Their purpose is, to parle, to court, and dance : Unto his feveral miftrefs; which they'll know For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; Hold, Rofaline, this favour thou fhalt wear; And change you favours too; so shall your loves Ros. Come on then; wear the favours, moft in fight. KATH. But, in this changing, what is your intent? PRIN. The effect of my intent is, to cross theirs; They do it but in mocking merriment; And mock for mock is only my intent. Their feveral counfels they unbofom fhall Ros. But fhall we dance, if they defire us to't? PRIN. No; to the death, we will not move a foot: Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace; But, while 'tis fpoke, each turn away her face. BOYET. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart, And quite divorce his memory from his part. 4 her face. ] The first folio, and the quarto, 1598, have — his face. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE, PRIN. Therefore I do it; and, I make no doubt, The reft will ne'er come in,' if he be out. 'There's no such sport, as sport by sport o'erthrown; To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own: So fhall we stay, mocking intended game; And they, well mock'd, depart away with fhame. [Trumpets found within. BOYET. The trumpet founds; be mask'd, the [The ladies majk. maskers come. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in Ruffian habits, and mafked; MOTH, Muficians, and Attendants. MOTH. All hail, the richest beauties on the earth! BOYET. Beauties no richer than rich taffata. MOTH. A holy parcel of the fairest dames, [The ladies turn their backs to him. That ever turn'd their-backs-to mortal views! BIRON. Their eyes, villain, their eyes. MOTH. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! Out BOYET. True; out, indeed. will ne'er come in,] The quarto, 1598, and the folio, will e'er. The corre&ion was made in the fecond 1623, read : 6 Beauties no richer than rich taffata.] i. e. the taffata masks they wore to conceal themfelves. All the editors concur to give this line to Biron; but, furely, very abfurdly for he's one of the zea lous admirers, and hardly would make fuch an inference. Boyet is fneering at the parade of their addrefs, is in the fecret of the ladies' ftratagem, and makes himself sport at the abfurdity of their proem, in complimenting their beauty, when they were mafk'd. It therefore comes from him with the utmost propriety. MOTH. Out of your favours, heavenly Spirits, vouch Safe Not to behold BIRON. Once to behold, rogue. 2 MOTH. Once to behold with your fun-beamed eyes, --with your fun-beamed eyes BOYET. They will not answer to that epithet; You were best call it, daughter-beamed eyes. MOTH. They do not mark me, and that brings me out. BIRON. Is this your perfectnefs? be gone, you rogue. Ros. What would thefe ftrangers? know their minds, Boyet: If they do fpeak our language, 'tis our will BOYET. What would you with the princess? BOYET. Nothing but peace, and gentle vifitation. Ros. Why, that they have; and bid them fo be gone. BOYET. She fays, you have it, and you may be gone. KING. Say to her, we have measur`d many miles, To tread a meafure with her on this grafs. BOYET. They fay, that they have measur'd many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass. 7 To tread a meafure-] The measures were dances folemn and now. They were performed at court, and at public entertainments of Ros. It is not fo: alk them, how many inches Is in one mile: if they have measur'd many, The measure then of one is eafily told. BOYET. If, to come hither you have meafur'd miles, And many miles; the princefs bids you tell, BIRON. Tell her, we measure them by weary fteps. BOYET. She hears herfelf. Ros. Of many weary miles you How many weary steps, have o'ergone, Are number'd in the travel of one mile? BIRON. We number nothing that we spend for you; Our duty is fo rich, fo infinite, the focieties of law and equity, at their halls, on particular occafions, It was formerly not deemed inconfiftent with propriety even for the graveft persons to join in them; and accordingly at the revels which were celebrated at the inns of court, it has not been unusual for the first chara&ers in the law to become performers in treading the measures. See Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales. Sir John Davies, in his poem called Orchestra, 1662, defcribes them in this manner: But, after thefe, as men more civil grew, "He did more grave and folemn measures frame: "With fuch fair order and proportion true, And correfpondence ev'ry way the fame, “That no fault-finding eye did ever blame, "Atlas the great, Prometheus the wife, "Which on the ftars did all their life-time look, "Could ever find fuch measure in the kies, "So full of change, and rare varieties; "Yet all the feet whereon these measures go, "Are only fpondees, folemn, grave, and flow. REED. See Beatrice's defcription of this dance in Much ado about Nothing, Vol. VI. p. 252. MALONE. That we may do it ftill without accompt. Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. do! Vouchfafe, bright moon, and thefe thy ftars, to fhine (Those clouds remov'd,) upon our wat'ry eyne. Ros. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; Thou now requeft'ft but moon-fhine in the water. KING. Then, in our measure do but vouchfafe one change: foon. Thou bid'ft me beg; this begging is not ftrange. Ros. Play, mufick, then: nay, you must do it [ Mufick plays. Not yet; no dance:-thus change I like the moon. KING. Will you not dance? How come you thus eftrang'd? Ros. You took the moon at full; but now the's chang'd, KING. Yet ftill fhe is the moon, and I the man. The mufick plays; vouchsafe fome motion to it. Ros. Our ears vouchfafe it. KING. But your legs fhould do it. Ros. Since you are ftrangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands ;-we will not dance. 8 Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy fars,] When queen Elizabeth asked an ambaffador how he liked her ladies, It is hard, faid he, to judge of flars in the prefence of the fun. JOHNSON. 9 the man.] I fufpe&, that a line which rhimed with this, has been loft. MALONE. |