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! [Gets up into a Tree. Enter the King, with a Paper.

King. Ah me!

Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by heaven !-Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy birdbolt 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,
As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote
The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows:
Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright

Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light;
Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep:
No drop but as a coach doth carry thee,
So ridest thou triumphing in my woe;
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,

And they thy glory through thy grief will show:
But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep
My tears for glasses, and still make me weep.
O queen of queens, how far dost thou excel!
No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.-
How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper;
Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here?
[Steps aside.

Enter LONGAVILLE, with a Paper.

What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear.
Biron. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool, ap-

pear!

[Aside.

Long. Ah me! I am forsworn.

Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure3, wear

ing papers.

[Aside.

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 perjur'd 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 slop5.

Long.

This same shall go.

[He reads the Sonnet.

eye

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine

('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 gain'd, cures all disgrace in me.

3 The ancient punishment of a perjured person was to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime.

4 By triumviry and the shape of love's Tyburn Shakspeare alludes to the gallows of the time, which was occasionally triangular.

5

Slops were wide kneed breeches, the garb in fashion in Shakspeare's time.

Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is:
Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,
Exhal'st this vapour 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 6, which makes flesh a deity;

A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. 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!

[Stepping aside.

stay. Biron, [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play: 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;
Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish!
Dum. O most divine Kate!
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 8. Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. [Aside.

6 It has been already remarked that the liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. So in Much Ado about Nothing:

'If ever love had interest in his liver.'

7 A woodcock means a foolish fellow; that bird being supposed to have no brains.

8 Coted signifies marked or noted. The word is from the 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.'

Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must

[Aside.

King. And I mine too, good Lord!

Biron. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good

word?

[Aside. Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. 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 [Aside.

wit.

Dum. On a day, (alack the day!)

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath,
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But alack, my hand is sworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn :
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.
Do not call it sin in me,
That I am forsworn for thee;—

Thee for whom Jove would swear 9,
Juno but an Ethiop were;

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.~

This will I send: and something else more plain,
That shall express my true love's fasting 10 pain.
O, would the King, Birón, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill,

Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd 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:

You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o'erheard, and taken napping so.

King. Come, sir, [advancing.] you blush; as his your case is such;

You chide at him, offending twice as much:
You do not love Maria; Longaville

Did never sonnet for her sake compile ;

9 Thee-for whom Jove would swear,

Juno but an Ethiop were.'

The old copy reads

Thou for whom Jove would swear.'

Pope thought this line defective, and altered it to

Thou for whom even Jove would swear.'

This sonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1614, and in Jaggard's Collection, 1599, where the couplet preceding—

'Do not call it sin in me

That I am forsworn by thee,'

is omitted. Pope's emendation is not necessary, for the second line of the couplet has six syllables only, and it was common to intersperse such lines in similar verses, as Mr. Boswell has shown in his Essay on the Metre of Shakspeare. The substitution of Thee for Thou which I have ventured upon, throws the emphasis on that word thus reduplicated, giving the line its proper cadence.

10 Fasting is longing, hungry, wanting.