Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of

light.

O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt,

It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair 21,
Should ravish doters with a false aspéct:

And therefore is she born to make black fair.
Her favour turns the fashion of the days;
For native blood is counted painting now;
And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise,
Paints itself black, to imitate her brow.

Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black.

Long. And since her time, are colliers counted bright.

King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.

Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours should be wash'd away. King. Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.

Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.

King. No devil will fright thee then so much as she.
Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her
face see.
[Shewing his Shoe.
Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
Her feet were much too dainty for such tread!
Dum. O vile! then as she goes, what upward lies

The street should see as she walk'd over head.

21 This alludes to the fashion prevalent among ladies in Shakspeare's time, of wearing false hair, or periwigs as they were then called, before that covering for the head had been adopted by

men.

King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all for

sworn.

King. Then leave this chat; and, good Birón, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

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

Long. O, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets 22, how to cheat the devil. Dum. Some salve for perjury.

Biron.

young;

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 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 vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes;

N.

22 A quillet is a sly trick or turn in argument, or excuse. Bailey derives it, with much probability, from quibblet, as a diminutive of quibble.

And study too, the causer of
your vow:
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
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 23,

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 24
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden 25 contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts entirely 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;
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,

23 This hemistich is omitted in all the modern editions except that by Mr. Boswell. It is found in the first quarto and first folio.

24 i. e. our true books, from which we derive most information; the eyes of women.

25 So in Milton's Il Penseroso :

With a sad leaden, downward cast.'

And in Gray's Hymn to Adversity:

With leaden eye that loves the ground.'

Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste :
For valour, is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hesperides 26?
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 27.
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 nourish 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 28;
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men;

26 Shakspeare had read of 'the gardens of the Hesperides,' and thought the latter word was the name of the garden. Some of his contemporaries have made the same mistake. So Robert Green in his Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1598:

Shew the tree, leav'd with refined gold,

Whereon the fearful dragon held his seat
That watch'd the garden call'd Hesperides.'

Few passages have been more discussed than this. The most plausible interpretation of it is, Whenever love speaks, all the gods join their voices in harmonious concert.' The power of harmonious sounds to make the hearers drowsy has been alluded to by poets in all ages. The old copies read make. Shakspeare often falls into a similar error.

28 i. e. that is pleasing to all men. So in the language of the time-it likes me well, for it pleases me. Shakspeare uses the word licentiously for the sake of the antithesis.

Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:
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! Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;

Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, In conflict that you get the sun of them 29.

Long. 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.

Biron. 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 30, strewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! Allons!-Sow'd cockle reap'd no

corn;

And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; If so, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Exeunt.

29 In the days of archery, it was of consequence to have the sun at the back of the bowmen, and in the face of the enemy. This circumstance was of great advantage to our Henry V. at the Battle of Agincourt. Shakspeare had, perhaps, an equivoque in his thoughts.

30 Fair love is Venus. So in Antony and Cleopatra :

'Now for the love of love, and her soft hours.'