Nath. And thank you too; for society (saith the text) is the happiness of life.

Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.-Sir, [To DULL,] I do invite you too: you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away! the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Another part of the Same.

Enter BIRON, with a paper.

Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitch'd a toil; I am toiling in a pitch-pitch that defiles. Defile? a foul word. Well, set thee down, sorrow! for so, they say, the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep. Well proved again o' my side! I will not love; if I do, hang me: i'faith, I will not. O! but her eye,—by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her! yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a paper: God give him grace to groan! [Gets up into a tree 6.

* Gets up into a tree.] The old stage-direction is, " He stands aside;" but it is evident, from what Biron says on the entrance of Dumaine, that he was above the others,

"Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky," &c.

Enter the KING, with a paper.

King. Ay me!

Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by heaven!-Proceed, sweet Cupid: thou hast thump'd him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap.-In faith, secrets!—

King. [Reads.] So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives

not

To those fresh morning drops upon the rose,

As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote
The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows:
Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright

Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light;
Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep:
No drop but as a coach doth carry thee;
So ridest thou triumphing in my woe.
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,

And they thy glory through my grief will show :
But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep
My tears for glasses, and still make me weep.
O queen of queens, how far dost thou excel!
No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.

How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper.
Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here?
[Steps aside.

Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper.

[Aside.] What, Longaville! and reading? listen, ear. Biron. [Aside.] Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear!

Long. Ay me! I am forsworn.

Biron. [Aside.] Why, he comes in like a perjurer, wearing papers'.

7 Why, he comes in like a PERJURER, wearing papers.] The 4to, 1598, and folio,

King. [Aside.] In love, I hope. Sweet fellowship

in shame!

Biron. [Aside] One drunkard loves another of the

name.

Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know.

Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn, that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to

move.

O sweet Maria, empress of my love!

These numbers will I tear, and write in prose.

Biron. [Aside.] O! rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose:

Disfigure not his shape.

Long.

This same shall go.

[He reads the sonnet.

Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,
Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee :
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace, being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me.
Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour

is :

Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost

shine,

1623, have "perjure," a letter having, probably, dropped out, and the folio of 1632 altered it to perjurd. From a passage quoted by Steevens from Holinshed, it appears that perjurers wore papers stating their offence when they were punished. 8 In love, I hope, &c.] In the old editions this line is given to Longaville. • Disfigure not his SHAPE.] So the MS. corrector of Lord F. Egerton's copy of the folio of 1623 would read, instead of shop, as it stands in the folio and quarto. Theobald substituted slop. The meaning is, " do not disfigure Cupid's appearance by tearing the rhymes, which are the guards' or ornaments of his dress." 66 Shape," therefore, seems preferable to slop; and shop must be wrong.

Exhal'st this vapour-cow; in thee it is:
If broken, then, it is no fault of mine.
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise,
To lose an oath, to win a paradise1?

Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein', which makes flesh a deity;

A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry.

God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the

way.

Enter DUMAINE, with a paper.

Long. By whom shall I send this ?-Company! stay.

[Steps aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid; an old infant play. Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky,

And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.

More sacks to the mill2! O heavens! I have my wish: Dumaine transform'd? four woodcocks in a dish!

Dum. O most divine Kate!

Biron. [Aside.] O most profane coxcomb!
Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye!
Biron. [Aside.] By earth, she is not:-corporal;
there you lie.

Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber quoted.
Biron. [Aside.] An amber-colour'd raven was well

noted.

10 To lose an oath, to win a paradise ?] This sonnet is found in the" Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, with some variations. See vol. viii.

1 This is the liver vein,] In reference to the supposition, then general, and often alluded to by Shakespeare, that the liver was the seat of love.

2 More sacks to the mill !] This is still a well-known game among boys. Three lines above, Biron refers to another "infant play," called "all hid," which is the same as hide and seek.

3 By earth, she is not :-corporal; there you lie.] This is the reading of the 4to, 1598, and of the folios, and not

"By earth, she is but corporal ; there you lie,”

as it stands in Malone. The meaning is the same. Biron says that Katharine is not "the wonder of a mortal eye,” and is only "corporal ;" that word being used by Shakespeare for "corporeal." Just afterwards Biron observes, " stoop, I say," instead of "she has a stoop, I say."

Biron. [Aside.] Ay, as some days; but then no sun

must shine.

Dum. O, that I had my wish!

Long.

[Aside.] And I had mine!

King. [Aside.] And I mine too, good lord!

Biron. [Aside.] Amen, so I had mine. Is not that a good word?

Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be.

Biron. [Aside.] A fever in your blood? why, then incision

Would let her out in saucers: sweet misprision!

Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. Biron. [Aside.] Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit.

Dum. On a day, alack the day!

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.

And I mine too, good Lord!] The pronoun "I," necessary to the sense, is omitted in the old editions.

On a day, alack the day !] This poem is also printed in the "Passionate Pilgrim," and in "England's Helicon," 4to, 1600, with the omission of two lines,

"Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee,"

and one or two trifling variations. It gives the line

"Thou for whom Jove would swear,"

as it stands in the old copies, and without "even," which has been interpolated in some modern editions, under the notion that it improved the metre.

'Love, whose month is EVER May,] The folio substitutes every for "ever,” as it stands in the 4to.