privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savoring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your society. Nath. And thank you too; for society (saith the text) is the happiness of life. Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.-Sir, [To DULL.] I do invite you too; you shall not say me, nay; pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another part of the same. Enter BIRON, with a Paper. 2 Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself; they have pitched a toil; I am 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 lie, and lie in my throat. By Heaven, I 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! [Gets up into a tree. i Alluding to Rosaline's complexion, who is represented as a black beauty. 2 This is given as a proverb in Fuller's Gnomologia. Enter the King, with a Paper. King. Ah me! Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by Heaven!-Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt 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, Through the transparent bosom of the deep, 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. [Aside. Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure,' wearing papers. [Aside. 1 The ancier.t punishment of a perjured person was to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime. 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 perjured 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 slop. Long. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye (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 gained, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapor is: Then, thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapor 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,3 which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess; pure, pure idolatry. 1 By triumviry and the shape of love's Tyburn, Shakspeare alludes to the gallows of the time, which was occasionally triangular. 2 Slops were wide-kneed breeches, the garb in fashion in Shakspeare's time. 3 It has been already remarked that the liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play.1 Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. 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.3 Biron. An amber-colored raven was well noted. [Aside. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Stoop, I say; Dum. Her shoulder is with child. Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must [Aside. As fair as day. shine. [Aside. Dum. O that I had my wish! Long. And I had mine! [Aside. [Aside. word? [Aside. King. And I mine too, good Lord! Biron. Amen, so I had mine, is not that a good Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remembered be. 1 The allusion is to the play of hide and seek. 2 A woodcock means a foolish fellow; that bird being supposed to have no brains. 3 Coted signifies marked or noted. The word is from coler, 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." Steevens, however, assigns to cote the meaning of outstrip. 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 wit. [Aside. Dum. On a day, (alack the day!), Love, whose month is ever May, Thee for whom Jove would swear,' And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love. This will I send; and something else more plain, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured 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. "Thou for whom Jove would swear." Pope thought this line defective, and altered it to |