COST. When would you have it done, Sir?

BIRON. O, this afternoon.

COST. Well, I will do it, Sir. Fare you well.
BIRON. O, thou knoweft not what it is.

COST. I fhall know, Sir, when I have done it.

BIRON. Why, villain, thou must know first.

COST. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning, BIRON. It must be done this afternoon.

Hark, flave, it is but this:

The princess comes to hunt here in the park :

And in her train there is a gentle lady;

When tongues fpeak sweetly, then they name her name,

And Rofaline they call her; afk for her,

And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend

This feal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go.

[Gives him a fhilling. COST. Guerdon,-O fweet guerdon! better than remuneration, eleven-pence farthing better: most sweet guerdon! I will do it, Sir, in print. Guerdon, remuneration.

BIRON. O and I, forfooth, in love!

İ, that have been love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous figh":

A critic; nay, a night-watch conftable;
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal more magnificent.

This whimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This fenior-junior giant-dwarf, dan Cupid,
Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed fovereign of fighs and groans:
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents?
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces :

[Exit.

Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors: (O my little heart!)
And I to be a corporal of his file,

And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop!
What? what? I love! I fue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing: ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd, that it may still go right:
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all:
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and by heav'n, one that will do the deed,
Tho' Argus were her eunuch and her guard;
And I to figh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! go to!- -It is a plague,
That Cupid will impofe for my neglect
Of his almighty, dreadful, little, might.

Well, I will love, write, figh, pray, fue and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

ACT IV.

[Exit.

SCENE I

A pavilion in the park near the palace.

Enter the Princess, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, lords, at

W

tendants, and a forester.

PRINCESS.

AS that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard
Against the steep uprifing of the hill?

BOYET. I know not; but, I think, it was not he.

PRIN. Who e'er he was, he shew'd a mounting mind.

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.
-Then, forefter, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?

FOR. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A ftand, where you may make the fairest shoot.
PRIN. I thank my beauty, I am fair, that shoot;
And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.

FOR. Pardon me, madam: for I meant not fo. PRIN. What, what? first praise me, then again say, no? O fhort-liv'd pride! not fair? alack, for wo! FOR. Yes, madam, fair.

PRIN. Nay, never paint me now;

Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here-good my glafs-take this for telling true;

[Giving him money.

Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
FOR. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
PRIN. See, fee, my beauty will be fav'd by merit.
O herefy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.
But come, the bow; now mercy goes to kill,

And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I fave my credit in the shoot,

Not wounding, pity would not let me do't:
If wounding, then it was to fhew my skill;
That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill,
And, out of question fo it is fometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detefted crimes;

When for fame's fake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart,

As I for praise alone now seek to fpill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.
BOYET. Do not curft wives hold that felf-fovereignty
Only for praife-fake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

PRIN. Only for praife; and praife we may afford
To any lady that fubdues her lord.

Enter Coftard.

PRIN. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. COST. Good dig-you-den all; pray you, which is the head lady?

PRIN. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

COST. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?

PRIN. The thickeft and the tallest..

COST. The thickest and the tallest? it is fo, truth is truth. An' your wafte, miftrefs, were as flender as my wit, One o' these maids girdles for your waste should be fit. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. PRIN. What's your will, Sir, what's your will?

COST. I have a letter from monfieur Biron, to one lady Rofaline.

PRIN. O thy letter, thy letter: he's a good friend of

mine.

Stand afide, good bearer.Boyet, you can carve;

Break up this capon.

BOYET. I am bound to ferve.

This letter is miftook, it importeth none here;

It is writ to Jaquenetta.

PRIN. We will read it, I fwear.

Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear.

66

Boyet reads.

"BY heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, "that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely. "More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than "truth itself, have commiferation on thy heroical vaffal. "The magnanimous and most illuftrate king Cophetua fet eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelo"phon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, "vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar (O base and ob"fcure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, faw, and overcame; "he came, one; faw, two; overcame, three. Who came ? "the king. Why did he come? to fee. Why did he see? "to overcome. To whom came he? to the beggar. What "faw he? the beggar. Whom overcame he? the beggar. "The conclufion is victory: on whofe fide? the king's; "the captive is enrich'd: on whofe fide? the beggar's. "The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose fide? the king's? 66 no, both in one, or one in both. I am the king (for fo "stands the comparison) thou the beggar, for fo witnesseth "thy lowlinefs. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall "I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? "I will. What fhalt thou exchange for rags ? robes; for "tittles? titles: for thyfelf? me. Thus expecting thy re"ply, I prophane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy pic"ture, and my heart on thy every part.

"Thine in the deareft defign of industry,

DON ADRIANDO DE ARMADO."

Thus doft thou hear the Nemean lion roar

'Gainft thee, thou lamb, that ftandeft as his prey;

Submiffive fall his princely feet before,

And he from forage will incline to play.