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Consider who the king your father sends;
To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight.
Than Aquitain, a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As nature was in making graces dear,
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

[mean,

Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's' tongues:
I am less proud to hear you tell my worth,
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending thus your wit in praise of mine,
But now to task the tasker,-Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame

Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
Till painful study shall out-wear three years,
No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to us 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-visag'd suitors, his high will,
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.-
[Exit.
Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
That are yow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
Lord. Longaville is one.

Prin. Know you the man?

Mar. I knew him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Faulconbridge 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)

5

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 inerry mocking lord belike; is't so?
Mar. They say so most, that most his humours
know.
[grow.

Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they
Who are the rest?

[youth,

Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd
10Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd:
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;
15 And much too little, of that good I saw,
Is my report to his great worthiness.

20

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him, as 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;
25 Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger bearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
30__Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love;
That every one her own hath garnished
With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Mar. Here comes Boyet.

35

Re-enter Boyet.

Prin. Now, what admittance, lord?

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, 40 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.

45 Enter the King, Longaville, Dumain, Biron, and Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of

Navarre.

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Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and, wel50come 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.

Cheap or cheping was anciently the market; chapman therefore is marketman.

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i. e. joined.

* i. e. were prepared.

i. e. well qua

King.

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

Prin. Our Lady help my lord! he'll be forsworn.
King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.
Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and no- 5
thing else.

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

10

15

King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away;
For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not Idance with you in Brabant once? 20
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.

[tire.

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

And wrong the reputation of your name,
In so unseeming to confess receipt
Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin. We arrest your word:-
Boyet, you can produce acquittances,
For such a sum, from special officers
Of Charles his father.

King. Satisfy me so.

[come,

Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not
Where that and other specialties are bound;
To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

King. It shall suffice me; at which interview,
All liberal reason I will yield unto.
Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand,
As honour, without breach of honour may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness:
You may not come, fair princess, in my gates;
But here without you shall be so receiv'd,
As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart,
Though so deny'd fair harbour in my house.
Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell;
25 To-morrow we shall visit you again. [grace!
Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort your
King. Thy own wish, wish I thee in every place!
[Exit.
Biron. Lady, I will commend you to my own
Ros. I pray you, do my commendations; [heart.
I would be glad to see it.

30

Biron. I would, you heard it groan. Ros. Is the fool sick?

Biron. Sick at the heart.

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King. Madam, your father here doth intimate

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Receiv'd that sum; yet there remains unpaid

One part of Aquitain is bound to us,

A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which

Although not valu'd to the money's worth.
If then the king your father will restore

But that one half which is unsatisfy'd,

We will give up our right in Aquitain,
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 Aquitain;
Which we much rather had depart' withal,
And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A vielding, 'gainst some reason in my breast.
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much wrong,

1451

150

Biron. Would that do it good?

Ros. My physick says, I.

Biron, Will you prick 't with your eye?

Ros. Non poynt, with my knife.

Biron. Now, God save thy life!
Ros. And yours from long living!

Biron. I cannot stay thanksgiving.

Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word; What lady is that same?

Boyet. The heir of Alençon, Rosaline her name. Dum. A gallant lady! Monsieur, fare you well.

[Exit. Long. I beseech you, a word; What is she in the white? [the light. Boyet. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in Long. Perchance, light in the light: I desire

her name.

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1 Depart is here synonymous to part with.

Biron

His heart, like an agat, with your print impressed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble with haste in his eye-sight to be;
5 All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair:
Methought, all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some price to buy:
Who, tendering their own worth, from whence
they were glass'd,

Biron. What's her name in the cap?
Boyet. Katharine, by good hap.
Biron. Is she wedded, or no?
Boyet. To her will, sir, or so.
Biron. You are welcome, sir; adieu!
Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
[Exit Biron
Mar. That last is Biron, the merry mad-caplord;
Not a word with him but a jest.
Boyet. And every jest but a word. [word. 10
Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his
Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to
Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry!
Boyet. And wherefore not ships?
No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.
Mar. You sheep, and I pasture; shall that finish
Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. [the jest?
Mar. Not so, gentle beast;

[board.

My lips are no common, though several' they be.
Boyet. Belonging to whom?

Mur. To my fortunes and me.

15

Did point out to buy them, along as you pass'd.
His face's own margent did quote such amazes,
That all eyes saw his eyes inchanted with gazes:
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,
An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.
Prin. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is dispos'd—
Boyet. But to speak that in words, which his
eye hath disclos'd:

I only have made a mouth of his eye,
20 By adding a tongue which I know will not lye.
Ros. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st

[agree:
Prin. Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles,
The civil war of wits were much better used
On Navarre and his bookmen; for here 'tis abused.
Boyet. Ifmy observation,(which very seldom lyes) 25|
By the heart's still rhetorick, disclosed with eyes,
Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

[fected.

Prin. With what?
Boyet. With that which we lovers intitle af-
Prin. Your reason?

skilfully.

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[retire 30

Ros. Ay, our way to be gone.

Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire:

Buyet. You are too hard for me,

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

The Park; near the Palace.

Enter Armado and Moth.

АСТ III.

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feet, humour it with turning up your eyelids; sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through the throat, as if you swallowed love with singing 45 love; sometime through the nose, as if you snuti'd up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouse-like, o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms cross'd on your thin-belly doublet, like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away: These are complements, these are humours: these betray nice wenches-that would be betray'd without these; and make the men of note, (do you note men?) that are most affected to these.

Arm. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring 50 him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love.

2

Moth. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl'

Arm. How mean'st thou? brawling in French? 55 Moth. No, my compleat master; but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary" to it with your

Arm, How hast thou purchas'd this experience?
Moth. By my penny of observation.

This word, which is provincial, and ought to be spelt severell, means those fields which are alternately sown with corn, and during that time are kept severell, or severed, from the field which lies fallow, and is appropriated to the grazing of cattle, not by a fence, but by the care of the cowherd or shepherd, in which the town-bull only is allowed to range unmolested. That is, hastily. A Canary was the name of a sprightly nimble dance. i. e. accomplishments. The meaning is, that they not only inveigle the young girls, but make the men taken notice of too,

kind of dance.

who affect them.

Arm.

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5

10

Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the male, sir: O sir, plantain, a plain plan❤ tain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, or salve, sir, but a plantain !

Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: O, pardon ine, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve Mor l'encoy, and the word l'enroy for a salve? Moth. Doth the wise think them other? is not' l'envoy a salve?

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her; in heart 151 you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

Arm. I am all these three.

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse,
to make plain
[sain.
Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been
will example it:

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
There's the moral: Now the l'envoy.
Moth. I will add the l'envoy; Say the moral again.
Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three:
Moth. Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.
Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow
25 with my l'envoy.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet 20 nothing at all.

Arm. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter.

Moth. A message well sympathiz'd; a horse to be embassador for an ass!

Arm. Ha, ha; what sayest thou?

Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon
the horse, for he is very slow-gaited: But I go.
Arm. The way is but short; away.
Moth. As swift as lead, sir.

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?

Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?

Moth. Minimè, honest master; or rather,

master, no.

Arm. I say, lead is slow.

Moth. You are too swift, sir, to say so:
Is that lead slow, which is fir'd from a gun?
Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetorick:

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's
I shoot thee at the swain.

30

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,

Were still at odds, being but three:
Arm. Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.

Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose ;-
Would you desire more?

Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain“, a goose

that's flat:--

[fat.

Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be 35 To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and

[he:

40

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loose:

Let me see a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose. Arm. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin?

Moth. By saying, that a Costard was broken in a shin: then call'd you for the l'envoy.

Cost. True, and I for a plantain; thus came your argument in:

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;

And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard' broken in a shin?

Moth. I will tell you sensibly.

Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy :—

In the celebration of May-day, besides the sports now used of hanging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was dressed up representing maid Mariais; another like a friar; and another rode on a hobby-horse, with bells jingling, and painted streamers. After the Reformation took place, and Precisians multiplied, these latter rites were looked upon to savour of paganism; and then maid Marian, the friar, and the poor hobby-horse, were turned out of the games. Some who were not so wisely precise, but regretted the disuse of the hobby-horse, no doubt, satirized this suspicion of idolatry, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to. Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out, But oh! but oh!humourously pieces out his exclamation with the sequel of this epitaph. Meaning, a hot, mad-brain'd, unbroken young fellow; or sometimes an old fellow with juvenile desires. Welkin is the sky. i. e. a head. The Penvoy, which is a term borrowed from the old French poetry, appeared always at the head of a few concluding verses to each piece, and either served to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some particular person. To sell a bargain here means to lead a person to say something, which being applied to himself makes him ap pear ridiculous, so Armado is supposed to call himself a goose. The head was anciently called the costard, as observed above.-A costard likewise signified a crab-stick.

2

4

1, Costard, running out, that was safely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.
Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.
Arm. Sirrah, Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
Cost. O, marry me to one Frances;-I smell
some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immur'd, restrained, captivated, bound:

Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose.

5

10

Arm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: Bear this significant to the country maid 15 Jaquenetta: there is remuneration; [Giving him money.] for the best ward of mine honour, is, rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu. [Exit. 20 Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony1 Jew!

Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings-remuneration.-What's 25 the price of this inkle? a penny :—No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it.-Remuneration!-why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word. Enter Biron.

Biron. O, my good knave, Costard! exceedingly well met.

Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

Biron. What is a remuneration?
Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing.
Biron. O, why then, three-farthing-worth of
silk.

Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.

Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this:

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady; [name,
When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her
And Rosaline they call her: ask for her;
And to her sweet hand see thou do commend
This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go.
[Gives him money.

Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than
remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better:--
Most sweet guerdon!--I will do it, sir, in print!.
-Guerdon-remuneration.
[Ex.
Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that
have been love's whip;

A

very beadle to a humorous sigh;
A critic; nay, a night-watch constable:
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent! [boy:
This wimpled', whining, purblind, wayward
This signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arins,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors,-O my little heart !---
30 And I to be a corpora! of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop*!
What? what? I love! I ue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing; ever out of frame;
35 And never going aright, being a watch,

Cost. I thank your worship: God be with you. 40
Biron. O, stay, slave; I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.

Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Biron. O, this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Cest. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.

But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all:
And, among three, to love the worst of all:
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,

With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
45 That Cupid will impose for my neglect

Of his almighty dreadful little might. [groan:
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

[Exit.

5

1Incony, or kony, in the north, signifies fine, delicate-as a kony thing, a fine thing. 2 i, e. reward. i. e. with the utmost nicety. The wimple was a hood or veil which fell over the face. An apperitor, or paritor, is an officer of the bishop's court, who carries out citations for fornication and other matters cognizable in his court. • That is, hanging on one shoulder, and falling under the opposite arm,

ACT

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