Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales bone :
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado's page out of his part!

Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants.

Biron. See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert

thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?
King. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!
Prin. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive.
King. Construe my speeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then wish me better, I will give you leave.
King. We came to visit you; and purpose now
To lead you to our court: vouchsafe it then.
Prin. This field shall hold me; and so hold your vow:
Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur'd men.

King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ;
The virtue of your eye must break my oath.

Prin. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke ;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest:
So much I hate a breaking-cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
King. O, you have liv'd in desolation here,
Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.
Prin. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear;

We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game;

[6] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets.

Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas.

T. WARTON.

It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a whale STEEVENS.

This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horsehale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon trapslation of Orosius.

HOLT WHITE.

A mess of Russians left us but of late.
King. How, madam? Russians ?
Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord;

Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state.

Ros. Madam, speak true :-It is not so, my lord; My lady, (to the manner of the days,)

In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.

We four, indeed, confronted here with four,
In Russian habit: here they stay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
They did not bless us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.
Biron. This jest is dry to me.-Fair, gentle sweet,
• Your wit makes wise things foolish; when we greet?
With eyes best seeing heaven's fiery eye,

By light we lose light: Your capacity

Is of that nature, that to your huge store

Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor.

Ros. This proves you wise and rich; for in my eye,—
Biron. I am a fool, and full of poverty.

Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong,
It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.
Biron. O, I am yours, and all that I possess.
Ros. All the fool mine?

Biron. I cannot give you less.

Ros. Which of the visors was it, that you wore?
Biron. Where? when? what visor? why demand

this?

you

Ros. There, then, that visor; that superfluous case, That hid the worse, and show'd the better face. King. We are descried: they'll mock us now downright. Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest.

Prin. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your highness sad? Ros. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale ?—

Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy.

Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out?—

Here stand 1, lady; dart thy skill at me ;

Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout;

[7] This is a very lofty and elegant compliment.

JOHNSON.

ACT V.

Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance;
Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit;
And I will wish thee never more to dance,

Nor never more in Russian habit wait.
O! never will I trust to speeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue; Nor never come in visor to my friend;

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song: Taffata phrases, silken terms precise,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical; these summer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:

I do forswear them: and I here protest,

223

By this white glove, (how white the hand, God knows!)

Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd

In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes: And, to begin, wench,-so God help me, la !My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you.9

Biron. Yet I have a trick

Of the old rage :-bear with me, I am sick;
I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see ;-
Write, Lord have mercy on us,' on those three ;
They are infected, in their hearts it lies;

They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes:
These lords are visited; you are not free,

For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.

Prin. No, they are free, that gave these tokens to us.
Biron. Our states are forfeit, seek not to undo us.
Ros. It is not so; For how can this be true,

That you

stand forfeit, being those that sue?

Biron. Peace; for I will not have to do with you.

[8] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus STEEVENS says: "I have worn three-pile."

[9] i. e without sans; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the last line of his speech, though just before he had forsworn all TYRWHITT. affectation in phrases, terms, &c.

[1] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolourations, by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNSON.

[2] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process? The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which significs, to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition.

JOHNSON.

Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend.

Biron. Speak for yourselves, my wit is at an end.

King. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression

Some fair excuse.

Prin. The fairest is confession.

Were you not here, but even now, disguis'd?

King. Madam, I was.

Prin. And were you well advis'd?"

King. I was, fair madam.

Prin. When you then were here,

What did you whisper in your lady's ear?

King. That more than all the world I did respect her. Prin. When she shall challenge this, you will reject her. King. Upon mine honour, no.

Prin. Peace, peace, forbear:

Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear.*
King. Despise me, when I break this oath of mine.
Prin. I will; and therefore keep it :-Rosaline,
What did the Russian whisper in your ear?

Ros. Madam, he swore, that he did hold me dear
As precious eye-sight; and did value me
Above this world: adding thereto, moreover,
That he would wed me, or else die my lover.

Prin. God give thee joy of him! the noble lord
Most honourably doth uphold his word.

King What mean you, madam? by my life, my troth,

I never swore this lady such an oath.

Ros. By heaven, you did; and to confirm it plain, You gave me this: but take it, sir, again.

King. My faith, and this, the princess I did give;

I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve.

Prin. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear;
And lord Birón, I thank him, is my dear :-
What; will you have me, or your pearl again?
Biron. Neither of either; I remit both twain.-
I see the trick on't;-Here was a consent,
(Knowing aforehand of our merriment,)
To dash it, like a Christmas comedy:

Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany,

[3] i. e. acting with sufficient deliberation.

STEVENS.

[4] You force not, is the same with, you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation The rime hich has been ouce committed, is committed again with less reluctance.

JOHNSON

[5] A zany is a buffoon, a merry Andrew, a gross mimick.

STEEVENS.

Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick
-That smiles his cheek in years; and knows the trick
To make my lady laugh, when she's dispos'd,-
Told our intents before: which once disclos'd,
The ladies did change favours; and then we,
Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she.
Now, to our perjury to add more terror,
We are again forsworn; in will, and error.
Much upon this it is -And might not you,
Forestal our sport, to make us thus untrue?
Do not you know my lady's foot by th' squire,7
And laugh upon the apple of her eye?
And stand between her back, sir, and the fire,
Holding a trencher, jesting merrily?

[TO BOYET.

You put our page out: Go, you are allow'd ;
Die when you will, a smock shall be your shrowd.
You leer upon me, do you? there's an eye,
Wounds like a leaden sword.

Boyet. Full merrily

Hath this brave manage, this career, been run.

Biron. Lo, he is tilting straight! Peace; I have done. Enter CoSTARD.

Welcome, pure wit! thou partest a fair fray.

Cost. O Lord, sir, they would know,

Whether the three worthies shall come in, or no.
Biron. What, are there but three?

Cost. No, sir; but it is vara fine,

For every one pursents three.

Biron. And three times thrice is nine.

Cost. Not so, sir; under correction, sir; I hope, it is

not so:

You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir; we know what we know:

I hope, sir, three times thrice, sir,

[6] See a few lines below:

-

"And stand between her back, sir, and the fire,

Holding a trencher,"-&c. MALONE.

[7] From esquierre, French, a rule, or square. The sense is nearly the same as that of the proverbial expression in our own language, he hath got the length of her foot; i. e. he hath humoured her so long that he can persuade her to what he pleases.

HEATH.

[8] i. e. you may say what you will; you are a licensed fool, a common jester. So, in Twelfth-Night:

There is no slander in an allow'd fool."

WARBURTON.

[9] That is, we are not fools; our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and fortunes. One of the legal tests of a natural is to try whether he can

number.

JOHNSON.

15

VOL. III.

K 2