Still a repairing; ever out of frame; so hard ACT IV. Against the steep uprising of the hill? [Exit. Enter Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; Enter Costard. Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Cost. God dig-you-den' all! Pray you, which is the head lady? Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads. Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Cost. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, be fit. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? lady Rosaline. Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine: Boyet. SCENE I-Another part of the same. Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve; the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, Katharine, Boyet, Break up this capon.2 Lords, altendants, and a Forester. I am bound to serve.This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse It is writ to Jaquenetta. Prin. We will read it, I swear: Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads.] By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous; truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenélophon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to the beggar; O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for wo! What saw he? the beggar; Who overcame he? For. Yea, madam, fair. the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On whose Prin. Nay, never paint me now; side? the king's: the captive is enriched; On whose Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. side? the beggar's; The catastrophe is a nuptial; Here, good my glass, take this for telling true; On whose side? the king's-no, on both in one, or [Giving him money. one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comFair payment for foul words is more than due. parison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. loliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: Prin. See, sec, my beauty will be savid by merit. Shall I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat O heresy in fair, fit for these days! thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-rags? robes; For tittles, titles: For thyself, me. But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill, A shooting well is then accounted ill. Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: Not wounding, pity would not let me do't; If wounding, then it was to show my skill, Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy Thine, in the dearest design of industry, That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill. Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar And, out of question, so it is sometimes; When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford (1) God give you good even. (2) Open this letter. (3) Illustrious. 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play: Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better? Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile." (4) Just now. were, so fit. Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it here in court; A phantasm, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport Armatho o' the one side,-0, a most dainty man! To the prince, and his book-mates. To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! Prin. Thou, fellow, a word: To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will swear! Who gave thee this letter? Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another Finely put off! marry, Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry. Ros. Well then, I am the shooter. near. Finely put on, indeed! Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow. Boyet. But she herself is hit lower: Have I hit her now? Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it. [Singing. [Exeunt Ros. and Kath. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! Mar. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it. Boyet. A mark! O, mark but that mark; A mark, says my lady! Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it may be. Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! I'faith, your hand is out. Cost. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout. Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily, your lips grow foul. Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. Hol. The deer was, as you know, in sanguis,blood; ripe as a pome water, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of calo,-the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of terra,-the soil, the land, the earth. Nath. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo. Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket. Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination,-after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or ratherest, uncon firmed fashion-to insert again my haud credo for a deer. Dull. I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!-0 thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! Noth. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts; And such barren plants are set before us, that we (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts in a school: But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind, wind. Dull. You two are book-men: Can you tell by your wit, What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not Hol. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good Dull. What is Dictynna? Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more; Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; chal- And raught not to five weeks, when he came to five lenge her to bowl. Boyet. I fear too much rubbing; Good night, my good owl. [Exeunt Boyet and Maria. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit! (1) A species of apple. (2) A low fellow. and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the prin- Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful cess kill'd. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal] epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed. the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge;| so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it If argues facility. The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; Some say, a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket; Or pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; . sore L! Of one sore I a hundred make, by adding but one more L. Nath. A rare talent! Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent. eyes; Where all those pleasures live, that art would comprehend: knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend: All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without wonder; (Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire ;) Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, Which, not to anger bent, is music, and sweet fire. Celestial, as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue! Hol. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovia foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, dius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Naso; shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, notions, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of the jerks of invention? Imitari, is nothing: so doth memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater; and the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired deilver'd upon the mellowing of occasion: But the horse his rider.-But damosella virgin, was this gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am directed to you? thankful for it. Jaq. Ay, sir, from one monsieur Biron, one of Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so the strange queen's lords. may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd Hol. I will overglance the superscript. To the by you, and their daughters profit very greatly un-snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosader you: you are a good member of the common-line. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person wealth. Your ladyship's in all desired employment, Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they written unto: shall want no instruction: if their daughters be! capable, I will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui| pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard. Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. Hol. Master parson,-quasi pers-on. And if one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well. Jaq. Good master parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it. Hol. Fauste, precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbrâ. Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! BIRON. Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which, accidentally, Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the or by the way of progression, hath miscarried.royal hand of the king; it may concern much: Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu! Jaq. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl. [Exeunt Cost, and Jaq. very religiously; and, as a certain father saithNath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, Ho!. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear colourable colours. But to return to the verses; Did they please you, sir Nathaniel? Nath, Marvellous well for the pen. Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia. Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth said child or pupil, undertake your hen venuto; on my privilege I have with the parents of the forethee not, loves thee not.-Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.-where I will prove those verses to be very unlearnUnder pardon, sir, what are the contents? or, rather, ed, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention : as Horace says in his-What, my soul, verses? I beseech your society. Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall swear to love? I text) is the happiness of life. cludes it.-Sir, [To Dull.] I do invite you too; you Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty gentles are at their game, and we will to our vowed! [Exeunt. (1) Horse adorned with ribbands. (2) In truth. This same shall go.- SCENE III-Another part of the same. Enter These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. Biron, with a paper. Biron. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am Disfigure not his slop. Cupid's hose: coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil; I am Long. toiling in a pitch; pitch that defiles; defile! a foul word. Well, set thee down, sorrow! for so, they say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: Well proved again on my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her eye,by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lic, and lie in my throat. By heaven, do love and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already; the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in: Here comes one with a paper; God give him grace to groan! [Gels up into a tree. Enter the King, with a paper. King. Ah me! To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, Through the transparent bosom of the deep, So ridest thou triumphing in my wo: 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. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which Enter Dumain, with a paper. stav. Long. By whom shall I send this ?-Company! Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, Biron. O most profane coxcomb! [Aside. Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Her shoulder is with child. Biron. Ay, as some days; [Aside. As fair as day. Dum. O that I had my wish! And I had mine! [Aside. word ? [Aside. Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Aside. Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. Biron. A fever in your blood, why, then inci Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wear ing papers. King. In love, I hope; Sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. sion Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name? Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision! [Aside. [Aside. Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary Dum. On a day (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Y Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow, Thou for whom even Jove would swear, This will I send; and something else more plain, Long. Dumain, [advancing.] thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society: King. Come, sir, [advancing.] you blush; as You chide at him, offending twice as much: [To Long. Too bitter is thy jest. (1) Grief. (2) Cynic. (3) In trimming myself. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? King. Soft; Whither away so fast? A true man, or a thief, that gallops so? Biron. I post from love; good lover, let me go. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard. What makes treason here? King. Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. King. If it iar nothing neither, The treason, and you, go in peace away together. Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read; Our parson misdoubts it; 'twas treason, he said. King. Biron, read it over. [Giving him the leller. Where hadst thou it? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it? Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, [To Costard.] you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess: He, he, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in fove, and we deserve to die. True, true; we are four : Will these turtles be gone? King. Hence, sirs, away. [Exeunt Cost, and Jaq. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us em brace! As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: The sca will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; Young blood will not obey an old decree: We cannot cross the cause why we were born; Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn. King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind, Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory cagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thes now? |