Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punished.

Cost. I am more bound to you than your followers, 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 see

Moth. 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 MOTH 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

of falsehood, if I love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar;14 Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet was Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft15 is too hard for Hercules' club; and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause 16 will not

14 A familiar, as the term is here used, was a demon attendant on a witch or conjuror.

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15 A butt-shaft, according to Nares, was a kind of arrow, used for shooting at butts; formed without a barb, so as to stick into the butts, and yet be easily extracted."

16 "The first and second cause," and so on up to the seventh, were fashionable terms in the science of duelling; meaning cause of quarrel. So, in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4, Tybalt is described as "a gentleman of the first and second cause '; that is, one who will find cause of quarrel in the slightest provocation.

serve my turn; the passado 17 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 18 is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnetist.1 19 Devise, wit, write, pen; for I am for

whole volumes in folio.

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A Part of the Park: a Pavilion and Tents at a

distance.

Enter the PRINCESS of France, ROSALINE, MARIA, CATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants.

Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your dearest1 spirits: Consider who the King your father sends; To whom he sends; and what's his embassy: Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem,

17 Passado was a term of the fencing-school, for a forward pass or thrust with the rapier.

18 It appears that manager and to manage were used, in a way somewhat technical, of one who uses, handles, or practises with, arms and warlike implements. So in Richard II., iii. 2: "Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills." And in 2 Henry IV., iii. 2: “Come, manage me your caliver." Also, in Peele's Arraignment of Paris: "If Mars have sovereign power to manage arms."

19 Writing sonnets or ballads was the proverbial resort of love-smitten swains. So in As You Like It, ii. 7: "And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow." Later in this play, the King and his companions give an example of the same propensity. 1 Dearest in the more general sense of best. So in Othello, i. 3: "These arms of mine have used their dearest action in the tented field."

2 This use of who where we should use whom was not ungrammatical in Shakespeare's time.

To parley with the sole inheritor 3

Of all perfections that a man may owe,

Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain, -a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,

As Nature was in making graces dear,

When she did starve the general world besides,

And prodigally gave them all to you.

Prin. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise :
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's1 tongues :
I am less proud to hear you tell my worth
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
But now to task the tasker: Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
Till painful study shall outwear three years,
No woman may approach his silent Court:
Therefore to us seems it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,

To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold 5 of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor.

Tell him, the daughter of the King of France,
On serious business, craving quick dispatch,
Impórtunes personal conference with his Grace:
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,

8 Inheritor for possessor or owner. So the verb to inherit often has the sense of to own or possess.

4 A chapman is, strictly, one who traffics or bargains, whether in buying or selling.

5 To be bold of a thing is to be confident or assured of it.

Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.

Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
That are vow-fellows with this virtuous Duke?

1 Lord. Lord Longaville is one.
Prin.

[Exit BOYET.

Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam: at a marriage-feast,
Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques Falconbridge, solémnizéd

In Normandy, saw I this Longaville :
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd ;
Well-fitted in the arts,6 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-lived wits do wither as they grow.
Who are the rest?

Cath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth, Of all that virtue love for virtue loved :7

Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;

For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,

And shape to win grace, though he had no wit.

I saw him at the Duke Alençon's once;

6 "Well fitted in the arts" is well furnished with learning and accomplishments.

7" On account of his virtue, loved by all that love virtue." The sense is a little obscured by using of where by would now be used.

And much too little of that good I saw
Is my report to his great worthiness.8

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,
Birón they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
Which his fair tongue-conceit's 10 expositor-
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That agèd ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love,
That every one her own hath garnishéd

With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

I Lord. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;

And he and his competitors 11 in oath

Were all address'd 12 to meet you, gentle lady,

Before I came. Marry, thus much I've learnt,

He rather means to lodge you in the field,

8 The meaning is, "And my report of that good which I saw is much too little, compared to his great worthiness." The Poet often thus uses to with the force of compared to, or in comparison with.

9 Here, as often, hour is a dissyllable. See vol. i., page 168, note 3.

10 Conceit was always used in a good sense; conception, imagination, or thought; any workings of the mind.

11 Competitors for partners or confederates. See vol. i., page 196, note 3. 12 Address'd is prepared or made ready. Often so.