ARM. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou be pardoned.

COST. Well, sir, I hope, when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach.

ARM. Thou shalt be heavily punished.

COST. I am more bound to you than your fellows, for they are but lightly rewarded.

ARM. Take away this villain; shut him up.

MOTн. 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.

149 fast and loose] A cheating game much practised by gipsies, and sometimes called "pricking at the belt." Separate strips of leather were so arranged on a table as to present the appearance of a belt in a single piece. The player was invited to thrust a skewer into the leather so as to attach it to the table on which it was placed, and bets were laid whether he would make the pretended belt fast or loose. Cf. infra, III, i, 97, and Ant. and Cleop., IV, xii, 28. ["She, Like a right gipsy hath at fast and loose Beguiled me."]

140

150

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; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet was Soloman so seduced, and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club; and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause will not serve my turn; the passado 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 is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.

174

[Exit.

167 first and second cause] "Cause" was often used in the technical sense of ground for a challenge to a duel. The various "causes" which were formally recognized by duellists are described in "Vincentio Saviolo His Practise, in two Bookes. The first intreating of the use of the Rapier and Dagger. The second, of honor and honorable quarrels." 1595. Touchstone in As You Like It, V, iv, 49, speaks of quarrelling upon "the seventh cause.”

ACT SECOND-SCENE I-THE SAME

Enter the PRINCESS OF FRANCE, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants

BOYET

OW, MADAM, SUMMON up your dearest 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,

To parley with the sole inheritor
Of all perfections that a man

may owe,

Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight

Than Aquitaine, 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 beside,

And prodigally gave them all to you.

PRIN. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,

10

Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's 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 's seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,

To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold 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,
Importunes personal conference with his Grace:
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.

BOYET. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
PRIN. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.

[Exit Boyet.

Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
FIRST LORD. Lord Longaville is one.
PRIN.

Know you the man?

MAR. I know him, madam: at a marriage-feast,

28 Bold] Confident.

20

30

40

Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized

In Normandy, saw I this Longaville :
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;
Well fitted in arts, 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?

KATH. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue loved :

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;

And much too little of that good I saw

Is

my report to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time

Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.

42 Jaques] A dissyllable, with the accent on the first syllable: solemnized is here a quadrisyllable, with accents on the second and fourth syllables.

57 Of all... loved] Loved for virtue by all those who have regard

for virtue.