Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain.

L

KING.

ET Fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live regiftred upon our brazen tombs,

And then grace us in the difgrace of death:
When, fpight of cormorant, devouring time,
The endeavour of this prefent breath may buy
That honour, which fhall bate his fcythe's keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors! for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's defires;
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force.
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little Academe,

yet the story

I have not been hitherto fo lucky as to difcover any novel on which this comedy feems to have been founded, and of it has most of the features of an ancient romance.

Z 3

STEEVENS.

Still,

Still, and contemplative, in living arts.
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have fworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow scholars; and to keep those statutes,
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are paft, and now fubfcribe your names;
That his own hand may ftrike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein :
If you are arm'd to do, as fworn to do,

Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep them too.
Long I am refolv'd: 'tis but a three years fast;
The mind fhall banquet tho' the body pine:
Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.

Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortify'd :
The groffer manner of thefe world's delights
He throws upon the grofs world's bafer flaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all thefe, living in philofophy. *

Biron. I can but fay their proteftation over,
So much (dear liege) I have already fworn;
That is, to live and ftudy here three years.
But there are other ftrict obfervances:
As, not to fee a woman in that term;
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there.
And, one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day befide;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there.
And then, to fleep but three hours in the night,
And not be feen to wink of all the day;
(When I was wont to think no harm all night,

With all thefe, living in philofophy.] The file of the rhyming fcenes in this play is often entangled and obfcure. I know not certainly to what all thefe is to be referred; I fuppofe he means, that he finds love, pm, and wealth in philofophy. JOHNSON.

By all these the poet feems to mean, all theje gentlemen who have fworn to profecute the fame ftudies with me. STEEVENS.

And make a dark night too of half the day)
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there.
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to fee ladies, study, faft, nor fleep.

King. Your oath is pass'd to pafs away from these. Biron. Let me fay, no, my liege, an' if you please; I only swore to ftudy with your grace,

And stay here in your court for three years' space. Long. You fwore to that, Biron, and to the reft. Biron. By yea and nay, fir, then I swore in jest.What is the end of study? let me know?

King. Why, that to know, which elfe we fhould not know.

Biron. Things hid and barr'd (you mean) from common fenfe.

3

King. Ay, that is ftudy's god-like recompence.
Biron. Come on then, I will fwear to study fo,
To know the thing I am forbid to know:
As thus ;-To study where I well may dine,
When I to feast exprefly am forbid ;
Or, study where to meet fome mistress fine,
When mistreffes 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 thus, and this be fo,
Study knows that, which yet it doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no.

3 When I to feast exprefly am forbid ;] The copies all have, When I to fast exprefly am forbid.

}

But if Biron ftudied where to get a good dinner, at a time when he was forbid to fast, how was this ftudying to know what he was forbid to know? Common fenfe, and the whole tenour of the context require us to read, feaft, or to make a change in the last word of the verse.

When I to fast exprefly am fore bid;

i. e. when I am enjoined before-hand to faft. THEOBALD.

Z 4

King.

King. These be the ftops that hinder study quite, And train our intellects to vain delight.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain, but that moft 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 Doth falfly blind the eye-fight of his look:

Light, feeking 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 Who dazzling fo, that eye fhall be his heed, And give him light, that it was blinded by. Study is like the heaven's glorious fun,

eye;

That will not be deep fearch'd with fawcy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won, Save base authority from others' books. These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their fhining nights, Than thofe that walk and wot not what they are.

while truth the while

Doth falfly blind-]

Fally is here, and in many other places, the fame as difponestly or treacherously. The whole fenfe of this gingling declamation is only this, that a man by too clofe ftudy may read himself blind, which might have been told with lefs obfcurity in fewer words.

5 Who dazzling fo, that eye shall be his beed,

And give him light that it was blinded by.]

JOHNSON.

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 of Lode-fiar, (See Midfummer-Night's Dream) and give him light that was blinded by it. JOHNSON.

Too

Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he's read, to reafon against reading! Dum. Proceeded well to stop all good proceeding.?

• Too much to know, is to know nought but fame;

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 firft 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 sense, in both thefe readings, is equally good: But with this difference; If we read the first way, the following line is impertinent; and to fave the correction, we muft judge it fpurious. If we read it the second way, then the following line completes 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 falfe knowledge: And this was the peculiar defect of the Peripatetic philosophy then in vogue. These philofophers, the poet, with the higheft 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 fetting a paffage right gives reason to fufpect that there may be a third way better than either. The firft of these emendations makes a fine fenfe, but will not unite with the next line; the other makes a fenfe lefs fine, and yet will not rhyme to the correfpondent word. I cannot fee why the paffage may not stand without disturbance, The confequence, fays Biron, of too much knowledge, is not any real folution of doubts, but mere empty reputation. That is, too much knowledge gives only fame, a same which every godfather can give like wife. JOHNSON.

7 Proceeded well, to flop all good proceeding.] To proceed is an academical term, meaning, to take a degree, as he proceeded backelor in phyfick. The fenfe is, he has taken his degrees on the art of bindering the degrees of others. JOHNSON.

2

Long.