Biron. So study evermore is overshot; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost. If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, Suggestions are to others, as to me; With a refined traveller of Spain; A man in all the world's new fashion planted, This child of fancy, that Armado hight, For interim to our studies, shall relate, How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight, And, so to study, three years is but short. Enter DULL, with a Letter, and COSTARD. Dull. Which is the duke's own person? Biron. This, fellow; What would'st? Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough:11 but I would see his own person in flesh and blood. Biron. This is he. Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form, in some form. King. We must, of force, dispense with this de- and form following. Now, sir, for the manner, it Biron. For the following, sir? Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; And God defend the right! King. Will you hear this letter with attention? Biron. As we would hear an oracle. 1 i. e. nipping. 2 By these shows the poet means May-games, at which a snow would be very unwelcome and unexpected. It is only a periphrasis for May. 3 The word gentility here does not signify that rank of people called gentry; but what the French express by gentilesse, i. e. elegantia, urbanitas. 4 That is, reside here. So in Sir Henry Wotton's equivocal definition: 'An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie (i. e. reside) abroad for the good of his country.' 5 Temptations. 6 Lively, sprightly. 7 Complements is here used in its ancient sense of accomplishments. Vide Note on K. Henry V. Act ii. Sc 2. 8 i. e. who is called Armado. 9 I will make use of him instead of a minstrel, whose occupation was to relate fabulous stories. 10 i. e. new from the forge; we have still retained a similar mode of speech in the colloquial phrase brandnew. 11 i. e. third-borough, a peace-officer. 12 To hear? or forbear laughing?" is possibly the true reading. 13 A quibble is here intended between a stile and style. 14 That is, in the fact. A thief is said to be taken with the manner (mainour) when he is taken with the thing stolen about him. The thing stolen was called mainour manour, or meinour, from the French manier, manu tractare. Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. King. [Reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's God, and body's fostering patron. Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. King. So it 18, Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid. King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir. King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence; You shall fast a week with bran and water. Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, porridge. in telling true, but so, so. King. Peace. King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper. -My lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'er. Cost. -be to me, and every man that dares not And go we, lords, to put in practice that fight! King. No words. Cost. of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when: Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: But to the place where, -It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,2 Cost. Me. Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.- Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I House. Enter ARMADO and Moth. Arm. Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great spirit grows melancholy? Moth. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.3 Moth. No, no; O lord, sir, no. Arm. How canst thou part sadness and melan choly, my tender juvenal ?4 Moth. By a familiar demonstration of the work ing, my tough senior. Arm. Why tough senior? why tough senior? Moth. Why, tender juvenal? why tender juvenal? Arm. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender. Moth. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough. Arm. Pretty, and apt. Moth. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my saying apt? or I apt, and my saying pretty? Arm. Thou pretty, because little. Moth. Little pretty, because little: Wherefore King. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have sent to thee, to receive the meed of punish-apt? ment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation. Dull. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta, (so is the weaker vessel called, which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain,) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty. DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard. King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this? Cost. Sir, I confess the wench. King. Did you hear the proclamation. Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it. Arm. And therefore apt, because quick. Moth. Speak you this in my praise, master? Moth. I will prai praise an eel with the same praise. Moth. That an eel is quick. Arm. I do say, thou art quick in answers: Moth. I am answered, sir. Arm. I love not to be crossed. Moth. He speaks the mere contrary, crosses love not him. [Aside. Arm. I have promised to study three years with the duke. Moth. You may do it in an hour, sir. Moth. How many is one thrice told? Arm. I am ill at reckoning, it fitteth the spirit of King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, a tapster. to be taken with a wench. Cost. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a damosel. King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel. Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was a virgin. King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed, virgin. Moth. You are a gentleman, and a gamester, sir. Arm. I confess both; they are both the varnish of a complete man. Moth. Then I am sure, you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace amounts to. Arm. It doth amount to one more than two. 1 Ancient gardens abounded with knots or figures, of which the lines intersected each other. In the old books of gardening are devices for them. 2 i. e. the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainment. 3 Imp literally means a graft, slip, scion, or sucker; and by metonymy is used for a child or boy. Crom well, in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his son. It was then perhaps growing obsolete. It is now used only to signify young fiends; as the Devil and his imps. 4 i. e. youth. 5 By crosses he means money. So in As You Like It: the Clown says to Celia If I should bear you, 1 should bear no cross. Many coins were anciently marked with a Cross on one side. Moth. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here is three studied, ere you'll thrice wink: and how easy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing horse1 will tell you. Arm. A most fine figure! [Aside. Moth. To prove you a cypher. Arm. I will hereupon confess, I am in love: and, as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new devised courtesy. I think scorn to sigh; methinks, I should out-swear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men have been in love? Moth. Hercules, master. Arm. Most sweet Hercules!-More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. Moth. Samson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage! for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love. Arm. O well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too,Who was Samson's love, my dear Moth? Moth. A woman, master. or one of the four. Arm. Tell me precisely of what complexion? Moth. Of the sea-water green, sir. Arm. Is that one of the four complexions? Moth. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too. Arm. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers:2 but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Samson had small reason for it. He, surely, affected her for her wit. Moth. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit. Arm. My love is most immaculate white and red. Moth. Most maculate thoughts, master, are masked under such colours. Arm. Define, define, well-educated infant. Moth. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me! Arm. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty, and pathetical! Moth. If she be made of white and red, For still her cheeks possess the same, A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red. Arm. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar ?4 Moth. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since: but, I think, now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would neither serve for the writing, nor the tune. 1 This alludes to the celebrated bay horse Morocco, belonging to one Bankes, who exhibited his docile and sagacious animal through Europe. Many of his remarkable pranks are mentioned by cotemporary writers, and he is alluded to by numbers besides Shak. speare. The fate of man and horse is not known with certainty, but it has been asserted that they were both burnt at Rome, as magicians, by order of the Pope. The best account of Bankes and his horse is to be found in the notes to a French translation of Apuleius's Golden Ass, by Jean de Montlyard, 1602. 2 The allusion probably is to the willow, the supposed ornament of unsuccessful lovers. Arm. I say, sing. Moth. Forbear till this company be past. Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQUENETTA. Dull. Sir, the duke's pleasure is, that you keep Costard safe: and you must let him take no delight, nor no penance; but a'must fast three days a-week: For this damsel, I must keep her at the park; she is allowed for the day-woman." Fare you well. Arm. I do betray myself with blushing.-Maid. Jaq. Man. Arm. I will visit thee at the lodge. Arm. I know where it is situate. Arm. I love thee. Jaq. So I heard you say. Arm. And so farewell. Jaq. Fair weather after you! Dull. Come, Jaquenetta, away. [Exeunt DULL and JAQUENETTA. Arm. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences, ere thou he pardoned. Cost. Well, sir, I hope, when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach. Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punished. Cost. I am more bound to you, than your fellows, for they are but lightly rewarded. Arm. Take away this villain; shut him up. Moth. Come, you transgressing slave; away. Cost. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose. Moth. No, sir; that were fast and loose: thou shalt to prison. Cost. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I have seen, some shall seeMoth. What shall some see? Cost. Nay, nothing, master Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words; and, therefore, I will say nothing: I thank God, I have as little patience as another man; and, therefore, I can be quiet. [Exeunt МотH and CosTARD, Arm. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, (which is a great argument o falsehood,) if I love: And how can that be true love, which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar: love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet Samson was so tempted: and he had an excellent strength: yet was Solomon so seduced; and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for 3 Of which she is naturally possessed. 4 See Percy's Reliques of Antient Poetry, fourth edition, vol. 1. p. 199. 5 Digression is here used for the act of going out of the right way, transgression. 6 Armado applies this epithet ironically to Costard. 7 Taberna Casearia is interpreted in the old Diction. aries a daye house, where cheese is made. A day-twoman is therefore a dairy-woman. Johnson says day is an old word for milk. A dairy-maid is still called a dey or day in the northern parts of Scotland. 8 Jaquenetta and Armado are at cross-purposes. Hereby is used by her, (as among the common people of some counties,) in the sense of as it may happen. He takes it in the sense of just by. 9 This odd phrase was still in use in Fielding's time, who, putting it into the mouth of Beau Didapper, thinks it necessary to apologize (in a note) for its want of sense, by adding that it was taken verbatim from very polite conversation, 10 Love. 11 A kind of arrow used for shooting at butts with The butt was the place on which the mark to be shot at was placed. : a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill; will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he regards not his disgrace is to be called boy; but his glory is to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust, rapier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonneteer. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. ACT II. [Exit. SCENE I. Another part of the same. A Pavilion Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your dearest Consider who the king your father sends; Of all perfections that a man may owe, And prodigally gave them all to you. For he hath wit to make an ill shape good, Ros. Another of these students at that time Prin. God bless my ladies; are they all in love That every one her own hath garnish'd Prin. Re-enter BoYET. Now, what admittance, lord? Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach; And he, and his competitors in oath, Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but He rather means to lodge you in the field mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise; Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go. [Exit. 1 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? Mar. They say so most, that most his humours know. Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Who are the rest? Kath. The young Dumain, a well accomplish'd youth, Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd; (Like one that comes here to besiege his court,) [The Ladies mask. 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 wild 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 forsworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing else. King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is. Prin. Where my lord so, his ignorance were wise But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold; [Gives a paper 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 I dance with you in Brabant once? Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once ? Biron. I know you did. Ros. To ask the question ! Biron. How needless was it then 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! 1 See Notes on the last Act of As You Like It. 2 Best. 3 i. e. confident of it. 4 Well fitted is well qualified. 5 Confederates. 6 Prepared. 7 Where is here used for whereas. And hold fair friendship with his majesty. But that, it seems, he little purposeth, Dear princess, were not his requests so far Prin, You do the king my father too much wrong, 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, Of Charles his father. come, Where that and other specialties are bound; King. It shall suffice me: at which interview, Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort your King. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place! [Exeunt King and his Train. Biron. Lady, I will commend you to my own heart. Ros. 'Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it. Biron. I would, you heard it groan. Biron. Sick at heart. Ros. Alack, let it blood. Biron. Would that do it good? 1 To depart and to part were anciently synonymous. 2 This phrase appears to us unseemly to a princess, but it was a common metaphorical expression then much used. Perhaps it was no more considered offensive than it would be now to talk of the castrations of Holinshed. It was not peculiar to Shakspeare. 3 The old spelling of the affirmative particle ay is here retained for the sake of the rhyme. 4 Point, in French, is an adverb of negation, but, if properly spoken, is not sounded like the point of a knife. A quibble was however intended. Perhaps Shakspeare was not well acquainted with the pronunciation of French. 5 A quibble is here intended upon the word several. the light. Long. Perchance, light in the light: I desire her name. Boyet. She hath but one for herself; to desire that, were a shame. Long. Pray you, sir, whose daughter? Boyet. Not unlike, sir; that may be. [Exit Loso. Biron. What's her name, in the cap? Biron. You are welcome, sir; adieu! Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. [Exit BIRON.-Ladies unmask. Mar. That last is Biron, the merry mad-cap lord; word. Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to board. Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry! And wherefore not ships? Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. Mar. [Offering to kiss her.. Not so, gentle beast; My lips are no common, though several they be. Mar. To my fortunes and me. Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, which besides its ordinary signification of separate, dis. tinct, signified also an enclosed pasture, as opposed to an open field or common. Bacon and others used it in this sense. 6 So in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes. Dumb eloquence.' 7 Although the expression in the text is extremely odd, yet the sense appears to be, that his tongue envied the quickness of his eyes, and strove to be as rapid in its utterance, as they in their perception |