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And to her white hand see thou do commend This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon: go. [Gives him money.

Cost. Guerdon.-O! sweet guerdon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better. Most sweet guerdon!-I will do it, sir, in print.-Guerdon -remuneration! [Exit. Biron. O-And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;
A critic, nay, a night-watch constable,
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!

This wimpled', whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior 3, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,

Guerdon,-O sweet GUERDON! better than REMUNERATION ;] Steevens, on the authority of Farmer, pointed out the subsequent apposite passage in a tract called "A Health to the gentlemanly Profession of Serving-men," by J. M.; but he mistook the date, giving it 1578, instead of 1598, the year in which "Love's Labour's Lost" was printed. The error is important, with reference to the question whether Shakespeare borrowed the joke from J. M., or J. M. from Shakespeare.

"There was, sayth he, a man, (but of what estate, degree, or calling, I will not name, least thereby I might incurre displeasure of any) that comming to his friend's house, who was a gentleman of good reckoning, and being there kindly entertayned and well used, as well of his friende, the gentleman, as of his servantes; one of the sayd servantes doing him some extraordinarie pleasure during his abode there, at his departure he comes unto the sayd servant, and saith unto him, Holde thee, heere is a remuneration for thy paynes, which the servant receyving, gave him utterly for it (besides his paynes) thankes, for it was but a three-farthinges piece: and I holde thankes for the same a small price, howsoever the market goes. Now, another comming to the sayd gentleman's house, it was the foresayd servant's good hap to be neare him at his going away, who calling the servant unto him, sayd, Holde thee, heere is a guerdon for thy desartes. Now, the servant payde no deerer for the guerdon than he did for the remuneration, though the guerdon was xj d. farthing better, for it was a shilling, and the other but a three-farthinges."

6 - in print.] i. e. exactly, with the utmost nicety.

7 - wimpled,] An allusion to Cupid's blindness; a "6 wimple" being a covering for the eyes, a hood or veil.

1 This senior-junior,] In reference to the contrariety of love, Shakespeare calls Cupid "senior-junior," and "giant-dwarf." The 4to. and the folios have it "signior Junios giant dwarf." The change was made by Johnson.

Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,

Dread prince of plackets, king of cod-pieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors, (O my little heart!)
And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
What? I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock',
Still a repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright; being a watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, groan 2:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

[Exit.

9 trotting PARITORS,] "An apparitor, or paritor," says Johnson, "is an officer of the bishop's court, who carries out citations: as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government." 1 A woman, that is like a German CLOCK,] In the old editions, quarto and folio, "clock" is misprinted cloake, but there cannot be a doubt that it is an error, as is shown by the context.

2

pray, sue, groan :] This is the reading of the 4to, 1598, and of the first folio: the editor of the second folio has it "pray, sue, and groan ”—an addition which may be welcome to those who judge of Shakespeare's metre merely by their fingers, but evidently an injury to the force of the line, in which the time is made up by the emphasis given by the speaker to the monosyllables of which it is composed.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Another part of the Same.

Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester.

Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard

Against the steep uprising of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind3. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; On Saturday we will return to France.Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush, That we must stand and play the murderer in? For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may make the fairest shoot. Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say, no?

O, short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

For. Yes, madam, fair.

Prin.
Nay, never paint me now:
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true.

[Giving him money.

Fair payment for foul words is more than due.

For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.

3 Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind.] This mode of putting "a"" for he, in familiar conversation, was not confined by Shakespeare to characters of low life, though with them it is, perhaps, most frequent.

Prin. See, see! my beauty will be sav'd by merit. O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.—
But come, the bow:-now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to show my skill,
That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes:
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart;
As I for praise alone now seek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.
Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty
Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise; and praise we may afford
To any lady that subdues a lord.

Enter COSTARD.

Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Cost. God dig-you-den all. Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?

Prin. The thickest, and the tallest.

Cost. The thickest, and the tallest? it is so; truth is truth.

An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit,
One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit.
Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest

even.

here.

God dig-you-den all !] i, e. God gave you good even all. "Good den" is good See note 1, p. 229.

Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? Cost. I have a letter, from monsieur Biron to one lady Rosaline.

Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter! he's a good friend of mine.

Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve;
Break up this capon 5.

Boyet.

I am bound to serve.

This letter is mistook; it importeth none here:
It is writ to Jaquenetta.

Prin.
We will read it, I swear.
Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear.

Boyet. [Reads.] "By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Penelophon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Whom overcame he? the beggar. The conclusion is victory: on whose side? the king's: the captive is enriched: on whose side? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose side? the king's? -no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king, for so stands the comparison; thou the beggar, for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I

5 BREAK UP THIS CAPON.] i. e. Open this letter. truly, was a peculiar phrase in carving."

66

"To break up," says Percy

Penelophon ;] This name is misprinted in the quarto and folios, Zenelophon: Armado had become better acquainted with the ballad of " King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" after his conversation with Moth in A. i. sc. 2.

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