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As thus; to study where I well may dine,
When I to feaft exprefly am forbid (2);
Or ftudy where to meet some mistress fine,
When miftreffes from common fenfe are hid:
Or, having fworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.
If ftudy's gain be this, and this be fo,
Study knows that, which yet it doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er fay no.

King. These be the ftops, that hinder ftudy 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 feek the light of truth; while truth the while (3). Doth falfly blind the eye-fight of his look:

Light, feeing light, doth light of light beguile;
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by lofing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling fo, that eye fhall be his heed (4),
And give him light, that it was blinded by.

(2) The copies all have, When I ́to fast expreßy am forbid.] But if Biron ftudied where to get a good Dinner, at a time when he was forbid to faft, how was This ftudying to know what he was forbid to know? Common Senfe, and the whole Tenour of the Context, requires us to read feaft, or to make a Change in the laft Word of the Verfe.

When I to faft exprefly am fore-bid;,

i. e. when I am enjoin'd before hand to faft. (3)

bile truth the while

THEOBALD.

Dab falfly blind - ] Fally is here, and in many other places, the fame as difponeftly or treacherously. The whole fenfe of this. jingling declamation is only this, that a man by too close study may. read bimfelf blind, which might have been told with less obfcurity. in fewer words.

(4) Who dazzling fo, that eye fhall be bis beed,

And give bim light, that, it was blinded by.] This is another paffage unneceffarily obfcure: the meaning is, that when he dazzles, that is, has his eye made weak, by fixing bis eye upon a fairer eye, that fairer eye fhall be bis heed, his direction or lode-ftar, (fee MidJummer Night's Dream) and give him light that was blinded by it.

Study

Study is like the Heaven's glorious Sun,

That will not be deep fearch'd with fawcy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save bafe authority from others' books. Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed ftar,

Have no more profit of their thining nights,

Than thofe that walk and wot not what they are. (5) Too much to know, is to know nought: but fame; And every godfather can give a name.?

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(5) Too much to know, is to know nought but PAME;

And every Godfather can give a name.] The first line in this reading is abfurd and impertinent. There are two ways of fetting it right. The first is to read it thus,

Too much to know, is to know nought but SHAME ;

This makes a fine fenfe, and alludes to Adam's Fall, which came from the inordinate paffion of knowing too much. The other way is to read, and point it thus,

Too much to know, is to know nought: but FEIGN, i. e. to feign. As much as to fay the affecting to know too much is the way to know nothing. The fenfe, in both thefe readings, is equally good : But with this difference; If we read the fift way, the following line is impertinent; and to fave the correction, we must judge it fpurious. If we read it the fecond way, then the following line compleats the fenfe. Confequently the correction of feign is to be preferred. To know too much (fays the speaker) is to know nothing; it is only feigning to know what we do not giving names for things without knowing their natures;. which is falle knowledge: And this was the peculiar defect of the Peripatetic Philofophy then in vogue. Thefe philofophers, the poet, with the highest humour and good: fenfe, calls the Godfathers of Nature, who could only give things a name, but had no manner of acquaintance with their effences.

WARBURTON.

That there are two ways of setting a paffage right gives reason to fufpect that there may be a third way better than either. The firft of these ernendations makes a fine fenfe, but will not unite with the next line; the other makes a fente lefs fine, and yet will not rhyme to the correfpondent word. I cannot fee why the paffage may not ftand without disturbance. The consequence, fays Biron, of too much. knowledge, is not any real folution of doubts, but mere empty repu tation. That is, too much knowledge gives only fame, a name which every Godfather can give likewise..

Kings

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King. How well he's read, to reafon against reading!
Dum. Proceeded well, to flop all good proceeding (6).
Long. He weeds the corn, and ftill let's grow the
weeding.

Biron. The fpring is near, when green geese are a
breeding.

Dum. How follows that?

Biron. Fit in his place and time.
Dum. In reason nothing.

Biron. Something then in rhime.

Long. Biron is like an envious fneaping froft,

That bites the firit-born infants of the Ipring.

Biron. Well; fay, I am; why should proud fummer boaft,

Before the birds have any cause to fing?

Why should I joy in an abortive birth (7)?
At Christmas I no more defire a rose,

Than with a fnow in May's new-fangled shows :
But like of each thing, that in season grows.

(6) Proceeded well, to ftp all good proceeding.] To proceed is an academical term, meaning, to take a degree, as be proceeded bachelor in phyfick. The sense is, be bas taken bis degrees on the art of bindering the degrees of others.

(7) Why should I joy in an abortive Birth?

At Christmas I no more defire a Rofe,

Than wifh a Snow in May's new-fangled Shows:

But like of each Thing, that in Season grows.] As the greateft part of this Scene (both what precedes and follows) is strictly in Rhimes, either fucceffive, alternate, or triple; I am perfuaded the Copyifts have made a flip here. For by making a Triplet of the three laft Lines quoted, Birth in the Clofe of the firft Line is quite deftitute of any Rhyme to it. Befides, what a pleafing Identity of Sound recurs in the Middle and Close of this Verfe?

Than wifh a Snow in May's new-fangled Shows.

Again; new-fangled Shows feems to have very little Propriety. The Flowers are not new-fangled; but the earth is new-fangled by the Profufion and Variety of the Flowers, that fpring on its Bofom in May: I have therefore ventur'd to fubftitute, Earth, in the Clofe of the 3d Line, which reftores the alternate Measure. It was very easy for a negligent Tranfcriber to be deceived by the Rhime immediately preceding; fo miftake the concluding Word in the fequeat Line, and corrupt it into one that would chime with the other. THEOBALD.

So

So you, to ftudy now it is too late,

That were to climb o'er th' houfe t'unlock the gate. King. Well, fit you out - Go home, Biron: Adieu ! Biron. No, my good lord, I've fworn to ftay with

you

And though I have for barbarifm fpoke more,

Than for that angel knowledge you can say; Yet confident I'll keep what I have fwore,

And 'bide the penance of each three years' day. Give me the paper, let me read the fame ; And to the ftrict'ft decrees F'll write my name. King. How well this yielding refcues thee from fhame!

Biron. Item. That no woman shall come within a

mile of my Court.

Hath this been proclaimed?

Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's fee the penalty.

On pain of lofing her tongue :
Who devis'd this penalty?

Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord and why?

[reading,

[reading.

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. Biron. A dangerous law against gentility (8)!

Item, [reading] If any man be feen to talk with a woman within the term of three Years, be hall endure Juch publick foame as the rest of the Court can poffibly devife.

have ventured to

(8) A dangerous Law against Gentility !] prefix the Name of Biron to ths Line, it being evident for two Reafons, that it, by fome Accident or other, flipt out of the printed Books. In the first place, Longaville confeffes, he had devis'd the Penalty and why he fhould immediately arraign it as a dangerous Law, feems to be very inconfiftent. In the next place, it is much more natural for Biron to make this Reflexion, who is cavilling at every thing; and then for him to pur fue his reading over the remaining Articles. As to the Word Gentility, here, it does not fignify that Rank of People called, Gentry; but what the French exprefs by, gentileffe, i. e. elegantia, urbanitas. And then the Meaning is this. Such a law for banishing Women from the Court, is dangerous, or injurious, to Peliteness, Urbanity, and the more refined Pleasures of Life. For Men without Women would turn brutal, and favage, in their Natures and Behaviour. THEOBALD.

This article, my liege, yourfelf must break;
For, well you know, here comes in embaffy
The French King's daughter with yourself to fpeak,
A maid of grace and compleat majefty,
About Surrender up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, fick, and bed-rid father :
Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admired Princefs hither.

King. What fay you, lords? why, this was quite forgot.

Biron. So ftudy evermore is overshot ;

While it doth study to have what it would,
It doth forget to do the thing it fhould:
And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
'Tis won, as towns with Fire; fo won, fo loft.

King. We muft, of force, dispense with this decree, She must lye here on mere neceffity.

Biron. Neceffity will make us all forfworn,

Three thousand times within this three years space:

For every man with his affects is born:

Not by might mafter'd, but by special grace (9). If I break faith, this word fhall fpeak for me: I am forfworn on meer neceffity.

So to the laws at large I write my name,

And he, that breaks them in the least degree,
Stands in Attainder of eternal shame.

Suggestions (1) are to others, as to me;
But, I believe, although I feem fo loth,
I am the last that will laft keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation (2) granted ?

King. Ay, that there is; our Court, you know, is haunted

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(9) Not by might mafter'd, but by special grace.] Birm amidst his extravagancies, fpeaks with great juftnefs against the folly of They are made without fufficient regard to the variations of life, and are therefore broken by fome unforeseen neceffity. They proceed commonly from a prefumptuous confidence, and a false eftimate of human power.

(1) Suggestions-] Temptations. (2)

quick recreation- Lively sport, fpritely diverfion.

With

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