Mercade, France. Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. Jaquenetta, a country wench. Sir Nathaniel, a curate. Holofernes, a schoolmaster. Dull, a constable. Costard, a clown. Moth, page to Armado. ACT I. And, one day in a week to touch no food; And but one meal on every day beside; The which, I hope, is not enrolled there: SCENE I-Navarre. A park, with a palace And then to sleep but three hours in the night, in it. Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, Dumain. LET King. and And not to be seen to wink of all the day; fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs, And then grace us in the disgrace of death; When, spite of cormorant devouring time, The endeavour of this present breath may buy That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge, And make us heirs of all eternity. Therefore, brave conquerors !-for so you are, And the huge army of the world's desires,- Biron. I can but say their protestation over, (When I was wont to think no harm all night, I King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Biron. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please; only swore, to study with your grace, And stay here in your court for three years' space. Long. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. Biron. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study? let me know. King. Why, that to know, which else we should not know. Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense; King. Av, that is study's god-like recompense. Biron. Come on, then, I will swear to study so. To know the thing I am forbid to know: As thus-To study where I well may dine, When I to feast expressly am forbid; Or, study where to meet some mistress fine, When mistresses from common sense are hid: Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth. If study's gain be thus, and this be so, Study knows that, which yet it doth not know: Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no. King. These be the stops that hinder study quite, And train our intellects to vain delight. Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain, Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book, To seek the like of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look: Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile : So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. (1) Dishonestly, treacherously. Therefore this article is made in vain, Study me how to please the eye indeed, Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks; Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. King. How well he's read, to reason against reading! Dum. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding! Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the Biron. The spring is near, when green geese Fit in his place and time. Dum. In reason nothing. Before the birds have any cause to sing? A! Christmas, I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;2 Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate. And, though I have for barbarism spoke more, Biron. [Reads.] Item, That no woman shall Four days ago. Or vainly comes the admired princess hither. King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot. Biron. So study evermore is overshot; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won, as towns with tire; so won, so lost. King. We must, of force, dispense with this decree ; She must lie here on mere necessity. Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn space: For every man with his affects is born; Not by might master'd, but by special grace: I [Subscribes. And he that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame : Suggestions are to others, as to me; With a refined traveller of Spain; For interim to our studies, shall relate, Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight, And, so to study, three years is but short. Enter Dull, with a letter, and Costard. Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.]-On pain of losing her tongue. Long. Marry, that did I. Biron. A dangerous law against gentility. This article, my liege, yourself must break; For, well you know, here comes in embassy speak, A maid of grace, and complete majesty,— About surrender-up of Aquitain To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: Dull. Signior Arme-Arme-commends you.There's villany abroad; this letter will tell you more. Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words. Long. A high hope for a low having: God-grant us patience! Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing? Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both. Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness. (5) Lively, sprightly. Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning swain,) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her with the manner.1 to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty, Biron. In what manner? Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, the best that ever I heard. is, in manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner,-it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form,-in some form. DON ADRIÁNO DE ARMADO. Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but Biron. For the following, sir? Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the right! King. Will you hear this letter with attention? Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. King. [Reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's God, and body's fostering patron, Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. King. So it is, what say you to this? Cost. Sir, I confess the wench. King. Did you hear the proclamation? little of the marking of it. King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench. Cost. I was taken with none, sir, I was taken with a damosel. King. Well, it was proclaimed damosel. Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was a virgin. King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed, virgin. Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, taken with a maid. in telling true, but so, so. King. Peace. Cost. not fight! be to me, and every man that dares King. No words. King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.- Cost. - of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King, So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-My giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, belook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when. Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here ز thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: but to the place, where,-It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth, King. - with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have sent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation. Dull. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta (so is the weaker vessel called, which I apprehended with the aforesaid (1) In the fact. (2) A young man. [Exeunt King, Longaville, and Dumain. Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. -Sirrah, come on. Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again, true girl; and therefore, Welcome the sour cup of and till then, Sit thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Another part of the same. Armado's house. Enter Armado and Moth. Arm. Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great spirit grows melancholy? Moth. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp. Moth. No, no; O lord, sir, no. Arm. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal ?2 Moth. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough senior. Arm. Why tough senior? why tough senior? Moth. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal? Arm. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender. Moth. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough. Arm. Pretty, and apt. Moth. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my Moth. Little pretty, because little: Wherefore apt? Moth. I will praise an eel with the same praise. |