No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to 's seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,
To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor.

Tell him, the daughter of the King of France,
On serious business, craving quick dispatch,
Importunes personal conference with his grace:
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours
[Exit Boyet.
Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

is so.

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
First Lord. Lord Longaville is one.

Prin.

Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam: at a marriage

feast,

Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized

In Normandy, saw I this Longaville :

A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd ;
Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms:
Nothing becomes him ill that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,
If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,

Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will;
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still

wills

It should none spare that come within his power. Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike ; is't so?

30

40

50

28. bold of, confident of.

45. So Fg. Qq, F1 omit 'the.'

Mar. They say so most that most his humours know.

Prin. Such short-lived wits do wither as they

grow.

Who are the rest?

Kath. The young Dumain, a

plish'd youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue loved :

well-accom

Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I saw him at the Duke Alençon's once;
And much too little of that good I saw
Is my report to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,

I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor,
Delivers in such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in
love,

That every one her own hath garnished

With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

First Lord. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?

60

70

80

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;

And he and his competitors in oath

Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady,
Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt :
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
Like one that comes here to besiege his court,
Than seek a dispensation for his oath,

To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON,
and Attendants.

King. Fair Princess, welcome to the court of
Navarre.

Prin. 'Fair' I give you back again; and 'welcome' I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my

court.

:

Prin. I will be welcome, then conduct me thither.

King. Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath.

Prin. Our Lady help my lord! he'll be for

sworn.

King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.

Prin. Why, will shall break it; will and no-
thing else.

King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.
Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were
wise,

82. competitors, associates.

83. address'd, ready.

90

100

Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
I hear your grace hath sworn out house-keeping:
"Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
And sin to break it.

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold:
To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away;
For you'll prove perjured if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant
once?

Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant
once ?

Biron. I know you did.

Ros. How needless was it then to ask the question!

Biron. You must not be so quick.

Ros. 'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.

Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.

Biron. Now fair befall your mask!
Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And send you many lovers!
Ros. Amen, so you be none.
Biron. Nay, then will I be gone.

ΠΙΟ

120

address himself to the wrong mask; but it is more likely that the rôles of Katharine and Rosaline have been interchanged. Cf. 195, 210.

D

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate The payment of a hundred thousand crowns; Being but the one half of an entire sum Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say that he or we, as neither have,
Received that sum, yet there remains unpaid
A hundred thousand more; in surety of the
which,

One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,
Although not valued to the money's worth.
If then the king your father will restore
But that one half which is unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitaine,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid

A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitaine ;

Which we much rather had depart withal
And have the money by our fat

our father lent

Than Aquitaine so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make

129 f. The general idea of this transaction is borrowed from Monstrelet's Chronicle, where Charles of Navarre, the King's father, is said to have surrendered certain lordships in France to the French king in consideration of receiving the castle of Nemours and 200,000 crowns. Shakespeare, however, has made this sum an advance by Navarre which the French king has not repaid, and for which Navarre holds part of Aquitaine on mortgage. But

130

140

150

neither party considers the
mortgaged territory (lacking as
it did the best part of the
province-so gelded as it is) to
be an equivalent of the money
due. The French king therefore
seeks to prolong his indebtedness,
and even to recover the half of
the debt which he professes to
have already paid, while Navarre
is equally concerned to have the
debt, which he professes to be
wholly unpaid, paid in full.

147. depart, part.
149. gelded, mutilated.