6

Biron. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation.
Ros. What would they, say they ?
Boyet. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation.
Ros. Why, that they have ; and bid them so be gone.
Boyet. She says you have it, and you may be gone.

King. Say to her, we have measur'd many miles,
To tread a measure with her on this grass.

Boyet. They say, that they have measur'd many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass.

Ros. It is not so : ask them, how many inches Is in one mile : if they have measured many, The measure then of one is easily told.

Boyet. If, to come bither, you have measur'd miles, And many miles ; the princess bids you tell, How many inches do fill up one mile.

Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps.
Boyet. She hears herself.

Ros. How many weary steps,
Of many weary miles you have o'ergone,
Are number'd in the travel of one mile ?

Biron. We number nothing that we spend for you ;
Our duty is so rich, so infinite,
That we may do it still without accompt.
Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,
That we, like savages, may worship it.

Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too.

King. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine (Those clouds remov'd) upon our wat’ry eyne.'

Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou now request'st but moonshine in the water. King. Then, in our measure do but vouchsafe one

change : Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange. Ros. Play, music, then : nay, you must do it soon.

(Music plays. Not yet;-no dance :thus change I like the moon.

[6] The measures were dances solemn and slow They were performed at court, and at public entertainments of the societies of law and equity, at their balls, oa particular occasione. It was formerly not deeped inconsistent with propriety even for the gravest persons to join in them; and accordingly at the revels which were celebrated at the inns of court, it has not been unusual for the first chararters in the law to becotne performers in treading the nueasures. See Dugdale's OT giacs Juridiciales.

(7) When Queen Elizabeth asked an emha avlor how he liked her ladies, • It is hard,' said be, to judge of ctars in the preseoce of the sun.' JOHNSON

REED

pany?

King. Will you not dance ? How come you thus es

trang d? Ros. You took the moon at full ; but now she's chang'd.

King. Yet still she is the moon, and I the man. The music plays ; vouchsafe some motion to it.

Ros. Our ears vouchsate it. King. But your legs should do it. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice : take bands ;-we will not dance.

King. Why take we bands then ?

Ros. Only to part friends :-
Court'sy, sweet hearts ; and so 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 com-
Ros. Your absence 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 best pleas'd with that.

[They converse apart. Bir. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. Prin. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three.

Biron. Nay then, two treys, (an if you grow so nice) Metheglin, wort, and malmsey ;-Well run, dice! There's half a dozen sweets.

Prin. Seventh sweet, adieu !
Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you.

Biron. One word in secret.
Prin. Let it not be sweet.
Biron. Thou griey'st my gall.
Prin. Gall ! bitter.
Biron. Therefore meet.

[They converse apart.
Dum. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word ?
Mar. Name it.
Dum. Fair lady,-

Mar. Say you so ? Fair lord, Take that for your fair lady.

(8) To cog, signifies lo falsify the dice, and to falsify a narrative, or to lie.

JOHNSON. Vol. III.

K

Dum. Please it

you, As much in private, and I'll bid adieu. (They converse apart.

Kath. What, was your visor made without a tongue ?
Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask.
Kath. O, for your reason ! quickly, sir; I long.

Long. You have a double tongue within your mask,
And would afford my speechless visor half.

Kath. Veal, quoth the Dutchman ;-Is not veal a calf?
Long. A calf, fair lady?
Kath. No, a fair lord calf.
Long. Let's part the word.

Kath. 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 sharp Will you give horns, chaste lady ? do not so. (mocks? Kath. Then die a calf, before your

horns do grow. Long. One word in private with you, ere I die. Kath. Bleat softly then, the butcher hears you cry.

[They converse apart. Boyet. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen

As is the razor's edge invisible, Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen ;

Above the sense of sense : so sensible
Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings,
Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things.

Ros. Not one word more, my maids ; break off, break off.
Biron. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff!
King. Farewell, mad wenches ; you have simple wits.

[Exe. King, Lords, Moth, Music, and Attendants.
Prin. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovites.-
Are these the breed of wits so wonder'd at?
Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths

puff’d out Ros. Well-liking witso they have ; gross, gross ; fat, fat.

Prin. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout !
Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night?

Or ever, but in visors, show their faces ?
This pert Birón was out of countenance quite.

Ros. O! they were all in lamentable cases ! The king was weeping-ripe for a good word.

Prin. Birón did swear himself out of all suit. Mar. Dumain was at my service, and his sword : [9] Well-liking is the same, as embonpoint. So, io Job xxxix. 4: “Their young ones are in good liking."

STEEVENS.

No point, quoth 1;' my servant straight was mute.

Kath. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er bis heart;
And trow you, what he call’d me?

Prin. Qualm, perhaps.
Kath. Yes, in good faith.
Prin. Go, sickness as thou art !

Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-cape.' But will you hear? the king is my love sworn.

Prin. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me.
Kuth. And Longaville was for my service born.
Mar. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree.

Buyer. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear:
Iminediately they will again be here
In their own shapes ; for it can never be,
They will digest this harsb indignity.

Prin. Will they return ?

Boyet. They will, they will, God knows;
And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows :
Therefore, change favours ; and, when they repair,
Blow like sweet roses in this summer air.

Prin. How blow ? how blow ? speak to be understood,

Boyet. Fair ladies, mask’d, are roses in their bud. Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown."

(U Point in French is an adverb of negation; but, if properly spoken, is do sounded like the point of a sword A quibble, however, is intended. From this and the other passages it appears, that either our author was not well acquainted with the pronunciation of the French language, or it was different formerly to what it is at present. The former supposition appears to me much the more probable of the two. MALONE.

[2] This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute-cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. JOHNSON

Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, the 13th of Queen Elizabeth “ Besides the bills passed into acts this parliament, there was one which I judge not atniss to be taken notice or--it concerned the Queen's care for employment for her poor sort of subjects. It was for continuance of making and wearing woollen cape, in belalf of the trade of cappers : providing, that all above the age of six yeares, (except the nobility and some others) should on sabbath days and holy days, wear caps of rool, knit, thicked, and drest in England, upon penalty of ten groats.” Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth. Vol. II p. 74.

GREY. This act may account for the distinguishing mark of Mother Red-cap. STE.

The king and his lords probably wore hals adorned with feathers. So they are represented in the print affixed to this play in Mr. Rowe's edition, probably from some stage tradition. MALONE

(3) Ladies unmaskid, says Royet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink froin before them. JOHNSON.

Holinsbed says, " The Britis began to aval, the hills where ther had lodged," 1. c. they began to desccad the bills. If Shakespeare uses the word vailing in this

Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do,
If they return in their own shapes to woo ?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd,
Let's mock them still, as well known, as disguis’d:
Let us complain to them what fools were here,
Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear ;
And wonder, what they were ; and to what end
Their shallow shows, and prologue vilely penn'd,
And their rough carriage so ridiculous,
Should be presented at our tent to us.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at band.
Prin. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land.

[Exe. Prin. Ros. Kath, and MAR. Enter the King, Biron, Longaville and Dumain, in their

proper

habits. King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess ?

Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither ?

King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word.
Boyet. I will ; and so will she, I know, my lord. (Exit.

Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas ;
And utters it again when God doth please :
He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares
At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve ;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve too, and lisp : Why, this is he,
That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy ;
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms ; nay, he can sing
A mean most meanly ;' and, in ushering,

sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds wbicb concealed their beauties. TOLLET.

To avale comes from the French aval, term de batelier. STEEVENS

(4) Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation frst used by the Lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Alterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth pight, to carry a wassel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpose of festirity. MALONE

(5. The mean in pusic is the tenor. So Bacop: “ The treble cutteth the air so " 'sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and therefore a mean or “ tenor is the sectest." STEEVENS.