the dresses of the haberdasher, dyer, &c. tells us, 1. 267,

"Ful freshe and newe ther geare ypicked was." Again, in Chapman's Play of "All Fools," Act. V. Sc. 1,"I think he was some barber's son, by the mass, 'Tis such a picked fellow, not a hair About his whole bulk, but it stands in print."

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; neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable,

(which he would call abominable*) it insinuateth me of insanie: Ne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

NATH. Laus Deo, bone intelligo.

HOL. Bone ?— -bone, for benè: Priscian a little scratch'd; 't will serve.

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ARM. Men of peace, well encountered. HOL. Most military sir, salutation. MOTH. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. scrapTo

[To COSTARD aside. COST. O, they have lived long on the almsbasket 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 lettered? MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook ;

What is a, b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head?

HOL. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. MOTH. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn.— You hear his learning.

HOL. Quis, quis, thou consonant? MOTH. The third of the five vowels, if repeat them; or the fifth, if I.

you

HOL. I will repeat them, a, e, i.— MOTH. The sheep: the other two concludes it; o, u.

ARM. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew (1) of wit: snip, snap, quick, and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit.

(*) Old copies, abhominable. (†) Old editions, The last. Abhominable,-] The antiquated mode of spelling the word, which appears to have been in a transition state at the period when the present Play was written.

It insinuateth me of insanie:] The old editions have infamie. For this and other corrections in the speech we are indebted to Theobald.

c I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy:] The words remember thy courtesy have been a stumbling-block to all the commentators. Mr. Malone wrote a very long note to prove that we should read, "remember not thy courtesy ;" and Mr. Dyce says, nothing can be more evident than that Shakespeare so wrote. Whatever may have been the meaning of the words, or whether they were a mere complimentary periphrasis, without

MOTH. Offer'd by a child to an old man ; which is wit-old.

HOL. What is the figure? what is the figure? MOTH. Horns.

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 of a cuckold's horn!

COST. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeonegg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say.

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.

ARM. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. HOL. I do, sans question.

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.

HOL. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon the word is well culled; choice,* sweet, and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.

ARM. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend: -For what is inward between us, let it pass :I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy: I beseech thee, apparel thy head:-And among other importunate and most serious designs, and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass: -for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio: but, sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it

(*) First folio, culd, chose, &c.

any precise signification, the following quotations prove, I think beyond question, that the old text is right; and that the expression refers-not, as Mr. Knight supposes, to any obligation of secrecy, but simply to the Pedant's standing bare-headed,—

"I pray you be remembred, and cover your head."
Lusty Juventus. Hawkins' Edition, p. 142.
"Then I pray remember your courtesy."

MARLOWE'S Faustus, Act IV. Sc. 3.

"Pray you remember your courts'y * *
***** Nay, pray you be cover'd."
BEN JONSON'S Every Man in His Humour,
Act. I. Sc. 1. Gifford's Edition.

pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is,—but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,-that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

HOL. Sir, you shall present before her the nine Worthies.-Sir Nathaniel,* as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine Worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or† this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake;. and I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, Well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

ARM. For the rest of the Worthies?-
HOL. I will play three myself.
MOTH. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
ARM. Shall I tell you a thing?
HOL. We attend.

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HOL. Allons! we will employ thee. DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play on the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.

HOL. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another part of the same. Before the Princess's Pavilion.

Enter the PRINCESS, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and MARIA.

PRIN. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,

If fairings come thus plentifully in:
A lady wall'd about with diamonds!
Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that?

PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Writ on both sides of the leaf, margent and all; That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his godhead

wax;

d

For he hath been five thousand years a boy.
KATH. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.
Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; 'a
kill'd your sister.

KATH. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;

And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
She might have been a grandam ere she died:
And so may you; for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of
this light word?

KATH. A light condition in a beauty dark.
Ros. We need more light to find your meaning

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