King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron,

now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Dum. Ay, marry, there;-some flattery for this evil.

Lon. O, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets,1 how to cheat the devil. Dum. Some salve for perjury.

Bir.

O, 'tis more than need!

Have at you then, affection's men at arms :
Consider, what you first did swear unto ;-
To fast, to study, and to see no woman ;-
Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young,
And abstinence engenders maladies :

And where that you have vow'd to study, lords,
In that each of you hath forsworn his book.
Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look ?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:

They are the ground, the books, the academes,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
Why, universal plodding prisons up

The nimble spirits in the arteries;

As motion, and long-during action, tires

The sinewy vigor of the traveller.

Law chicane.

Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes,
And study too, the causer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye? 1
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,

And where we are, our learning likewise is.
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
With ourselves,

Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forsworn our books:
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts intirely keep the brain;
And therefore, finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil:
But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain;
But, with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;

1i. e. a lady's eyes give a fuller notion of beauty than any author.

2 Poetical fire.

A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,

When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd:
Love's feeling is more soft and sensible

Than are the tender horns of cockled1 snails;

Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste:
For valor, is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hesperides ?
Subtle as sphinx; as sweet and musical,

As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
And, when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.

Never durst poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's sighs :
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive :
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and norish all the world;
Else, none at all in aught proves excellent :
Then fools you were, these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ;
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:

2

Inshelled.

2 That is pleasing to all men.

It is religion, to be thus forsworn :

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can sever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!

Bir. Advance your standards, and upon them,

lords;

Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advised,
In conflict that you get the sun of them.

Lon. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by.
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France ?
King. And win them too: therefore let us
devise

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Bir. First, from the park let us conduct them thither;

Then, homeward, every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon

We will with some strange pastime solace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Fore-run fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Bir. Allons! allons !-Sow'd cockle reap'd no
corn ; 1

And justice always whirls in equal measure:

1 A proverbial expression, intimating that, beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falshood.

Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; If so, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

Another part of the same.

Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.

Hol. Satis quod sufficit.1

Sir Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons 2 at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection,3 audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quon-` dam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: his humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked,5 too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Sir Nath. A most singular and choice epithet.
[takes out his table-book.

'Enough is as good as a feast. 3 Affectation. 4 Boastful.

2 Discourse.

5 Showy in his dress.