Page images
PDF
EPUB

PERSONS represented.

Ferdinand, King of Navarre.

Biron,

Longaville,

Lords, attending on the King.

Dumain,

Boyet,

Mercade,

Lords, attending on the Princess of France.

Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. Sir Nathaniel, a Curate.

Holofernes, a Schoolmaster.

Dull, a Conftable.

Coftard, a Clown.

Moth, Page to Armado.

A Forcher.

Princess of France.

Rofaline,

Maria,

Katharine,

Ladies, attending on the Princefs.

Jaquenetta, a country Wench.

Officers, and others, attendants on the King and

Princefs.

SCENE, Navarre.

This enumeration of the perfons was made by Mr. Rowe.

JOHNSON.

[ocr errors]

ACT I. SCENE I.

Navarre. A Park, with a Palace in it.

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 difgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring time,
The endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour, which fhall bate his fcythe's keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors!-for fo you are,
That war against your own affections,

And the huge army of the world's defires,-
Our late edi& fhall strongly stand in force:
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;

Our court fhall be a little Academe,

Still and contemplative in living art.

You three, Birón, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have fworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-scholars, and to keep thofe ftatutes,
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are paft, and now fubfcribe your names;
That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smalleft branch herein :

If you are arm'd to do, as fworn to do,,
Subscribe to your deep oath, and keep it too.

$ your deep oath, ] The old copies have-oaths. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

LONG. I am refolv'd; 'tis but a three years' fast; The mind fhall banquet, though the body pine: Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout quite the wits, DUM. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified; The groffer manner of these world's delights He throws upon the grofs world's bafer flaves: To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; With all thefe living in philofophy.

BIRON. I can but fay their proteftation over, So much, dear liege, I have already fworn, That is, To live and ftudy here three years. But there are other ftrict obfervances; As, not to see a woman in that term; Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there; And, one day in a week to touch no food; And but one meal on every day befide; The which, I hope, is not enrolled there: And then, to fleep 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 fee ladies, study, fast, not sleep.*

1

3 With all these living in philofophy.] The ftyle of the rhyming fcenes in this play is often entangled and obfcure. I know not certainly to what all thefe is to be referred; I fuppofe he means, that he finds love, pomp, and wealth in philofophy. JOHNSON.

By all thefe, Dumain means the King, Birou, &c. to whom he may be fuppofed to point, and with whom he is going to live in philofophical retirement. A. C.

4 Not to fee ladies, study, faft, not sleep.] The words as they stand, will exprefs the meaning intended, if pointed thus:

Not to fee ladies

- ftudy — faft not fleep.

[ocr errors]

Biron is recapitulating the feveral tasks impofed upon him viz. not to fee ladies, to ftudy, to faft, and not to fleep: but Shakspeare, by a common poetical licenfe, though in this paffage injudiciously

KING. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. BIRON. Let me fay, no, my liege, an if you please; I only wore, to ftudy with your grace,

And stay here in your court for three years' space. LONG. You fwore to that, Biron, and to the reft. BIRON. By yea and nay, fir, then I fwore in jeft.What is the end of ftudy? let me know.

KING. Why, that to know, which elfe we should

not know.

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

KING. Ay, that is ftudy's god-like recompense. BIRON. Come on then, I will fwear to study fo, To know the thing I am forbid to know: As thus,-To study where I well may dine, When I to feaft expreffly am forbid; Or ftudy where to meet fome mistress fine, When miftreffes from common fenfe are hid: Or, having fworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth. If ftudy's gain be thus, and this be fo," Study knows that, which yet it doth not know: Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no.

}

KING. These be the ftops that hinder ftudy quite, And train our intellects to vain delight.

exercised, omits the article to, before the three last verbs, and from hence the obscurity arises. M. MASON.

s When I to feast expressly am forbid; ] The copies all have:

When I to faft expressly am forbid;

But if Biron studied where to get a good dinner, at a time when he was forbid to fast, how was this ftudying to know what he was forbid to know? Common fenfe, and the whole tenour of the context require us to read feast, or to make a change in the laft word of the verfe: —“ When I to faft expressly am fore-bid;

[ocr errors]

i. e. when I am enjoined before-hand to faft. THEOBALD. 6 If ftudy's gain be thus, and this be fo,]

[ocr errors][merged small]

Read:

BIRON. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain,

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

To feek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falfely blind the eyesight of his look:

[ocr errors]

Light, feeking light, doth light of light beguile;
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by lofing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling fo, that eye fhall be his heed,
And give him light that was it blinded by. "
Study is like the heaven's glorious fun,

That will not be deep fearch'd with faucy looks;
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed ftar,

Have no more profit of their fhining 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. 3

[blocks in formation]

Doth falfely blind-] Falfely is here, and in many other places. the fame as dishonestly or treacherously. The whole fenfe of this gingling declamation is only this, that a man by too close study may read himself blind, which might have been told with lefs obfcurity in fewer words. JOHNSON.

7 Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,

And give him light that was it blinded by.] This is another pasfage unneceffarily obfcure: the meaning is, that when he dazzies, that is, has his eye made weak, by fixing his eye upon a fairer eye, that fairer eye fhall be his heed, his direction or lode-flar, (See Midfummer-Night's Dream) and give him light that was blinded by it. JOHNSON. The old copies read-it was. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame;

And every godfather can give a name.] The confequence, fays

« PreviousContinue »