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King. How now, what is in you? why doft thou tear it?

Biron. A toy, my Liege, a toy : your Grace needs not fear it.

Long. It did move him to paffion, and therefore let's hear it.

Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. Biron. Ah, you whorefon loggerhead, you were born to do me shame. [To Coftard.

Guilty, my lord, guilty: I confefs, I confefs.

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

Are pick-purfes in love, and we deserve to die.
O, difmifs this Audience, and I fhall tell you more...
Dum. Now the number is even.

Biron. True, true; we are four :

Will these turtles be gone ?

King. Hence, Sirs, away.

Coft. Walk afide the true folk, and let the traitors. stay. [Exeunt Coftard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, fweet lovers, O, let us embrace:

As true we are, as flesh and blood can be. The fea will ebb and flow, heaven will fhew his face; Young blood doth not obey an old decree. We cannot cross the cause why we were born: Therefore of all hands must be forfworn.

King. What, did these rent lines fhew fome love of thine?

Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who fees the hea venly Rofaline,

That (like a rude and favage man of Inde,

At the first opening of the gorgeous eaft) Bows not his vaffal head, and, ftrucken blind, Kiffes the bafe ground with obedient breaft?

What

What peremptory eagle-fighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her Majefty?

King. What zeal, what fury, hath infpir'd thee

now?

My love (her mistress) is a gracious moon;
She (an attending ftar ') fcarce feen a light.
Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron.
O, but for my love, day would turn to night.
Of all complexions the cull'd Sovereignty

Do meet, as at a Fair, in her fair cheek;
Where feveral worthies make one dignity;

Where nothing wants, that want itself doth feek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues;

Fy, painted rhetorick! O, the needs it not : To things of fale a feller's praise belongs:

She paffes praife; the praife, too fhort, doth blot.

A wither'd hermit, fivefcore winters worn,

Might fhake off fifty, looking in her eye: Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born,

And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy; O, 'tis the fun that maketh all things fhine. King. By heav'n, thy love is black as ebony. Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine *! A wife of fuch wood were felicity.

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O, who can give an oath? where is a book,

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That I may fwear, Beauty doth beauty lack, If that she learn not of her eye to look?

No face is fair, that is not full fo black? King. O paradox, black is the badge of hell 3 : The hue of dungeons, and the fcowl of night; And beauty's creft becomes the heavens well 4. Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, resembling spirits of light:

O, if in black my lady's brow be deckt,

It mourns, that Painting and ufurping Hair Should ravish doters with a falfe afpect:

And therefore is fhe born to make black fair.

3 In former editions; The School of Night.] Black, being the School of Night, is a piece of Mystery above my Comprehenfion. I had guefs'd, it fhould be, the Stole of Night: but I have preferr'd the Conjecture of my Friend Mr. Warburton, who reads the cowl of night, as it comes nearer in Pronunciation to the corrupted Reading, as well as agrees better with the other Images. THEOBALD. And beauty's CREST becomes the heavens well.] This is a contention between two lovers about the preference of a black or white beauty. But, in this reading, he who is contending for the white, takes for granted the thing in difpute; by faying, that white is the creft of beauty. His adversary had just as much reafon to call black fo. The question debated between them being which was the creft of beau ty, black or white. Shakespeare could never write fo abfurdly : Nor has the Oxford Editor at all

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Her Favour turns the fashion of the days,

For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid difpraife, Paints itself black to imitate her brow.

Dum. To look like her, are chimney-fweepers black.

Long. And fince her time, are colliers counted bright.

King. And Ethiops of their fweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your miftreffes dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours fhould be wash'd away. King. 'Twere good, yours did : for, Sir, to tell you plain,

I'll find a fairer face not wafh'd to-day:

Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day here.
King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as fhe.
Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff fo dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face
fee.
[fhewing bis fhoe.
Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
Her feet were much too dainty for fuch tread.
Dum. O vile! then as fhe goes, what upward lies

The street should fee as fhe walkt over head. King. But what of this, are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing fo fure, and thereby all forfworn.

King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Dum. Ay, marry, there; -fome flattery for this

evil.

Long. O, fome authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devil'. Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron.

Some tricks, fome quillets, is the peculiar word applied to bow to cheat the devil.] Quillet law-chicane. I imagine the ori

Biron. O, 'tis more than need.

Have at you then, Affection's Men at arms";
Confider, what you first did swear unto :
To faft, to study, and to fee no woman;
Flat treafon 'gainft the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you faft? your ftomachs are too young
And abftinence ingenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, (Lords)
In that each of you hath forfworn his book.
Can you ftill dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my Lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of Study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?

* From women's eyes this doctrine I derive;
They are the ground, the book, the academies,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire:
Why, univerfal plodding prifons up

The nimble spirits in the arteries 7;
As motion and long-during Action tires
The finewy Vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in That forfworn the use of eyes;
And Study too, the caufer of your vow.
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye;

ginal to be this, in the French
pleadings, every feveral allega-
tion in the plaintiff's charge, and
every diftinct plea in the defen-
dant's anfwer, began with the
words Qu'il eft;from whence
was formed the word quillet, to
fignify a falfe charge or an eva-
five answer. WARBURTON.
6 Affection's men at arms.
ms.] A
man at arms, is a foldier armed
at all points both offenfively and
defenfively. It is no more than,
Ye foldiers of affection.

Learn

This and the two following lines are omitted, I fuppofe, by mere over r fight, in Dr. Warbur ton's edition.

7 The nimble fpirits in the arteries ;] In the old fyftem of phyfic they gave the fame office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves; as appears from the name, which is derived from atga ungeïv. WARBURTON. 8 Teaches fuch BEAUTY as a woman's eye?] This line is abfolute nonfenfe. We fhould read,

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