Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our Learning likewife is.
Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewife fee our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forfworn our books:
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
? In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce fhew 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 fwift 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 fufpicious head of theft is ftopt'.
Love's Feeling is more foft and fenfible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails.
Love's Tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in Tafte
For valour is not Love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides2 ?
Subtle as Sphinx; as fweet and mufical

As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair 3:
And when Love fpeaks the voice of all the Gods 4,
Mark,

Mark, Heaven drowsy with the harmony!
Never durft Poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravifh favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility

From womens eyes this doctrine I derive:
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire,
They are the books, the arts, the academies,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe none at all in aught proves excellent.
Then fools you were, thefe women to forfwear:
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools
For wisdom's fake, a word, that all men lové;
Or for love's fake, a word, that loves all nien;
Or for men's fake, the author of thefe women;
Or women's fake, by whom we men are men ;
Let us once lofe our oaths, to find ourselves;
Or elfe we lose ourselves, to keep our Oaths.
It is religion to be thus forfworn,

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, Lords;

is fo great that it calms and allays all kinds of disorders; alluding again to the ancient use of mufic, which was to compofe monarchs, when, by reason of the cares of empire, they used to pafs whole nights in reftless inquietude. WARBURTON. The ancient reading is, make beaven.

5

- a word, THAT LOVES ALL MEN;] We fhould read, A word all wOMEN love.

The following line

The antithefis of a word that all men love, and a word which loves all men, though in itself worth

Or for men's fake (the author little, has much of the spirit of

of these women ;)

this play.

N 2

Pell

Pell-mell, down with them; but be firft advis'd,
In conflict that you get the fun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing lay these glozes byShall we refolve to woo thefe 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 miftrefs; in the afternoon

We will with some strange pastime folace them,
Such as the fhortnefs of the time can fhape:
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Forerun fair love, ftrewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! Allons! fown Cockle reap'd no
6
corn ;

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

[Exeunt.

WARBURTON.

6-fown cockle reap'd no corn;] lowing lines lead us to this fenfe. This proverbial expreffion intimates, that beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falfhood. The fol

* Here Mr. Theobald ends the third act.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I

The STREET.

Enter Holofernes, Nathanael, and Dull,

HOLOFERNES.

Atis quod fufficit.

Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reafons at dinner have been sharp and fententious; pleasant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without herefy. I did converfe this quondam-day with a companion of the King's, who is entitled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano d'Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. . He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it,

7 Your reafons at dinner have been, &c.] I know not well what degree of refpect Shakespeare intends to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a finished reprefentation of colloquial excellence. It is very difficult to add any thing to this character of the fchoolmaster's table-talk, and perhaps all the precepts of Caftiglione will fcarcely be found to comprehend a rule for converfation fo juftly delineated, fo widely dilated, and fo nicely limited.

It may be proper just to note, that reafon here, and in many other places, fignifies difcourfe, and that audacious is used in a good sense for spirited, animated, confident. Opinion is the fame with obstinacy or opiniatreté.

3 He is too piqued.] To have the beard piqued or fhorn fo as to end in a point, was in cur Authour's time a mark of a traveller affecting foreign fashions; fo fays the Baflard in K. John, I catechife

My piqued man of countries. N 3 Naik,