Prin.

Go, sickness as thou art!
Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps".
But will you hear"? the king is my love sworn.
Prin. And quick Biron hath plighted faith to me.
Kath. And Longaville was for my service born.
Mar. Dumaine is mine, as sure as bark on tree.
Boyet. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear.
Immediately they will again be here

In their own shapes; for it can never be,
They will digest this harsh indignity.

Prin. Will they return?

Boyet.

They will, they will, God knows;

And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows:
Therefore, change favours; and, when they repair,
Blow like sweet roses in this summer air.

Prin. How blow? how blow? speak to be understood.

Boyet. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud: Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.

Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do,
If they return in their own shapes to woo?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd,
Let's mock them still, as well, known, as disguis'd.
Let us complain to them what fools were here,
Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear;
And wonder, what they were, and to what end
Their shallow shows, and prologue vilely penn'd,
And their rough carriage so ridiculous,

Should be presented at our tent to us.

6 Well, better wits have worn plain STATUTE-CAPS.] Referring probably to the citizens of London, proverbially of old not remarkable for their wit, who, with others, were enjoined by act of Parliament, in 1571, to wear woollen caps: hence apprentices, and citizens generally, were often called flat-caps, from the shape of their head-covering.

7 But WILL YOU hear?] So the old editions. Malone or Boswell transposed it," But you will hear.'

s Are angels vailing clouds,] i. e. Angels lowering the clouds that concealed them. The 4to, 1598, by a misprint, has carling for "vailing." See note 9, p. 89.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw: the gallants are at hand. Prin. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land. [Exeunt PRINCESS, ROS. KATH. and MARIA.

Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAINE, in their proper habits.

King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess?

Boyet. Gone to her tent: please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither9? King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. Boyet. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord.

[Exit. Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas, And utters it again when God doth please'. He is wit's pedler, and retails his wares At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs; And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know, Have not the grace to grace it with such show. This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve: Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. A' can carve too, and lisp: why, this is he, That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy 2: This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice, That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice In honourable terms: nay, he can sing A mean most meanly; and, in ushering, 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 3;

9 Command me any service to her THITHER?] Thither, necessary to the line, is omitted in the folio, 1623.

1

when God doth please :] The folio substitutes Jore for "God."

2 That kiss'd his hand away] "That kiss'd away his hand" in the folio, 1623. 3 To show his teeth as white as whales bone :] i. e. As white as the bone or tooth of the walrus, of old called the whale. The expression was common at

And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the duet 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, ushered 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.

a very early date in our language. The reader will perceive, that "whales" is to be read as a dissyllable in Shakespeare, as well as in Lord Surrey's "Songs and Sonnets," in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," and various older authorities for the same simile.

Till this man show'd thee?] The old copies have it, "Till this mad man show'd thee?" There is no reason for calling Boyet a mad man, though there might be some for terming him a made man,-i. c. a man made up and completed as Biron has just before described him. However, mad seems to have crept injuriously into the text by an error of the compositor.

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.
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 were 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?

FAIR, gentle sweet,] "Fair" is the reading of the second folio, in order to complete the defective measure. A syllable is wanting, and we can resort for it to no better authority. Malone inserted my on his own responsibility, and without any evidence that it was the word used by Shakespeare. The adoption of "fair" by the editor of the folio of 1632, only nine years after the first folio appeared, affords some evidence in favour of that word.

Biron. Where? when? what visor? why demand you this?

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 I, lady; dart thy skill at me;

Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout; 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 affection',

Figures pedantical: these summer flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.

I do forswear them; and I here protest,

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

Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd

7 Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce AFFECTION,] So the old copies; and Sir Nathaniel has already (p. 345,) used the expression, "witty without affection." In both cases we should now write affectation, but Shakespeare's word, as appears by all the old copies, was "affection," and that ought to be retained.