BIRON. In what manner?

Cosr. In manner and form following, fir; all those three: I was feen with her in the manor house, fitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner and form following. Now, fir, for the manner, it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman for the form,-in fome form.

BIRON. For the following, fir?

COST. As it fhall follow in my correction; And God defend the right!

KING. Will you hear this letter with attention? BIRON. As we would hear an oracle.

COST. Such is the fimplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.

KING. [reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and fole dominator of Navarre, my foul's earth's God, and body's foftering patron,

Cost. Not a word of Coftard yet.

KING. So it is,

Cosr. It may be fo: but if he fay it is fo, he is, in telling true, but fo, fo."

KING. Peace.

Cosr.-be to me, and every man that dares not fight!

KING. No words.

COST.-of other men's fecrets, I beseech you. KING. So it is, besieged with fable-colour'd melan

i. e. mainour or manour, (for fo it is written in our old law-books,) when he is apprehended with the thing ftolen in his poffeffion. The thing that he has taken was called mainour, from the Fr. manier, manu tractare. MALONE.

7

but fo, fo.] The fecond fo was added by Sir T. Hanmer, and adopted by the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

choly, I did commend the black-oppreffing humour to the moft wholesome phyfick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time, when? About the fixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds beft peck, and men fit down to that nourishment which is called fupper. So much for the time when: Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walk'd upon: it is ycleped, thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most prepofterous event, that draweth from my Snow-white pen the ebon-colour'd ink, which here thou vieweft, beboldeft, furveyeft, or feeft: But to the place, where,-It ftandeth north-north-east and by east from the weft corner of thy curious-knotted garden: There did I fee that low-fpirited fwain, that bafe minnow of thy mirth,

7

8

COST. Me.

KING.—that unletter'd small-knowing foul,
Cost. Me.

KING.-that shallow vaffal,

curious-knotted garden :] Ancient gardens abounded with figures of which the lines interfected each other in many directions. Thus in King Richard II:

"Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,

"Her knots disorder'd," &c.

In Thomas Hill's Profitable Art of Gardening, &c. 4to. bl. 1. 1579, is the delineation of " a proper knot for a garden, whereas is fpare roume enough, the which may be fet with Time, or Ifop, at the difcretion of the Gardener." In Henry Dethicke's Gardener's Labyrinth, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, are other examples of "proper knots deuifed for gardens." STEEVENS.

8bafe minnow of thy mirth,] The bafe minnow of thy mirth, is the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainment. Shakspeare makes Coriolanus characterize the tribunitian infolence of Sicinius, under the fame figure:

hear you not

"This Triton of the minnows!”

Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: "Let him denie that there was another fhewe made of the little minnow his brother," &c. STEEVENS.

COST. Still me.

KING.-which, as I remember, hight Coftard,
COST. O me!

KING.-forted and conforted, contrary to thy eftablished proclaimed edit and continent canon, withwith-with-but with this I paffion to fay where

with.

COST. With a wench.

KING.-with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more fweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have fent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy fweet Grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and eftimation.

DULL. Me, an't fhall please you; I am Antony Dull.

2

KING. For Jaquenetta, (fo is the weaker veffel called, which I apprehended with the aforefaid fwain,) I keep her as a veffel of thy law's fury; and fhall, at the leaft of thy fweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty,

Don Adriano de Armado.

BIRON. This is not fo well as I look'd for, but the best that ever I heard.

KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, firrah, what say you to this?

COST. Sir, I confefs the wench.

KING. Did you hear the proclamation?

9 with-with-] The old copy reads-which with. The correction is Mr. Theobald's. MALONE.

2-veffel of thy law's fury;] This feems to be a phrase adopted from fcripture. See Epift. to the Romans, ix. 22. "the veel of wrath." Mr. M. Mason would read-vassal inftead of vessel.

STREVENS.

COST. I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.'

KING. It was proclaim'd a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

COST. I was taken with none, fir; I was taken with a damofel.

KING. Well, it was proclaimed damofel.

COST. This was no damofel neither; fir, fhe was a virgin.

KING. It is fo varied too; for it was proclaim'd, virgin.

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.

KING. This maid will not ferve your turn, fir. COST. This maid will ferve my turn, fir.

KING. Sir, I will pronounce your fentence; You fhall faft a week with bran and water.

Cosr. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

KING. And Don Armado fhall be your keeper.My lord Biron fee him deliver'd o'er.And go we, lords, to put in practice that

Which each to other hath fo ftrongly fworn.[Exeunt. BIRON. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle fcorn.Sirrah, come on.

Cosr. I fuffer for the truth, fir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, Welcome the four cup of prof

3 I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.] So Falftaff, in The Second Part of K. Henry IV:

it is the difeafe of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal." STEEVENS.

L

perity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till then, Sit thee down, forrow!

[Exeunt.

Another part of the fame. Armado's Houfe.

Enter ARMADO and MOTH.

ARM. Boy, what fign is it, when a man of great fpirit grows melancholy?

MоTH. A great sign, fir, that he will look fad. ARM. Why, fadness is one and the felf-fame thing, dear imp.+

MOTH. No, no; O lord, fir, no.

ARM. How can'ft thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal??

MOTH. By a familiar demonftration of the working, my tough fenior.

ARM. Why tough fenior? why tough senior?
MOTH. Why tender juvenal? why tender juvenal?

dear imp.] Imp was anciently a term of dignity. Lord Cromwell, in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his fon. It is now ufed only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our author's time it was ambiguous, in which state it fuits well with this dialogue. JOHNSON.

Piftol falutes King Henry V. by the fame title. STEEVENS.

The word literally means a graff, flip, Scion, or fucker: and by metonymy comes to be ufed for a boy or child. The imp, his fon, is no more than his infant fon. It is now fet apart to fignify young fiends; as the devil and his imps.

Dr. Johnson was mistaken in fuppofing this a word of dignity. It occurs in The Hiftory of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: the gen tleman had three fonnes, very ungracious impes, and of a wicked nature." RITSON.

5 my tender juvenal?] Juvenal is youth. So, in The Noble Stranger, 1640:

"Oh, I could hug thee for this, my jovial juvinell."

STEEVENS.