Boy. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen: since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none, but a dish-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that 'a wears next his heart, for a favor.

Enter a Messenger, MONSIEUR Mercade.

Mer. God save you, madam !

Prin. Welcome, Mercade;

But that thou interrupt'st our merriment.

Mer. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring Is heavy in my tongue. The king your fatherPrin. Dead, for my life.

Mer. Even so; my tale is told.

Bir. Worthies, away; the scene begins to cloud. Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath : I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies.

King. How fares your majesty?

Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night.
King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay.
Prin. Prepare, I say.-I thank you, gracious

lords,

For all your fair endeavors; and entreat,

Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe,

In

your rich wisdom, to excuse, or hide, The liberal opposition of our spirits:

2

I have hitherto looked on the indignities I have received with the eyes of discretion.'-Johnson. 2 Free to excess.

If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converse of breath, your gentleness
Was guilty of it.-Farewell, worthy lord!
A heavy heart bears not an humble tongue:
Excuse me so, coming so short of thanks
For my great suit so easily obtain’d.

King. The extreme parts of time extremely form All causes to the purpose of his speed;

And often, at his very loose,1 decides

That which long process could not arbitrate:
And though the mourning brow of progeny
Forbid the smiling courtesy of love

The holy suit which fain it would convince;
Yet, since love's argument was first on foot,
Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it

From what it purposed; since, to wail friends lost,
Is not by much so wholesome, profitable,

As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Prin. I understand you not; my griefs are double,

Bir. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief;

And by these badges understand the king.

For your fair sakes have we neglected time,

Play'd foul play with our oaths: your beauty,

ladies,

Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humors
Even to the opposed end of our intents:

At the moment of his parting.

And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,—
As love is full of unbefitting strains;

All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain ;
Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye,
Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms,
Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his glance:
Which party-coated presence of loose love
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
Have misbecomed our oaths and gravities,
Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false,
By being once false for ever to be true

To those that make us both,-fair ladies, you:
And even that falshood, in itself a sin,

Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace.

Prin. We have received your letters, full of love : Your favors, the ambassadors of love;

And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As bombast, and as lining to the time : 2
But more devout than this, in our respects,
Have we not been; and therefore met your loves

' Tempted.

2 As something to fill out life, which not being closely united with it, may be thrown away at pleasure. Bombast was a kind of loose texture, not unlike what is now called wadding.'-Johnson.

In their own fashion, like a merriment.

Dum. Our letters, madam, show'd much more

than jest.

Lon. So did our looks.

Ros.

We did not quote 1 them so.

1

King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves.

Prin.

A time, methinks, too short
To make a world-without-end bargain in.
No, no, my lord; your grace is perjured much,
Full of dear guiltiness; and, therefore, this :-
If for my love (as there is no such cause)
You will do aught, this shall you do for me:
Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed
To some forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world;
There stay, until the twelve celestial signs
Have brought about their annual reckoning.
If this austere, insociable life

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
If frosts, and fasts, hard lodging, and thin weeds,*
Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love,

But that it bear this trial, and last 3 love ;
Then, at the expiration of the year,

Come, challenge, challenge me by these deserts;
And, by this virgin palm, now kissing thine,
I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut
My woful self up in a mourning house;

Reckon.

2 Clothing.

3 Continue.

Raining the tears of lamentation,

For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part;
Neither entitled in the other's heart.

King. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye!

Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast.

Bir. And what to me, my love? and what to me? Ros. You must be purged too; your sins are rank;

You are attaint with faults and perjury :
Therefore, if you my favor mean to get,
A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,
But seek the weary beds of people sick.

Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to

me?

Kath. A wife!-A beard, fair health, and ho

nesty;

With three-fold love I wish you all these three.

Dum. O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? Kath. Not so, my lord :-a twelvemonth and a

day

I'll mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say.
Come when the king doth to my lady come;
Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some.

Dum. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then.
Kath. Yet swear not, lest you be forsworn again.
Lon. What says Maria?

Mar.

At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend.