But are you not asham'd? nay, are you not, O, what a scene of foolery have I seen, me, with what strict patience have I sat, Where lies thy grief, Ō tell me, good Dumain? King. Too bitter is thy jest. Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you: To break the vow I am engaged in ; With men like men,a of strange inconstancy. King. Soft; Whither away so fast? Biron. I post from love; good lover, let me go. Men like men. Biron appears to us to say-I keep company with men alike in inconstancy-men like men-men having the general inconstancy of humanity. b Pruning-preening; trimming himself up as a bird trims his feathers. Enter JAQUENETTA and Costard. Jaq. God bless the king! What present hast thou there? Cost. Some certain treason. What makes treason here? Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. King. If it mar nothing neither, The treason, and you, go in peace away together. Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read; Our parson misdoubts it; it was treason, he said. King. Biron, read it over. Where hadst thou it? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it? [Giving him the letter. Cost. Of dun Adramadio, dun Adramadio. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy; your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let 's hear it. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [Picks up the pieces. Biron. Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, [to COSTARD] you were born to do me shame.Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess; He, he, and you; and you, my liege, and I, Biron. Will these turtles be gone? even. True, true; we are four : King. Hence, sirs; away. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt CosT. and JAQ. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O let us embrace! As true we are, as flesh and blood can be: The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; Young blood doth not obey an old decree : We cannot cross the cause why we are born; Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn. King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind, Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; She, an attending star, scarce seen a light. Where nothing wants, that want itself doth seek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not : To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; She passes praise: then praise too short doth blot. A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. O, who can give an oath? where is a book? That I may swear, beauty doth beauty lack, If that she learn not of her eye to look : No face is fair, that is not full so black. King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night; And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd, It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair, Should ravish doters with a false aspect; And therefore is she born to make black fair. Her favour turns the fashion of the days; For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, Paints itself black to imitate her brow. Dum. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black. Long. And, since her time, are colliers counted bright. King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away. King. T were good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here. King. No devil will fright thee then so much as she. Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see. [Showing his shoe. Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Are we not all in love? and thereby all forsworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there;—some flattery for this evil. Some tricks, some quillets,a how to cheat the devil. Biron. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, The nimble spirits in the arteries; As motion, and long-during action, tires a Quillet and quodlibet each signify a fallacious subtilty-what you please an argument without foundation. |