That we may do it ftill without accompt. Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. KING. Bleffed are clouds, to do as fuch clouds do! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy ftars, to fhine (Those clouds remov'd,) upon our wat❜ry cync. Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou now requeft'ft but moon-fhine in the water. KING. Then, in our measure do but vouchsafe one change: Thou bid'ft me beg; this begging is not strange. Ros. Play, mufick, then: nay, you must do it foon. [Mufick plays. Not yet; no dance :-thus change I like the moon. KING. Will you not dance? How come you thus eftrang'd? Ros. You took the n.Jon at full; but now fhe's chang'd. KING. Yet ftill fhe is the moon, and I the man.' The mufick plays; vouchfafe fome motion to it. Ros. Our ears vouchfafe it. KING. But your legs fhould do it. Ros. Since you are ftrangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands;-we will not dance. 8 Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy fars,] When queen Elizabeth asked an ambaffador how he liked her ladies, It is hard. faid he, to judge of stars in the prefence of the fun. JOHNSON. 9 the man.] I fufpect, that a line which rhimed with this, has been loft. MALONE. KING. Why take we hands then? Ros. Only to part friends :Court'fy, fweet hearts; and fo the measure ends. KING. More measure of this measure; be not nice. Ros. We can afford no more at such a price. KING. Prize you yourselves; What buys your company? Ros. Your abfence only. KING. That can never be. Ros. Then cannot we be bought : and so adieu; Twice to your visor, and half once to you! KING. If you deny to dance, let's hold more chat. Ros. In private then. KING. I am beft pleas'd with that. [They converfe apart. BIRON. White-handed mistress, one fweet word with thee. PRIN. Honey, and milk, and fugar; there is three. BIRON. Nay then, two treys, (an if you grow fo nice,) Metheglin, wort, and malmsey ;-Well run, dice! There's half a dozen fweets. PRIN. Seventh sweet, adieu! Since you can cog,' I'll play no more with you. BIRON. One word in fecret. PRIN. Let it not be sweet. BIRON. Thou griev'st my gall. 2 Court'fy, fweet hearts;] See Tempeft: Vol. III. p. 40. "Court'fied when you have and kifs'd-." MALONE. 3 Since you can cog,] To cog, fignifies to falfify the dice, and to falfify a narrative, or to lye. JOHNSON. Therefore meet. [They converfe apart. DUM. Will you vouchfafe with me to change a word? Please it you, Take that for your fair lady. As much in private, and I'll bid adieu. [They converfe apart. KATH. What, was your vifor made without a tongue? LONG. I know the reafon, lady, why you ask. KATH. O, for your reafon! quickly, fir; I long. LONG. You have a double tongue within your mask, And would afford my fpeechlefs vifor half. 4 KATH. Veal, quoth the Dutchman; Is not veal a calf? LONG. A calf, fair lady? ΚΑΤΗ. LONG. Let's part the word. ΚΑΤΗ. No, a fair lord calf. No, I'll not be your half: Take all, and wean it; it may prove an ox. LONG. Look, how you butt yourself in these fharp mocks! Will you give horns, chafte lady? do not fo. KATH. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow. 4 Veal, quoth the Dutchman;] I fuppofe by veal, the means well, founded as foreigners ufually pronounce that word; and introduced merely for the fake of the fubfequent queftion. MALONE. LONG. One word in private with you, ere I die. KATH. Bleat foftly then, the butcher hears you cry. [They converfe apart. BOYET. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor's edge invisible, Cutting a smaller hair than may be feen; Above the sense of fenfe: fo fenfible Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings, Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, fwifter things.' Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off. BIRON. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure fcoff! KING. Farewel, mad wenches; you have fimple wits. [Exeunt King, Lords, Moтн, Musick, and attendants. PRIN. Twenty adieus, my frozen Mufcovites.Are these the breed of wits fo wonder'd at? BOYET. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out. 6 Ros. Well-liking wits they have; grofs, grofs; fat, fat. PRIN. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout! 3 Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, fwifter things.] Mr. Ritfon obferves, that, for the fake of meafure, the word bullets fhould be omitted. STEEVENS. 6 Well-liking wits-] Well-liking is the fame as embmpoint. So, in Job, xxxix. 4. Their young ones are in good liking.” STEEVENS. Will they not, think you, hang themselves to night? Ros. O they were all' in lamentable cafes! The king was weeping-ripe for a good word. PRIN. Birón did fwear himself out of all fuit. MAR. Dumain was at my service, and his fword: No point, quoth I;' my fervant ftraight was mute. KATH. Lord Longaville faid, I came o'er his Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute caps.8 O! they were all, &c.] O, which is not found in the first quarto or folio, was added by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. "No point, quoth I;] Point in French is an adverb of negation; but, if properly spoken, is not founded like the point of a fword. A quibble, however, is intended. From this and the other paffages it appears, that either our author was not well acquainted with the pronunciation of the French language, or it was different formerly from what it is at prefent. The former fuppofition appears to me much the more probable of the two. In The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, Philomufus fays-" Tit, tit, tit, non poynte; non debet fieri," &c. See alfo Florio's Italian Dict. 1598, in v. "Punto.-never a whit;-no point, as the Frenchmen fay." MALONE. 8 better wits have worn plain ftatute-caps.] This line is not univerfally understood, becaufe every reader does not know that a ftatute cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rofaline declares that her expectation was difappointed by thefe courtly ftudents, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. JOHNSON. |