Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast,

Before the birds have any cause to sing?

Why should I joy in an abortive birth?

At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled

shows; 12

But like of each thing that in season grows.

So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.

King. Well, sit you out:13 go home, Birón: adieu.

Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you:

And though I have for barbarism spoke more

Than for that angel knowledge you can say, Yet confident I'll keep to what I swore,1

And bide the penance of each three years' day. Give me the paper,—let me read the same; And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name. King. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!

Biron. [Reads.] Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court,-Hath this been proclaimed? Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty.-[Reads] on pain of losing her tongue.—Who devised this penalty? Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.

Biron. A dangerous law against gentility!'s [Reads.] Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.— This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For well you know, here comes in embassy

The French king's daughter with yourself to speak,

A maid of grace and cómplete majesty,— About surrender-up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father:

12. Shows. This has been said to have reference to the May games and pageants; but we take the passage to mean-'At Christmas I no more desire a rose, than I wish snow amidst the newly decked-out floral displays of spring.'

13. Sit you out. Misprinted in the Folio fit you out;' but the f and the long s were often mistaken the one for the other, and to sit out' is an expression used at games of cards for taking no part in the play.

14. Keep to what I swore. In the Folio this is given 'keepe what I have sworne;' but the rhyme requires "swore" at the end of the line, and probably the line ran as above.

15. A dangerous law against gentility! The old copies print this line as though it made part of Longaville's speech; but it is evidently Biron's comment before he proceeds to read the next item. "Gentility" is here used in the sense of refinement, amenity, elegance, courtesy; all of which are induced by the presence and influence of women.

Therefore this article is made in vain,
Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither.
King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite
forgot.

Biron. So study evermore is overshot:
While it doth study to have what it would,

It doth forget to do the thing it should; And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost. King. We must of force dispense with this decree;

She must lie here 16 on mere necessity.

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn

Three thousand times within this three years'

space;

For every man with his affects 17 is born,

Not by might master'd, but by special grace: If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, I am forsworn on mere necessity.So to the laws at large I write my name :

[Subscribes.

And he that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame :

Suggestions 18 are to others, as to me; But I believe, although I seem so loath, I am the last that will last keep his oath. But is there no quick 19 recreation granted ? King. Ay, that there is. Our court, you know is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain;
One, whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements,20 whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,21

For interim to our studies, shall relate,
In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.22

16. She must lie here. To "lie" was sometimes used for lodge, dwell, reside, take up abode. Sir Henry Wootton availed himself of the double meaning of this expression, in his witty definition-"An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

17. Affects. Used here for affections, inclinations, propensities.

18. Suggestions. Temptations, incitements. 19. Quick. Lively, animated.

20. Complements. Accomplishments; proficiency in punctilio and ceremonious observances; things that, in such a man's estimation, mark the finished gentleman. Points included in what Armado himself calls, in the next scene, "the varnish of a complete man."

21. Hight. An old word for called, named.

22. Use him for my minstrelsy. Use him for my entertain.

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,23 A man of fire-new 24 words, fashion's own knight. Long. Costard the swain, and he, shall be our

sport;

And, so to study, three years is but short.

Enter DULL with a letter, and COSTARD.

Dull. Which is the duke's own person? Biron. This, fellow: what wouldst ? Dull. I myself reprehend 25 his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough: 26 but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

Dull. Signior Arm-Arm-commends you. There's villainy abroad: this letter will tell you

more.

Cost. Sir, the contempts 27 thereof are as touching me.

King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in heaven for high words.

Long. A high hope for a low heaven: 29 God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear? or forbear laughing? 29

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness. 30

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.31

Biron. In what manner?

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was seen with her in the manorhouse, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is in manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner, it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman for the form,-in some form.

ment;' minstrels entertaining their hearers by the relation of wonderful stories, as well as by their music.

23. Wight. An old word for person or personage.

24. Fire-new. This expression, like 'bran-new' (a corruption of 'brand-new'), originated in a reference to the forge or melting-house; fresh from its heat; newly-coined or smelted metal being especially bright.

25. Reprehend. For 'represent.'

26. Tharborough. A corruption of 'thirdborough;' an underconstable, or peace-officer.

27. Contempts. For contents.'

28. A low heaven. "Heaven," here, has been altered to 'having,' and to 'hearing;' but the original word seems used to mark the speaker's sense of Biron's extreme form of aspiration.

29. Laughing? Misprinted 'hearing' in the Folio; but Longaville's rejoinder shows "laughing" (Capell's correction) to be the right word.

30. To climb in the merriness. To rise higher and higher, or increase, in our mirth;' the word "climb" is used as a pun upon the word "style," or 'stile.'

Cost. -be to me, and every man that dares not fight! King. No words!

Cost. of other men's secrets, I beseech you. melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the King. [Reads.] So it is, besieged with sǝble-coloured

most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper: so much for the time when. Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped 3 thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: but to the place where,-it standeth northnorth-east and by east from the west corner of thy curiousknotted garden: 35 there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow 36 of thy mirth,

31. Taken with the manner. A legal form of expression for taken in the fact.' Costard quibbles on the word "manner” (spelt in the old law-books 'mainour' meaning the article stolen, then in the thief's possession) and the "manor-house" mentioned in his next speech.

32. The welkin's. 'The sky's.' See Note 11, Act i., "Tempest."

33. But so. Equivalent to the more modern 'but so-so.' 34 Yeleped. Called; the past tense of the verb 'to clepe,' from the Saxon clypian, to call.

35. Curious-knotted garden. Ancient gardens were laid out in fantastically shaped 'knots,' figures, or flower-beds; formed with lines intersecting each other in various directions.

36. Minnow. This, one of the smallest of fish, is used by Shakespeare here, and in "Coriolanus," iii. 1, as a type of insignificance. "Minnow of thy mirth" means the despicably minute object whom you deign to make a source of amusement. 37. That shallow vassal. A pun seems to be intended on the word " shallow," in its sense of undeep, unprofound, and its sense of foolish, ignorant; also on the word "vassal," in its nearness of sound to 'vessel.'

established proclaimed edict and continent canon, with-with,— oh, with-but with this I passion to say 38 wherewith,

Cost. With a wench.

King. [Reads]—with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I-as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on-have sent to thee, to receive the meed 39 of punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.

Dull. Me, an't shall please you: I am Antony Dull.

King. [Reads.] For Jaquenetta,-so is the weaker vessel called, which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain,-I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard.

King. Ay, the best for the worst.—But, sirrah, what say you to this?

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench.

King. Did you hear the proclamation?

Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

Cost. I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a damosel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel.

Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was

a virgin.

King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed virgin.

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid.

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir. King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week with bran and water.

Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.— My Lord Birón, see him deliver'd o'er :And go we, lords, to put in practice that Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

[Exeunt KING, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN. Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat," These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. —— Sirrah, come on.

38. I passion to say. 'I grieve to say.' To "passion" is a verb used by Shakespeare and writers of his time. See Note 6, Act v., "Tempest."

39. Meed. That which is deserved; that which is meet, or fit. 40. Sit thee down, sorrow! This seems to be a proverbial expression, as was, probably, "Sorrow, wag!" (see Note 1, Act V., "Much Ado"); the one meaning, 'Sorrow, bide quiet until thou changest to joy;' the other, 'Avaunt, sorrow!' or 'Away with thee, sorrow!'

Moth. No, no; O Lord! sir, no.

Arm. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal ? 42

Moth. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough senior.

Arm. Why tough senior? why tough senior? Moth. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal? Arm. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

Moth. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough. Arm. Pretty and apt.

Moth. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my saying apt? or I apt, and my saying pretty? Arm. Thou pretty, because little.

Moth. Little pretty, because little. Wherefore

apt?

Arm. And therefore apt, because quick.
Moth. Speak you this in my praise, master?
Arm. In thy condign 43 praise.

Moth. I will praise an eel with the same praise.
Arm. What, that an eel is ingenious?
Moth. That an eel is quick.

Arm. I do say thou art quick in answers: thou heatest my blood.

Moth. I am answered, sir.

Arm. I love not to be crossed.

Moth. [Aside.] He speaks the mere contrary, -crosses love not him."

Arm. I have promised to study three years with the duke.

41. Imp. An offshoot, or scion of a tree; thence used for offspring, or younger branch of a noble family; and, generally, for a stripling or youth.

42. Juvenal. Used, as we use 'juvenile,' for a youth, a lad. 43. Condign. Suitable, fit, deserved, merited; Latin, condignus.

44. Crosses love not him. Moth plays on the word "crosses" in its sense of money; many coins anciently bore the mark of a cross on one side. This is one of several hits in this play at the