Bold of your worthiness, we single you

As our best moving fair solicitor.

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Importunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humble-visag'd suitors', his high will.
Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go.

[Exit. Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?

1 Lord. Longaville is one.

Prin.

Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam: at a marriage feast,
Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized

In Normandy, saw I this Longaville.
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd2;
Well fitted in arts; glorious in arms3:
Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,
If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,
Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will;
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
It should none spare that come within his power.
Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so?
Mar. They say so most that most his humours know.

1 Like HUMBLE-VISAG'D suitors,] Not humbly-risag'd, as we find it in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell: the compound epithet is printed "humble visage " in the 4to, 1598.

? A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd ;] This is the reading of the folio, 1623: the 4to. has the line misprinted as follows:

"A man of soveraigne peerelsse he is esteem'd."

3 Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms :] The editor of the folio, 1632, inserted the before "arts," as if the metre were defective, and it has found its way into all the modern editions. If, however, "glorious" be read as three syllables, which is the proper pronunciation of the word, the line is syllabically complete. At all events the does not improve the harmony of the verse, while the sense requires its rejection: "well fitted in arts" is the proper phrase.

Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Who are the rest?

Kath. The young Dumaine, a well-accomplish'd

youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd:

Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill,
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit'.
I saw him at the duke Alençon's once;
And much too little of that good I saw
Is my report to his great worthiness.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,

5

Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor,)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished,
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love,
That every one her own hath garnished
With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Lord. Here comes Boyet 6.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?

Prin.

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;

-

though HE had no wit.] So the 4to, 1598: the folio, 1623, she.

5 IF I have heard] The folio reads " as I have heard."

Here comes Boyet.] The folio gives these words to Margaret, who hitherto in the folio has been called "1 Lady." The 4to, 1598, assigns them, more properly, to an attendant "lord."

And he, and his competitors in oath,

Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady,

Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt,
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
Like one that comes here to besiege his court,
Than seek a dispensation for his oath,

To let you enter his unpeopled house'.
Here comes Navarre.

[The ladies mask.

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAINE, BIRON, and

Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Na

varre.

Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours, and welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine 8.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. Prin. I will be welcome then. Conduct me thither. King. Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath. Prin. Our lady help my lord! he'll be forsworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing

else.

King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
I hear, your grace hath sworn out house-keeping:
'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
And sin to break it.

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold:

To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.

Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,

7- his UNPEOPLED house.] Unpeeled, 4to, 1598.

8 - and welcome to the WIDE fields too base to be mine.] The folios and quarto agree in reading wide, and all the modern editors have conspired to insert wild instead of it, without the slightest pretence. It is not easy to reduce this speech to measure, even if it were intended by the Poet to be so.

And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

[Gives a paper.

King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. Prin. You will the sooner that I were away, For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.

Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?? Biron. I know you did.

Ros.

To ask the question!

Biron.

How needless was it, then,

You must not be so quick.

Ros. "Tis 'long of you, that spur me with such

questions.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill

tire.

Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.

Biron. Now fair befal your mask!

Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And send you many lovers!
Ros. Amen, so you be none.

Biron. Nay, then will I begone.

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate
The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
Being but the one half of an entire sum,
Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say, that he, or we, (as neither have,)
Receiv'd that sum, yet there remains unpaid

A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which,
One part of Aquitain is bound to us,

Although not valued to the money's worth.

If, then, the king your father will restore

But that one half which is unsatisfied,

Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?] In the 4to. this line, and some others following it, are assigned to Katherine: in the folio they are given to Rosaline, to whom they seem more properly to belong.

We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid

An hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;
Which we much rather had depart withal 3,
And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain, so gelded as it is.

8

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding, 'gainst some reason in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much wrong, And wrong the reputation of your name,

In so unseeming to confess receipt

Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin.

We arrest your word.

Boyet, you can produce acquittances

For such a sum, from special officers

Of Charles his father.

King.

Satisfy me so.

Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not come, Where that and other specialties are bound: To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

King. It shall suffice me: at which interview,
All liberal reason I will yield unto".

Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand,
As honour, without breach of honour, may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness.

8 Which we much rather had DEPART withal,] To" depart" and to part were formerly used synonymously.

9 I WILL yield unto.] The folio, 1623, "would I yield unto."

VOL. II.

X