Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your mistreffes dare never come in rain, For fear their colours fhould be wash'd away. King. 'Twere 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 dooms-day here King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as fhe. Dum. I never knew man hold vile ftuff fo dear. Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee. Biron. O, if the ftreets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for fuch tread. Dum. O vile! then as fhe goes, what upward lies The street should fee as fhe walkt over head. King. But what of this, are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing so fure, and thereby all forfworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there; this evil.. fome flattery for Long. O, fome Authority how to proceed; Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devil. Biron. O, 'tis more than need. Have at you then, Affection's Men at arms; And where that you have vow'd to study, (Lords) Can you ftill dream, and pore, and thereon look? K 4 From From whence doth fpring the true Promethean fire: The nimble fpirits in the arteries; As motion and long during Action tires (26) A Lover's Ear will hear the lowest Sound, When the fufpicious Head of Theft is flop'd.] Love's I have ventur'd to fubftitute a Word here, against the Authority of all the printed Copies. There is no Contrast of Terms, betwixt a Lover and a Thief: but betwixt a Lover and a Mon of Thrift there is a remarkable Antithefis. Nor is it true in Love's Feeling is more foft and fenfible, Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails. Love's Tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in Tafte; Still climbing trees in the Hefperides? (27) As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair: in Fact, I believe, that a Thief, harden'd to the Profeffion, is always fufpicious of being apprehended; but He may sleep as found as an honefter Man. But, according to the Ideas we have of a Mifer, a Man who makes Lucre and Pelf his fols Object and Purfuit, his Sleeps are broken and disturb'd with perpetual Apprehenfions of being robb'd of his darling Treafure: confequently, his Ear is upon the attentive Bent, even when he fleeps best. (27) For Valour is not Love a Hercules. Still climbing Trees in the Hefperides ?] I have here again ventur'd to tranfgrefs against the printed As this is writ and pointed in all the Copies, there is neither K S Never Never durft Poet touch a pen to write, From womens eyes this doctrine I derive: For charity it felf fulfils the law; And who can fever love from charity? King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field! Pell mell, down with them; but be first advis'd, Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay these glozes by; 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 thi ther; 'Then homeward every man attach the hand Of his fair miftrefs; in the afternoon We will with some strange paftime folace them, Biron. Allons! Allons! fown Cockle reap'd no And justice always whirls in equal measure; S SCENE, the Street. Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull: HOLOFERNES. Atis. quod fufficit. Nath. I praise God for you, Sir, your reasons at dinner have been sharp and fententious; pleasant without Scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without Impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrangewithout herefy: I did converse this quondam day with a. companion of the King's, who is entituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most fingular and choice epithet.. [draws out his table book. (29) Alone, alone, fow'd Cockrel,] The Editors, fure, could have no Idea of this Paffage. Biron begins with a repetition in French of what the King had faid in English; Away, away! and then proceeds with a proverbial Expreffion, inciting them to what he had before advis'd, from this Inference; if We only fow Cockle, we shall never reap Corn. i. e. If we don't take the proper Measures for winning these Ladies, we shall never atchieve them, Mr. Warburton. Hol. 1 |