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have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your affif

tance.

HOL. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the pofterior of this day, to be rendered by our affistance at the king's command, and this moft gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the princess: I fay, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to prefent them.

HOL. Joshua, yourself; this gallant man, Judas Maccabeus; this fwain (because of his great limb or joint) shall pass Pompey the great; and the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, Sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb; he is not fo big as the end of his club. HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall prefent Hercules in minority: his Enter and Exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH. An excellent device; for if any of the audience hifs, you may cry, "well done, Hercules, now thou crush"eft the fnake;" that is the way to make an offence gracious, tho' few have the grace to do it.

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ARM. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I befeech you, follow.

HOL. Via! good man Dull, thou haft spoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, Sir.

HOL. Allons; we will employ thee.

DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or fo: or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay. HoL. Most dull, honest, Dull, to our fport away. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. Before the princess's pavilion.

Enter Princefs and ladies.

PRIN. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart. If fairings come thus plentifully in.

A lady wall'd about with diamonds!

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with That? PRIN. Nothing but this? Yes, as much love in rhime, As would be cram'd up in a fheet of paper,

Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all;

That he was fain to feal on Cupid's name.

.

Ros. That was the way to make his God-head wax,
For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

CATH. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.
Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your
CATH. He made her melancholy, fad and heavy,

And fo fhe died; had the been light, like you,

Of fuch a merry, nimble, stirring fpirit,

She might have been a grandam ere the dy'd,

And fo may you; for a light heart lives long.

fifter.

Ros. What's your dark meaning, moufe, of this light word?

CATH. A light condition, in a beauty dark.

Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out. CATH. You'll marr the light, by taking it in snuff ; Therefore I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look, what you do; and do it ftill i' th' dark..

CATH. So do not you, for you are a light wench.

Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you, and therefore light. CATH. You weigh me not; O, that's you care not for me. Ros. Great reafon; for past cure is still past care PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd. But, Rofaline, you have a favour too:

Who fent it? and what is it?

Ros. I would, you knew.

And if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron.
The numbers true; and were the numbring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground.
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter.

PRIN Any thing like?

Ros. Much in the letters, nothing in the praise.

PRIN Beauteous as ink; a good conclufion.

CATH Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Ros. 'Ware pencils. How? let me not die your debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter.

O, that your face was not fo full of Oes!

CATH. Pox of that jeft, and I befhrew all shrews:

PRIN. But what was sent to you from fair Dumain ?

CATH. Madam, this glove.

PRIN. Did he not send you twain ?

CATH. Yes, Madam; and moreover,

Some thousand verses of a faithful lover.

A huge tranflation of hypocrify,

Vilely compil'd, profound fimplicity.

MAR. This, and these pearl, to me fent Longueville; The letter is too long by half a mile.

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PRIN. I think no lefs; doft thou not wish in heart, The chain were longer, and the letter short?

MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part."
PRIN. We are wife girls to mock our lovers for't.
Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking fo.
That fame Biron I'll torture, ere I go.

O, that I knew he were but in by th' week!
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and feek,
And wait the feason, and obferve the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootlefs rhimes,
And fhape his fervice all to my behefts,

And make him proud to make me proud with jests:
So portent-like would I o'erfway his state,

That he should be my fool, and I his fate.

PRIN. None are fo furely caught, when they are catch'd,

As wit turn'd fool; folly, in wisdom hatch'd,

Hath wifdem's warrant, and the help of school;
And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.
Ros. The blood of youth burns not in fuch excefs;

As gravity's revolt to wantonnefs.

MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,
As fool'ry in the wife, when wit doth dote :

Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in fimplicity.

SCENE IV. Enter Boyet.

PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face.
BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter; where's her grace?

PRIN. Thy news, Boyet?

BOYET. Prepare, Madam, prepare.

Arm, wenches, arm; encounters mounted are
Against your peace; love doth approach disguis'd,

Armed in arguments; you'll be furpris'd.

Mufter your wits, ftand in your own defence,
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

PRIN. Saint Dennis, to faint Cupid! what are they,
That charge their breath against us? fay, scout, fay.
BOYET. Under the cool fhade of a fycamore,
I thought to close mine eyes fome half an hour;
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos'd rest,
Toward that shade, I might behold, addrest
The king and his companions; warily
I stole into a neighbour thicket by :

And over-heard, what you fhall over-hear:
That, by and by, difguis'd they will be here.
Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage.
Action and accent did they teach him there;
"Thus must thou speak, and thus thy body bear:"
And ever and anon they made a doubt,

Prefence majestical would have put him out :
For, quoth the king, an angel shalt thou fee;
Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously.
The boy reply'd, an angel is not evil;

I should have fear'd her, had she been a devil.-
With that all laugh'd, and clap'd him on the shoulder,

Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.

One rubb'd his elbow thus, and fleer'd and fwore,
A better speech was never spoke before.

Another, with his finger and his thumb,
Cry'd, via! we will do't, come what will come.
The third he caper'd and cry'd, all goes well:
The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell.
With that they all did tumble on the ground,
With fuch a zealous laughter fo profound,

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