sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it 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.

ARM. We will have, if this fadgea not, an antic. I beseech you, follow.
HOL. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, sir.

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.

Fadge. This word is from the Anglo-Saxon feg-an-to join together, and thence, to fit, to agree. Somner gives this derivation, and explains that things will not fadge when they cannot be brought together, so as to serve to that end whereto they are designed. In Warner's 'Albion's England' we have this passage, which is quoted in Mr. Richardson's valuable Dictionary:

"It hath been when as hearty love

Did treat and tie the knot,

Though now, if gold but lack in grains,

The wedding fadgeth not.”

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. Madame, 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 waxa;
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; heb 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 out.
KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff;
Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look, what you do; you do it still i' the dark.
KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not for me.
Ros. Great reason; for, Past care is still past cure.
PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of witd well play'd.
But, Rosaline, you have a favour too:

Ros.

Who sent it? and what is it?

An if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great; be witness this.

Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron:

The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,

I were the fairest goddess on the ground:

To war-to grow; as we say, the moon waxeth. The seal and the wax form a pun too good

to be called pardonable.

He. The folio has the more comic a.

Mouse. So 'Hamlet,' Act III., Scene 4, "call you his mouse."

Set of wit. Set is a term used at tennis.

I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!

PRIN. Anything like?

Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise.

PRIN. Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion.

KATH. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor,
My red dominical, my golden lettera:

O that your face were not so full of O's!

PRIN. A pox of that jest! and beshrew all shrows!

But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain? KATH. Madam, this glove.

PRIN.

Did he not send you twain?

KATH. Yes, madam; and moreover,

Some thousand verses of a faithful lover;

A huge translation of hypocrisy,

Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity.

MAR. This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville;
The letter is too long by half a mile.

PRIN. I think no less: Dost thou not wish in heart,
The chain were longer, and the letter short?
MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part.
PRIN. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.
Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.
That same Biron I'll torture ere I go.

O, that I knew he were but in by the week!
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek;
And wait the season, and observe the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes;
And shape his service wholly to my behests";
And make him proud to make me proud that jests!
So portent-likee would I o'ersway his state,

That he should be my fool, and I his fate.

PRIN. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd,

As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd,

Rosaline, it appears, was a brunette; Katharine fair, perhaps red-haired, marked with smallpox. Tieck says that, in the early alphabets for children, A was printed in red, B, as well as the remainder of the alphabet, in black; and thus the ladies jest upon their complexions.

Rosaline twits Katharine that her face is marked with the small-pox; not so is omitted in the folio. The answer, which we now give to Katharine, is spoken by the Princess, in the original. Not, which is wanting in the first folio, is inserted in the second.

с

Behests. The quarto and first folio read devise. The correction, which is necessary for the rhyme, was made in the second folio.

• Portent-like. The old copies read "pertaunt-like." Have we got the right word? Warburton explains portent-like by a paraphrase "I would be his fate, or destiny, and, like a portent, hang over and influence his fortunes."

Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school;

And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess,
As gravity's revolt to wantonnessa.

MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,
As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote;
Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity.

Enter BOYET.

PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face.

BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace?
PRIN. Thy news, Boyet?

BOYET.

Prepare, madam, prepare!

Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are
Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd,
Armed in arguments; you'll be surpris'd:
Muster your wits; stand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
PRIN. Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they,
That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say.
BOYET. Under the cool shade of a sycamore,

I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour;
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos'd rest,
Toward that shade I might behold address'd
The king and his companions: warily
I stole into a neighbour thicket by,
And overheard what you shall overhear;
That, by and by, disguis'd they will be here.
Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage:
Action, and accent, did they teach him there;
"Thus must thou speak, and thus thy body bear:"
And ever and anon they made a doubt,

Presence majestical would put him out;
"For," quoth the king, "an angel shalt thou see;
Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously."

The boy replied, "An angel is not evil;

I should have fear'd her had she been a devil."

With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder;

Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.

One rubb'd his elbow, thus; and fleer'd, and swore,

A better speech was never spoke before:

This was a correction by the editor of the second folio, instead of wanton's be.

Another with his finger and his thumb,

Cried, "Via! we will do 't, come what will come :"
The third he caper'd, and cried, "All goes well;"
The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell.
With that, they all did tumble on the ground,
With such a zealous laughter, so profound,
That in this spleen ridiculous appears

To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.
PRIN. But what, but what, come they to visit us?
BOYET. They do, they do; and are apparel'd thus,-
Like Muscovites, or Russians 27, as I guess.
Their purpose is, to parle, to court, and dance:
And every one his love-feat will advance
Unto his several mistress; which they 'll know
By favours several, which they did bestow.

PRIN. And will they so? the gallants shall be task'd:-
For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd;

And not a man of them shall have the grace,
Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.

Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear,

And then the king will court thee for his dear;

Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine;
So shall Biron take me for Rosaline.-

And change your favours too; so shall your loves
Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes.

Ros. Come on then; wear the favours most in sight.
KATH. But, in this changing, what is your intent?
PRIN. The effect of my intent is, to cross theirs :
They do it but in mocking merriment;
And mock for mock is only my intent.
Their several counsels they unbosom shall
To loves mistook; and so be mock'd withal,
Upon the next occasion that we meet,
With visages display'd, to talk and greet.
Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to 't?
PRIN. No; to the death we will not move a foot:

Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace :
But, while 't is spoke, each turn away her face.
BOYET. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart",
And quite divorce his memory from his part.

▪ The folio has "keeper's heart"—a typographical error, produced probably by an accidental transposition of the letters. The expression "kill the speaker's heart" reminds us of the homely pathos of Dame Quickly, with reference to Falstaff, "The king has killed his heart." (Henry V., Act II., Scene 1.)