Enter the King, with a Paper. King. Ah me! Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by Heaven!-Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap.-I'faith, secrets. King. [Reads.] So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, Through the transparent bosom of the deep, And they thy glory through thy grief will show. Enter LONGAVILLE, with a Paper. What, Longaville! and reading! Listen, ear. Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. [Aside. Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure,' wearing papers. [Aside. 1 The ancient punishment of a perjured person was to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime. King. In love, I hope; sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name. [Aside. Long. Am I the first that have been perjured so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know. Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn' that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move; O sweet Maria, empress of my love! These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. Biron. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose; Disfigure not his slop.2 This same shall go. [He reads the sonnet. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke, deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee. My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gained, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapor is: Then, thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapor vow; in thee it is. If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke, what fool is not so wise, To lose an oath to win a paradise? Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein,3 which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess; pure, pure idolatry. 1 By triumviry and the shape of love's Tyburn, Shakspeare alludes to the gallows of the time, which was occasionally triangular. 2 Slops were wide-kneed breeches, the garb in fashion in Shakspeare's time. 3 It has been already remarked that the liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way. Enter DUMAIN, with a Paper. Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play.1 Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. More sacks to the mill! O Heavens, I have my wish! Biron. O most profane coxcomb! [Aside. Dum. By Heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye! Biron. By earth, she is but corporal; there you lie. [Aside. Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted.3 Biron. An amber-colored raven was well noted. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Her shoulder is with child. Dum. [Aside. Stoop, I say; [Aside. As fair as day. Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine. Dum. O that I had my wish! Long. [Aside. And I had mine! [Aside. [Aside. [Aside. King. And I mine too, good Lord! Biron. Amen, so I had mine, is not that a good word? Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remembered be. 1 The allusion is to the play of hide and seek. 2 A woodcock means a foolish fellow; that bird being supposed to have no brains. 3 Coted signifies marked or noted. The word is from coter, to quote. The construction of this passage will therefore be," Her amber hairs have marked or shown that real amber is foul in comparison with themselves." Steevens, however, assigns to cote the meaning of outstrip. Biron. A fever in your blood! why, then incision Would let her out in saucers; sweet misprision! [Aside. Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. [Aside. Dum. On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Through the velvet leaves the wind, That I am forsworn for thee;- And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love. This will I send; and something else more plain, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; For none offend, where all alike do dote. Long. Dumain, [advancing.] thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society. 1 The old copy reads— "Thou for whom Jove would swear." Pope thought this line defective, and altered it to You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, King. Come, sir, [advancing.] you blush; as his your case is such; You chide at him, offending twice as much. [To LONG. And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. [TO DUMAIN. What will Birón say, when that he shall hear I would not have him know so much by me. [Descends from the tree. 1 Alluding to a passage in the king's sonnet "No drop but as a coach doth carry thee." |